Testing Zero: a dystopian post-apocalyptic young adult novella series (Remnants of Zone Four Chronicles Book 1) (4 page)

Chapter 4

Zero kept the same pace as Lefty as they walked down the sidewalk toward their dorm building. He hoped Lefty would start speaking without having to pry it out of him—already knowing what was so heavy on his mind, but Lefty kept his eyes on his feet as they walked and it was clear he wasn’t going to say anything.

“Lefty, come on.” Zero finally asked. “You have a lot of great skills. Someone will see that. I’m sure you’ll get drafted by one of the great cities. ”

Lefty said nothing, just shaking his head.

Zero slapped him on the shoulder with the back of his hand. “Come on. Buck up.”

Lefty returned the smack, only much harder. “You don’t get it. You just don’t get it! Didn’t you hear what Cumulus said in there?”

“What don’t I get? I mean, sure, we have to babysit the new arrivals on our last night at school. So what? As far as I’m concerned, you put a crocodile in Flea’s desk and got away with it.”

“I
am
pretty proud of that.” A grin appeared on Lefty’s face for a brief moment, but quickly disappeared. “I meant the part about the placement tests tomorrow.”

This was something that had been on both of their minds—not just for the last few weeks, but for years. They had both steered around the topic anytime conversation came near it because it was already uncomfortable. This newly revealed information about using those who failed to get drafted as lab rats made the conversation much worse.

“I’m really going to miss you,” Lefty said.

Zero stopped dead in his tracks. Lefty was starting to wax sentimental, and that was far out of his norm. Lefty also stopped walking after a few more steps, and then turned around to face his friend.

“Don’t worry, Lefty,” Zero said. “I’ll help you study. You’ll do just fine.”

“Studying isn’t the problem. I try to concentrate. I try to focus. I just can’t get through a written test. Every letter of every word jumbles up in my brain. It takes me forever just to decode what the sentence is even asking—not to mention the fact that I never know the answer once I do finally read the question.” He grabbed a fistful of his own hair with both hands and made as if he was going to pull it all out. “We have taken practice test after practice test and I only finish half the questions during the time limit—and half of those answers I just guessed on because I couldn’t figure out what the question was even asking. I can’t pass that test. I can’t even get through that test.”

“Maybe the test won’t even matter. You have a lot of other talents and abilities. I’m sure the drafters will take those things into account. Maybe your new job won’t be fun, but you’ll be good at whatever it is. Besides, does it really matter what we do for jobs? I mean, we’ll still be able to do whatever we want after work. We won’t even have to worry about schoolwork anymore.”

Lefty looked at him in disbelief, shaking his head. “See? You don’t get it at all. You’re somehow suffering from the delusion that you and I are going to get drafted by the same people.” He held two fingers up in front of Zero’s face. “The
two
of us are going to end up in
two
different cities.”

As far as he knew—as little as he knew about how the system actually worked—it would mostly be left up to chance, but maybe their test scores could swing chance a little more in their favor. “If we score about the same on the exam, we’ll probably be sent to the same place.”

Lefty’s lips tightened, and he punched Zero square in the chest. It wasn’t a soft or joking type of punch, either. He meant it. “Don’t you dare fail the exam on purpose.”

“I didn’t say I was going to do that.” Zero rubbed the sore spot in the center of his chest.

“No, but I know you’ve thought about it.”

Zero stood flatfooted and thought about life without Lefty. Yeah, he was annoying and pigheaded, but they had done everything together ever since they were little. It didn’t seem right to part ways just as life was starting to get interesting—when they were finally going to learn what life was like out there in the real world.

“Zero, you’re not failing that test,” Lefty said. “You’re going to get a good score, and you’re going to move on to become one of the Elites class. You’re a shoo-in to finish top of our year and get the most amazing career out there. You’re not going to end up like me.”

“And what’s wrong with ending up like you? I wish I were more like you. You’re clever, and you’re not afraid of anything.”

“Look, Zero, we both know I’m not going to pass that test. If I’m lucky, I’ll end up in the sweat shops with the rest of the dummies. I’m scared to think …” Lefty paused. His squeezed his eyes shut and pursed his lips as he thought about what Cumulus had said. When he spoke again, his words were slow and deliberate. “For the first time in my life I’m scared. I’m really scared.”

“I think he was just trying to scare you.”

“Somehow I don’t think so.” Lefty shook his head. “You and your big brain are destined for greatness with all the Elites, but I won’t be there with you. Can you picture me next to you at some snooty dinner party?”

Zero laughed. “No… no, I can’t.”

“See? We
are
different, and we’d be fools to think this could last forever.”

They stared at each other for a minute. Zero was the first to look away.

“Promise me,” Lefty said.

“Promise what?”

“Swear to me that you won’t fail the exam on purpose.”

Zero said nothing.

Lefty punched him in the chest again, even harder than before, knocking Zero to the sidewalk.

“Zero, if you fail that test, I will never talk to you again. Not even if we get sent to the same city. Got it?”

Zero still said nothing.

“Got it?” Lefty pointed a finger in Zero’s face. “You’re not going to throw your life away and become a lab rat like me just because I can’t get through a test.”

“Fine … I promise.”

There was nothing left to be said. Even though they knew they should make their way back to class, neither felt like going—they didn’t even have to discuss it. Besides, Professor Bird probably expected them to be expelled anyway. He wouldn’t be expecting them back.

They walked again in silence. Lefty kicked a rock along the path, hopping from one foot to the other. Just outside the front steps of their dorm building, Lefty bent down and picked up two zompopos, both of them about an inch long. He sat down on the step and shook the two giant ants in his hands as if he were shaking a pair of dice, and then he tossed them onto the concrete platform in front of the door. He watched them roll around as they fought.

After five minutes of fighting, which seemed likely to end in a stalemate between the two zompopos, one finally bit a leg off the other.

“And we have a winner!” Lefty said, prying them apart and lifting up the ant that was now missing a leg.

“Why do you always call the one with a leg missing the winner?”

“Because I’m a winner, and I don’t have all my body parts.” Lefty grinned, holding up his right hand. An expression of sudden understanding flashed across his face and he jumped up, almost knocking Zero over. “Of course! That’s it!”

“Of course what? What’s going on?”

“You don’t have to fail the test to be at the same loser level as me. I just need to qualify to become part of the Elite class.”

Zero scanned the area, making sure no one was around to hear them. “You know of a way to cheat on the test?”

“No! It won’t matter how I do on the written test.” Lefty turned to face him, his eyes bright with excitement.

Zero couldn’t help but feel some of the excitement too, even though he still had no idea what Lefty was talking about.

“I’ll become a front-line scout,” Lefty said.

“Um, I think I misheard you. What?”

“Hear me out. They spend all day learning how to fight. When they’re not training, they’re out there in the world, scouting out places to colonize—fighting Remnants of the old world and all that dangerous stuff. Doesn’t that sound awesome? I just have to be physically and mentally tough. That’s easy.” His smile was large now.

Zero’s heart sank again. He really had his hopes up for a split second there, but this just wasn’t a possibility. He did his best to keep a smile on his face, though.

“It’s perfect. They’ll test me tomorrow on my physical strength, athleticism, and sheer grit. I may not be the most athletic or strong, but nobody can compare to my level of grit. There’s no way they’ll turn me down. I’m made for confronting danger. The written test will be irrelevant.”

“Except for one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“The way people try out is to fight inside a cage.”

“Yeah. What’s your point?”

“You have to win two fights. If by a miracle you win against one of your peers, do you really think you can beat whatever opponent they assign you?” Zero couldn’t figure out how someone could be so keenly aware of his mental shortcomings while being completely clueless about his physical ones. Replacing one lost-cause test with another would never solve his problem. It could, he thought, knock a few more screws loose in his head, making it even harder for him to pass the written test. “My point is that you never win any of your fights.”

“So what? It’s not like I have to beat everyone who has ever knocked me down. I only have to win one.”

“You mean two. You have to win two fights, and we don’t even know what that second fight is.”

“What do you mean we don’t know what that second fight is? A fight is a fight.”

“Somehow I don’t think so. If you’re going to be a front line scout, you’ll have to be the best of the best. I bet that second fight is something wild—something completely out of the ordinary. Something that would qualify you for facing the dangers of the old world. Maybe you have to wrestle a jaguar or something.” Zero realized the stupidity of his comment as soon as he said it. That sort of thing would never intimidate Lefty.

“Maybe it’s a crocodile.” Lefty grinned. “I’m not scared of wrestling any animals. That’s what I do for fun. You know that.”

“Maybe so, but you still have to beat one of your peers, and you’re the smallest guy in our year.”

“So I’ll just have to fight the second smallest.”

“You mean Flea?”

Lefty nodded.

“And what if he doesn’t want to fight you?”

“Oh, he will.” Lefty turned and began walking in the direction of Flea’s dorm room. “He’d love to get his hands on me—now that I’m not holding a crocodile.”

Chapter 5

Zero sat in the hallway with his back against the wall and watched Lefty pace back and forth in front of Flea’s dorm room. He wasn’t anywhere near as confident as Lefty was in his plan. If he were to stand any chance at all in the fighting cage, he should have dedicated some time in the gym over the last few months learning some new fighting techniques with all the muscleheads.

They heard someone approaching from around the corner, and by the sound of the uneven footsteps Zero correctly assumed it was Flea limping down the hall. When Zero saw a smile form on Lefty’s lips, he knew he was contemplating how to use Flea’s hurt foot against him in the cage.

“Are you guys lost?” Flea asked in a dull voice, as if bored.

“Hey, what happened to your foot, Flea?” Lefty couldn’t resist. He stood blocking the door.

“Move.”

“Or what? You gonna kick me?”

“I may have a hurt foot, but I can still make you move.”

“I don’t know about that. Zero, do you think he’s up to it? I’m not so sure he can get around on that foot, being all torn to pieces like it is.”

Flea smirked. “That might be the case if it had been a real fight. But with you …”

“Is that so?”

Flea rolled his eyes. “Move.”

“All right. All right. We’ll get out of your way.” Lefty stepped aside, but just as Flea reached for his doorknob, Lefty stepped back in front of him.

Flea glared, saying nothing.

“I’ve got a proposition for you,” Lefty said. “Tomorrow we leave the school grounds for the placement tests.”

“And you want to have dinner together and hold hands. Is that it? I’m not interested.”

“You wish.” Lefty chuckled. “For those who choose to sign up, I hear they have some awesome cages set up for fighting. How about if you and I throw down together? Just you and me.”

“It’s tempting. I wouldn’t mind one last thrill.” Flea appeared to consider his options. “If I do this, I won’t hold back.”

Lefty clapped his hands together. “It’s settled then. I’ll meet you at signups tomorrow afternoon.” Lefty gave Zero a smug wink. Zero in turn wore the usual worried look on his face.

“I didn’t say I’m in,” Flea said. “I said I’d think about it. Why the sudden interest in stepping in the cage? Why not right here, right now?”

“Because I want to prove to everyone that you’re not as tough as you think you are. I want everyone to see you fall—that you’re nothing but a big bag of wind.”

Flea watched him for a moment but then brushed him aside. “I’ll think about it.”

“Step forward during signups tomorrow—if you’re man enough.”

After Flea went inside, Zero sighed as if he’d been holding his breath through the whole conversation. “Do you think he’ll show?”

“Yeah. If not, I’m going after him. There will be Elites all over at the testing place. He’s going to fight me in front of them either way, even if I have to pick a fight with him during the written test.”

***

Zero and Lefty waited by the front gates until the buses came with the new arrivals. As they poured out of the buses, some of them looked to be scared out of their minds, while others were excited. All of them were oblivious to the fact that this would be the only place they would know for the next fifteen years.

Zero was relieved when it was announced that the new arrivals would be split up into six different rooms, but once they had separated into groups and went to their assigned room, Zero felt even more crowded than he had outside by the buses. It had been a long time since he had spent any time in one of the toy rooms, which occupied the entire fourth floor of building six. He was surprised at how small the room felt now. He remembered it being so much bigger years ago when he used to sit alone in the corner stacking building blocks.

The kids started out with what he assumed was their highest level of energy, but he was wrong. The more time passed, the more hyper the children became.

“It’s because they’re starting to get really tired,” Professor Bird said.

“That doesn’t even make sense. When people get tired, they slow down,” Lefty said.

“Not when they’re this age.”

The concept seemed ludicrous, but Professor Bird was right. The more tired the kids were, the wilder they became.

The room was so busy Zero felt like he was standing in a beehive. He needed some air, so he walked to the window and pulled it open.

Now that it was dark, thousands of students filled the sidewalks and grassy areas between the buildings below him. Dance music poured out of the building that was normally used as a cafeteria, but which tonight was party central.

Cheers came from the doorway of dorm building seven nearby, and he looked to see five boys come busting outside with their arms full of as many toilet paper rolls as they could carry.

“Someone successfully got into the supply closet,” Zero chuckled.

In no time at all, dozens of toilet paper rolls were being tossed high in the air over the crowd, leaving tails of white as they flew. The sound of the bass drum pounding from the speakers in the cafeteria, the feeling of so many little ones constantly pulling on his clothes and screaming—it was all just too much for him.

“Is this really what life is about?” Lefty asked, apparently feeling the same level of anxiety.

“I sure hope not,” Zero said.

“Tonight is the biggest party of the year. It looks fun and all, but if I had my choice for ‘one last hurrah,’ it definitely wouldn’t be this.”

“What would it be, then? A crocodile wrestling party?” Professor Bird leaned over to peek out the window at the sea of teenagers below.

Zero looked at Professor Bird in surprise. Jokes were not typically his style, but it seemed like the party was rubbing off on him, even if he was stuck up here with the new arrivals.

“Maybe,” Lefty grinned, and then thought about it for a moment. “In fact, more than maybe. If I were to have one last hurrah, I think I’d spend it doing the one thing I regret not doing. I never did swim across the river.”

“River? You call that swamp a river?” Professor Bird chuckled.

“It’s wet, isn’t it?” Lefty smiled. “My idea of fun would be to jump the fence, swim across the river, and climb the outer wall. I’d love to sit on top of that wall for hours just to watch the old world from above.”

“The old world isn’t that great, really,” Professor Bird said.

Zero’s eyebrows raised. “Really? You’ve been out there in the old world?”

“Well, not really. I’ve heard stories. Some interesting. Some not.” A roll of toilet paper hit the window next to his head, making him flinch. He laughed. “Although, I’m really intrigued by the concept of snow.”

“Snow?” Lefty shrugged his shoulders.

“Yeah.” Professor Bird leaned out the window, looked up at the clouds, and then pulled his head back in. “Snow is frozen water that comes down from the clouds when it’s really cold.”

Lefty belly-laughed so loudly that half of the little kids in the room turned to look at him. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. If ice fell from the sky, it would kill us all. If the weather outside got so cold that it would freeze the clouds, everybody’s blood inside their body would freeze solid.” Lefty shook his head and looked at Zero, who had no response. “Seriously. Where do you hear this stuff?”

Professor Bird shrugged his shoulders.

“Professor,” Lefty’s face turned serious. “Have you ever seen the place where these kids come from? Where all of us come from?”

“No. I’ve only left the schoolyard twice since I came here as a little boy. One time was to go take my placement test, which I aced, but then they brought me right back here to teach. The other time was when I got really sick and had to be taken to one of the Elite hospitals.” He lifted his shirt and traced his finger along a scar before tucking his shirt back in. “It was my appendix. They took it out.”

“I remember the place we lived before we came here,” Zero said.

Lefty looked really confused. “How could you? You came here the same day I did.”

“I remember. Not a lot, but I remember a little.”

“Like what?”

“I remember how traumatic it was for me when I had to leave. Not so much that I had to go, but I remember there was this little stuffed elephant that I used to carry everywhere. I think I named it Elephant Baby, if I remember right. Anyway, I remember feeling traumatized when they took it away from me. They took it from me right before putting me on the bus to come here and I cried the whole rest of the drive. The memory of looking out the window and seeing that little elephant in someone else’s hands as the bus pulled away is still burned in my brain.” Zero chuckled at the thought. “I remember a few other little things, but that’s the main thing I remember.”

“How come you’ve never told me that before?” Lefty’s jaw was wide open now. “You remember life outside the schoolyard.”

“It’s not like I remember
life
outside the schoolyard. I just remember a few bits here and there. Little memories. Nothing big or important.”

Lefty turned his back to the window and looked across the room at all the small children. “Someday I’m going to see the place where all the little kids come from—even if I have to jump the city wall and trudge through the jungle to find it.”

“Sure you will,” Professor Bird laughed. “You’ll get killed or eaten by something long before you get there.”

“Oh, I’ll do it. I will.” Lefty snatched the nearest little boy running past him and held him up to look at him before lowering him again to the floor and allowing him to continue on his way. “How am I supposed to ever really feel like I know who I am if I don’t know where I come from? I want to hold a baby person in my arms—to look into his eyes. I bet they’re even cooler than holding a baby crocodile.”