The CITs peered at me.
"Who"s that?" Marco asked. He was shaking water from his s.h.a.ggy black hair. His shoulders didn"t rival Evan"s, but they dwarfed mine.
"Owen, from the Hyenas," said Lilly.
"What are you doing here?" Evan asked me. It looked like he was scowling.
"He"s one of us," said Lilly.
"One of us?" said the other girl. "He"s only been here, like, a minute."
Lilly gathered her hair and squeezed water from it. "Yeah, well, duh, Aliah. He"s got "em." She tapped at her neck.
"That kid?" asked Aliah skeptically. She was smacking on a piece of gum, her face a fine art piece with dark flicking lashes, a little silver nose stud, and tiny eyebrow ring all accenting smooth brown skin. She looked me over. I figured I knew the verdict. But then she just shrugged and said, "Okay."
"Wow," Marco added. He was studying me like I was something foreign, but interesting, at least for the moment.
"You lied yesterday, didn"t you?" asked Evan, peering at Lilly. "You told the doctor he was only down on the bottom for, like, three minutes."
Lilly started bouncing in the center of the trampoline. "Yep. It was eleven, actually," she said with a smile. She glanced back at me and added, "But I had my eye on him."
I felt a little surge at hearing that, She had her eye on me... She had her eye on me... but tried not to give away that I was thinking about it. I had to seem cool, collected. but tried not to give away that I was thinking about it. I had to seem cool, collected.
Lilly meanwhile shot up into the air, her body long, painted silver by the MoonGlow, then twisted and knifed cleanly into the water.
I was still standing unevenly by the edge of the raft. "You guys all have..."
"The gills." Aliah made a motion toward her neck, fluttering her fingers playfully. "Cool, huh? We"re a new race."
Marco was still peering at me, an eyebrow wrinkled. "But none of us got them until our second or third year year here. How did you get them in, like, two days?" here. How did you get them in, like, two days?"
"I don"t know," I said. "But what... I mean, why-"
Lilly shot out of the water behind me, landing on the raft and making it buck. I staggered, but managed not to fall. "Relax, Owen," she said, and threw a wet arm around me. I felt her skin against my shoulder, the hairs of her forearm briefly against my ear. I tried to stay still, to play it cool. I glanced at Evan. He was watching this. Lilly went on, "We"ll explain everything."
"Everything we know know, anyway," said Aliah.
"Right," said Lilly. "But here"s all you need to know tonight. Number one, you"re going to be fine."
The trampoline rocked, causing Lilly"s hip to lean against mine. Fine... right.
"Now that the gills have set, you can use both them and your lungs without a problem," Marco added.
"Okay," I said.
"Number two," said Lilly, "you"ve got gills because of this place this place." She swept her hand to indicate the lake, the dome.
I wanted to stay quiet, to just be cool with everything, but questions popped out anyway. "What does that mean?"
"Like we even know," muttered Aliah.
"We do know a little," Lilly snapped. "There"s something about this place that"s caused this reaction in us. Caused us to change, but we don"t know what. And number three, you can"t tell any of them them what"s happened to you." what"s happened to you."
"Who, you mean, like, the adults?"
"Especially Paul," said Marco.
As Marco was saying this, Evan got up and started bouncing. He flipped into the air and dove into the black with barely a splash.
"But he knows about my wounds," I admitted.
"Yeah," said Lilly, "he knew we had the wounds too, when they started a couple years ago. There were five of us who got them first. The other was Anna. Her gills set the fastest, and when she showed them to Paul and Dr. Maria, they started doing all these tests on her-"
"Tests that made her sick," added Aliah, sounding bitter, "but the more sick she got, the more tests they wanted to do. They said it was to make her better, but she said it was like Paul was looking for something, trying to figure something out, but he wouldn"t tell her what...."
"And then she was gone," Lilly finished.
"What do you mean, gone?" I asked.
"Like one day she just didn"t come back to our cabin, and Paul told us that her condition had gotten worse and she"d been sent to the hospital over in the city for advanced care. And we haven"t seen her since."
"Can"t you ask someone to find out?" I asked. "Like, your parents or something?"
"Ha, parents," said Marco.
"What?" I asked.
Lilly"s face softened, like her eyes had increased a size. "None of us have parents. We"re all Cryos," she said. "Aren"t you?"
"No," I said. "I"m from Yellowstone Hub. I live with my dad."
"He"s the first non-Cryo to have the symptoms," Aliah said, looking seriously at the others.
"That we know of," said Evan.
"Anyway," said Lilly, "there"s n.o.body we can ask about Anna. I mean, we tried, but Eden runs Cryo House, just like they run camp. Just like they run the whole city."
"Mama and Papa EdenCorp," added Aliah.
"We"ve asked people about Anna: our house guardians, hospital directors. n.o.body ever knows anything," said Lilly. "b.a.s.t.a.r.ds," she muttered to herself. "She was my best friend."
I felt a little tremor of nerves inside me. "So, are you guys being tested, too?"
"Nah," said Aliah. "We never told Paul anything, but as long as we stay like this, he seems to just leave us alone."
"But he"s always got his eye on us," said Lilly. "We think he knows."
I thought about the surveillance insects, and the bats, and checked the sky above. "Probably," I said.
"Which means he"ll have his eye on you, too," said Aliah.
"Okay, but how did this even happen?" I asked.
The CITs glanced at one another.
"That," said Lilly, "is the big question. But don"t worry, O. The point is: just stick with us, and we"ll keep your secret."
What we were talking about was crazy and serious, but at the same time, I had just heard Lilly shorten my name. I tried to keep my expression calm, like the opposite of how that made me feel.
"Cool?" She looked at me expectantly.
I glanced around at the CITs and realized that maybe I had just been invited to join their club, their secret gill-breathing, raft-swimming society.
"Yeah," I said, and I tried to return Lilly"s gaze like I had at the dock, saying that yes, I could do this. Only this time, I maybe believed that I could.
"Good." She smiled.
"Can we stop with all the serious talk now, please?" said Marco. "Dawn is going to turn on in, like, two hours."
"Right." Lilly turned to Evan and Marco. "Boys, let"s give our newest member a slingshot."
"All right." Evan didn"t sound thrilled, but he stepped beside me, towering over me and smelling of some better form of sweat. Then he grabbed me under the arms. "Hang on." He sprang and hurled me straight up into the air.
I tensed, hoping I could keep my feet beneath me when I landed. Below, the other four fish dashed to the corners of the trampoline. "Ready!" Lilly called.
I hurtled down, and the moment I squished into the trampoline center, they all stomped down too. I sank deep, then shot up into the night.
"Nice!" shouted Marco.
I arced through s.p.a.ce, losing my balance, c.o.c.king sideways. As I plummeted toward the black water, I tried to straighten myself, but I slammed into it in a chin-first belly flop. I dunked deep underwater, my chest compressing, and hung there, for a moment not knowing which way was up or down. My face throbbed. So did my stomach. Then, without even really thinking about it, I made a gulping motion that sealed my throat, and my gills fluttered to life. I sucked in water and relaxed.
A hand closed around my wrist. I looked over, and there was Lilly, cast in moonlight and blue, hair snaking around her, a siren calling to me: "Come on."
She pulled me deeper, toward the cold depths. I heard tinny splashes, and soon the other CITs were around me, and we were plunging into the dark.
As we descended into the abyss, I glanced from one outlined figure to the next and wondered how this had happened. Sure, there had been each moment-I remembered those-but it seemed like there had to be something more at work, like a plan or even a G.o.d, that had orchestrated this: me, Owen, suddenly something new, a creature of the deep, of mysteries. And I felt like I wanted to be down here forever, in Lilly"s grasp, with these others who I almost dared to think of as my own.
PART II
[GAMMALINK CONNECTION LOADING... 100%-welcome back to the Alliance Free SignalCast-buffering-you want to know what EdenCorp is really up to, just look at the locations of the domes. They claimed that their placement was based on climate stability, but the proximity to ancient sites can"t be a coincidence. Then there"s the secretive EdenNorth complex. No one can confirm its location, but our sources say it"s on the coast of Greenland, and is rumored to be some kind of modern-day Area 51. It was the first one they built. So you have to ask yourself: What is Eden hiding up there? And does it connect to what we"ve heard coming out of Desenna, the former EdenSouth? Rumors of some kind of awakening, or calling, that"s only happening to certain rare people? They believe that it"s the G.o.ds returning, but what if it"s something else? Something ancient, like-connection fail]
Chapter 7
THE MOON PROJECTION SET OVER THE BLACK OUTLINE of the hills to the west, fading into the faint amber glow from the city. Camp Eden was located on a secluded inlet, hills to three sides and Mount Aasgard to the fourth. That distant hazy brightness was the only thing that indicated there was a city in here. of the hills to the west, fading into the faint amber glow from the city. Camp Eden was located on a secluded inlet, hills to three sides and Mount Aasgard to the fourth. That distant hazy brightness was the only thing that indicated there was a city in here.
As purple lights imitated predawn on the eastern curve of the dome, we emerged from the water, wading to sh.o.r.e like some kind of invading monster army.
Walking alongside the CITs, I considered that we looked like one of those groups, the kind I always saw from the outside, that seemed so exclusive, such a natural part of the universe, and you wondered how things like that formed, and why they didn"t happen to you, and you wanted, just once, to be in one, and to know know what that secret, sacred thing was that created such an impenetrable unit. Apparently, gills could do it. what that secret, sacred thing was that created such an impenetrable unit. Apparently, gills could do it.
I felt the disappointing grit of sand, the pressure of solid ground beneath my feet. Back on land. Dragged down by that persistent tugging of gravity, eliminating possibility, turning me from shark back to turtle. I felt my gills sealing up, tucking themselves away until... when? Could this happen again? Tonight? I was already hoping, but would they really want me back?
Distantly, the blowers cycled to life to warm the air. SimClouds began to form along the dome edges. Humidifiers created a hazy effect. I found that my body was staying damp, the moisture not just evaporating right off, like it would have back home in the dryness.
The CITs had thoughtfully brought towels.
"Here," said Lilly, handing me hers after my attempts to use my damp T-shirt only left me with sand streaks on my chest. Her lime-green towel smelled salty from sweat, and there was that strange metallic tinge of NoRad, and it was maybe a little dank too, from lots of uses between washes.
"Thanks."
Birds had begun to chirp and dart around. Off to the north of the beach, a raptor of some kind was circling over the Preserve, a section of forest set apart by nets that reached all the way to the roof. I wondered if the bird was real or a robot.
"Time for bed," said Aliah, starting up the beach. The CIT cabins were straight ahead, in the trees between here and the dining hall.
A clock hanging on the snack shack showed the time was four forty-five. Just over three hours until wake-up. I could already feel that I was going to be exhausted all day.
"See you later, Owen," said Marco.
"Yeah," I said, "Bye, guys." I picked up my sneakers and headed to the right.
There was mumbling behind me, then, "Owen, wait up."
I turned to see Lilly jogging after me, towel around her waist, her damp hair now chaotic. She walked beside me, brushing at the dark tangles with her hand. I could see the faint lines of her hidden gills, like little pencil streaks.
"How are you doing?" she asked.
"Fine, I think."
We left the beach and crossed the gra.s.s. The sprinklers were on, so we walked in S curves to avoid the spinning tentacles of spray. "Oooh, water, watch out," I said, trying to be funny. Then I flinched inside because what if Lilly didn"t think I was?
But she chuckled. "I know, right?" Then she was quiet.
The sky began to hint at blue. Color was seeping into the trees. A first ray of orange SafeSun lit the top of the flagpole to our left. We would be right back here, in a few hours, just like any other camp day. "It"s a lot to absorb," Lilly said quietly.
"I guess," I said. I figured she was right but I wasn"t really feeling that way. The gill stuff already felt normal, a part of me like my arms or feet. Okay, maybe not that familiar. But still, it wasn"t really on my mind, at least not as much as the fact that here I was, walking beside Lilly. Just a day ago she had seemed so mysterious, a member of another race of beings-which, it turned out, she was. But now so was I.