All Light Will Fall (4 page)

“Okay,” I said.

Ellis turned and opened the door. A chilly draft escaped
into the apartment. “Get ready,” he told me. “Things will never be the same.”

I nodded. Ellis smiled then closed the door and left. He
didn’t need to warn me of the things to come. I already knew that something was
lost and something else had been found. Whatever change that was destined to
come was already on its way.

When Mother returned, I tried acting like my usual self. I
watched her prepare dinner, mesmerized by the grace of her hands as they
worked. She rinsed off a few red potatoes, then peeled and chopped them into
slices.

“Ellis came by today?” Mother asked.

I bit my lip to keep from lying. “For a bit,” I told her.

She said nothing for a while. She was still upset about my
almost arrest, and knowing Ellis had just stopped by did nothing to ease her
troubled heart. She was giving me the silent treatment again. It was
nerve-wracking. I would much rather face the heat of her wrath than have her
say nothing at all.

“Do you ever think of him?” I asked.

The cutting ceased for a second then resumed with a bitter
tempo. “Corrine, honey,” Mother said. “How old are you now?”

I gave her an odd look as she knew exactly how old I was.
“Seventeen.”

Mother slid the potatoes into an iron skillet while turning
to look at me. “Then you know not to ever mention him in this house.”

I was taken aback—utterly stunned by her words. Years after
my father had left, I never once asked why he had deserted us. All these years,
I have waited for her sorrow to die out, but it seemed the contempt she had for
my father still raged on.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

Mother raised her brow but seemed content with my apology. I
was relieved. That old wound of hers would always be a wound. It was past
healing, and I regretted ever reminding her of its pain.

“I don’t want to have to do it,” she said suddenly.

“Do what?”

“Keep you from seeing Ellis.”

I knew it was coming. After all, it was all she could do.
But she was too late. Ellis may have started it, but I was already hooked.
There was no going back, not for me. “You don’t have to do that, mom. We won’t
get into any more trouble.”

Mother’s gaze was piercing, and I couldn’t fathom a force
powerful enough to sever it. It nearly scared me. “I hope to God you wouldn’t
lie to me like this, Corrine. I hope to God you wouldn’t.”

I shook at her words. If she were ever to discover the
truth, I wouldn’t ask for forgiveness. I wouldn’t beg for mercy either.
Whatever happened, I would suffer without a word. “I wouldn’t lie,” I promised.
“I know how much this worries you.”

Mother smiled and kissed my forehead. “Go tell your sister
dinner’s ready.”

I turned from her with a pain in my heart. The lie, it hurt
more than I ever thought. I carried it the entire night and all through the
following day. It was an echo in my mind, a beat in my chest. I nearly drove
myself mad. I could hear it in my voice, in my bedroom walls, especially in my
sleep. I couldn’t hide because the lie and I were one. I needed it. I needed to
protect it so that I could one day learn the truth.

“Corrine, I’m ready,” Fern called.

I rushed into the living room and sat on the floor between
her legs. “I want it in a French braid with the fishtail at the end,” I told
her.

“I like that look on you,” Fern said, brushing my hair. “Do
you want the curls to hang on the side like last time?”

I nodded. I loved it when she’d braid my hair, especially
when she sang.

“Oh, I was watching the reports today. It was really
interesting. They were talking about using halos for cerebral adaptation.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means it can stimulate the inactive areas of our brains
to make us smarter.”

I leaned my head back as she began braiding. “Is that so?” I
uttered.

“I really want to see it happen. It would be so neat,
wouldn’t it?”

Fern’s voice was like sugar, sweet and cheerful. “No, it
wouldn’t,” I said.

“What? Why not?” she gasped.

“Because ... knowledge is a dangerous thing. People steal
for it, kill for it. It makes us arrogant and greedy and violent. It makes
people think that they’re above the law. And for some people, it makes them
think they’re above God.”

Fern’s fingers froze in my hair. “Corrine,” she mumbled. Her
voice trembled, like it was about to break. “Why are you talking like that?”

“Talking like what?” I turned a little, trying to face her.

“Like them, those people on the other side.”

“You mean like a Defiant,” I hissed. “Quit censoring
yourself, Fern. It’s getting on my nerves. If there’s something on your mind,
just say it. Save me the agony of having to read between the lines all the
time.”

Fern’s fingers trembled. I had expected her to act passive
as usual, but instead she took the brush in her hand and began ripping it
through my hair. “Fine,” she grumbled. “I won’t beat around the bush anymore.
I’ll just ask. Why can’t I ever go with you and Ellis?”

I gripped my head as she practically beat me with the
hairbrush. “Because.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“I told you already.”

“So! It isn’t fair,” Fern grumbled.

“Do you want me to strangle you?”

The brushing stopped all of a sudden. My head was on fire.
“No. Fine then,” she sighed.

I rolled my eyes.

“I swear you can be so mean sometimes.”

“I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?” Fern pet my head to ease the
pain.

“No,” I growled. “And where’s mom? I haven’t seen her all
day.”

“Praying.”

“Praying,” I whispered.

Mother prayed a lot. She made Fern and I pray too. I
wondered why she still did it. Religion had died long before the Trinity Wars.
The world had turned to chaos. There was drought, cannibalism. Men murdered
children. Friend slaughtered foe. Religion couldn’t save us. The Nazar, he told
us to turn away from religion and look to him. He promised to lead us into a
golden age. We would never starve, and we would never falter. We would be
perfection.

Mother was wary of those words. It was blasphemy, she said.
So while the world honored him, Fern and I simply watched. I was never troubled
by it. Unlike most, I believed in the faith of the spirit. But I never relied
on it in my troubles either. I suppose I was a bit bitter towards that faith.
Mother often spoke of God’s mercy, but what was mercy when all of the earth was
cursed from the beginning?

“Alright. All done,” Fern cheered.

I ran my fingers over the braid. “Thanks.”

“Sure,” Fern yawned. “I’m going to bed now. You should too.
We have studies tomorrow.”

As much as I hated studies, I feared that one day they would
not exist. Every year ARTIKA created a system or some highly advanced product
that replaced the natural order of things. If cerebral adaptation was
perfected, ARTIKA would completely alter the human design. There would be
living without breathing, learning without thinking. There would be no more
curiosity, no more individuality, no more human error.

When the city lights faded, I snuck out to meet Ellis. The
night watch was heavy, so we were more than careful on our way to Norris Tower.
The tower was a three hundred foot high barrier surrounding all of Helix City.
From the top of the wall, a dome of halos warped over the city. The energy
field maintained all life beneath it. Nature wasn’t nature at all. Rain, wind,
snow, thunder; it was all synthetic and manipulated by ARTIKA’S MW’S, or
miracle workers. I never thought much about it before, but Ellis was right.
Helio Tellus was full of lies.

We were deep in the Z-Zone when we spotted a line of
transporter trucks entering Norris Tower. Ellis found this odd, and it was.
After the first terrorist attack on Helix City, the Nazar outlawed all export
beyond Norris Tower. “What do you think they’re shipping off?” I asked.

The convoy stopped all of a sudden. “I don’t think they’re
exporting anything. I think they’re importing something,” Ellis said. It was
difficult to see, but several armed guards exited the trucks, each of them
shouting orders at each other. They seemed to be in a hurry.

“Importing what?” I wondered.

“I don’t know. We need to get closer,” Ellis whispered, then
he took off. I almost yelled after him. Was he trying to get himself killed?
Trespassers caught in the Z-Zone weren’t arrested. They were shot on sight.

I jumped up from my hiding place and raced after him. We
huddled behind one of the unmanned trucks, hidden by the fog. I could hear the
men quite clearly now.

“Let’s get a move on. The shipment needs to be in on time.”
It was a woman’s voice.

“Of course. We wouldn’t want a repeat of last time.”

“What happened last time?” someone asked.

“Some of the recruits woke up during transport. They had to
be put down,” the woman answered.

“So a few of your subjects were killed. What’s so bad about
it?”

“The resources available to us are very little. ARTIKA
cannot afford to be wasteful. Therefore, I trust you will take good care of
these recruits. If not, you can do us the honor of becoming one of them
yourself.”

“Corrine.” Ellis gripped me by the arm, making me flinch.
His voice was heavy. He sounded scared almost. “We need to go... now.”

Ellis pulled me from the truck. We ran a few paces until an
armed squad crossed our path. Ellis backed me behind a tall energy capsule.
There were hundreds of them in the Z-Zone. It was where ARTIKA reserved the
halos energy. Halos was too unstable for interior storage. In its raw state, it
had to be kept in the open air far from civilization.

“Corrine, we have to go one at a time to cross. Otherwise
we’ll be seen,” Ellis whispered. He gripped my hand before letting go. “I’ll go
first,” he said. He waited several seconds then darted to the next capsule. The
fog had thickened and its darkness seemed to swallow him. When he disappeared,
I suddenly remembered. This was dangerous. Ellis and I had found a dangerous
piece of knowledge. Now we were awake, wide awake.

I took a breath to calm myself. It didn’t help. I had
finally understood it. The mysterious
they
were suddenly not so
mysterious. Neither was the truth. aritka owned it all. ARTIKA was behind it
all. Everything was theirs. Theirs to control. Theirs to destroy. Theirs to
kill. I was the same. Made, marked, and manipulated by the mother system, by
ARTIKA.

There was no more waiting. I had to move. Gathering the
courage, I ran into the open. The air seemed hot all of a sudden and my throat
was pounding. I felt my chest go numb and my legs shake. This was fear, and I
had seen so little of fear, so little I hardly knew it at all, even after my
father left. As long as I was an Ardent of Helio Tellus, there was never any
reason for it. But things had changed. I had changed.

Out of nowhere, there was fire in my shoulder. I cried out
and hit the ground. From the fog, several shadows appeared and surrounded me. I
gripped my wound, catching blood in my hand. Someone had shot me. “Look what we
have here. It’s just as I thought. Once a criminal, always a criminal.”

I paled. That voice was familiar. The shadows moved in the
fog until I could see them clearly. As I feared, the sergeant from the night on
Marx’s Avenue stood above me. He flashed a light in my eyes once again and
smirked. “It looks like we’ll have to go through this all over again. Get her
up gentleman,” he sighed.

The guards were not gentle, yanking me to a stand despite my
wound. I gritted my teeth to keep from screaming. “You’re a tough one,” the
sergeant teased. He took a step forward, caressing my chin like before. “Now
where’s that smart mouthed boyfriend of yours?”

I said nothing. He wouldn’t get a word from me. The sergeant
grinned. “We’ll catch him soon enough I suppose. It’s a shame for him to
abandon such a pretty face.”

“Do I need to start issuing death sentences for people to
pick up the pace around here?” A woman stormed onto the scene, shoving through
the circle of guards. She was the same woman whose voice I heard before. She
paused upon seeing me then glared back up at the sergeant. “What is this?” she
hissed.

“We’ve got a trespasser. Don’t worry, we’ll escort her to
lockup immediately,” the sergeant said.

“No,” the woman ordered. She stared at me for a long time
then said, “throw her in with the others.”

My throat tightened. What did she mean by that? “But she’s
wounded. Not only that, she’s an Ardent,” an officer spoke.

“She is no longer one of us, I’m afraid,” the woman replied.

“What do you mean? How can you tell?”

The woman turned to walk away. “Because,” she said, “there’s
fear in her eyes.”