Page 4 of The Godhead Complex
“I vote we go home,” Dominic said, and a silence fell over the entire group, even from Minho and Orange, whose home sounded awful.
The fire crackled. “We could all go with Minho to Alaska,” Roxy added optimistically, but the mention of Alaska made Old Man Frypan stand up and leave the circle. He had understandably seen enough of that place to last several lifetimes.
“I didn’t live this long just to go back to the the Maze. I’d rather die right here than step one foot in that Godforsaken country.” After his airing of grievances he sat back down. “Some wounds aren’t meant to be re-opened.”
What might happen if theydidgo back home, Isaac wondered. The way they left on theMaze Cutter, mysteriously leaving after the whole island got knock-out drunk from poisoned wine, might have seemed like the best solution at the time but what would Cowan say if they went back? Lie and blame it all on Kletter?“She poisoned everyone on the island and kidnapped us.”Or be honest and say,“Hey, we tried to save the world but it turns out there’s a lot more to it. A bunch of scientists wanted us dead, the Cranks have evolved, and some of us escaped thanks to two orphans from the Remnant Nation. No big deal. We’re back!”
And even so, what if by returning to the island they only caused more people like Kletter to come after Sadina and the islanders again? The Gladers of old wanted to protect the immunes and their descendants from ever being found. It seemed selfish to put everyone back home at risk again. But what did that mean? Spending the rest of their lives on the run?
“Alright then. Should we put it to a vote?” Cowan asked. And just like that the nightly campfire improbably turned into some kind of government meeting. Isaac had never wanted part in any kind of decision making. He’d just wanted to learn how to forge and be a blacksmith. But his throat felt itchy with the pressure of needing to speak up.
“I motion we move to vote,” Dominic said as he stood up, sounding like a stranger. Isaac wasn’t sure what he wanted to do when they reached the coast. . . . Stay in the wilderness and build a yurt? Go home to apologize for ever leaving? Go to Alaska and finish some mission they didn’t understand? See the Maze of old? Go to the Villa to find the scientists? It was too much, as usual, for him to process.
Sadina also stood up. “Mom, can’t we just—”
“No. We had a democracy at home and we’ll have one here.” Cowan acted as if this entire trip hadn’t revolved around Sadina and the possibility that her blood might change the world. Also, poisoning your people because they might not agree with you wasn’t exactly what Isaac would call a democracy. “We’ll vote by show of hands. Only vote once.”
Issac looked at Sadina and mouthed the words, “I’m sorry.”
At times she had been glad to have her mom on the trip with her, but this was not one of those times. Why couldn’t they discuss the decision for a few days and present options, and listen to everyone’s opinions? Why did her mom always have to do everything in such a public forum?Like the poisoning at the amphitheater.Sadina never would’ve brought the entire town together just to poison them all and then sneak away and pretend to be taken forcibly.
If the truth wasn’t an option, why couldn’t they have disappeared in the middle of the night on the ship and left a note about their true intentions? If a cure was such a good and noble thing, then why hide what they did? It shouldn’t have mattered that some of the island Congress disagreed—that’s always the case. Sadina just wanted logical sense sometimes. Like now. Why couldn’t they sleep on it and have an open discussion in the morning?
But her idea of what was fair didn’t matter. It never did with her mom.
Sadina couldn’t control what happened next any more than she could control having special blood. She could only hope her friends chose the best option—whatever that might be. Letti and Timon thought Kletter was evil enough that they killed her the minute they had the chance. They could have killed Isaac and everyone else in the group except Sadina if they wanted to make it easier on themselves to manipulate her, but instead they let everyone live.And weren’t they working with the Remnant Nation somehow?They never killed anyone else, despite having the chance to do so. It was the one thing Sadina kept coming back to because she couldn’t shake how fast they’d killed Kletter. Becausethe Villa was bad.
“Vote with me,” Sadina whispered to Trish.
“Wherever you go, I’ll go.” Trish clasped her fingers around Sadina’s and held her hand fiercely, so tight that Sadina’s knuckles hurt.
“Wherever you are, I’ll be,” she whispered back.
Sadina’s mom cleared her throat. “Let’s handle this like a proper vote. Meaning, no outbursts, no arguing. Whatever has the votes will be what we do, period. Understood?”
Everyone in the group nodded their heads but said nothing.
Sadina couldn’t tell if her mom was being more of a mom at this moment or more of a senator. Both titles sometimes put off a “because-I-said-so” tone to them, something Sadina could have done without.What if the majority vote isn’t the best way to spend their time?
“All those in favor of staying here, raise your hands,” Sadina’s mom asked. Old Man Frypan’s hand shot up as if it were connected to a shooting star in the sky. Jackie’s hand joined his arm in the air. But theirs were the only votes for staying, and oncethe senatorpointed at them each as if to say “Your vote has been seen,” Old Man Frypan and Jackie’s hands lowered.
“Why do you want to stay here?” Dominic whispered to Jackie, but Sadina’s mom hushed them all.
“All those in favor of going back home, raise your hands,” Sadina’s mom announced next, but Dominic’s hand was the only one to go up. He looked at Jackie with a frown as if her vote and his combined could have tipped the scales of the majority and they’d have all just gone home. Sadina looked over at Isaac. She thought for sure Isaac would’ve voted to go back home. All he had talked about in the last few days was setting up his own forge, fishing at the Point again, and checking in on the gray-haired firstborn of the island, Ms. Ariana.
Sadina nodded to Isaac; he must have been waiting to vote with her and for that she was thankful.Why was she so nervous about this?She took a breath so big that all the little bones in her neck cracked. She couldn’t believe Old Man Frypan actually voted to stay put, night after night forever, because even her body ached from sleeping on the stony ground. The tiniest rock or clump of clay woke her up in discomfort every night. Trish made Sadina a woven grass pad to sleep on but it didn’t help much. There weren’t enough grass pads in the whole mainland to keep her there. Heck, even the wooden boards and half-broken cots on theMaze Cutterwere more comfortable.
“Next vote.” Sadina’s mom cleared her throat again as if that made whatever she had to say next more official. “All those in favor of going to Alaska, raise your hands.”
Sadina watched as one by one, Minho, Orange, and Roxy raised their arms with confidence. If Sadina had to be anywhere when trouble came, she’d want Minho and Orange to be around. She couldn’t shake the feeling, like a tickle in her spine, that Alaska was where she was supposed to be. Letti and Timon might not have known everything but the one thing they knew for sure was that the Villa wasn’t going to help in the way Kletter thought it was. Or the way Kletterliedthat itcould. Sadina squeezed Trish’s hand and locked eyes with her. One set of clasped hands rose because Trish wasn’t letting go of Sadina—not even to vote. Because Trish had Sadina’s back no matter what. Even if Sadina was wrong.
But Sadina looked at Isaac in confusion.Did he forget to vote?She waited for his hand to go up, but it didn’t.
“All those in favor of going to the Villa, raise your hands.” Cowan asked the final question, the only option left, and Sadina watched as Isaac and her mom both raised their hands, along with Miyoko. How could one of her best friends and her mom both think that they knew better than her when it came to what she did with her own DNA? Sure, Kletter scared them into coming off the island but were they all forgetting how she killed the crew of eight people before she got there? What if Kletter was just a master manipulator? What if those eight people she killed were all scientists too? There was just too much yet to learn and it sounded like going to Alaska to meet the Godhead was the only way they’d have answers.Real answers.
Sadina shook off Trish’s hand. “The Villa? Really? You do remember scientists were to blame for all of this in the first place?” She couldn’t hold it in. “The Flare Virus. The Flare Coalition, WICKED, the Maze, the Trials—and here you are voting to just trust those in the same position?” Sadina couldn’t believe she was the only one to question things. Isaac and her mom lowered their hands, but they didn’t say anything.
How could they notspeak?Sadina had so many questions running through her head that kept her awake at night. Like what if . . . what if the scientists wanted to infect Sadina and the islanders to send them back so that everyone on the island, all the way up to poor Ms. Ariana of the firstborns, got infected with something new? What if it wasn’t about curing anyone at all? What if all they wanted were fresh new test subjects? What if the trials never ended? Who could Sadina actually trust? All questions that floated through her mind and kept her up at night.
