Dark World: The Surface Girl (4 page)

              “Only if you absolutely promise me that you'll be back well before your escort arrives.” I nodded firmly.
              “You know I will. I honestly think my mother would have a heart attack if I were late.” Willow managed to crack a small smile, but I was being utterly serious and I knew she knew that.
              I swung my legs over the side of my bed and hopped to my feet. I winced when I saw the 'flower' on my dresser; a hairpiece designed to look like a rose that was made out of tissues and some dye that my mom made for me to wear tonight when I met Connor. I pressed my arms to the side of my body to resist picking it up because I wanted to wear it now instead. I wanted Reese to see me wearing it. I would much rather his eyes gaze upon me looking my best than Connor's.

              I turned away from my dresser, and my mirror. There was no longer any reason to look at myself. “Lets go,” I said calmly but firmly as I turned to Willow. She rose and we headed toward my barrack door. I paused and glanced at my parents in the living room. They were both on our couch, sitting as still as statues just like the day the flatfoots took Grandpa Logan away. But why? “Mom? Dad?” I addressed them apprehensively. “I left something in the school lab and I need it for homework due on Monday. Can I walk there with Willow to pick it up?” My tone was fearful. I knew I didn't sound convincing. Mom slowly turned her head toward me and blinked a few times, forcing her chin downward in a curt nod. She hadn't been paying attention to my tone, thankfully. Her mind was definitely somewhere else.

              “Sure honey, but come right back. Your father and I have a present for you and then I want to help you get ready for your big night.” Because obviously I needed yet another reminder of the dread I felt about tonight. I tried not to let my annoyance show.
              “Mom, are you okay?” Mom rested her hand over Dad's. I shifted my eyes toward my father and noticed his work shirt was torn. “Dad, what happened?” Immediately my dad came back to life, turning toward me and moving his hand away from my mom's to rub at his fire-red beard.

              “What? Oh – yes, I'm fine Ruby. Just coming down with a slight cold. If I'm still achey in the morning I'll see the GP.” He covered his mouth and nose as he sneezed. He didn't seem to realize I had been asking about his shirt.
              Still, Dad's oncoming cold explained my mother's distant attitude. Mom always got especially frightened if Dad or I got sick. Getting sick didn't happen often for anyone. The Complex was pretty sterile and very few viruses circulated, but nasopharyngitis was highly contagious even though not lethal and sometimes even careful procedures couldn’t stop its occasional spread inside of a division. When a case was confirmed, everyone in the division in which it was diagnosed was given mandatory medication as a preemptive strike and the virus usually waned within one to two weeks. The first person to be diagnosed was usually interrogated because the government always wanted to know exactly where and how a virus originated. Honestly, I suspected that more often than not the government probably released the occasional virus on purpose to study how it spread but that wasn't something I ever dared voice out loud. The government did much worse things to focus on in my opinion, such as putting people like Grandpa Logan to sleep and forcing us to accept a mate and to breed whether we wanted to or not.
              “Okay, feel better Dad, I'll be back soon!” I grabbed Willow's arm and dragged her to our door, hustling out of it and shutting it firmly behind us. I exhaled with relief. “Okay, free and clear.” Willow's face was etched with apprehension lines, vastly different than my happy grin. “Will, I promise I'll be back soon. I'm just gonna go see what Reese wants. I'm not gonna stay long and worry my mom and I promise I'll be ready to go when my escort gets here. Okay?” I was not the kind of person who broke promises and I knew Willow was aware of that. She seemed to relax a bit.

              “Okay.” She threw her arms around me in a desperate hug as if this was the last time she would be able to hug me, and then abruptly let go, turned around, and walked away. I sighed. She was being silly. This was definitely not goodbye.

              I began walking down the hallway, ignoring the squeaky sound my sneakers made on the polished floor. I walked past a mother and child, Tina and her daughter Zion, and kept going until I reached the end of the hall. I turned to the right as if I were headed toward the labs and there he was; Reese, standing tall but still, like the way Grandpa Logan used to describe a giant tree that shaded a meadow he liked to play in as a young boy. I paused in my forward motion and tried to force the blush that threatened to spread across my cheeks to retreat back the way it came, but unsurprisingly it refused to dissolve. I would just have to hope that it wasn't very noticeable.

              As I got closer to Reese, he shifted his weight from foot to foot. His jaw muscles clenched.              
Something's wrong.

             
My heart skipped a beat and began an erratic, rapid climb up the speed ladder. Reese grabbed my arm and pulled me close to the wall as if leaning against it would make whatever he was going through easier to bear. He leaned to the side to look behind me, then twisted his neck to glance over his shoulder before resting his eyes on my face. I usually loved his eyes, warm like chocolate, deep like a canyon. Today though, they were piercing and I had never seen him look at me that way before. His glare was...accusing.

              “Ruby,” Reese began at almost a whisper. “I need you to come with me.” He slipped his hand under my elbow and lead me further down the hall. I assumed we were going to turn left but he paused at an old, sealed off door. “Are we alone?” I blinked a few times, even more intimidated by the tone than the accusing nature of his eyes.

              “Willow didn't follow us, if thats what you're asking..” the blush was nearly gone from my cheeks now. I stiffened, feeling defensive without even knowing what I was being accused of. Reese rose to the balls of his feet to look over my shoulder again, then glanced behind himself. He was acting
paranoid
. My comfort level declined by the second. I rubbed my throat and couldn’t help but glance around at nothing, too. Then Reese did something that I have never done – never even
thought
of doing – he reached for the handle on the sealed off door. My breath caught in my throat. The yellow ribbon across it signified the entry to an old passageway that has since been closed down. When The Complex was first built, it contained passageways so that people could travel freely between divisions. When the government decided to limit our freedom even more, those original passageways were sealed off and   a tram system was created in their place. Only authorized personnel could use the tram and only for pre-approved travel reasons, like distributing and transporting basic supplies or personal, pre-authorized individual travel such as my
“date” with Connor in his division tonight. An officially assigned government escort would take me from my barracks to the tram, travel with me to my date, and then escort me back again when it was over.
              “Reese, NO!” I squealed on impulse, subconsciously channeling my mom's inability to control her fear. Reese yanked on the handle and threw his shoulder against the door. Miraculously, it submitted to his weight and budged. He yanked my arm and forced me behind the door. He let go of my arm and immediately brought a finger to his lips telling me to hush. Overwhelmed with Reese's unexpected behavior, I became the statue I had seen my parents embody and I obeyed. He pushed on the door to close it again and its rusty hinges groaned in protest. I bit down on my lower lip, hard.
              The passageway smelled and I wrinkled my nose. I recognized the scent but only vaguely. It was reminiscent of when we got to hold dirt and soil in science class. Only, the scent in here was moist, like dirt and clay combined. “I have a confession to make,” Reese spoke. Before this, I would have been terrified, hopeful, and all over the place anticipating the slight possibility he had feelings for me but now my mind was somewhere else entirely. “I've been exploring these passageways for a while now. I do it when I get bored, or when I feel claustrophobic and cooped up.” Half of me was terrified for him and what he was doing but the other half was furious. My palms shot forward and pressed against his chest, literally shoving him up against the wall. I hadn't done this in years since we quit wrestling each other, but this was not a playful gesture. It was a shove of fury.
              “We've known each other almost our whole lives, and you've been doing this
without
me? You KNOW how much I wish I could escape this place!” Reese threw up his hands in a cease-fire motion but I wasn't finished. “How could you be so
selfish
? Don't you care about me AT ALL?” I stopped and suddenly froze. “...They'll know we're here! They're probably listening to this right now and we're gonna get caught and put to sleep-”
              “Ruby, no,” Reese was shaking his head. “They're not monitoring us.” My heart was racing, threatening to jump right out of my chest and run away from me on invisible, panicked little legs.
              “How – how do you know?” My voice was shaking. It was as if my mom was secretly inside of my body taking over my reactions. This wasn't me...

              “These passages were built in the beginning,
before
everything was monitored. They were abandoned only ten years A-I and I don't think they started bugging The Complex until at least five years after that. I've been walking these passageways for a while now and no one has come for me.” Well, he
did
have a point. I let my hands fall from his chest but my body still trembled. I took a deep breath and pulled my shoulders back.

              “So... you thought a good birthday gift for me would be to show me these tunnels only hours before I have to meet my future husband? Do you know badly I want to just – just run away -” I curled my arms under my chest and tried to force my betraying eyes from blurring with salty liquid but the dreaded tears began running down my cheeks anyway. This was too much. This was overwhelming. I didn’t know what to do. And then I felt them; strong, muscular arms curling around my shoulders and drawing me closer. My chin bumped against Reese's shoulder and my chest rested against his. His body was warm. My heart pounded against his shirt. I fit perfectly against him like a shoe or a glove. My heart responded immediately to the comfort and its rapid beating began to slow. But - this was wrong. I was letting Reese comfort me when I shouldn't be comforted. I squeezed my eyes shut.
              “I'm sorry Ruby, but that isn't why I brought you here.”

              Oh.

             
Of course not.
             
I immediately felt like an absolute fool. Reese didn't bring me down here to touch me, comfort me or confess that he wanted me for himself. This was real life; a trapped, pointless life and not a story or a fable. I squirmed out of his embrace and turned around to wipe the tears from my face. Maybe I needed this. Maybe this was a good thing. Maybe I had to be angry at Reese in order to get through tonight. “No, thats not what I meant -” I could literally hear him running his fingers through his hair with frustration even though I could barely see him in the dark. I knew him well enough to know his movements. I wished I didn't. “I brought you down here because theres something – someone – you need to meet.”

             
...Huh?

             
I wiped my remaining tears and turned toward Reese in pure confusion. What the heck was he talking about? I could hear him fumbling in his shirt and suddenly a pocket-light illuminated the darkness. I stepped away from the tiny beam. I didn't want Reese to see my face right now. “Come with me,” he requested and reached for my hand again. I almost impulsively pulled it away but I managed to stop myself and not visibly react. I followed him in silence, choosing instead to focus on the unfamiliar feeling the dirt floor had on the soles of my shoes. I had never walked on uneven ground before and I felt a bit wobbly. It was a strange and foreign sensation to have solid ground under parts of my feet and uneven ground under other parts. I walked slower. After a few minutes Reese abruptly stopped. A sudden scratching noise made me jump a bit and I moved closer to his side. “It's okay,” he spoke assuringly and crouched down. My eyes followed where he was aiming the light beam and I gasped.
There was something there!
It shifted. I covered my mouth with my hand to prevent myself from screaming. Reese moved the beam again.

              The moving thing was a person. A child. “It's okay,” Reese spoke again and I realized he was not speaking to me. He was speaking to the child. “The friend I was going to bring, this is her. This is Ruby.” The child's eyes widened and she clutched her knees with her little fingers. Her impossibly blonde hair was extremely long, endlessly matted together in tangles and extra dirty as if she hadn't used bathing powder in weeks. A strange, unpleasant smell waifed off of her. I tried not to be incredibly rude and wrinkle my nose in distaste. She was wearing, well, I couldn't tell what it was. It was some kind of suit that covered her entire body, but it was very puffy, as if filled with stuffing. It definitely didn't resemble any kind of division uniform I had ever seen. The odd, unrecognizable one-piece garment seemed just as filthy as the rest of her. Reese reached into his pocket again and pulled out something wrapped in a napkin. He held it toward the girl. For about five seconds she didn't move, but then her dirty hands shot forward, grabbed the napkin out of Reese's grasp and pulled it back possessively toward her chest. I bit my lip and carefully crouched down next to Reese so she could see me a bit better in what little light there was.