The Deathless Trilogy

2.2. Transformation

I feel like I've been blown apart all over again and struggle to steady my breathing. "Daniel's holding me down here?"

"He's one of the Leaders here. How do you know him?"

"He's my...." What is he? My boyfriend? My fiance? My captor? I don't know anymore, so I stick to the most innocuous term: "friend."

She takes my hand. "I'm very sorry, Isla," she says, "but I'm not sure he's your friend any more. We need to go to the salon."

"Jane, please," I say, digging my heals. "What is going on here?"

She sighs and looks over her shoulder. "The drones keep us in check. That was the thing that you stabbed. They hover around, collecting data for Cooper. Audio files, video files, passcodes, you name it. The one you stabbed was a monitoring drone for this block, meaning it gives food to prisoners and Caregivers, and locks and unlocks the doors. Come here," she pulls my hand and leads me into the yellow hall. "Look."

She points to the left and right of me, and I turn to see that there are doors in both directions. "These are our rooms. All of us Caregivers are like slaves. I don't know what they do with the Workers. They're our male counterparts. You're going to the salon now, because you're not slotted to be a Caregiver. You're slotted to be a Comforter."

"What is that?"

"You will be upstairs with the Leaders, Soldiers, and Scientists. You are going to be assigned to one of them, and you will be his comfort. If he's stressed, you comfort him. If he's sad, you comfort him. If he's mad, you comfort him."

"Are you kidding?"

"No."

"Are there any jobs for women that aren't completely degrading? What about working in the labs?"

"No, women aren't allowed in the labs, unless they are there to comfort their man."

I lose my breath in frustration. "Well, we can't stay here, Jane. You might need medical attention, and I need to be back to the Deathless."

"So you will help us? You'll get us out of here like you did with the people at the bunker?"

She looks at me like I'm some sort of super hero, like I will simply smile and unfurl my cape before flying us out of here. I want to tell her it's not that simple, that I'm no hero. I just did what anyone else would have done in that situation. What kind of person would leave helpless people to die when there was a chance of saving them?

I'm still processing her request when I see her smile drop and her eyes widen with desperation. There isn't a countdown here, ticking away our time left to survive, but there are sick people whose bodies won't last much longer. So I take a deep breath and pretend to be the hero she needs.

"I promise you, I will get us out of here," I say. Staying isn't an option anyway.

"Thank God," she smiles, but there's redness in her mouth, like it's bled before. "Now we really need to go or they will start to question my abilities and terminate me."

"As in kill?"

She nods.

"What the hell kind of place is this?"

She lifts her finger to her lips to shush me. Then, taking my hand, she starts to lead me down the yellow hall and opens the door at the end to a huge cement room.