P A R T 2 2
(Continued Mindjournal)
1000 hours
Cady Melrose will not stop screaming. The piercing sound doesn't escape the glass dome, just rebounds off its inner surface and sort of echoes around us.
It's terrible.
When we zoomed into the steel tunnel, my first thought was "so this is what being on a rollercoaster is like". But later, Linnet tells me a rollercoaster goes at a slower speed than this.
There are all sorts of loops but other than this, not much happens throughout.
At last we come to a stop in the middle of a metal platform. Not sure if we're supposed to get off. Don't know how to get the glass dome to lift.
Then suddenly, the platform starts moving slowly upwards while we're still on it, in the rocket.
Melrose has stopped screaming at least.
We're in a vertical tunnel and as the platform rises I can see an opening above at the end of the tunnel. The platform fits perfectly into the opening when we reach the top.
We've been transported into a white-tiled room. There are tracks on the floor leading from the platform to a huge metal device that's about the size of a bookcase. The rocket we're in goes along the tracks in the room and off the platform, which disappears back underground.
Rocket halts and I spot a person in the room. She comes out from behind the device. Long black hair scraped painfully into a tight bun, pale heart shaped face, almond shaped gray eyes, bright red lipstick, severe expression, wearing a women's suit, carrying clipboard.
As instinct, I try to read her mind immediately. But I can't. It's like being repelled by a magnet. She turns a cold gaze on me like she knows what I'm trying to do.
Glass dome lifts and the Fifteen and I unbuckle our seatbelts and get off the rocket.
"Cady Melrose and Jarren?" The woman says. Am hating that I can't reach into her mind to find out her name.
Melrose nods. Am staring at the woman, meeting her judgemental gaze. She ticks off some things on the clipboard, then directs us to a door in the wall which we couldn't spot before because it is hidden behind the metal device.
Opened the door and step into a white curved hallway. Melrose is close behind. There are doors in the hallway and only one of them is open, leading to a large white room. Inside, the few people who have reached first are looking out a wall that is made entirely out of glass.
Went to join Pandora. Don't even know why- it's like my legs move on their own these days.
Reached the window and realise the reason they're all standing here.
We're very high up. And very far away from the town and city. Can't really see which number's allocated area is where.
But what we can see is the barricade around it.
And the nothingness of the outside of the barricade.
▲
{ A I S L I N G }
There was a time in Zero that I thought there could be something outside the wasteland box. Something better. Once, I tried to find the border of the wasteland. I didn't succeed, except at one point where I collided into something like a force field. It didn't allow me to go any further.
But since the force field was invisible, all I could see was more wasteland beyond it.
Now, from our bird's eye point of view, I see that it is not wasteland on the other side of the force field barricades.
I can't put a name to it exactly, it's like there's no life on the outside. It's worse than the wasteland. If I sum it all up in two lists, they will look like this:
List of things that are NOT outside the barricade:
1. People
2. Buildings
3. Animals
4. Any form of life
List of things outside the barricade:
1. Weird gray grassless ground
At this moment I realise we can't escape the number system by leaving the town or city because there is nothing anywhere else.
Well, there's this headquarters but it's no sanctuary.
When all the above-Nines gather in the room, Devon enters with the woman who told us to come here.
"This is Beatrice Dobson," Devon introduces her. "She'll be overseeing your training and its progress. I'll be assisting her."
Beatrice Dobson does not say hello or extend a hand for each of us to shake or even smile. She just gives us all a beady-eyed glare. She is definitely the kind of person who is called by her full name.
"You'll be shown to your dormitories now." Her tone is no-nonsense and businesslike and her voice is crisp.
Kind of like a teacher at school, only more strict.
We follow her and Devon out of the room and along the rounded corridor. Outside a brown door, Beatrice Dobson halts and holds out a hand pointing to the door. "The girls' dormitory," she informs us, then indicates another brown door a few steps down the corridor. "The boys' dormitory. As this is the first day, there are no lessons. A bell will ring when it's time for dinner."
"Have fun settling in," Devon says cheerfully, a complete opposite of Beatrice Dobson.
Cady opens the door and all the girls go in.
The wall at the end of the room is entirely made out of glass, like the white room we first went into when we got here. This room is different in colour, though - it's a dark royal purple, which I don't mind at all.
There are four beds, each with a name carved on them. I go to find the one that is engraved "Aisling" and see the wardrobe, mirror, desk and chair that are mine. Looking around, I can see the other girls unpacking.
I put my emergency escape bag down and take out the box, opening it with my thumbprint.
I take the photos of Shir Pandora, Paige Miles and Kieran Nigels, Shir and Ignatius, and Shir holding me as a baby and put them on my desk.
Then I open the white oak wardrobe. Inside is a variety of clothes which may or may not fit. I take out my only clothes from the bag and add them to the ones in the wardrobe.
"We weren't supposed to bring clothes along," a voice behind me says.
I whirl around to see Linnet Kimble raising an eyebrow at the clothes I've just hung up.
Then she grins and says, "But like you, I brought some of mine anyway."
She seems to have finished unpacking already. Maybe she hasn't brought much sentimental things from her home in Seven? I don't know.
Now she's at my desk, looking at the photos. "Isn't this the current Number Chief?" She suddenly says.
My head whirls around and I blurt, "What?!"
She's pointing to Kieran Nigels. "This Nine guy," she indicates. "He's also Jet's dad."
I suspected that he is Jet's father (duh, same last name and very similar looks) but I had no idea he is the Number Chief.
"Oh," is all I can awkwardly reply.
"How come you've got a photo of him?" Linnet asks. "Who're these pretty ladies?"
"My mom and Paige Miles. They were friends in school," I answer, ignoring her first question.
"Ah, together with Kieran, the golden trio," she murmurs. "They were the talk of the school in the past."
"Just like the Nines now," I snappily finish. "Nines are always revered no matter what."
"True that," Linnet sighs, then wafts away back to her bed.
Two doors in the wall lead to two toilets in which we take turns bathing. I change out of my grubby clothes into a clean white shirt and black high-waisted shorts with suspenders.
I go back into the room to see Cady inspecting a metal flap in the wall. "What's this?" She wonders aloud.
"That's a laundry chute, Five," a voice behind her snaps.
Fleur appears, lifts the flap, dumps the clothes she was previously wearing down the chute and sneers at Cady. "Being in the upper class region of our society, I'd expect you to at least know what this is. And as for you," she turns to look at me and continues, "of course you wouldn't know anything, Zero."
So it doesn't matter that I'm a Ten and that all above-Nines are supposed to be equal. I can see that in Fleur's eyes, I will always be a Zero.
Well that's fine, she's not someone worth trying to make nice with.
At least I now know what to do. I take the clothes I just changed out of and throw them down the chute.
Soon, the dinner bell rings: a few loud chimings. There is a sharp rapping on the door and Linnet opens it to reveal Beatrice Dobson waiting to bring us to the dining room.
She leads us along the rounded corridor once again. We go past the guys' dormitory, a few more other doors and stop at an elevator.
We get inside it and I stare out the glass walls at a hollow in the middle of this cylindrical building which is split into two semicircles. Ledges jut out in one semicircle, creating a walkway with railings at the edges. Few people are walking briskly around, most of them wearing white lab coats.
On the other semicircle, however, a plain wall rounds the edges, blocking the walkways from being seen. All the walls are a shining white, giving the place a modern feel.
It's my first ride in an elevator. Pretty amazed.
We must be pretty high up because even with my enhanced sight, the bottom of the building is just a barely visible dot from here. Judging by the glowing buttons in the elevator, our dorms are at level 1, the highest level. We're now at level 5, a few levels below.
We follow Beatrice Dobson along the curving walkway. I go to the railings and look down. The bottom of the building is, as expected, far away as ever.
Linnet joins me but after a moment scurries back to the inner part of the walkway. The two other girls and Beatrice Dobson all stop and stare. "Can't... even... see... the bottom," she gasps, while giving me an impressed look. "Not afraid of heights, Aisling? Seriously, how do you not get vertigo?"
I just grin and we continue on our way to the dining room. Along the walls of the curved walkway, doors are lined up like in the corridor at the first level where our dorms are. However, this walkway is wider and of larger circumference than that corridor.
The dining room floor is carpeted with cream, decorated with black and red swirls. The walls are draped with luxurious golden cloth that looks like something Nines will buy.
The room is not too big, about the size of two classrooms at school. Large round tables with cream tablecloths are placed all around the room, along with matching chairs with silver frames and dark seat padding. To the right wall is a set of automatic glass double doors.
I'm awed by the super posh setup. The guys and Devon have already reached and Beatrice Dobson leads the girls to join them. I take a seat between Linnet and Cady. In the middle of the table, there are plates of large portions of different food.
Once we're seated, we can begin eating, so I take a sandwich from a pile nearest to me. It looks nothing like the ones I usually steal from the town square. I scrutinize it for a couple of seconds, then bite in.
Fried egg, crispy turkey bacon, chicken ham, melted cheese, fresh lettuce... So this is an advantage of having enhanced senses. I contemplate using a fork and knife to eat it like I learned to at Jarren's, then spot Kev eating the same kind of sandwich with his hands, so I follow suit.
When we have cleared the plates of food in the centre of the table, chefs come out from the glass double doors, wheeling silver food carts in. They take the empty plates and replace them with desserts: ice cream, pastries, cake, the works.
At the end of the meal we are full and content. This is probably how Eights and Nines live everyday. I sneak a peek at Fleur. She is looking the same ever since we set off for headquarters: generally unhappy.
Devon brightly says, "Well, I officially welcome you to the A Hundred Numbers headquarters!"
Some of us applaud, myself not included. Who knows what we'll be doing here.
Anyway, after Devon wishes us an early night we return to our dormitories and the rest of the day passes with not much happening.
▲
The next morning after breakfast, Devon hands out schedules while Beatrice Dobson gives us some instructions. "As it is your first day of lessons, I will guide you to your classrooms. As you know, this part of the building is made up of layers of different sized circles. Half of this building is still undergoing construction, so do avoid that part and stick to this half."
She must mean the walled up half of the building that I saw in the elevator. We all nod in assent and follow her up one level to the fourth by elevator.
From what I can tell from passing by rooms, there is a library, a gymnasium, a sports ground, a music room, a science lab and a cafeteria. The others are just as curious, looking around and chattering.
Finally, we reach our classroom. Unlike the ones at school, its walls are a navy blue and the floors are sky blue cement. It gives off a calming effect, like wafting around in the sky.
The glass-topped tables and white oak chairs are in pairs. I am assigned a seat next to Linnet. Because there are nine of us, Jarren is left quite happily without a partner.
Our teacher, a tall, thin man with a goatee, wearing a white lab coat over a stripy black and red vest and cream trousers, finally arrives and Beatrice Dobson leaves.
"I am Mr. Morton," he introduces himself with a piercing voice as unfriendly as Beatrice Dobson's. "I'll be your teacher for several subjects, and the one I am going to teach now is probably something you're all familiar with."
Clearly, he only knows we're above-Nines and is not one bit interested in who we are individually. My lip curls in disdain. He's just like the teachers at school, which isn't a good thing.
"As you all know, around a century ago, our community was ruled by communism. Everyone got the same amount of items and money and the same living conditions no matter what jobs they had or whether they worked hard or not.
"However, there was an exception. The money the people earned went to the government, who split most of the money between them and left very little for the people.
"Of course, this discouraged the people to work hard. That was when the rebel team was formed. They believed they could have something more. They wanted to create a society where people could not decide their own fates, nor could their fates be decided by anyone else. Hence, the rebel scientist that we all know of came up with the number system that we have now. It took two tries before the rebels could win, but eventually they did and our community is no longer ruled by communism.
"Our numbers decide our fate. We all have that formula in our blood, which will reveal our numbers and put us in our place in society.
"The rebels took over the government and from then on, only the descendants of the rebels are allowed to be a part of ruling this community. Even today, our government is made up of the rebels' descendants, like the Number Chief."
As he goes on teaching, we have identified the subject.
It is Number History, A Hundred Numbers version.