The Extraction List (3 page)

Cain glanced at Jordyn. “You’re right.” He grabbed Bo by the shirtsleeve and patted him down hard. I think Cain just wanted an excuse to hit him. Jordyn came over to Mom and me and did the same pat-down, but much more gently. All three of us passed.

After our search, Jordyn threw Bo’s new clothes at him and showed us which beds were ours. I had to giggle when he folded his dress pants and shirt into a neat little pile. He had no reason to think he would ever need to wear his suit again. When he finished changing, he hopped in the bed that sat between Mom and Cain, which didn’t surprise me at all. The way he was looking at Cain, I definitely expected him to try to keep them as far away from each other as possible. He roughly threw the blanket over his head and was snoring within minutes.

Mom hid her eyes under her blanket, but she shook when she cried, so I could easily tell. She was practically silent, but her convulsions gave her away. I squeezed my eyes shut. The springs on the cot dug into my back and I missed my bed at home.

In our hurry, I had accidentally left my favorite stuffed animal on my bed: a frog that had a little bowtie. I felt way too old to need a stuffed animal to sleep, but I kept him hidden in the pillows on my bed anyway. My arms felt squished together with no plushy friend to keep them apart.

Somehow he must have known. I felt a breeze when something started to slide under my blanket with me. When I opened my eyes, there was a small brown stuffed bear lying next to me. I looked up to see Cain winking at me. Before I could thank him, he turned away. I squeezed that bear tight and slept straight through ‘til morning.

T
he day I lost Olivia started out the same as any other. But take your own average morning, tie it up, and squeeze it. Squeeze it so hard that it can’t breathe and the color leaves its cheeks. Then you’ll have an idea of what the start to our school day was like.

Our Washington, D.C. school administrators gave the search procedure a fancy name, something that didn’t sound like it meant each person had to take their clothes off as their ticket into the building. Violation was the price of admission, and all of us paid up five days a week. The name of the search procedure prettied up the fact that, if we wanted to get an education, each of us had to step into an all-black compartment at the front of the school and strip in front of a volunteer we barely knew.

I just called it The Box.

About fifteen minutes before class, Olivia found me in line for The Box in the section next to the gym and scooted in next to me. I leaned against the chain-link fence as we ignored the glares and yelling from the students behind us. I didn’t understand what they were getting so worked up about. It wasn’t like she was cutting in line at Disneyland after all. The Box would still be there waiting for them when they made it to the front.

“Riley, did you do your math homework yet?” Olivia asked. I automatically translated the question into, “Can I copy your math homework again?” and reached into my red plastic folder. I shoved it at her.

“Liv, really? Again?” Not that I minded, but I knew the habit wouldn’t help her pass the test at the end of the week.

She grasped my paper as if it carried a special secret, holding it carefully between her fingers. “Thanks, I owe you one.”

“You always say that.” I watched as she opened her own folder and scribbled away on a blank piece of paper. The puffiness I had hoped was gone for good had come back to Olivia’s cheeks, and a familiar pink tone took over the whites of her eyes. “Couldn’t sleep again?”

“No, I had…I had some stuff I had to take care of.” Her eyes trailed to the pavement under our feet.

“
Stuff,
huh? Sounds exciting.” I didn’t mean to scoff at her, but it just popped out.

She was never very good at lying to me.

She forced her cheeks into a smile, and they seemed to tremble with the effort. “No problem though. I’ll get some sleep tonight.” She stopped copying my homework long enough to put her arm around me. “I’m coming over this weekend still, right? Sleep over ‘til Monday morning?”

“Yeah, of course. Mom’s making her tacos. And she said if we get all our homework done on Friday she’d let us play outside on Saturday. We can stay out all afternoon since Bo’s coming over. Mom said they’ll sit on the porch and work on her next speech while we play catch.”

The rules were always just a little more bendable with Bo around. Ever since Mom and I met him that day after one of her speeches, he made regular appearances at our house. She may have called him her best friend, but I said he was her “not-boyfriend.” He always came over and cooked dinner for us; they would go to movies together; they did everything that people who date do. But whenever I dared to mention the obvious, Mom spilled out the denial. I was never sure if she was trying to convince me or herself, but I didn’t think it worked on either of us. But ever since my dad left, having Bo around made me feel a little less different, so whatever they were, it was alright by me.

Olivia tucked her silky dark brown hair behind her ear. “I’d like that.” The skirt of her olive green dress fluttered just a bit in the breeze. She was the only one at school who bothered to dress up anymore. Sure, all her clothes came from the second-, third-, or fourth-hand shops, but she made them look brand new. Some of the other girls snickered behind her back, but I told her she looked like a star from old Hollywood, especially standing next to me. Mom counted herself lucky if I managed to throw on jeans without any holes in them.

There were only a couple people between us and The Box by the time Olivia finished with my math problems. The compartment towered over us from the top of the stairs, and I avoided looking at it for as long as I could.

No matter how many times we had to go there, the nausea hit me once I finally had to glance down at that first step. But for her, I smiled. “Don’t worry! It’s Miss Lillian today. You like her. Just get her talking about her pies and the time will be done before you know it.” I squeezed her hand. Her skin felt cold and damp in my grasp.

“You’re right. I just…I just don’t like people, you know, looking at me.” Olivia folded her arms across her chest, as if the inspection had already started. “It makes me feel…it just sucks.”

Even though Olivia had cut in front of me, I volunteered to go first. The Box was about the size of two outhouses stuck together, just big enough for two people to get in. Though at first glance the walls seemed clean, smells of plastic and wet mold thickened the air. The walls were dark on the inside, and they told our parents on Meet Your Teacher Day that there was no way anyone could see us once we shut the door. I hoped they were telling the truth, but since people were okay with The Box existing at all, nothing would have shocked me.

“Hello, Miss Riley! How are you today?” Lillian’s voice sounded soothing. But the fact that she stood just inches away from me made me feel awkward anyway. Knowing that I was about to get naked didn’t help either.

“Good, ma’am, how are you?” I made small talk as I removed my clothes. Some of my classmates took the time to fold their shirts and pants, placing them in a cute little pile on the stool that sat behind the door. Not me. I threw them in the corner as soon as they left my body. No point to being in there any longer than I had to. I kept my arms straight out in front of me and did the usual four quarter-turns. Of course, I passed. No weapons.

• • •

After all the big businesses went overseas to escape government regulations, the economy crashed and everybody’s parents lost their jobs. They seemed to lose their children too. Not in the literal sense, of course, but when parents were all off trying to figure out some way to pay their bills, their kids had to try and figure out the whole
life
thing on their own. And without anybody to point them in the right direction, gangs seemed to be popping up all over the place. This may come as a shock, but gang leaders weren’t exactly dripping in moral authority. Someone picking on you? Take a knife to school. The school bully calling you names? Waving a gun around would shut him right up. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that this new trend would end up getting people hurt, or dead. One of those people happened to be my brother.

My mom decided she was going to make sure Aidan’s death meant something. She kept talking about how losing him would save the lives of other kids. So she wrote a bill with a set of rules for parents and made public speeches about them to rally support. Nobody was required to turn over a limb to the government if their kid got detention or anything like that. The rules were just things that most normal people would agree would help turn a bright and shiny child into a fully functioning adult. People even embraced the part where, once parents broke the rules, their kids would be put in a boarding school. The idea seemed to beat leaving children with parents who had checked out.

The list was pretty short, and thanks to Mom’s amazing public speaking skills, the government was putting the list on the books. Until then, we would still have to deal with The Box, but when the government was done setting up the systems they needed for enforcing the rules, kids were going to be cared for again and no one else was supposed to die.

If I had known how the whole thing was going to turn out, I would have taken my chances with my gun-happy schoolmates.

• • •

I threw my clothes back on, not caring that I put my t-shirt on backward. “Thank you, Miss Riley. You have a good day now!” I nodded and opened the door, letting the bright sun sting my eyes. I walked around the corner of The Box and saw Olivia about to go in. I smiled and gave her a wave as I parked myself against the brick wall of the school to wait for her.

After a couple minutes, I glanced down at my watch. Olivia’s inspection was taking longer than usual, and I knew there was no way she had a knife or a gun. I took two steps back toward The Box to knock when I heard it. “Please! It’s a present from my grandmother! Please don’t throw it out!”

Both Olivia and Miss Lillian emerged.

“I’m sorry, dear, but rules are rules. Nothing sharp. You remember what happened to that boy a few months back. He’s still in the hospital.” Lillian held a shiny metal chain between two of her fingertips. An Egyptian Ankh symbol sat at the end of it. “Those pointy ends could do some real damage.”

The sweat seemed to be running down Olivia’s face in rivers, but then I realized the little streams held tears as well. I pushed past her. “Please, Miss Lillian, can she just store it at the office and get it back at the end of the day? It’s the only thing she has from her grandma.”

Lillian paused. Finally, after looking around to see if anyone was watching us, she slipped the necklace into her own pocket. Leaning toward us, she whispered, “Meet me at the office after school, okay?” She winked, her kind eyes twinkling with mischief and sympathy.

“Thanks.” I smiled at Miss Lillian and gently guided Olivia inside.

The air conditioning system was broken in the entire school, meaning that when the sun baked outside, we became human cupcakes inside, swelling up and darkening with time. I started to take off my purple long-sleeved shirt, since I had a shirt on underneath. Then I remembered my t-shirt was on backward. I hoped no one would notice and took off the purple one anyway.

When school let out, I went straight to the office. Miss Lillian was there, but no Olivia. Lillian waited with me for a half an hour but needed to get back home to her own child, so she carefully slipped the necklace to me instead. I shoved it in my pocket and marched outside. We agreed that it was in both our interests to never speak of our secret exchange again. Lillian was glad to help us, but she was one of the lucky people who actually had a job, and she wanted to keep it that way.

I didn’t spot Olivia until I headed toward the parking lot. In the distance, to my surprise, I saw Olivia about to get into her father’s bright red car. He gazed past her when he saw me approaching, smiling an unnaturally white, pasty smile that gave me the shivers. “Hello there!” A chill went up my spine, but I pressed on. Olivia quickly sat in the passenger seat, gluing her hands in her lap, dress pressed perfectly over her knees.

“Hello, Mr. Cavanaugh,” I greeted him, keeping my eyes square on Olivia. “Liv, I have your necklace.”

“Oh good, thank you, I’ll talk to you later, ‘kay?” Her words came out in one long strand, all running together. After getting closer, I noticed her hands were in tight little fists. Her knuckles had turned as white as her father’s strangely translucent face, and purple veins peeked out through the skin. I remembered why, ever since we met in first grade, Olivia always came to my house and I never went to hers.

“What’s wrong, Liv?”

She glanced over at her father. “I just…gotta go.”

Her father laughed and slapped his bony knees. “Yeah, Olivia’s got a big job tonight. A couple of my friends are coming over.” He pinched her cheek hard, and a dark mark appeared where his fingers had been. “Hey, we could use one more. A pretty little redhead like yourself. Make some extra cash. Your mama must be havin’ trouble keepin’ her car too, right? I get to keep mine thanks to Olivia. Nothin’ bad, sweetheart. Just get to play a little dress-up and serve my friends some drinks. What do you say, little lady?”

The nausea returned, and the world started to spin along with my stomach. I ignored it and forced my eyes to steady themselves. From the menacing twinkle in his eye and the color draining from Olivia’s face, I knew in my gut that serving drinks wasn’t the only thing she’d be asked to do that night.

I tried to look at Olivia in the eyes, but she just stared down at her shiny black shoes. “Liv, get out of the car right now. I’m serious. We’ll tell my mom and she’ll make everything okay. I promise. Just get out of the car right now.” Tears itched to form in the corners of my eyes, but I blinked hard and ordered myself to stop before I started.

She looked up at me. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”

I reached through the window and pulled at her arm as hard as I could. “Yes you can! Please!”