I curled up against the side of the tent, turning my body away from Sebastian. With the sleeping bag and blankets gathered up around myself, I started to drift into a reverie – Daniel and Dad on my mind.
Go find your dad
was the last thing Daniel said to me as he went with Angela to the medical centre, still thinking of my needs despite his own more pressing and life-threatening needs. I’d never met anyone as selfless before, as thoughtful and kind. Would my dad ever put me first like that? I was beginning to think not.
Sebastian snored in the corner, a constant reminder that I was stuck in a small space with a GEM boy. My mind was swimming with the events of just a few short hours, from capture to escape to near death to possible murder. I thought about the car I so casually flipped over, scattering the Enforcers like dolls, the power running through my body. The heat rose from my finger-tips and I had to take deep breaths until I calmed myself enough to sleep.
*
“Mina, wake up.”
I swatted a hand away. “Go away, dad.”
“It’s Sebastian. It’s morning.” He poked at my shoulder with his finger. “Come on, we have to find your dad, then see Ali about the Council.”
I blinked and sat up. Sebastian looked worried and I remembered Ali’s concerns about the Council accepting a Child of the GEM into their fold. “My dad.” I sighed.
“Aren’t you looking forward to seeing him?”
In truth, I wasn’t. The relief that he was okay and in a safe place had been replaced by anxiety. There was a perfect picture in my mind of the last time I’d seen him, frozen in time, his glasses balancing at the end of his nose, his chin on his chest snoozing on our sofa. It was a fond memory of my dad, the way I liked to remember him. And then thoughts of the note and my uncle would come flooding through that nice memory like a tidal wave, obliterating any warm feelings I had. I felt sick.
“I’ll give you some privacy,” Sebastian said with a shy smile. He disappeared through the zip in the tent. I squinted as the morning sun filtered in through the fabric.
There wasn’t much I could do to get ready. I adjusted the bandage on my arm, wrists and ankle. I ran my fingers through my short cropped hair, a momentary image of Murder-Troll with the scissors added to my nausea.
“I won’t feel like this,” I said aloud. I rubbed my knees, trying to get the blood back into my legs. I made a decision to pull myself together, to stop those morbid thoughts and listen to my gut instinct which was telling me that this was the place I needed to be. I felt at
home,
and nothing was going to stop me feeling like that. I unzipped the tent door and climbed out, swinging the fabric back with vigour.
“Back in there, kid.” Ali greeted me by throwing a bundle of clothes in my face. “Get changed. I’m taking ye te the Council for registration.”
“I want to see Daniel first.” I looked at the clothes with suspicion. Trousers and a basic top, there was nothing sinister about them.
“Council first. Hospital second.” Ali commanded. He was used to leading the Scavengers into dangerous circumstances. One sullen teenage girl wouldn’t be a problem for him.
With a sigh I headed back into the tent and pulled off my dirty clothes. No matter how much I hated following orders, I had to admit that fresh, clean clothes felt good. I buried my nose into the soft cotton top, inhaling the floral scent. They had washing powder here, I chuckled to myself.
It was with some relief that I realised the top was long sleeved and the trousers baggy enough to feel comfortable. I was not Blemished anymore, but that didn’t make me comfortable with showing skin. My day at Elena’s house wearing her tiny skirt felt like a million years ago. I smoothed down the white cotton clothes and exited the tent to see Sebastian and Ali making awkward conversation about the weather.
“Let’s get this over with,” I interrupted.
Ali grinned. “Fine by me. This way.”
He turned to the left and Sebastian and I followed a few paces behind, struggling to match Ali’s long strides. The bright sunshine hurt my eyes and I squinted.
“Um, Mr Ali,” said Sebastian. “Do we get any breakfast?”
“Later,” Ali replied.
“Oh, okay. That’s cool.”
I gave Sebastian a sideways glance wondering why he’d turned into a nervous wreck. He shrugged his shoulders. “These people don’t like me one little bit,” he hissed in reply, low enough that Ali didn’t hear.
I saw the Compound in the daylight for the first time. We were walking through a large campsite dotted with tents on the left and trailers on the right. Clothes fluttered on the clothing lines, kettles whistled over campfires, trailer doors opened and shut and… I stopped walking and stared. Children. Children laughed. Children played. Children ran. Children pushed, kicked, pinched, giggled, tripped, cried, jumped… they were everywhere. My breath caught. I’d never seen any Blemished children before, only GEM children who appeared with the family one day and remained quiet and withdrawn until they were old enough to go to school.
“Look,” Sebastian pointed out a baby, the tiniest living human I had ever seen.
I couldn’t help it, I stared. The mother scowled at me and turned away, covering her tiny baby, which snuggled into the crook of her arm as though it weighed nothing.
“What’s the matter, kid? Never seen a… oh,” Ali said. “Of course ye haven’t. Well, this part of the Compound we call the crèche and ye can see why.”
The young mothers of the children gathered together in the middle of the crèche and pointed at us. Ashamed, I looked away.
“Are they pointing at me?” Sebastian said.
“I think they are pointing at both of us,” I replied. “Probably because we’re staring at them and their children.”
“Good point.”
We turned away and I concentrated on learning the layout of my new home. The campsite was split down the middle by a long gravel path, the same path that Reg had driven the Scavenger van onto in the late hours of the previous night, and the same path that the medics had taken Daniel away in the ambulance. I followed the gravel with my eyes and saw that it led to a large three storey stone building which looked a lot like the old castles my dad had shown me in his textbooks. It had two tall turrets on either side of a flatter middle section. This building was guarded and closed off by another large gate with sharp spikes that made me shudder.
On the left of the castle, far enough in the distance that I had to shield my eyes from the sun and squint, looked to be enough acres of land for a farm. Ali confirmed this by explaining which outhouses contained which animals and which fields grew which crops. Then he turned to the right and pointed out the market place behind the crèche.
“There are some of us who keep stalls there te sell our goods. We don’t have any money on the Compound – as far as we’re concerned money doesn’t have any value in these times – we barter an’ exchange like medieval times.”
“What do you have to exchange?” Sebastian asked. “There can’t be that much to bargain with in this place?”
Ali gave him a stern look. “We do leave here sometimes, ye know. We’re not called the Scavengers for nought, boy.”
“You go out looking for bounty?” I said.
“In a sense, yes,” Ali replied. “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. We all come here with something of value.”
My fingers found my throat and found Daniel’s necklace. Ali watched my fingers rise and grinned. I’d just given away a weakness. I flushed.
We walked the rest of the journey in silence, each contemplating our treasures, or so I liked to think. Ali led us down the gravel path towards the castle. It loomed down like a watch tower. I wondered why there were so many tents when the castle seemed spacious enough to house dozens of people. But I knew better than to fire off immediate questions. I remained quiet.
“Mornin’ Cameron,” Ali said to the guard. “Meet the new recruits – Mina and Sebastian.”
I nodded and Sebastian shook his hand. Up close I saw that Cameron the guard was even younger than me, around Angela’s age. His cropped hair was carrot orange and his cheeks bright vermillion. He smiled at Ali; it was an eager-to-please smile.
“Ye can call me Cam, everyone does,” he said to us before turning back to Ali. “Aye, sir. Good morning te ye, sir.” He straightened his back and thumped the floor with his feet. “Ah ye here te see tha Council, sir?”
“That I am, Cam, that I am,” Ali said with a smile. I noticed that his accent thickened when he was around Scottish people but faded when away from them. I wondered if he had been born in Scotland. “Got te get these registered.” He placed a hand on Cam’s shoulder. “There’s no need te call me Sir, you know that. I’m not an officer.”
Cam blushed. I hadn’t realised that his cheeks could colour any more than the scarlet they already were. “Aye, ah know. But ye should be.”
Ali ruffled the boy’s hair as we entered through the gates towards the castle. Cam grinned at me and Sebastian. I liked him.
We walked into a cobbled courtyard. My black boots clomped against the stones. It was a surprising sensation after the soft crunch of the gravel. Soldiers walked back and forth, laughing and joking, slapping backs, relaxed. Trucks and other vehicles lined up against the border between the castle and the Compound.
“The army,” I said, half to myself. “They live here whilst everyone else lives in the campsite.”
“Yep,” Ali said.
“You and the Scavengers go out alone on dangerous missions while the army sit here with their weapons?”
Ali laughed. “Right again, kid.”
Sebastian looked at me, and I saw on his face what I felt sink like a stone in my stomach: all was not well in the Clans.
We entered the castle through a heavy wooden door. My footsteps echoed on the cold stone slabs of the castle floor. We entered into a large stone hallway, decorated in wall hangings, tapestries and old weapons. I wanted to touch the walls, to let the history seep into my blood. The soldiers traipsed through the hallway, scuffing antique rugs with their boots, marring the image in my mind of medieval royalty and knights in armour.
“This way.” Ali ducked through a doorway and turned to the left where he hopped onto a large staircase.
The stairs winded upwards and I felt the burn in my thighs as I tried to keep up with Ali’s pace. By the time we reached the final floor my lungs ached. Ali led us down a dark hallway and opened the last door on the left. I groaned and rolled my eyes. We were back onto another staircase which spiralled up the centre of a turret.
“Is it far?” Sebastian asked between puffs.
Ali ignored him. My legs were aching and sweat formed on my forehead. I considered myself in good shape, but this was ridiculous. Finally, the stairs petered out, and we reached a large room. There was no door. Instead, the stairs disappeared into the floor. It was circular and carpeted. Around the walls were inviting sofas with plush furnishings. I wanted to collapse into them and rest my tired body. At the far side of the room there was a large table and around the table sat five people: the council. One face surprised me.
“Mary,” I said.
“Mornin’ lass.” She acknowledged.
“You’re on the council?”
“I see ye observation skills are still in working order then,” she said with an amused smile.
Before I had time to respond, a man jumped up from his chair and marched over to us. He was dressed in camouflage gear, an army beret and heavy boots. He looked just like the soldiers I’d seen in pictures, except he wore a coloured ribbon on his right breast pocket. His face was large and red with blonde stubble on his chin. He had a protruding nose with burst blood vessels around the edges of his nostrils. His eyes bulged, the eye-balls blood shot and a dirty white which bled into his vaguely blue irises. I almost flinched as he stormed up to us, leaning down towards Sebastian, his eyes narrowing. A sneer passed over his face and he straightened up to glare at Ali. I’d noticed how Ali stiffened and lifted his chin. He didn’t like this man, and neither did I.
“You brought a clone here,” said the soldier. He was perhaps in his forties. His pale blue eyes twinkled like little blue marbles.
“The boy was in danger, General Lloyd,” Ali said. “I did what any human being would do in the circumstances.”
“
Boy
?” Lloyd repeated, spitting the word as though it left a disgusting taste in his mouth. “That isn’t a boy.” He pointed to Sebastian. “That is nothing but an abomination made by the Ministry and one that we know nothing about. He could be programmed to kill us all. He could have a chip in his head or a camera in his eye.” Lloyd prodded Sebastian and I pulled Sebastian away from his fat fingers, glaring at the man. “That
boy
is the enemy––”
“With all due respect General – we have no evidence to suggest––”
“Evidence?” Lloyd scoffed. “You want to wait for evidence? That thing could kill everyone in its sight while you’re waiting for your evidence.”
“That’s right, Lloyd,” another man chimed in. He was as circular as a blown up balloon with the buttons on his shirt stretched to their limits. He nodded his plump red face and extra chins jiggled with him.
“Oh, shut ye trap, Arthur,” Mary chastised. “Lloyd, Ali is right. The kid has’nae done nothin’ wrong and until he does he gets treated right.”
“I won’t do anything––” Sebastian began.
“I wouldnae speak up right now if I were you, lad. Just keep te yeself and ye’ll be right fer now. That is until I can talk some sense inte these, eh,” Mary said with an encouraging smile.
Lloyd looked from Mary to Sebastian and then his eyes travelled over to me. “Fine then, McDonald. But the clone stays out of my way.” His eyes remained on mine, but Sebastian whimpered.
“Shall we get you registered?” said a slim woman sat to the fat man’s left. She had a cheery voice with a slight lilt. I tore my eyes away from Lloyd to look at her: she was a soldier, in the same uniform as the General but with a different ribbon on her chest. “I’m Sergeant Kinsella.” She rose from the wooden chair in one fluid moment and grabbed an official looking leather bound book from a large bookcase. “It doesn’t hurt; we just take a finger print and a signature.”
“Have you registered Daniel and Angela yet?” I asked.
“Yes. We popped down to the hospital earlier. Your friend is doing remarkably well. He asked after you,” she spoke with a voice that was low and soothing.
I felt my cheeks flush. “He did?”
Kinsella place the book on the round table and motioned for us to go over to her. I looked at Ali, and he half-laughed at the expression on my face. “Sure. He asked if you’d found your dad yet.”
General Lloyd seemed particularly interested in me, still watching me with his pebble eyes. I avoided his eye contact.
“No, not yet.”
Kinsella opened a small tin which revealed a little ink pad inside. “Thumb first.”
I obeyed and the Sergeant helped me to record the prints of all my fingers whilst confirming my date of birth, height and weight. I scrawled my name next to the inky finger prints and then stepped back so Sebastian could record his details. It hit me that today was the day I would see my dad and the nerves grew in my stomach, tickling and taunting. There was the sound of footsteps approaching which distracted me and a man rose from the lower staircase. He was young, but older than Ali – I guessed early thirties – with thick-rimmed black glasses and a slick of black hair parted on the side. He was enveloped in a white coat with stethoscopes looped around his neck. His motions were smooth and fluid and he walked with a straight back.
“Good morning, Council,” he said. His eyes found mine. His voice had the smooth quality of a GEM television presenter. Like the men who run the beauty competitions. I never liked them, they were always so slimy. “Ah, new arrivals! What a pleasure to meet you. I’m Dr Woods, but you can call me Stephen.” He held out his hand, and I took it – his skin felt cool and clammy. His fingers were long and slender. I found myself craning my neck to view all of him.
“Nice to meet you,” I mumbled.
As Dr Woods turned to Sebastian, I noticed that there was little different between them both. Dr Woods had a face that was just as symmetrical as Sebastian’s except for a small birthmark under his eye, a tiny red mark. It was the one blemish which stopped him from looking just like a GEM. I didn’t know if it was the anticipation of seeing my dad or something about Dr Woods, but I felt my stomach churn. Dr Woods continued to smile at me which made me feel uneasy. His smile ever truly touched his eyes. It looked unnatural on his face and a bit too perfect, almost as though he practiced it in the mirror.
“Are we all done here?” I asked Sergeant Kinsella.
“Yes.” She smiled. It was genuine and warm. I noted how she gravitated towards Mary and looked at her with respect, as though Mary was her mentor. Anyone who Mary held in high regard, I would too.
I turned to Sebastian. “Let’s go.”
“Good idea, I don’t like the way G I Joe is staring at me,” Sebastian said with a lowered voice.
Despite myself, I giggled. “Ali, can we see Daniel now?”
It was Dr Woods who answered, and I felt the hair on my arms prickle. “Of course you can. Take the children to Ward 2, Ali.”
Ali saluted with a weak wrist and a mocking sparkle in his eyes. It was clear that he didn’t like taking orders from any of these people, including Mary.
On the way down the stairs I asked, “So Mary is on the Council, but you’re the head of the Scavengers.”
“Yep.”
“How does that work?”
“There was a vote, kid. How do these things usually work?” he said. He walked down the steps with his arms folded and his eyes burning holes in the walls.
“I don’t know that’s why I asked.” I snapped. He wasn’t the only one with stuff on their mind.
“They really hate me don’t they,” Sebastian said from behind me. His voice and footsteps were heavy and miserable. “I’m not going to last two seconds here.”
I looked up at him. With his eyes so dark he reminded me of his father, and for a moment I relived the days on the farm where his parents almost turned me over to the Ministry. It felt like years ago. With a chill I thought of the Enforcer in the river and Sebastian saving my life.
“We’ll sort it, Sebastian,” I said, trying to force some optimism into my voice. How could I reassure him? Not when I’d seen the way the Enforcer was programmed at the canal; the way he followed orders as though his brain had been wired to suppress any freewill. I shook the thought out of my mind. Sebastian wasn’t like that. He was a regular kid like me; he’d just started life out in a laboratory and an artificial womb.
“Aye, lad. Lloyd is an arse, and everyone knows it. So long as ye keep outta his business ye’ll be fine,” Ali said.
“You think?”
“I know so.” Ali jumped down from the last step, shaking off the worst of his mood. I admired the way he picked himself up and dusted himself off. He pushed open a heavy wooden door and held it open, motioning with his hand for me to enter – a bit like I’d seen some servants do for GEMs back in the Areas. “After ye madam. Ye sweetheart awaits yer arrival.”
My heart fluttered.