Extraction Page 6

  My eyes widen. I touch the same spot with my own two fingers and feel a warm wetness.

  “Here, I’ll walk you home,” Logan says softly. “Think you can walk fast enough that we can avoid the cam-bots?”

  I swallow hard. “My legs are all right. Just my head hurts.”

  He nods, his forehead creasing with concern. He pulls me to my feet. “I’ll help you clean off that blood too. Don’t want those boys thinking they won their fight, eh?”

  I shake my head. His hand squeezes mine into his grasp, and we step away from the garbage bin toward the street. “Thanks, by the way,” I say.

  His smile is crooked.

  *

  Moving through the door into the room with the podium is like stepping into a dream. Claps and cheers echo in my ears from the small audience. They’re all standing, watching us Extractions enter.

  My face warms and my palms grow sweaty. Bright yellow light flashes in my eyes. I blink to make the dots go away, and bump into the Extraction girl in front of me by accident.

  “Sorry,” I mumble.

  Governor Preston steps forward to greet me. “Congratulations,” he says with a kind smile. His gloved hand closes around mine in a firm grip.

  “Thank you.” I manage not to stutter the words.

  He smiles wider. Another flash of yellow comes from behind him, from one of the cam-bots documenting the ceremony.

  He moves on, but it isn’t over yet. Bodies jostle me from every direction. It seems all the people in the audience want to shake my hand. Instructors, doctors, nurses, and officials too. People I’ve never spoken to or even seen before smile at me like we’ve been friends since birth.

  I smile as best I can. But the walls close in tighter with every passing moment, and my heart rate quickens and my throat tightens.

  I don’t want to be here. I want to be outside where Logan’s waiting. These people are stealing too much time away from me.

  I notice Cadet Waller near the podium, looking as impatient as I feel. She speaks fast into an ear-comm, though I can’t hear what she’s saying.

  Behind her, a small CorpoBot screen in the back corner of the room plays through the portraits of the new Extractions again. It shows not only our pictures, but the pictures of those chosen tonight in the ceremonies in Crust, Mantle, and Lower. Fourteen from each outer sector.

  I stare at their faces and wonder who they are. I wonder why the Developers picked them.

  I wonder why they picked me too, but didn’t choose Laila. Or Grady. Or Logan.

  *

  Rain smacks the pavement outside. I move through the exit doors with the rest of the group, led by Cadet Waller and an entourage of guards. Cadet Waller said a transport will arrive any minute to take us to the departure bay.

  My heart knocks against my rib cage. I swallow hard. I need to find Logan before the transport gets here. I need to say goodbye to him.

  He’s supposed to be waiting outside the door, but he isn’t.

  There’s a big, loud crowd ahead, separated from us by a security rope and a line of officials. All the kids from the camp who came to watch the ceremony on the CorpoBots are still here, waiting to catch a glimpse of us. To say goodbye.

  But something’s not right. People are shoving against the security line. People are shouting—shouting at us. Like they think we’re the ones who stole their spots away. Which I guess is true, but I can’t believe they’d act like this with so many guards around.

  The officials amplify their voices with their helmets so everyone can hear their orders over the noise: “Everyone, stay back. Do not touch the rope. Do not fight us or you will be sent to quarantine. You will be replaced.”

  “Let’s stay close to the building, Extractions,” Cadet Waller shouts over the noise.

  Our escort guards push us away from the security line. I’m knocked back with the others.

  The panic starts to rise, churning to a boil in my stomach. This shouldn’t be happening. People have been angry after the ceremony before, but never this bad.

  I need to see into the crowd. I have to find Logan. He can’t disappear like this, with no warning.

  The whir of an engine reaches my ears. My stomach flips as I turn toward the sound. The hovercraft speeds toward us from down the street, arriving much too soon. I need more minutes. I need more hours.

  I turn back to the crowd again, fear and adrenaline coursing through my veins. I won’t get on the transport yet. Not until I find him.

  There’s a smack in the crowd a few feet away from me. A scream pierces the air.

  A guard steps out of my way, and I see an official beating a girl’s head in with the butt of his pulse rifle.

  She crumples in the gravel with blood pooling in her hair.

  I’m gaping and shaking and screaming no no no no no no inside my head.

  Everything falls apart. All the kids rush forward, slamming into the officials and knocking over the security rope. There are gunshots. Cadet Waller yells something. Guards scramble in front of me to block the kids from reaching me and the other Extractions.

  I think they might want me dead, even though the Developers picked me and the official beat that girl’s head in. I think they might kill me if they get close enough.

  Someone knocks into me and I fall, my knees scraping the asphalt. I need a second to recover, but I don’t have a second. Everyone’s going to trample me if I don’t get up.

  I push off the asphalt, blinking fast to see what’s happening through the rain. The guards are trying to create a new security perimeter. Cadet Waller’s trying to steer the Extractions toward the hovercraft, which can’t reach us anymore because there are too many people blocking its path.

  My eyes water, blending with the rain. I can’t get on the hovercraft yet. I can’t. I can’t. I need Logan. I can’t leave without saying goodbye because I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again, or when.

  Cadet Waller’s voice reaches my ears—a shout of “Get on board. Hurry!”

  Instinct pulls me in one direction. My legs carry me in another.

  I slip under a guard’s arm and into the crowd, letting it swallow me whole. Hopefully, I’ll blend in. Hopefully, no one will recognize me. This is reckless and stupid and maybe it means the ship to the Core will leave without me, and I’ll lose my spot on it, but this is too important.

  Logan is too important.

  Rain lashes against my face. More gunshots go off somewhere behind me. I don’t look to see who went down.

  I reach the part of the crowd where kids aren’t trying to fight anyone. They’re terrified instead. They’re running away, tripping over each other.

  I duck under people’s arms and look frantically around for Logan’s face. I blink tears out of my eyes and pretend they’re part of the storm.

  Where are you, where are you?

  I’m almost to the other side of the crowd when I think I hear someone call my name. But there’s too much screaming for me to tell where it came from. And I can’t see anyone but the people right near me. I hate how short I am.

  Thunder roars in the background. I count three seconds, and look up as lightning fills the sky. There’s so much acid above the atmospheric shield, the bits of the moon I glimpse through the rain clouds look like they’re on fire.

  I’m always afraid when I look at the shield that I’m going to see some of the acid getting through, because it does sometimes. Scientists built the shield with strong ion particles to deflect the acid, since our ozone layer stopped doing that. But over time, the shield particles weaken and have to be replaced. I’ve heard of cases where some adult died from acid corrosion before the shield was fixed, their skin burned away by small amounts of gas that got through the shield. The adults try to keep it quiet, but word gets around.

  It’s one more reason we all want to escape the Surface.

  I keep pushing forward, toward the road perpendicular to this one, where the crowd isn’t so thick.

  “Clementine!�
� someone yells.

  I spin around, and Logan’s there, shoving past two people to reach me. I fall into his arms. He’s trembling.

  “You have to go back,” he says. “You have to get on that shuttle.”

  “I can’t yet. I can’t leave you.”

  “You have to.”

  “It’s not safe, though.” Officials are shooting kids over by the security rope. I might end up in the crossfire.

  “Clementine…”

  “Please. We can hide somewhere until the street clears out. The group won’t leave without me,” I say, ignoring how my heartbeat trips over the last sentence. Silently, I plead that I’m right. That they won’t leave me behind.

  Logan sighs, but his body relaxes a little. I’m pretty sure that means he’s giving in.

  I grab his hand. There’s an alleyway nearby. We hurry over to it and slip inside, splashing in puddles in the dirt.

  We wait until we’re far down, around a corner and out of sight of the crowd before we stop. The other end of the alley is just ahead.

  Logan lets go of my hand to lean against the wall and catch his breath. I run my shaky hands over the goose bumps on my arms. I look back in the direction we came from, toward where the Extractions were boarding the hovercraft.

  Please, please, please don’t leave without me. Please notice I’m missing.

  Logan’s eyes lift to meet mine. His face is unreadable; his lips are slightly parted.

  My throat feels tight. It hurts when I swallow. I squeeze my eyes shut, taking a shaky breath. “This isn’t fair.”

  He makes an odd, sad sort of laugh. “No, it’s not.”

  “They should’ve picked you last year.”

  He shakes his head and stares off into the distance. “I’m not Promising enough.”

  I clench my fists in anger. “That’s not true.”

  In my eyes, Logan has always been intelligent, obedient, and strong, all the qualities that go into a person’s Promise and make a child useful to the Developers. But they don’t agree. I bet they think his limp is too much of a weakness, which makes me want to throw things. Logan was born with his limp. He can’t help it.

  “I don’t care what they think.” I wipe rainwater out of my eyes. “You are Promising. They’re idiots for not picking you.”

  “They know what they’re looking for, and it’s not someone like me. It’s you.” He steps forward and brushes his fingertips against mine.

  “Once I’m down there I’ll make them take you,” I say fiercely.

  That’s what I have to do. I’ll work my way to the top of Core society and convince the Developers that Logan is Promising enough, that they need him down there. I’ll force them to make an exception. I won’t let him die.

  “That’s a nice thought,” Logan says, “but don’t get too hung up on it.”

  I stare at him. “You don’t believe me.”

  “I believe you’ll try.”

  “I’ll try and try and keep trying until it happens. I promise.”

  The corner of his mouth twitches, and something soft and sad fills his eyes. He lifts his hand and touches the scar on my jawline. I hold my breath, unsure what he’s doing.

  Slowly, his finger moves downward, gentle on my skin, and traces my collarbone. Eyes locked on mine, he takes one more step closer. My stomach drops and flutters in the same motion.

  Feet crunch on dirt.

  Logan’s head snaps in the direction of the sound, to my left, back down the alleyway. We hear more crunches over the soft patter of rain; someone is coming. My body tenses. Inside I want to scream. Why is there always something?

  A figure steps around the corner, followed by three others. Three boys and a girl with black hair, short and jagged.

  One of the boys, I’ve known forever. Or I thought I knew him. Now I’m not so sure.

  “Grady?” Logan says his name first.

  7

  Grady clutches a fragment of steel that might’ve come from a train track. His hands shake. An odd, mad look flickers across his face.

  Nellie takes a step toward us, twirling her own weapon. Her lips curl into a smile.

  One of these four must’ve seen me in the crowd. They saw us slip into this alleyway, and followed.

  “Did you change your mind, Clementine?” Nellie asks. “Did you realize you don’t deserve to be an Extraction?”

  I press my lips together. She doesn’t deserve an answer.

  “What are you doing here?” Logan asks.

  “We’re here for her,” Carter says. “Step aside, and we won’t hurt you.”

  “I was asking Grady,” Logan says.

  “What do you think?” Grady’s voice is hoarse. His raw, red eyes find mine. “The backup plan. Remember?”

  My eyes cling to the steel weapon in his hand: a piece of the train track Nellie said they planned to use against the adults and the officials if they weren’t picked for Extraction. But there are no adults here. There are no officials or cam-bots in this alleyway.

  There’s only me and Logan.

  I clench my hands into fists so they won’t tremble. I can tell by the look in Grady’s eyes and the scowls on Carter’s and Larry’s faces that they blame me for stealing one of the spots. Even though they should blame the Developers.

  “You think killing me will save you?” I ask, trying to keep my voice steady. “Because it won’t.”

  “You don’t deserve what you won more than any of us,” Larry spits. “Why should we let you leave?”

  “Grady, why are you with them?” Logan asks angrily.

  Grady’s bottom lip trembles, but he doesn’t answer.

  Nellie speaks for him. “He’s never fit in with you, that’s what he told me. He said you two are one thing and he’s always separate, so why should he care what happens to her? She doesn’t even care that he didn’t get picked.” She shakes her head at me.

  My mouth has fallen open. “Of course I care—”

  “Then why didn’t you say something?” Grady cries. Tears spill from his eyes, and he’s shaking so badly the weapon looks like it’ll slip from his hand any second now. “You didn’t even look for me earlier. I called your name in the processing building, and you didn’t answer.”

  “What?” I ask. “I didn’t hear you, Grady. I didn’t—I didn’t mean…”

  But he’s right. I was so worried about myself and about Logan, I didn’t spare even a second to worry about him. Not even after the brain scans. But I shake my head, as if that will make it less true.

  “Besides,” Grady says, his voice growing steadier, “if you’re gone, that’ll open a spot. That’ll open a spot for someone like me.”

  “No, it won’t.” I choke on the words, shaking my head fast. “They’ll whip you for killing me. They’ll send you to quarantine.”

  But would they? Would the Developers really care if they lost me? There are plenty of others who must’ve been almost as Promising. They could easily replace me.

  “You won’t kill her. I won’t let you,” Logan says, moving so he’s a foot in front of me. I grab hold of his arm, afraid he might do something stupid.

  “We’ll blame him.” Carter jabs a finger in Logan’s direction.

  “Notice how no one’s here yet?” Nellie says to me. “If they really cared about you, wouldn’t they have noticed you left right away and come looking?”

  “There’s still a riot going on, in case you forgot,” I say, though my heart can’t seem to find its normal rhythm.

  She’s right; they might get to the departure bay and leave without me. They might decide I’m not worth finding.

  Please don’t, please don’t, please don’t.

  “Logan, leave.” Grady swallows. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if I have to.”

  “You think we can’t fight you?” Logan says, his voice hard.

  “There are four of us.” Larry snorts. “And we aren’t crippled.”

  “I’m serious.” Grady’s voice is anxious. �
�I’m giving you one more shot.”

  “Logan, you should go,” I say. “I don’t want you to get hurt for me.”

  “It’d be nice if you’d make this easy for us,” Nellie says, closing the gap between us. “Taking care of two dead bodies might be a bit harder than one.”

  “Go,” Logan says to me.

  “What—” I start.

  He shoves me to his right. Nellie makes for me, while the other three charge at Logan. He doesn’t even try to get out of the way.

  Someone’s fist collides with his jaw. I scream.

  Nellie gets in my face. She brings her weapon down, but I grab hold of her wrist. She snarls and wraps her other hand around what she stole from the train track. I don’t have enough strength to stop her, so I let go and duck aside. A sharp bit of steel scrapes my cheek.

  I slam my knuckles into her stomach. She groans and falters, giving me time to see Logan on his side in the gravel. Carter and Larry laugh as they kick him, while Grady mostly watches. With every grunt and slam, my heart shatters into a million pieces.

  “Let him go!” I yell. “It’s me you want, isn’t it?”

  Nellie lashes at me again. I jump out of her way, turning and racing toward the end of the alley.

  “Get her!” Nellie shrieks.

  Blood pounds in my temple as I run to draw them away from him. The rain makes it hard for me to see, but this street seems empty. I gnash my teeth together. Where are cam-bots and officials when I need them?

  When I glance over my shoulder, relief fills me. They’ve left Logan in the alley. They’re following me instead. Nellie, Carter, Larry, and Grady. The boy who I thought was my friend, who wants to kill me because he’s selfish and afraid.

  I stumble around a street corner, past a CorpoBot still showing the portraits of the newly chosen. A dark restricted building lies across the empty plaza. Made of glass and iron crossbeams, it towers over my head. Lightning flashes in the clouds, lighting up the rooftop.

  A thrill of excitement rushes through me, mingling with my worry. All my life I’ve dreamed of scaling one of these buildings. They’re so much taller than the shacks I’m used to climbing. But I bet I can climb this, if I try. Who cares if I break a million rules? I’m faster at climbing than I am at running. And if those four are really set on murdering me, this could save my life. That should be a good enough excuse.