Trapped (The Trapped Trilogy #1) Read online

Two

  The next day we aren’t tapping on the wall. Instead, we’re working on the lights in the Main Government Building in the Dame’s Dome. Through the windows, I can see the simulated sunrise as it begins to light up the world trapped inside the walls’ panels.

  We had each been assigned to a certain area with so many hallways to fix. So we’re all scattered along the inside of the building, working away and trying to get done before our deadline: breakfast at exactly eight o’clock.

  Today is the day that the girls who turned thirteen in the past six months start their jobs. This happens twice a year, so every job gets new workers on the same day. It’s amazing how things don’t get too chaotic.

  Most of us, who have worked for two years or more, get a younger girl to mentor for the next six months. It seems like a long time, but it’s well needed. Some of the jobs we do as Mechaneers are actually pretty hard to pick up on when you finally get your hands on them, in comparison with running through simulations in our training at school and during tests. Some of them are even life or death situations. So you can see why we have this time for training.

  And lucky me, I get to mentor one of the girls.

  That’s sarcasm, of course.

  “Don’t forget to—”

  “Nad!” I say, aggravated. She keeps talking and ruining my concentration. I need my concentration. “I’ve got this. Please stop telling me what I should and shouldn’t do.”

  The poor girl looks like I just slapped her across the face or something.

  I sigh and rub the bridge of my nose. “Look, Nad, you’re thirteen right? In six months, you’ll be able to do all of this yourself. But for now… just watch. Please.”

  “I’m sorry… it’s just… It’s my first day.”

  I look at her. She’s staring at the ground, drawing circles on it with her bright green shoes.

  “I know,” I sigh. “Look, I didn’t mean to sound so harsh, and I still don’t, but all of your jabbering has gotten me pushed back by thirty minutes.”

  She nods sadly and draws another circle on the ground.

  I feel like I need to do something…

  I have an idea.

  “Looks like you’re going to have to help me.”

  Her eyes light up and a smile spreads across her face. She jumps ahead to the next ladder, taking off the cover of the long light. I walk her through the process, and she actually works faster than I do. We’re finished long before our shift is up.

  “Hey, Nad?” I tell her slowly. “You can’t tell anyone I let you help today. You have a week until your hands-on training starts. I’ll get in trouble if they find out I let you work on stuff early, okay?”

  She nods, and thanks me.

  “This was the best birthday present ever,” She whispers and smiles.

  “Good,” I say.

  “Can we start on another hallway?” She shouts as she skips a little farther down the hall.

  I start to laugh and tell her that we’re actually done for the day, but it catches in my throat as I hear voices echo down the hall. No one is supposed to be here until the sunrise simulation is over with and breakfast is being delivered—which is in about two hours from now.

  I motion for Nad to be quiet and wave her back over to me.

  “Act like you’re observing,” I tell her as I climb up on the ladder, and remove the cover of the light to hand it to her. The light flickers out, and I stick my head up into the open area, touching some of the wires as if I am in the process of fixing them.

  The footsteps get louder as they approach.

  “…the security breech yesterday morning?” Voices follow the footsteps. “They still haven’t found who touched the wall.”

  “Yeah, but they have someone they think did it,” the second woman says as they grow closer.

  “Well, whoever it is, they’ll notice the symptoms in her soon...”

  Symptoms?

  ZAP!

  I let out a small yelp and pull my burned fingers back to suck on them.

  “Are you okay?” Nad whispers from the bottom of the ladder.

  “Yeah,” I respond quietly, scanning the hallway.

  The two women walk past us and slow, stopping two doors down from where Nad and I are. A man steps out.

  The President.

  I turn my face away, afraid he’d recognize me or something. It’s not that I’m afraid of him… I think I’m more afraid of the power he holds.

  He mutters something to them, and more footstep sounds echo down the hall as I turn my head to watch them go through the door.

  “Come on,” Says Nad, starting to make her way down the hall in their direction.

  I rush down the ladder and grab her arm.

  “No,” I hiss. “Do you know what they could do if we get caught listening in on the President’s meeting?”

  “Do you know that not knowing what’s going on in there will kill you on the inside?”

  I open my mouth to say something back, but nothing makes its way out.

  The problem is, is that she’s right. I really do want to know what they’re saying, and it peaks my interest that it’s about me. But the other problem is that it’s about me…

  Nad’s arm slips through my hand and she walks quickly to the door. I follow reluctantly, and scold myself for letting a newbie boss me around and sway my decision. I promise myself it won’t happen again.

  My heart pounds as we approach, and I wish I hadn’t have listened to her. I want to go back to doing what I’m supposed to before we get caught. Nevertheless, I find myself straining my ears to hear the conversation on the other side of the blue door.

  “Do you think she saw what you are?” I hear the President speaking to the two women. His voice is sharp and urgent.

  “I don’t know,” A woman says. She sounds like the woman who came to my door earlier. “She looked at Tanner and I funny, but I thought it was because she hadn’t seen a guy since she was little. Even if she did see and she told someone, no one would believe her. Someone would definitely call us to inspect her sanity.”

  My sanity?

  “How confident are you about that?” The President snaps.

  “Very,” I hear both women say together.

  “There is a ninety percent chance that she will be discovered before anyone notices she’s gone off the deep end, a four-percent chance she will be exiled if she is discovered, and a six-percent chance she will uncover our secrets.” The second woman’s voice is smooth. Smooth enough to trick anybody into listening to what she has to say.

  I realize she’s an Analyzer. She takes data and sorts out every little detail to find accurate predictions and results. There are only three Government Official Analyzers in this Dome and the Dude’s Dome, but there are five in the Home Dome. It is a pretty high-up job, even for the ordinary Analyzers.

  “Then let’s just hope she goes insane,” I hear President Murkas sneer bitterly. “What is her name?”

  “Eenralla Land,” The first woman says.

  With that, I swiftly head back to the ladder. I shouldn’t be surprised that the Government knows it really was me that touched the wall. But I didn’t mean to. They’ve got to understand that, right? A government is made to be just and take care of the people and listen to them… isn’t it?

  Oh, gosh… I lied to two Safeties and now the president knows it. What will happen to me?

  My breath quickens.

  This government isn’t made like the ones in the past. Those were corrupt. All of them were. The citizens thought they had direct control… but they didn’t. They would just vote on someone else to get their hands dirty so the citizens wouldn’t have to lift one finger. They were lazy.

  And this government doesn’t want lazy.

  “Who are they talking about?” Nad asks.

  I never told her my name. She only knows me by the number the Government Officials gave her. Number forty-two. The number on my blue Mechaneer uniform.

 
“Me.”

  I can almost see the wheels turning in her head, analyzing. She looks at me, and I see a hint of smile and a strange glint of recognition in her eyes. Fascination makes her body twitch with excitement.

  “What did you do?" She asks, almost in awe.

  “I touched the wall.”

  o0o0o

  Walking home, I can’t seem to get Nad off of my tail. She’s been asking questions ever since we checked out from our job. Too many questions, if you ask me.

  I stop at the corner of my street, Nad still by my side, and pinch the bridge of my nose in frustration. She’s giving me a headache. Doesn’t she know that there are people watching our every move? Doesn’t she know we could get in trouble for these conversations we’re having?

  I sigh. “Where do you live, Nad?”

  “Right there,” She points down the street and to the house across from mine.

  I close my eyes, trying not to let out a sound of annoyance.

  “Great…” Sarcasm. “I live right across from you.”

  Her body springs up with excitement. I wrinkle my nose at it. Why is she so excited? I’m not that fantastic to live around, let alone be around.

  “We can go to work together every day!” She exclaims.

  I start to walk again.

  “As long as you don’t get too used to it,” I smile a little, not able to help myself.

  “Why?” She asks, matching my pace.

  “Because in a few months, it’s the six month mark after my seventeenth birthday,” I say casually. “I’m going to be reassigned.”

  “That’s so exciting!” She squeals, beaming a smile at me and jumping up and down as she walks. “He’ll be sooo handsome, I know he will!”

  “I guess,” I say.

  Unlike Nad and all of the girls I’ve ever been around, I never pondered what it would be like to see the love of my life for the first time, or what I’d wear that special day. I’ve always just been focused on the present and concerned about how many strikes I have. I think that thinking about all of those things would have distracted me and I probably would have been kicked out of the Dome long ago.

  “I’m not really that excited about it,” I tell her casually.

  Her face falters a little bit.

  I shrug. “I’m okay with being on my own, is all,” I explain. “I don’t think I’d like... you know, being held down to someone.”

  She looks at me, amused. “Shouldn’t you be used to it by now though?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I say defensively, stopping in front of my house.

  “I mean the Government holds everyone down already.”

  o0o0o

  The month passes by slowly, and Nad and I work on each job we’re assigned to together, and we do it pretty darn well. All that I’ve gathered about her while working together is that she won’t shut up.

  No, I’m kidding. I’ve learned more about her than that.

  She’s an excellent distraction when the workdays are long and my mind is prone to wander. She talks about how she is a younger sibling, and that she had an older brother. She told me about her parents and how they said goodbye so calmly that sunny day that they walked off to their death. Nad and her brother weren’t allowed to go to the ceremony, just like every other child in the Home Dome. They still watched though. Nad’s brother snuck out, Nad in tow, and climbed a tree overlooking the burial ground in the back of the Home Dome. Unsurprisingly, they were caught by a Safety, and each one received a strike. Nad then told me that strike was held against her, and she was forced to choose her second option as a job, which was a Mechaneer.

  “That happened to me,” I told her one day. “Except I was pushed to my third option, so I had to start from scratch.”

  Nad had looked at me, confused.

  “That’s weird,” She said. “They only usually drop someone their first job.”

  “Maybe it’s because it was blamed on your brother that you two were out there. Mine was different. I broke a swing when I was seven.”

  She laughed. “How do you break a swing?”

  “You swing too high,” I smiled at her.

  A few months after that, we’re back to tapping on the Dome wall’s panels. The sky simulation is morphing from night to day and from blue to pink, and the ball mimicking the moon hanging from the sky-lid begins to glow brighter as it turns into the sun.

  I pull my swing closer to the wall, and stare at the needle-like surface of the panels. How did I not see these before? And when I touched it, did it inject me with something like the needles in a Doctor’s office?

  It couldn’t have; I moved too fast for anything to flow into me.

  Didn’t I?

  “How do you even do this?” Nad asks me, her swing a couple feet above and to the left of mine. It’s her first time actually working on the Dome wall. The space between the last check up was really long. It’s weird. Usually we do this every other month, and it’s been a handful of them since the day I… It’s just been a couple months too long, is all.

  “Like this,” I say as I slip my gloves on.

  I tap one of the panels in front of me twice, and it flickers.

  “What does that mean?” She asks.

  “You tap it three times now,” I say, and as I show her, the tip of my finger starting to itch. “And the Computes watching over the simulation—” I feel the fingers on my right hand start to burn, and I rub them against my other gloved hand to try and make it stop. “—will take care of it and fix it right away.”

  “Oh, okay, cool,” She chirps, and starts tapping away at all of the panels she sees in her section.

  I look at my hand just in time to watch my glove start melting. A small gasp escapes me, and Nad looks at me.

  “So what happens when—are you okay, Eenie?” Nad asks, and I realize she’s studying my face. “You look kind of pale.”

  I gulp and nod, moving my hand to where she can’t completely see it.

  My glove is melting. I can feel it. Why is it melting? It’s curled down past my fingertip now, the purple material sticking to my skin and the smell of burned rubber reaching my nose.

  I move my hand behind my back as calmly as I can, and say to Nad, “Yeah, I just… I don’t really feel good.”

  Nad looks at me sympathetically.

  “I’m sorry. Are you allowed to leave?”

  I feel the glove move down my fingers a little bit more. If anyone sees this, questions will be asked, and I could be thrown out of the Dome. I might have dreamed about what it was like outside of the Domes when I was little, but I’m no longer concerned with it, especially if it means being exiled from society and losing everything I’ve worked so hard to accomplish. Everything and Nad, my new best friend.

  But something inside me is still curious about the outside world. What’s out there that the Government doesn’t want us to know about? To see? Why are we inside the Dome, and how did this all happen? We were taught that it was because the rest of the world had been destroyed, and that our ancestors were the only people left afterwards. We were taught the rules were created to make a better society. To make sure history won’t repeat itself. But what if that isn’t the reason why they’re there? What if it’s a bigger reason then anyone inside the Dome realizes? What if the Government is hiding something?

  “Yeah,” I croak, pulling myself from my thoughts. “Yeah, I’ll just have to sign out. Um… I’ll see you later, Nad. Don’t miss a panel.”

  She nods and says, “Feel better! Big day today!”

  I smile sheepishly at her, remembering that today is the day that I will meet the guy who is supposed to be with me for the rest of my life. The rest of my life being the last twelve and one-half years I am allowed to live.

  I direct the safety swing down to the ground with the joystick on the right side, and unbuckle the seat belt. The feminine voice announces the removal, and a hologram appears in front of me, flickering uncontrollably (it’s new
, and I think it was installed because of me). Between the flickers, I make out the word STATUS.

  I use the holographic keyboard at the bottom of the spazzy screen to type in SICKNESS and press enter, and the hologram disappears.

  I start to walk, and I look at the glove. The entirety of each rubber finger is melted off. I rip both gloves off, and dispose of them in a trashcan as I pass it. They land inside without a sound.

  The bus stop isn’t far, and when I reach it, I sit down on the bench and place my head in my hands.

  What’s happening to me?

  I look up to the fake sky, and watch as fake birds fly across it.

  What would it be like to see real birds? To hear them sing and chirp and watch as they fly across the sky gracefully? To feel real wind and feel real water running in a river? All I can do is wonder. And that’s all I’ll ever do, all I’ve ever done.

  The big white rounded rectangle of a bus creeps up, and its doors open smoothly. I climb on and sit down a few seats behind the bus driver. She turns over her shoulder to look at me.

  “You going to End Drive?” She asks.

  “Yeah,” I say. “I left work early. I’m not feeling too good.”

  I grab my stomach and hope it looks convincing.

  “Huh,” Her fat little body rises as she utters the sound. “Strange. No one gets sick around here. You should really get that checked out, doll.”

  She looks back at me in the mirror, and I shift my gaze to the floor. She’s right about that…

  “What job makes you wake up this early? I mean, besides mine, of course.” She laughs, and the bus moves forward gracefully. “Are you a Doctor, or a Cooker, or…?”

  I shake my head.

  “Oh, I know!” She says cheerfully. Why is everyone always so cheerful? “You’re a Mechaneer!”

  I sigh and nod.

  “You know, it was the Mechaneers that designed the little plate-chip thingies on the walls of the Dome? Yeah, well, they had the original idea about it, and the third President, when it first started up, made some modifications. I dunno what they were, but I heard that it wasn’t that big of a change,” She says, looking in the rear-view mirror at me and then back at the empty road.

  I bet I could guess what modifications the Government wanted to make to the panels. But the question is why? Why would they need needle things on the walls? It couldn’t be to keep anyone from touching it, because no one knows anything about it. Or at least I don’t think anybody does. We’re not supposed to touch it anyway. And, besides, you can’t really see them unless you’re really paying attention and looking for them because of how small they are.

  “You’re not much of a talker, are you?” The woman chuckles.

  “I’m afraid not,” I half-smile at her.

  “Well, I think you should always be talking,” She smiles at me. “It’s good to share your opinion. Unless, maybe, you’re about to get shot or killed or something.” The woman laughs again, and then continues talking when I don’t reply. “You know, you kids don’t learn much about the past. You would really have to dig to find it because no one learns everything about anything.”

  “Really?” I ask, a little skeptic.

  I’ve learned about the past, and how their Governments had only worked for a few hundred years. The people would eventually get bored of the rules and limitations and rebel. That’s why we have the Government we have, so no one will go against or attack them. It had been designed to make everyone happy.

  Her fluffy red hair bobs up and down as she nods. “Do you know how this Government was formed?”

  I watch her through the mirror.

  “I know it was made to keep everyone happy,” I say matter-of-factly.

  She laughs and shakes her head.

  “To each his own.” She smiles and turns down another street. “Years ago, there was a war. It was way before you and I were born. A plague had broken out, and governments everywhere fell to anarchy. Many of the people died, and our world was one the brink of war. People eager to get their hands on medicine. So the remaining countries, the most powerful countries, pulled out their nuclear weapons. The human race was scared, dying, panicking... they didn’t know what to do. So they would sit there threatening each other with their weapons that could potentially destroy the world.”

  “Did they fire them?” I find myself asking, and then feeling stupid afterwards. Of course they didn’t. We wouldn’t be alive if they did…

  “No one really knows. I haven’t been able to find that out myself, actually. There are people that think that we’re actually on the moon because the gravity is off, and others say that the nations put their weapons down and didn’t actually fire.”

  I snort as the memory of what I’d seen outside the Dome walls flashes through my mind.

  “We’re definitely not on the moon,” I say.

  “Oh?” The woman looks at me through the mirror excitedly. “And how would you know?”

  My mouth goes dry as I try to save face. How would I know that we didn’t live on the moon if I’m supposed to have never seen the outside world? I rack my brain for everything—anything I know about the moon. Low gravity... that’s pretty much it.

  “Uh, well,” I clear my throat. “We’d be floating, wouldn’t we? I mean, they say the gravity is different and that it’s more than it used to be, and the moon doesn’t have more gravity than Earth. And then… you know, maybe Earth’s gravitational pull increased over the thousand or so years since whatever happened to create the Domes.”

  She seems to ponder it for a long moment, and nods her head. “That makes sense, I guess. But I still don’t think we’re on Earth. Here you are, doll.”

  I nod, writing her off as a crazy person, and duck my head as I walk through the door.

  “Get to feeling better,” She says to me as my feet hit the ground. “It’s a strange thing to get sick now a-days.”

  She winks at me and shuts the door.

  I shrink away from the bus as it rolls farther away from me, and walk towards my house. We don’t have any other transportation besides our legs and our buses… I don’t know what else the roads could be used for besides that. I mean, they’re used to deliver food to everyone from the Cookers, but other than that… there really is no point for them.

  Besides that, everything the bus driver told me runs through my head, but I wave it away because every time I question something, I come up to dead ends and I don’t have a logical answer to them. So instead, I try to think about tonight.

  And I realize that I’m not ready for it.

  I don’t have a dress, or shoes, or jewelry, or a hairstyle...

  Wow.

  I’m so irresponsible.

  I laugh at the thought and walk up to my door. I will only be allowed to take one person tonight to watch, and, while every other girl is stressing over whom to take, I have an option of one person, if she wants to come. Which, she will. She’s more excited about it than I am.

  As I turn the doorknob and imagine the ceremony in my head, I can almost feel the air crackling with energy and nervousness all around the girls as they await their Prince Charming. I see their dresses made of various colors and fabrics. Their hair and makeup fixed perfectly and their white teeth shining in the glow of the candles placed perfectly in the center of the tables.

  Then I see me with my head down and tracing the tablecloth with my fingertip, making different patterns to preoccupy myself.

  I swing the door open and pull myself from my train of thought. I won’t feel pity for myself at the moment, and that’s final. I don’t care how pathetic I may seem in my imagination. It won’t be like that tonight.

  My eyes travel to the center of my room, and immediately I recognize the people standing there.

 

  Three

  “Eenralla Land?”

  It’s the two Safeties that had visited me after I touched the wall all those months ago. I swallow hard and respond with a quiet yes. T
hey don’t come into houses like this unless it’s a serious matter…

  “The President has recognized your hard work, and has given you a second chance to choose, something you weren’t able to do all those years ago. He is worried that the job you work at now will pose too many problems for you. You do only have one strike left, after all.” The girl smiles.

  “So, you’re telling me that, because of that one morning a few months ago, I have to switch jobs?” I look at them, flabbergasted. “I have to start from scratch again? I haven’t done anything wrong in six months.”

  The woman’s face flickers twice, like a broken tablet screen, and for a split second, her eyes seem to turn… purple?

  The flickering of things had stopped a while ago, but it’s just recently come back and it seems to have gotten worse these past two days, what with the screen on my wall, Government Officials, and the screen on my tablet. Not to mention some holograms like the one I used today to sign out.

  Her smile falls a little, and she makes a sound from the back of her throat.

  “Please close the door,” She says politely.

  It door clicks shut behind me.

  “Your top two jobs four years ago were to be a part of the Domes’ Safety and to be a Hunter. You will be taking a test similar the one everyone else had to take that day you had been called in to be assigned to your job as a Mechaneer. This will ensure that your choices are still compatible with your person-ality and your likes and dislikes.”

  My heart rate speeds up.

  Is this really happening?

  “What if I don’t want to change out of my job?” I ask.

  The man, Tanner I think, smiles and crosses his arms. “That would be disobeying the President’s orders.”

  I look at him, and his whole body flickers. Squinting, I wait for it to happen again, but it doesn’t, and then I wait to get in trouble for staring. He just chuckles quietly to himself instead.

  The woman holds out a small tablet. It flashes with the word BEGIN.

  I touch the screen, and a question slides on.

  1. WHAT BODY TYPE DO YOU HAVE? (CHOOSE TWO)

  A) THIN

  B) SPORTY

  C) THICK

  D) LARGE

  A) SHORT

  B) MEDIUM

  C) TALL

  I tap the letters A and B, and then hit the ‘next’ button.

  2. YOU LIKE DOING, OR DON’T MIND DOING, WHAT? (CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY)

  A) HUNTING/SEARCHING FOR THINGS

  B) SPENDING TIME ON COMPUTER/TABLET

  C) COOKING/BAKING

  D) GARDENING/PLANTING

  E) READING

  F) ORGANIZING

  G) MAKING/USING WEAPONS

  H) GETTING HANDS DIRTY

  I press the letters A, B, G, and H. The screen changes again, and another question appears.

  “Questions three and four are based on your previous answers, and are generated by Computes back in the Government Building,” The woman says. “Number five is regulation. Everyone has to answer it.”

  Nodding slowly, I shift a little bit to where she can’t see the screen as easily, and continue with the questions.

  3. DO YOU LIKE TO BE IN CONTROL OR HAVE CONTROL OVER MOST SITUATIONS?

  A) YES

  B) NO

  C) DOESN’T MATTER

  I hesitate.

  What if this is a test?

  I’ve never liked it when someone told me what to do, of course, especially if it’s the Safety or a Government Official. I guess that’s a reason why my second choice all of those years ago was to be a Safety. I wouldn’t have to take orders from other people who don’t know up from down, but from people who know the secrets of the Government backwards and forwards.

  But I most definitely didn’t want to be a Government Official. I felt like that would have too much power associated with it, and I would either go crazy with power or I would go crazy wanting more power. Plus, all of the Government Officials I have seen in my lifetime all act like the world revolves around them. And then they take care of the Domespeople that turn thirty… I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t ever…

  I look at the screen again and the two choices.

  Being in control of your own decisions. Of other people… Such a powerful thing.

  But I do like it.

  Being in control. Not necessarily over other people.

  I press yes, and the screen changes again.

  Then a thought crosses my mind.

  What if the Government thinks I’m rebellious for pressing yes? What could they do to me? Did I make a mistake? Did I fail the test?

  Suddenly, I want to take my answer back.

  4. HOW OLD ARE YOU?

  I type in the number seventeen, and press next again.

  The fifth and final question slides onto the screen. The whole screen goes black and the white letters stare back at me.

  5. HOW MANY STRIKES HAVE YOU HAD IN YOUR LIFETIME?

  A) 0

  B) 1

  C) 2

  D) 3 (OR MORE)

  I press the letter C, and the screen changes again, the words fading from view. In red, bold letters, PLEASE FIND A GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL NOW is printed onto the small tablet.

  I look back up at the woman, and I see her peering over the edge of the screen. It makes me uncomfortable and I suddenly want to chuck the little piece of technology across my house.

  “That would be me,” She says, lifting the device from my hands.

  “I thought you were a Safety?” I ask before I can stop myself.

  She chuckles. “Yeah, well, the Safety is a type of Government Official as well, so watch it so that you don’t offend them. The only difference is that they don’t get the advantages that some of us get.”

  She looks up and smiles at me. Her face begins to flicker as she looks back down at the device.

  “Like what?”

  She ignores the question, and focuses on the tablet. Both of them flicker again, and I try to stare at the ground and act like I didn’t see anything. Could this be one of the symptoms the women had talked about the day Nad and I eavesdropped on them? And if it is, then why is it one? What’s the point of it?

  “Looks like you'll find out,” She holds out the tablet to me, and I take it, reminding myself that she’s not answering the questions running through my head. “The percentages are listed beside the job titles, and they tell you how successful you will be at that job. Choose one.”

  I take the tablet back, and look at the screen.

  1. Government Official - 90% success

  2. Hunter - 89% success

  3. The Safety - 70% success

  I look at the options, confused.

  Government Official?

  My original choices that I had made those years before aren’t even there. Well… one of them isn’t. My third choice was always to be a Mechaneer… Why isn’t it showing up?

  “Why is that the first one? Why isn’t my current job on the list anymore? It was my third choice.”

  “That’s what the Computes matched you up with. They think you’d be better for those jobs than the ones you chose years ago. Also, with the option of being a Government Official, you have to be at least seventeen to officially become one.”

  “But I never wanted that job. Not back then, not now,” I snap, my annoyance growing.

  “There was an opening here,” Tanner says, watching me. “The woman reached thirty. Her funeral was yesterday.”

  I snort and look down at the tablet. “The Government sure moves on quick, doesn’t it?”

  “It’s just business,” The girl says sternly.

  “So they don’t care?” I ask, looking up at her through my eyelashes.

  “Of course they care,” The woman says, her voice raising. She starts flickering rapidly.

  “Watch it, Claire,” Tanner says quietly, leaning forward so she can hear him. “He has eyes everywhere.” He turns to me. “Why don’t you think about you
r choices—”

  “I want to be a hunter,” I say, but he keeps talking over me.

  “—while you’re getting ready to be paired with your future husband.”

  “I want to be a hunter,” I repeat, my voice low and threatening. I’m walking on a thin line here, but I feel like I need to. I’ve always wanted to be a hunter, and nothing would ever change that. It was something my dad and I did together, and it’s not an opportunity I would pass up on, especially if I get the chance to be one. Of course, I’d have to relearn everything. But I know I’d pick it right back up quicker than anyone else. I grew up hunting.

  “You might change your mind,” He smiles, his body flashing. I see sharp teeth for a moment... I think... “If you do, turn on the tablet and answer the question.”

  He hands me a smaller tablet about the size of my palm. It’s clear like a piece of glass.

  “I won’t,” I say, looking into his eyes and try to hand it back to him.

  “You might,” He says calmly. “It’ll work until your wedding day. That’s in about six months from now. It’s quite a long time. A lot of things can change, you know.”

  They walk toward the door and Tanner opens it, motioning for Claire to leave first. He turns to me and flickers again. Giving me one more smile, he walks out the door behind her.

  I watch as they walk away, both of them flashing sporadically. For just a second—for a split second as Tanner gets farther and farther away, I see a purple tail swaying back and forth and dragging behind him.