Savage Run

Chapter 7

Part 2

 

Survival

 

Chapter 7

The moment we step off the aircraft, I climb into one of four oversized transporters, making sure I don't get into the same one as Johnny. It's a quick drive to the gated facility where we are to spend the night. A long row of Unifers stands at attention outside the walls, gripping their firearms, and they all carry the same hateful expression, like everyone around them is an enemy, a suspect to ward off.

We drive in through shiny steel gates with a "V" on one gate and a "V" on the other. Am I entering another prison? Another world in which President Volkov can control me? What will really happen if I survive this program? Ruth said that trusting him is like digging your grave with three sticks of dynamite. What did she really mean by that?

Passing through the middle of two long rows of Unifers, I see a huge banner above:

Those who trade in essential freedom for fleeting security deserve neither freedom nor security. Welcome, Savages!

We drive by a few office buildings, and a cafeteria. My stomach rumbles—I haven't eaten since this morning and I feel weak. Will they be providing us with food? The transporter stops in front of a huge roundabout. The place is already crawling with participants and their representatives. Busses zoom past us, their exteriors plastered with red, yellow and white saber-toothed tiger heads. Being here feels all wrong because Gemma should have been here with me. The plan was that we make it together. Now who will I have at the end of all this? Who will be there if I succeed? Ruth is still alive, unless Master Douglas has gotten to her, too. My chest tightens. A Laborer can never be safe. Never. Even if she's alive and I do make it, then she'll want nothing to do with me when she discovers that I killed her Gemma. She'll be able to read in my eyes that I made the choice to run. To abandon her daughter. And if she can't, then I won't be able to stop myself from telling her. I rub my hands over my eyes to make it look like I'm trying to force the sleepiness out of them—not stop the tears that are threatening to come. I can't start to cry now. They'd all have yet another reason to think I'm a weakling and a Laborer who should never be a Master. Who doesn't deserve to be a Master. Quick, focus on something else. Anything!

When I open my eyes, I see that I'm alone in the transporter. This helps me to redirect my thoughts. I climb out of the vehicle, counting the steps on my way out to keep my mind off of Gemma.

Once outside, we stand in a group and wait for Mai and Nicholas to exit their transporter. To keep my mind busy, I scan Volkov Village and let each detail soak in. But what catches my eye isn't inside the village, it's right outside of it. Beyond the fence is a large, blue and green glass structure with a bar, a band, and a dance floor inside. I've biked by dance clubs in Culmination many times, my eyes lingering on couples entwined as one. I've often wondered what it feels like to be in love, as the Masters call it. Just once, I would like to feel that magic, as they call it. Once before I die. I always knew that it was never for me. Laborers are required to accept the mate their Master chooses for them.

Standing here so close to the rest of the participants, it's glaringly obvious how much smaller I am than them. The shortest guy besides Arthor stands a whole head taller and must have at least seventy-five pounds on me. And it's not just that. They have this aura of confidence—fearlessness—that a Laborer never would have. Advisors are taught that they're important, almost as important as the Masters, and it's drilled into them from the time they're born. They're not the scum of the earth like Laborers, but free individuals who can own businesses and create the lives they desire. Just the way their eyes don't lower to the floor when spoken to—that alone sets them miles apart from us. And they know it. Many Advisors I have come in contact with are worse than the Masters—more arrogant, more proud. I have a theory about it. I think deep down inside their souls they know they're not completely free, and it eats away at them. They fight hard to keep up the façade, proving to the world how much they matter. Well, at least I'm fast, and I have developed pretty good endurance riding around the mountains and hillsides of Culmination all these years. At least I have that.