We start down the makeshift runway, building up speed.
The white and black uniforms on the ground grow smaller and smaller. We lift up. It’s not long before the buildings disappear, too, and then it’s all gone.
I can still hear the Pilot singing the Anthem of the Society.
I’m digging a grave for Vick. All day long, he talks to me. I know it means I’m crazy but I can’t help hearing him.
He talks to me while Eli and I pull spheres from the stream. Over and over Vick tells me his story about Laney, the girl he loved. I picture it in my mind—him falling in love with an Anomaly. Telling Laney how he felt. Watching the rainbow trout swim and going to speak with her parents. Standing up to celebrate a Contract. Smiling as he reached for her hand to claim happiness in spite of the Society. Coming back to find her gone.
Is that what’s going to happen to me when I finally go to look for Cassia?
Cassia’s changed me. I’m a better person now because of her, but it’s also going to be harder than ever to get to her.
Indie brings us higher.
Some people think the stars must look closer from up here.
They don’t.
When you’re up here, you realize how distant they really are—how impossible to reach.
CHAPTER 7
XANDER
Something’s happening. But, because the quarantine cells are soundproof, I can’t hear anything except the tired sounds of the Hundred Songs.
Through the walls of my cell, I see Officials and Officers staring at the miniports in their hands and the larger ports arranged throughout the Hall. For a few seconds, everyone looks frozen, listening to whatever is coming from their ports, and then some of the people move. One walks over to a quarantine cell and enters a keycode. The person inside the cell steps out and heads for the main doors of the Hall. Another Officer moves into his path, trying to intercept him before he escapes, but right then the doors to City Hall burst open. Figures in Rising black swarm inside.
The Rising has begun. The Pilot’s speaking and I can’t hear anything.
The Officer releases someone else from a cell. That person heads for the doors, too, and the Rising officers in black hold back others to let her pass. Some of the workers look bemused. Most of them put their hands up in the air in surrender when they see the Rising.
It’s got to be my turn soon.
Come on.
A Rising officer appears in front of my cell. “Xander Carrow,” he says. I nod. He holds up the miniport, checking my face against the Rising’s picture of me, and enters a code into the keypad on the cell. The door slides open and I’m out.
The Pilot’s voice comes out over the ports. “This rebellion,” he says, “is different. It will begin and end with saving your blood, not spilling it.”
I close my eyes for a second.
The Pilot’s voice sounds right.
This is the Pilot and this is the Rising.
I wish Cassia and I were together for the beginning.
I start for the door. All I have to do is leave City Hall and walk across the greenspace to the medical center. But then I stop. Official Lei is trapped inside her cell. No one has let her out.
She looks at me.
Is it a mistake that she’s still locked in her cell? I pause at the door for a second. But she shakes her head at me. No.
“Come on,” one of the officers says, pointing me toward the door. I’ve got to go. The Rising is happening now.
Outside, it’s chaos. The Rising has cleared the way from City Hall to the medical center, but they’re pushing back Officials, some of whom have decided to fight. An air ship screams overhead, but I’m not sure if it’s ours until I see it spray warning shots down into an empty spot near the barricade. People scream and step back.
The Rising has thoroughly infiltrated the Army throughout the years. It’s strongest in Camas, where most of the Army is stationed. Things should go smoothly here. It’s deeper in the Society where we might have some infighting. But with the Pilot the only one speaking from the ports, the rest of the people should follow soon.
Another fighter ship comes over, protecting a heavier-looking ship that drops down to land. When I get to the door of the medical center, it’s guarded by Rising officers. They must have already secured the inside. “Xander Carrow, physic,” I tell one of the officers. He glances at his miniport to check my data. Runners wearing black sprint from the landing field where the ship came down. They carry cases marked with medical insignia.
Is that what I think it is?
The cure.
The officer waves me inside. “Physics report to the office on the main floor,” he says.
Inside the medical center, I hear the Pilot’s voice again, coming from the ports all over the building. He’s singing the Anthem of the Society. What would that be like? I catch myself wondering. To hear the music in your head and then have it come out sounding right?
Two officers drag an Official past me. He’s weeping and holding his hand over his heart, his lips moving along to the Anthem. I feel sorry for him: I wish he knew that this wasn’t the end of the world. I can see how it would feel that way.
When I get to the office someone hands me a black uniform, and I change into it right there in the hall like the others are doing. I roll up the sleeves because it’s time to get to work, and I throw my white Official uniform down the nearest incineration tube. I’ll never wear it again.
“We separate the patients into groups of one hundred,” the head physic on duty tells me. He smiles. “As the Pilot said, some of the old systems from the Society will remain in place, for now.” He points to the rows of patients, whom the Rising personnel have been referring to as the still. “You’ll be in charge of making sure they get proper care and of overseeing the cure. Once they’ve recovered and moved on, we’ll move new patients to your area.”
The ports are silent. Right now they’re flashing pictures of the still in Central.
Central: where Cassia is. For the first time I feel a hint of worry. What if she didn’t join the rebellion and she’s watching this? What if she’s afraid?
I was so sure Official Lei was part of the Rising.
Could I be wrong about Cassia?
I’m not. She told me that day on the port. She couldn’t say the words outright, but I heard it in her voice. I know how to listen, and I could tell she made the jump.
“We’re waiting for more nurses and medics to come in,” the head physic says. “Are you comfortable giving the cure for now?”