Divided

Chapter Four

❝ love is everything;
it's worth fighting for,
worth being brave for,
worth risking everything for ❞

— ✵ —

[ JAYDEN ]

"Embers, I'm open!"

It takes me a moment to find where the voice came from. The whole court is a blur; people are swarming around me, blocking me from seeing who it is I need to pass to.

I fake a pass to my teammate on my left, giving me a split second where no one is in between the ball in my hands and the player I need to get the ball to. I feel my arms moving, my fingertips releasing the ball at the last second. My teammate receives it and sends it flying into the net.

Wiping the sweat off my forehead, I take a moment to take a deep breath. Everything has been slower lately; my reflexes, my reaction time. Everything I need to be a good basketball player.

"What was that, Embers?" Blake shouts, shoving his way through the court to get to me. I swallow nervously—my encounters with Blake never end well. "You're getting slower. Like, scary slow. One of the people in the freakin' correctional facility could have passed that faster than you."

"Blake, man, I'm sorry—"

"Get your shit together, or you're off the team." His eyes are hard, cold; quite intimidating. I can almost feel them burning a hole in my head.

Tilting my head to the side, I ask, "Can you... Do you have the power to do that?"

Without an answer, he turns around and walks away. I release the breath I didn't know I was holding. Well, that went better than expected.

His words remind me: today's the day of the Institute's yearly visit to the correctional facility. I think it's safe to say that today is my least favorite day of the year. The day where I have to face my biggest fears, and also the source of most of my anger and discontent with the world. The day where I have to see the Crazies, as Harper called them.

"Practice's over," the coach shouts, blowing his whistle. "Get outta here, all of you. You have a big day today. We'll practice again tomorrow."

I follow the line of people out of the gym. An announcement comes on from above, telling us to meet in the cafeteria at noon, from where we'll be escorted to the correctional facility in groups.

Once I get back to my room, I shower, dress, and attempt to make myself appear half presentable. Though I don't stop thinking about Harper for a single moment the whole morning, I make sure no one can tell there's anything occupying my mind besides the visit. I thoroughly comb my hair, brush my teeth, and check my outfit multiple times. Nothing can be out of place.

Before long, there's only half an hour until we have to gather. I can feel my heart rate raising by the minute. I don't know anyone who's been thrown in the dungeons, as my friends and I like to call them. And though I don't have any personal connections to any of the kids down there, I still feel a pang of guilt every time I look at one of them. Like I should be there with them. Like I'm next. And for all I know, I could be. One wrong move, and I am one of them.

— ✵ —

My biology teacher says humans behave like pack animals. Once we've bonded to certain people, we stay with them. We become attached. Like wolves, he had said. We behave like wolves. And that's why our population is divided in half; so we don't get attached. So we're not able to become attached in the first place. And I guess it works. In most cases, that is.