Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 88673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
This was the plan.
This is the plan.
When I go back out to the main living area, she must’ve splashed water on her face too because her cheeks are a little bit flushed.
She doesn’t say anything, so I walk to the door and hold it open.
We exit the room without another word.
Outside, the lights are dimming down to the twilight hour. The nights down here never go completely dark, but all Colonies keep a moonlight schedule so the amount of darkness will differ like it does up top. Something to do with circadian rhythms.
“When I first learned about the moon cycles, it bothered me so much I couldn’t sleep for almost a week.” To my surprise, I say this out loud.
Clover side-eyes me. “What?”
“The moon. The real moon. I nearly went crazy from it.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was…” I shake my head a little. “It was the biggest lie I learned before I was sent up top. I mean, the lies we tell down here, they’re wrapped around everything. And you’d think that learning that there was a world up top would be the kicker, ya know? The biggest lie of them all. But it was the moon.”
“Why not the sun?”
“I dunno.” I look at her as we walk down the street. There are people about, but Blackberry Hill isn’t what we’d call a big Colony. It’s spread out because there are lots of levels, so it looks big. But there are only about two thousand people living here. “I dunno,” I say again. Because she’s right, it should be the sun.
“Maybe because you can’t look at it.”
I smile. “Yeah, maybe that’s why. You can look at the moon all you want. They showed us pictures of it in Assimilation, but my first night up top happened on the full moon and those pictures didn’t even come close. I mean, it’s a big rock in the sky, ya know?”
“Yeah. I get it. I think the moon inspires awe in everyone.”
There’s a lull in the conversation after this. Which is fine by me. Ike’s place is not that far and I’m hoping that the silence will extend all the way to our destination. But just as I’m thinking this, Clover says, “Hattie Miller, right?”
“Yep.”
“Anything else I should know about her? Other than she’s rigid and boring?”
“Nope.”
“Come on, Riggs. There has to be something.”
“You don’t need to pretend to be her. Trust me, no one down here wants to be her. Just say you’re her and leave it at that.”
“What did she do to you?”
I stop walking and look at Clover, shaking my head a little. And I’m about to deny it and just ignore the whole thing, but Clover holds up a finger. “First,” she says, “I’m really not prying, but you’re hostile.”
“I’m not hostile.”
“You are. You get this cold, aggressive look in your eyes whenever you speak about her. We’re already fighting over our own personal shit, the last thing we need is the name ‘Hattie’ setting you off. I’m not gonna tell Ike who I am. I’m not escaping here through him. And you’re spilling all this bullshit about me trusting you, but you can’t trust me with the reason you hate this woman so much?”
I scoff. “Fine. If you must know, she’s the one who found me.”
Clover’s eyebrows knit together as she works things out. “Found you.” Then they shoot up in surprise. “Up top?”
I nod. “Yep.”
“OK.” She’s smart. She knows there’s more to this. “She turned you in.”
“You could say that.”
“Well, I did say that. But is it true?”
“She’s a bounty hunter, Clover.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. We were friends as kids. We were both ‘curious’ kids so we both got sent to Future Founders. And there was… maybe… a year there? Where I liked her the way you were thinking earlier. Maybe when we were twelve or thirteen, but definitely before fourteen because fourteen is when we get to select our possible assignments.”
“Are these assignments a Founders thing too? Or does everyone get to choose?”
“Yes, a Founders thing. No, most people do not get to choose their path in life. Not everyone grows up the way we did. Most of them”—I wave my hand at the people going about their business on the streets—“they don’t live any different than people up top. They swallow all the lies, dedicate their lives to working harder and longer to just afford something a little bit nicer. They dream big for their kids, and watch sports, and think about everyday things. But everything in the Founders is different. It’s like ROTC, like you said. There are uniforms and we earned ribbons, and medals, and awards by completing our destiny checklist.”
Clover stares at me for a second, then blinks. “Wow. Destiny checklist. That’s quite a title. But I gotta say, this whole image you’re painting in my mind is starting to come off a little bit…”