Jalen muttered something to himself and turned away. I wondered what was up with Leech, but soon my thoughts returned to Colleen, to the blood. It all played over and over in my mind. It seemed so weird that a little human could just drop dead like that-could stop being, right in the middle of everything.
Dr. Maria"s words played through my mind again: It"s okay, everyone.... No one needs to worry. It"s okay, everyone.... No one needs to worry.
And I realized that was weird too, because why would would we need to worry? It had been such a random thing, why would any of us ever think that it could happen to us? Unless... we need to worry? It had been such a random thing, why would any of us ever think that it could happen to us? Unless...
Unless she she thought it could. thought it could.
It"s because of this place, Lilly had said.
My fingers brushed at my neck, feeling the subtle indentations of what this place had already done to me. What else was it capable of?
Chapter 8
SOMEHOW, DESPITE THE DEATH ON OUR MINDS, we were expected to keep the camp spirit burning bright throughout another perfect day of friendly sunshine. I felt like there ought to be some more discussion about Colleen, some more worry, and I thought maybe I saw some on Todd"s face, but he just took us to the archery range over on the back side of the playing fields like everything was normal.
Ten round targets were lined up against the trees. A rope was laid out on the ground, indicating where we were supposed to stand. We walked over to a small wooden shed.
Evan emerged, a black guard strapped to his arm, a bow in his hand. "Hey," he said to us all.
"Evan"s here to give us some pointers on shooting," said Todd.
Evan looked over us all like he barely knew what we were, and barely cared. When his eyes swept past me, I nodded a little to him, but he didn"t seem to notice. I hoped that was because he didn"t want to reveal our secret connection, but I worried it was because he didn"t approve of me being part of that connection in the first place.
We all got bows and quivers of beat-up plastic arrows. Evan had a nicer set, a polished bow and wooden arrows with tricolor feathers on the back. He fired a few with lethal accuracy, spearing the yellow center of the target each time. "Like that," he said. "It"s all about the power when you draw the bow, and the discipline. You have to keep everything still."
He walked up and down the line giving advice, but right by me without a word. I got one arrow into the red target area, a couple into the blue, and the others ended up flying past the target or landing in the gra.s.s in front of it.
After archery, there was some court time playing tetherball, which I did a little better at, then lunch, where no one died, and then the awkward electives hour, when Beaker and I joined the Lemurs at Craft House (Beaker had also failed the swim test, though without drowning). We made leather bracelets, stamping in designs and then putting snaps on their ends. The little kids were doing basic shapes and nicknames and code words from their cabin. I stamped DAD DAD into mine, thinking maybe it would be a good gift for him. Not that he"d ever wear a bracelet. But still. I"d have to hide it though, "cause it was kind of childish to make a present for your dad. into mine, thinking maybe it would be a good gift for him. Not that he"d ever wear a bracelet. But still. I"d have to hide it though, "cause it was kind of childish to make a present for your dad.
"Check it out," said Beaker, who was right there across the table from me again, like we were connected by a magnet. He was holding out his own bracelet. Awkwardly s.p.a.ced letters spelled out AASGARD AASGARD. When I didn"t really react to it, he pointed up behind me. "Like that."
I turned to see an old wooden sign hanging in the rafters, CAMP AASGARD CAMP AASGARD whittled into it in big blocky letters that had once been painted bright red, but only a few chips of that color remained on the gray board. There was a date in the corner: 1993. whittled into it in big blocky letters that had once been painted bright red, but only a few chips of that color remained on the gray board. There was a date in the corner: 1993.
"I tried to do that cool logo, but it was hard," Beaker added.
I saw what he was talking about. To the right of the name was a symbol of triangles and concentric circles:
I wondered if it was Viking, or just something that kids a century ago had come up with. It could have meant anything. But it was kinda cool, so I grabbed a little paring knife and tried to reproduce it, too. It came out okay. When it was finished, I put the bracelet on. I wondered if it was a silly thing to wear but then decided I didn"t care.
When we were done, we walked down to the lake and had to wait while the rest of our cabin came in from sailing. Lilly was out on the main dock, watching free swim. If she saw me arrive, she didn"t show it.
Beaker and I walked over to the boathouse, beyond the swim area. It was an old red building with two docks sticking out from it. There were kayaks and rowboats tied up here, as well as the camp motorboat. Our cabin had the sailboats out. We sat at the end of a dock and watched them tacking back and forth, shooting ahead whenever they caught the wind. At one point, a boat capsized. They were close enough for us to hear the laughing from Mike and Noah, who"d done it on purpose. The other boats circled around until they were righted, then finally everyone heeded Todd"s calling from a nearby boat to come in. On the way back to our cabin, they all laughed and joked about their sailing adventures while Beaker and I walked a few paces behind.
Paul was at flagpole before dinner, and began by addressing us all. "I know everyone has been worried about what happened this morning," he said. He didn"t sound particularly worried. It was more like he was fulfilling a duty. "So I just wanted to let you all know that little Colleen from the Pandas is doing okay. We sent her over to the city medical facility, and the doctors there say she is recovering. She had a severe allergic reaction. Extremely rare. Naturally, we"re going over our food protocols and cross-referencing your files to be sure we have your safety first in our minds. But n.o.body needs to worry."
"Yeah, right," muttered Marco late that night as he bounded into the dark, flipping and slicing into the black lake.
I had just told them about Paul"s speech.
"He"s full of it," Aliah added. "It was probably those stupid syntheggs that got her."
"Dude, they"re better than real eggs. Did you ever have one, b-freeze?" said Evan. I"d learned by now that, among the CITs, b-freeze b-freeze meant before they"d all been Cryoed. meant before they"d all been Cryoed.
"I liked eggs," said Marco, hauling himself back onto the raft. "I heard they still have them, in Indo-Australia."
"That was the only chicken population that didn"t have to be slaughtered because of the strain-three avian flu," said Lilly. I was also learning that she was bursting with facts like these. "EdenWest claimed that their chickens were immune, but that was another lie. I heard they took them out a few kilometers from here and ga.s.sed and burned them."
"Come on!" Evan groaned.
"What were the real ones like?" I asked. "Eggs, I mean."
"Mushy," said Aliah with a frown, "you know, like eating any unfertilized embryonic tissue." And I"d learned that Aliah tended to have opinions like this.
"Ugh! What is with you and saying things like that all the time?" Marco moaned. "It"s gross."
"They were good with salt," Lilly added. "And with real pancakes-like, made of wheat, not that millet stuff."
"I thought that the Edens were supposed to have all the pre-Rise ingredients," I said. "I can get millet pancakes at home." We hadn"t seen wheat again since the first night, though there had still been some vegetables: tough string beans and some thick greens, and also some fruit, which apparently grew okay in the hydroponics towers over in the city.
"Yeah, they did, but not anymore "cause things are going to h.e.l.l," said Lilly. "And there"s a reason why all the fruit is peeled and cut up all nice. If you go back in the kitchen, you"ll see those things do not not look as good as you remember. It"s the increasing radiation, and I"ve heard it"s toxins in the water, too. And all that"s just the tip of the iceberg for this place. But back to the dead girl..." look as good as you remember. It"s the increasing radiation, and I"ve heard it"s toxins in the water, too. And all that"s just the tip of the iceberg for this place. But back to the dead girl..."
"Paul said she"s alive," I reminded them. The CITs just looked at me. "What? You don"t think she is?"
"Doesn"t matter if she is or not," said Aliah. "You saw her. She didn"t look like she was going to "recover." And why believe that that when everything else Paul says is so ridiculous?" when everything else Paul says is so ridiculous?"
"Well, yeah." I agreed that it seemed crazy that Camp Eden had been so careless with us, first with my drowning, then Colleen"s allergies, but it still seemed kind of hard to believe that Paul and the camp were actually behind these things, or even making making them happen. them happen.
We were sitting around the edge of the trampoline, legs extended toward the middle, like spokes of a wheel. Little waves slapped against the thick rubber of the raft, making hollow, smacking sounds. Lilly sat to my left, then Evan, and around to Marco, then Aliah. The breeze had been turned up tonight, making the hairs on my arms and legs stand up among fields of goose b.u.mps. The CITs were all wearing rash-guard long-sleeve tops, looking like a team of high-tech warriors, and I felt like the rookie. Lilly"s was all black with thin white seams.
Going to bed hours ago with the rest of my cabin, after another chapter of Pym Pym from Todd, I had wondered how I"d wake up, but then I just did, my gills burning softly, gently nudging me out of sleep. from Todd, I had wondered how I"d wake up, but then I just did, my gills burning softly, gently nudging me out of sleep. Time for care and feeding of your new parts Time for care and feeding of your new parts, the new technician pleasantly reminded me.
This time, as I"d sneaked out of the cabin, I left one of my socks wedged in the door to keep it from latching. Walking down to the lake, I"d been nervous. Sure, Lilly had invited me back, but would the rest of the group really want me there? Then, when I arrived they were already out there and Lilly was like, "Hey, O!" and my name was still a single syllable and now here I was, among them again, one of them, the nocturnal sea monster clan.
"Besides," said Lilly, "Colleen wasn"t the first, just the first that happened in public."
"Other kids have died?" I asked.
"Three or four over the last couple summers," Marco reported. "We"d just heard the secondhand stories, though. A boy that didn"t wake up one morning-"
"Or probably ever," Aliah added.
"Right," Marco went on, getting up and starting to bounce in the center of the raft. "But Paul said that kid got better over at the city hospital." He vaulted out into the water, sending a big splash back over us.
"Uh," Aliah groaned.
"Then there was that girl who attacked her cabin with a tennis racket," said Lilly. "She went completely insane."
"The kid who jumped off the Aasgard cliffs, too," said Aliah.
"Wow," I said.
"We don"t know that any of those kids actually died," said Evan. It was the first time he"d spoken in a while. I noticed he was staring into the center of the raft, a scowl on his face.
"And we don"t know that they didn"t," said Lilly, sounding annoyed with him. "But we know what we saw saw today." today."
"I think that girl Colleen was from Cryo House," said Aliah. "Can"t be sure, though-all those little sprouts look the same."
"It would make sense," said Lilly, "if it"s connected to what"s happened to us. Colleen"s body was probably too young to deal with the changes."
"Maybe they gave her a stronger dose," said Marco, pulling himself back onto the raft then intentionally shaking his hair right by Aliah, spraying her with droplets.
She spun to her knees. "Knock it off, b.u.t.t blister!" She shoved him, but Marco grabbed her wrist and they both tumbled into the water in a tangle of appendages. They didn"t emerge right away.
"Dorks," said Lilly, as if such flirting was beneath her. I wondered how one went about flirting with her. I"d have to watch carefully. She was so pretty, but the more I hung around her, it didn"t seem like being pretty had anything to do with who she was. Instead, it was more like that beautiful exterior just happened to be there, and she was all about her big ideas.
"Stronger dose?" I asked.
"Yeah, makes sense, right?" said Lilly. "Paul and his minions have got to be dosing us all, like, with a drug or something, that"s mucking with our genes. You know, causing mutations."
Evan sighed. "That"s so carbon-dated. n.o.body"s been doing research like that for fifty years."
"Shut up," Lilly snapped at him. "You remember all that stuff with the cloning in Asia, don"t you?" Lilly"s voice was rising, picking up speed. "How about the pigs with human arms and legs and organs?"
"Sure, b-freeze, when there were universities and people with time on their hands and money to waste on stupid stuff like that," said Evan, "but that"s all gone. Young Owen here probably doesn"t even know what the h.e.l.l you"re talking about."
I didn"t. I also didn"t like being referred to as "young." Evan was another king, like Leech, making sure I knew he was above me. "Pigs?" I asked. "With human limbs?"
"Mice with human ears growing out of their backs," said Lilly, "and that was only the stuff that people knew knew about." She turned back to Evan. "Remember those stories about that guy, I forget what he was CEO of, who made, like, six clones of his favorite girlfriend and all that?" about." She turned back to Evan. "Remember those stories about that guy, I forget what he was CEO of, who made, like, six clones of his favorite girlfriend and all that?"
"Oh yeah, didn"t the clones gang up and kill him, then, themselves?" said Marco.
"I think so," said Lilly. "And there was the whole thing with people storing DNA to make copies of their pets. You think that science is gone? It"s not like there"s n.o.body n.o.body with money anymore. Look around: Who would have the money to run experiments like that?" with money anymore. Look around: Who would have the money to run experiments like that?"
"Here we go," said Evan, standing up and shrugging his soccer-ball shoulders against the cool breeze. "Welcome to Dr. Lilly Ishani"s Big Theory Spectacular." He stepped to the center of the trampoline and started bouncing, gaining height.
"Screw you," said Lilly.
"Maybe later," Evan scoffed, and flew through the air.
As he disappeared into the water, Lilly turned to me. I was busy wondering: Had they screwed? Or dated? Was that what had just been revealed? But I had to focus, because I was the only one left to listen to Lilly"s ideas. And I think I was starting to understand that what she wanted, maybe more than meaty shoulders, was to spin her ideas and have someone listen and get it.
"What"s your big theory?" I asked her.
"Well..." Lilly looked away and started picking at a fingernail with the thumb and index finger of her other hand, like this was important stuff and she wanted to say it just right. "So, here we are, right," she began, "in EdenWest. Outside, things are a mess, and eventually, this dome is going to fail. And all the other Edens are in the same boat."
"Except for EdenSouth," I added. "That place got destroyed by the Heliad-7 cult."
"Yeah," said Lilly. "Have you guys heard much about Desenna?" she asked with interest.
"Not really," I said.
"Oh," said Lilly, sounding disappointed. "Well, anyway, each dome has a couple hundred thousand people inside. So, ask yourself this: What"s going to happen when the domes fail? Where are all those people going to go?"
"But I heard yesterday that the dome is at, like, eighty-six-percent safe or something," I said. "Well, but then we also saw that panel catch on fire."
"Exactly. And that whole dome integrity business is a complete lie," said Lilly. "They fudge those numbers. We"ve heard it"s more like seventy-five percent, at best."
"Not we we," said Evan, dragging himself out of the water. "You heard that from the Nomad Alliance. How do you know any of what they say is reliable?" heard that from the Nomad Alliance. How do you know any of what they say is reliable?"
Lilly glared at Evan.
"You"ve talked to the Nomads?" I asked. I"d seen Nomads now and then. Sometimes a pod of them would come to Hub for emergency care, or to trade some valuable item they"d dug up out in the wastelands, but mostly they kept out of sight. "How?"
"They broadcast on the gamma link," said Lilly. "It"s called the Alliance Free SignalCast, and"-she narrowed her eyes at Evan-"informed people should get the other side of the story sometimes. This little bubble here isn"t the entire universe." people should get the other side of the story sometimes. This little bubble here isn"t the entire universe."
"It"s all a lie. Those people just want to get in here," said Evan.
"Actually, that"s where you"re woefully incorrect, professor professor," said Lilly. "The Nomads don"t want in anymore. They know this place is halfway to being a microwave oven, and how would you you know, anyway?" know, anyway?"
"Whatever," said Evan. He started bouncing again.
"You just don"t want to face facts," said Lilly. "You want to mess around like this really is just good ol" summer camp, like it"s, well, Eden."
"Hey, that"s what they promised me." Evan bounded higher, and there was an edge to his voice now, like he was really getting mad. "This is what my family wanted wanted, why they ice-cubed me and stuck me in here. So I could have a better life than those sorry b.a.s.t.a.r.ds out there. We"re lucky to be here. So what"s wrong with enjoying ourselves?"
Lilly slapped at her neck. "What about these, you idiot?"
"As far as I"m concerned? Just another bonus of the good life."
"You"re just afraid," said Lilly. "You just don"t want to worry."
"Or," Evan was nearly shouting now, "maybe instead of sitting around every night talking about everything that stinks, I"d just like to enjoy life for five minutes!" He shot into the sky and dove back into the water.
"Tell that to Anna, you a.s.s," Lilly muttered after him.
I thought about saying something to show that I agreed with her, that this was serious. And also that I thought Evan was wrong, but Evan was already fired up, and I didn"t need him overhearing me and turning his anger in my direction. I needed to get back to Lilly"s story. "Okay," I said, "so, the dome is failing, and you think EdenCorp is doing... what?"