I pushed my hands into the pockets of my black pants as I headed for the last door, the gym. I pulled it open and glanced at the groups of Reboots in various corners. Some were just talking; others were making halfhearted attempts at fighting to avoid yells from the guards.
Ever was in the corner, one of the paper men from the shooting range taped to the wall in front of her. She bounced from foot to foot as she gripped a knife in her hand, studying the target in front of her seriously. A tall girl stood next to her, Mindy Fifty-one, and she watched as the knife flew from Ever’s hand and landed in the wall, in the middle of the paper man’s head.
Ever stepped closer to Fifty-one and leaned in to talk to her as I headed toward them. Reboots used to play darts in this corner of the gym, but HARC had put a stop to that. The knife throwing was a game, too, just one that looked like practice. I didn’t participate, but a few Under-sixties kept a record of how many throws hit the head in a single session. Ever was in the top three, last I’d heard.
Ever started to run her hand down Fifty-one’s arm but caught sight of me and quickly stepped away from her, pasting a smile on her face as I approached. “Hey.”
“Hi,” I said, glancing at Fifty-one. She wiped her eyes with shaky fingers and I wished I hadn’t come over. Under-sixty emotion made me uncomfortable. I moved back, ready to make an excuse to leave, when she took a few steps away from us.
“I gotta go,” she said. “Ever’s at forty-two throws.”
I nodded and turned back to Ever, who was pulling the dull knife out of the cork wall. She held it out to me and I shook my head. She went back to her spot on the gym floor and squinted at the target as she turned the knife around in her hands.
“You let Callum sit with you today at lunch,” she said, raising an eyebrow at me just before she threw the knife. It landed right in the middle of the forehead.
“He can sit anywhere he wants,” I said, that defiant look he’d given Lissy today flashing in front of my eyes.
Ever laughed as she grabbed the knife out of the wall. “Right. Because you always eat with Under-sixties.”
I shrugged. “He asked. I couldn’t figure out a good reason to say no.”
She laughed again and took her spot a few feet in front of the paper man. “Fair enough.” Her eyes lit up as she glanced over at me. “Do you like him?”
“No.”
“Why not? He’s cute.”
“Everyone here is.”
It was true that all Reboots were attractive, in a way. After death, when the virus took hold and the body Rebooted, the skin cleared, the body sharpened, the eyes glowed. It was like pretty with a hint of deranged.
Although my hint was more like a generous serving.
Ever gave me a look like I was a cute puppy who had wandered over for attention. I never liked that look. “It’s okay to think he’s cute,” she said. “It’s natural.”
Natural for her. I didn’t have feelings like that. They didn’t exist.
I shrugged, avoiding her eyes. She often looked distressed when I told her I didn’t have the same emotions she did. I found it was better to say nothing at all.
She turned away and rocked from foot to foot, letting out a breath as she prepared to throw again. She stilled as she focused on the target, the knife poised in the air and ready to throw. As she let go one boot came off the ground, her body shifting forward with the effort. She smiled at the knife lodged in the wall.
She threw the knife several more times as I watched, until she hit an even fifty and turned to look at me.
“What did you talk about?” she asked. “I saw him trying to engage you in conversation, that brave soul.”
A smile tugged at the edges of my lips. “Food, mostly. He’d never had meat.”
“Ah.”
“And he asked me to train him.”
Ever snorted as she turned away from me. “Poor guy. I can’t imagine you training a Twenty-two. You’d probably break the guy in half.”
I nodded, watching as the knife sped through the air again. Ever was only a Fifty-six, and she was a good Reboot. Or an adequate one, at least. She’d kept herself alive four years, following orders and successfully completing her assignments.
“Who was your trainer?” I asked. I hadn’t paid much attention to Ever as a newbie, even though we lived in the same room. She’d come to HARC almost a year after me, and I hadn’t been a trainer myself yet.
“Marcus One-thirty,” she said.
I nodded. I vaguely remembered him. He’d died in the field several years ago.
“I was the lowest number in my newbie group, so he got stuck with me.” She shrugged. “He was good, though. Thank goodness Lissy wasn’t here yet. I probably would have been dead the first week.”
Plenty of Lissy’s trainees had made it through training perfectly fine, but a string of bad ones had cemented her reputation as a newbie killer. Perhaps it was deserved. Perhaps Twenty-two would be the next victim of her bad luck.
I looked up at Ever as she sank the knife into the wall again.
“How many is that?” she asked.
“Fifty-two.”
“Hot damn.”
I couldn’t help a smile as she grinned at the target. Maybe the Under-sixties weren’t all hopeless.
FOUR
MANNY MARCHED THE NEWBIES INTO THE GYM EARLY THE NEXT morning for the choosing. They followed him through the door in a straight line, their faces tight with fear and exhaustion.
They were followed by a few doctors in lab coats. Their tests and X-rays continued into today, which contributed to the newbies’ exhaustion. I remembered having to run on a treadmill at a steep incline while attached to all sorts of contraptions. The doctors kept increasing the speed until I finally fell off.
Groups of Reboots stood in clumps behind the trainers, curious to see who got which trainer. Ever was in the corner to my left with several Under-sixties, leaning against the wall as she watched the newbies line up in front of us.
I turned and my eyes went immediately to Twenty-two. His gaze was on Lissy, but when he caught me looking a smile broke out on his face, followed by a pout.
Please? he mouthed.
Pleading didn’t work with me. Human targets pleaded with me all the time. “Please don’t take me.” Or, “Please don’t touch me.” Or, “Please don’t kill me.” Didn’t work.
That smile, on the other hand . . . I almost let one creep onto my own face.
No. That was ridiculous. I couldn’t let this weird smiling boy convince me to do something stupid. I was the best trainer; I only took the best newbies.
Maybe they’re the best because you make them that way. The thought had been nagging at me since last night.
The door banged open and the gym quieted as Officer Mayer, commanding officer of the five HARC facilities, strolled across the room. He came to a stop next to the medical personnel and folded his arms over his protruding stomach. Officer Mayer spent the most time in Rosa, the largest of the five facilities, and often showed up to observe the newbies. He watched them throughout the entire six-week process, to keep an eye out for the good ones and weed out any who might be trouble.
“One-seventy-eight,” Manny said.
I turned my gaze to One-twenty-one, who nodded at me. He already knew I would choose him. The other Reboots would have told him.
I looked at Twenty-two. How long did he have with Lissy? They’d be out in the field in a couple weeks, and with Lissy’s track record, he’d be dead within two months.
His dark eyes held mine. Not many people looked me in the eye. Humans didn’t want to look at me at all and Reboots were either scared or felt I was some sort of superior.
And that smile. That smile was strange here. Newbies didn’t come in smiling; they came in terrified and miserable.
He was definitely weird.
“One-seventy-eight?” Manny repeated, looking at me expectantly.
“Twenty-two.” It was out of my mouth before I could ch
ange my mind. A grin spread across his face.
The trainers looked down the line in astonishment. Lissy’s mood was already improved.
“Twenty-two?” Manny repeated. “Callum?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. I stole a look across the gym to see Officer Mayer rubbing his chin, his mouth twisted in something bordering on disappointment. I thought he might object, make me chose a higher number, but he stayed silent.
“All right,” Manny said. “One-fifty?”
Hugo opened his mouth, closed it, and turned to me with a frown. “Are you sure?”
Twenty-two laughed, and Manny motioned for him to be quiet.
No. “Yes,” I said.
“I . . . One-twenty-one, then,” Hugo said, looking at me like I might protest.
I didn’t. I stood there as the other trainers picked their newbies and broke off to start discussing the process. I waited, numb from my decision, until Twenty-two strolled over to me, his hands shoved into the pockets of his black pants.
“You like me after all,” he said.
I frowned. I didn’t know about that. I was curious. Intrigued. Like? That was pushing it.
“Or maybe not,” he said with a laugh.
“I considered what you said. About the lower numbers not having me.”
“Ah. So not because of me.”
He smiled at me and I got the impression he didn’t believe a word that had just come out of my mouth. I shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably. I wanted to fidget, and I never fidgeted.
“Are you a good runner?” I asked quickly.
“I doubt it.”
I sighed. “We’ll meet at the indoor track every morning at seven.”
“Okay.”
“Try not to scream when I break your bones. It bothers me. You can cry if you want; that’s fine.”
He burst out laughing. I didn’t realize that was a funny statement.
“Got it,” he said, trying unsuccessfully to cover his grin. “Screaming, no. Crying, yes.”
“Have you ever handled any weapons?”
“No.”
“Skills?”
“I’m good with tech stuff.”
“Tech stuff?” I repeated with a confused frown. “Where did you see computers in the slums?”
“I’m not from the slums.” He lowered his voice when he said it.
I blinked. “You’re from the rico?”
He laughed slightly. “No one calls it that. It’s just Austin.”
No one from the rico called it that. Outside, in the slums, we used the Spanish word for rich to refer to the wealthy side of the cities.
I took a quick glance around the gym. There were a few Reboots from the rico, but they were certainly in the minority. I’d never trained one. My last trainee, Marie One-thirty-five, had lived on the streets in Richards, and she’d been tougher for it. Slum life made better, stronger Reboots. Twenty-two was doubly screwed. I wasn’t sure I would have picked him if I’d known that.
“How’d you die?” I asked.
“KDH.”
“I thought they had mostly eradicated the KDH virus in the wealthy parts of town,” I said.
“They’re close. I’m just one of the lucky few.”
I grimaced. KDH was a nasty way to die. They named the virus for the city that had been ground zero of the outbreak, Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. It was a different strain of a respiratory virus common in children, and killed most humans within a few days.
“My parents took me to a slum hospital because they couldn’t afford any medicines,” he continued.
“That was dumb.” Everyone knew KDH was rampant in the slums. No one was getting treated for it there.
“Yeah, well, they were desperate. And they didn’t realize . . .”
“You only go to the hospital in the slums to die and be sorted.”
“Yes. How did you die?” he asked.
“I was shot,” I said. “Any other skills?”
“I don’t think so. Wait, how old were you when you died?”
“Twelve. We’re not talking about me.”
“Who would shoot a twelve-year-old?” he asked with the innocence that could only come from living his entire life inside walls where nothing bad happened.
“We’re not talking about me,” I repeated. What was the point, anyway? How would I explain a life of strung-out parents and dirty shacks and the fighting and screaming that came when they went too long without a fix? A rich kid would never understand.
“Newbies!” Manny called, motioning for them to join him by the gym door.
“We’re not starting now?” Twenty-two asked.
“No, you have more tests to do,” I said, gesturing to the medical personnel. “We’ll start tomorrow.”
He let out a sigh as he ran a hand down his face. “Seriously? More tests?”
“Yes.”
He looked from me to the other newbies, who had already joined Manny. “All right. I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
“Twenty-two!” Manny yelled. “Move it!”
I gestured for him to go and he jogged across the gym and disappeared out the door. The trainers all stared at me as they filed past. Hugo and Lissy stopped in front of me, wearing matching confused expressions.
“What’s wrong with you?” Lissy asked. She had her hands on her hips, her eyebrows lowered.
“Is he special or something?” Hugo asked.
Lissy rolled her eyes. “Yeah. He’s real special, Hugo.”
I shrugged. “Maybe I can make him better.”
“Don’t count on it,” Lissy muttered. She stalked away. Hugo gave me another befuddled look, then followed her out.
I turned to go, my eyes catching Ever’s. She was smiling, her head cocked to the side, then she nodded as if to say, Good for you.
FIVE
A SOUND WOKE ME IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT.
I blinked my eyes until the dream I’d been lost in faded, loosening the death grip I had on the sheets. I’d been in the corner of a tiny apartment, watching my parents yell at the people in the living room. In the dream, they were yelling about me. In reality, I’m not sure they had cared about me enough for that sort of attention.
I rolled over to see Ever crouching on her bed, her teeth bared as she let out a low growl. The noise grew louder as she rocked back and forth on the mattress.
“Ever,” I said, sitting up. Violation of the rules, but surely they would want someone to wake her up and stop the racket.
She turned to me. Her bright eyes showed no sign that she recognized me. In fact, she snarled.
“Ever,” I said again, tossing off my covers and placing my feet on the cold floor. I reached for her shoulder and her head whipped to me. She opened her mouth and her teeth scraped across the skin of my hand.
I snatched it away. What the hell was that?
I held my hand to my chest, my heart beating oddly. I was nervous, I think. I was rarely nervous.
My eyes darted to the hallway. Through the glass wall at the front of our cell I could see a guard approaching, his flashlight aimed in our direction. He stopped in front of our room and peered inside, reaching for his com. He turned away as he spoke into it and I looked back down at Ever, rocking on her bed and growling from deep within her throat. I wanted to press my hand to her mouth to stop the noise, to make the guard go away before Ever got into trouble.
I heard the pounding of footsteps and turned to see a scientist in a white lab coat running down the hall. I took in a sharp breath as I watched the scientist talk frantically to the guard, his bushy eyebrows lowered in worry as he watched Ever.
Humans didn’t worry about Reboots. They didn’t run to help them.
The scientist pulled a syringe from his pocket and my stomach turned over as I pieced together what was happening.
They’d done something to her, and now they’d realized they’d messed up. Messed her up.
Ever pounced out of bed with a height and speed I had never seen befo
re, smashing her body against the wall. I gasped, stumbling back until my legs hit the bed.
She head butted the glass, a line of blood trickling down her face when she straightened. She bared her teeth at the humans and they both jumped away, the scientist almost dropping his syringe.
“One-seventy-eight.”
I turned my eyes to the guard yelling from the other side of the wall.
“Subdue her.”
Ever began pounding her hand against the wall, a slow, rhythmic hammering.
Pound.
Pound.
Pound.
Her face determined, she looked at the humans like she would rip their faces off if given half a second.
“I said subdue her, One-seventy-eight. Get her down on the ground.” The guard glared at me.
I slowly rose from my bed, clenching my hands into fists when I realized I was shaking.
I’m not scared.
I repeated it in my head. There was no reason to be scared of a Fifty-six. She couldn’t hurt me.
Or could she? I’d never seen a Reboot act this way. There wasn’t a hint of the Ever I knew in her.
I’m not scared.
I reached for her arm but she was too fast, darting across the room and jumping on top of her bed. She bounced from foot to foot on the mattress, looking at me as if she accepted my challenge.
“Ever, it’s fine,” I said.
What was wrong with her?
She launched herself off the bed and landed on me. I hit the ground hard, the back of my head knocking against the concrete. I blinked the dots of white out of my eyes as she slammed my wrists to the floor above my head and opened her mouth, bending low as though she wanted to take a chunk out of my neck.
I kicked my legs, knocking her off me, and she flew into the bed with a grunt. I leaped on top of her, pressing my body into her back as she thrashed and snarled.
The door unlocked with a click and slid open, the footsteps of the two humans echoing across the room.
“Keep her down,” the guard ordered.
I locked my teeth together, lowering my face closer to Ever’s shoulder so he couldn’t see the disgusted look I wanted to aim at him.
The scientist knelt down and plunged the syringe into her arm. His fingers shook.