Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
LARKE
The rebellion started just before sunset.
A few days ago, I stole two of the dozens of smartphones Totten kept in Operations, which they confiscated upon each person’s arrival.
I then left one for Tamra to find, take pictures, hook up to a printer—via the fourth cord we tried—and then safely return to me.
To cover my tracks, I doctored the logs so that all signs would point to Cynthia Greer should the plot be uncovered.
I had zero reservations about what I’d done.
Retaliation wasn’t supposed to be clean.
So, as I made my way home from a rare, uninterrupted day at work, flyers lined my walking path. Some were tacked onto the trees and benches. Others were affixed to the exterior walls of buildings, which were now purging Totten residents as they “clocked” out for the day.
Some people gasped at what they saw.
Others whispered.
A few grunted as if in disbelief.
One of those “few” was Emilio.
“Hey.” He tapped my shoulder. “Hey, look at this.”
I took the sheet of paper, having already practiced my fake look of shock with Dez the night before.
This particular flyer featured an image of the clinic area in the Sanitation building, where Ms. Tess did her best despite having limited medical resources.
On the back was a written explanation of the lottery that Sanitation had to enter to receive medication, and an unnamed list of those who’d died while awaiting treatment.
Emilio snorted. “Just when things were finally starting to get good, starting to feel normal, here comes some jackass trying to mess everything up.”
My head snapped up so hard that I gave myself a fleeting episode of vertigo.
“Hold on, you’re not upset about what it says?
Emilio, you’ve seen the records, so you see, firsthand, how few supplies are allocated toward healthcare for the women in ‘sanitation services.’ Plus, you don’t think it’s weird that it’s only women who work there? ”
“Larke, they get free housing, food…basically, free everything. What else would they need to spend money on?”
“It’s not free if it’s not being provided in the first place.”
He smacked the paper with his fingers. “And come on, girl. Don’t tell me you believe that something like this could be happening right under our noses and we don’t know about it.”
I frowned.
Of course, he wouldn’t believe it.
I only knew where to look, when to look, and who to look for because I’d lived in the shadows myself.
That day in Operations when I spotted Tamra, it was because we’d agreed to meet up for me to hand off the phone.
Yet, I was the only one who saw her. The scheduling ensured that Sanitation workers were witnessed by the general public as little as possible.
He tried to snatch the flyer.
I moved it out of his reach and, out of caution, scanned the periphery for Dez.
In a different life, Dez might have sat down with a therapist to better understand his “kill them if they fuck with my girl” internal wiring.
Once we were free of Totten’s claws, I wanted to spend some time learning about all that had made him into the man he was today.
To him, forever remained a possibility.
However, I didn’t want to hope for more, especially under these new circumstances. I was fine with us not placing a timeframe on how long the concept of us would last, whether it was ten more days or one hundred years.
I searched the ground, grabbed another flyer, and held it up. “What about this one?” I asked. “This looks like a log of their work hours. A real log. You’ve seen these, so you know this is legit. If this is when they work, when do they rest?”
Emilio turned away.
I lowered the sheet of paper and took him in as if I’d never seen him before.
I scanned his hair, the mahogany curls shorn at the sides but allowed to run wild on top.
Then there was his olive brown skin, his high-arched, expressive eyebrows, and his navy blue blazer and matching pants.
It didn’t matter how I turned my head, how I squinted; he looked like someone I’d expected to care.
“Emilio, regardless of what you think, it’s real. I was there. It’s where I was assigned when I first got here.”
He faced me again, his expression softening. “Was this you, then? Did you do this?”
I started to respond, but then I recalled Dez’s warning:
“Don’t tie yourself to this, Tapley. And it’s not because I don’t think you can handle it.
It’s because I know I can’t. My feelings for you aren’t complicated.
I love you. I’d do anything for you. Larke, you are the most important person in my life, and you risked your own life to try to save mine.
So, when it comes to protecting you, I’ll choose violence every single time. ”
“No, this wasn’t me,” I said. “Still, when I was there, I did wish more people knew what was going on.”
Emilio gently squeezed my shoulder. “But you got out, my love. And now, you live in Juniper, and you’re getting your back blown out, regularly, by a Class One who pays all your bills and,” he made a sweeping motion with both hands, “buys all your clothes. You’re wearing a designer maxi dress that I’m sure he made somebody bring back just for you from a supply run. ”
I tugged on the dress’s straps, suddenly self-conscious about all of my Dez-appointed concessions.
“I was lucky, Emilio.”
“Or it was fate. Divine intervention.”
“So the people who didn’t get out, they deserved to die? They were destined to suffer?”
“No, but—”
“Emilio, I almost died.”
His expression momentarily went sullen.
“I almost died,” I repeated, voice lower.
“My kidneys started shutting down because of strep. Something I could have knocked out with a round of antibiotics, but they weren’t available to me.
The only reason I’m standing here right now is because that same Class One walked across the entire complex, in the middle of the night, physically picked me up out of my bed, and carried me to Woodhaven, illegally, where their doctor treated me—again, illegally.
To save my life, someone had to love me that much.
He knew the consequences, and he didn’t care because he wasn’t about to let me die. ”
I knew Dez loved me, and I believed it with every fiber of my being. Yet, the depth of his actions didn’t resonate until just then.
Emilio took one of my hands and lightly passed his thumb over my knuckles.
“Look, I’m sorry, all right? I’m truly sorry that happened to you, and I’m glad you survived.
But have you met the new world we live in?
Death is right outside. Why go messing with the status quo?
This is a good life, Larke. It might not be a great one, but it’s better than the alternative. ”
“So we should stand on shoulders? You’re okay with that? What about graves? You’d be okay with that, too?”
“Humanity is dead, Larke!” He snatched the papers from my hand and tossed them to the ground.
“I lost people—friends, family. People I loved before I could say the word ‘love.’ Then, before I had a chance to process that shit, everything started shutting down, and I ran out of food. I didn’t know what was going to happen to me.
I told myself my best option was to kill myself before I starved to death, and then, I got a knock on my door.
I ended up here, where I eat regular meals and sleep on a soft mattress. ”
“But why can’t there be both?” I asked. “Why can’t it be that you get to have those things, and they do as well?”
“Don’t you think that’s what I want? But I don’t want to risk losing what I have to get it.”
Which would always be the problem.
It was why the hierarchical system worked so well; it was built on the concept of “bread and circuses.” People only needed to be fed and entertained to be prodded into giving up their actual freedoms.
It was Roman satire 101.
Emilio took my wrist and lightly squeezed.
“Look, let’s just go. And don’t let anyone else hear you talking like that.
They might think you did this, and I like you.
I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.
I know I give you a hard time, but I like the fact that you have your Class One blowing your back out on the regular. ”
We continued down the path.
For now, I would let the matter drop.
As we neared Eden’s Square, where we would separate because I refused to pass through it, a Class One stepped onto the grass with a megaphone near his mouth. People had gathered into a crowd, and I scanned every face I could, searching for any clues that my efforts wouldn’t be in vain.
“It’s all lies!” the Class One yelled. “And, it’s offensive.
Back when society functioned as it should, some of the most important people were our trash collectors, our janitors.
This,” he raised a flyer, “is prejudice. Just because Sanitation Services is the unit keeping Totten clean and beautiful, we’re being accused of abusing them?
Who made the people who created these flyers the judges of who’s important to society?
No one made it through The Fall unscathed, and we are doing an exceptional job here at Totten, aren’t we? ”
The crowd roared their agreement.
Someone yelled, “One flyer said they sleep four people to a room, at a minimum. Is that true?”
The Class One gestured in an arbitrary direction. “Some of our Class Fours share rooms. It’s just the way it is. As Totten grows, we’ll expand. We’re even negotiating trade deals with communities as far south as South Carolina. Sometimes, a bit of hardship is necessary in order to grow.”
Another person asked, “Is it true that they have to enter a lottery to get medicine?”