Page 76 of Conform
Everyone has a role to play . . .
What role was Gregory playing? What about Collin? Everyone else in the clouds? What role would I play?
I glanced at the time and sat straight up. Somehow it was already four in the afternoon. Time seemed impatient today. Begrudgingly I left my bed, bypassing all the beautiful gowns, and threw on my clothes before grabbing my Comm Device and bag.
I found a sunny spot outside, soaking in the warmth, until I heard a Pod approaching the Sanctuary across the street. I retreated several steps and pressed into the wall of my building as eight people exited the Pod, wearing helmets with shields that hid their faces and green uniforms that wrapped tightly around their muscular frames. Plates of the same color were fitted to their chests and backs. Each one had a thick belt laden with weapons and more strapped to their legs and backs. They could only be the Elite Force. For the first time, I watched the steel doors of the Sanctuary finally open as the soldiers entered.
The air was quiet, and a pit formed in my stomach. I stared at that open door, craning my neck to see what they hid inside. I could just make out the entrance to a building. Suddenly, banging filled the air, then silence.
And then women started to scream.
I pressed my back harder into the wall. The cries of young offspring joined the women. A part of me, the part that was concerned with self-preservation, screamed to run back to my living quarters, but I couldn’t move. I was rooted to the spot as the screaming grew louder. The soldiers returned, escorting offspring out. Disbelief engulfed me.
Several soldiers restrained the birth mothers as their offspring sobbed. I couldn’t breathe as the women dropped to their knees, their screams ripping at my soul as they reached for their offspring. None of them could have been older than four.
They were being taken away to the Academy.
I watched helplessly as one woman broke through two soldiers. She sprinted to a small boy, falling to her knees with a force that had tears burning my eyes. She clutched the boy to her chest, his small hands gripping her shirt.
“Please,” she sobbed, “please don’t take him.”
Even the warmth of the sun couldn’t pierce the chill that ran through my veins. My hands flew to my mouth in horror as one of the soldiers grabbed her by her hair, pulling her back.
“I love you, Albert, I love you. I’ll find you, I love you.”
“Control yourself,” a soldier barked.
The boy trembled as another soldier pushed him into the Pod with the other offspring. A different soldier brought the end of his gun down on the woman’s head—she fell to the ground with a resounding thud, unmoving. A gasp escaped me. Maybe it was a scream of my own. My feet set me in motion, toward the horror.
I was halfway there when a large masked soldier stepped in my way, a hand on his gun. “Do you have the authorization to be here?”
My eyes flew to the offspring wailing in the Pod as soldiers began filing in. Some of the mothers had grabbed the woman they had knocked unconscious and others stood still, staring at the Pod. Frozen.
“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice broken.
“Where is your authorization?” The soldier stepped closer just as a Pod showed up outside my building. “I suggest you get on that Pod, right now.” He turned, stalking back to the Pod with the offspring and soldiers. The doors closed behind him, and the Pod took off.
I looked at the women. It wasn’t desperation but undiluted devastation on their faces. The ones screaming and crying were difficult to watch, but there was one whose expression was a blank, unmoving mask of shock.
As I scanned into my Pod and it pulled away toward High Town, I knew her face would haunt me for the rest of my life.
The offspring were being taken to the Academy. I wanted to tell myself they would be fine, but somehow nothing seemed fine, nor would it ever be fine again.
I exited the Pod when it stopped, barely managing to nod at Harold as bile climbed up my throat. The Starlings began their routine, an exaggerated version that included a haircut. I didn’t care—I didn’t hear anything they said. Those mothers’ screams replayed over and over again.
On the raised platform, fully dressed for the night, I looked at the woman they had created in the mirror. Violet had styled my hair half up, with the rest curled and loose. Large pear-shaped diamond earrings hung from my ears. The gown was more ornate than the ones before. It was sheer but had intricate gold-and-silver beading, tight, with a slit that exposed my left leg. It hugged my waist and bust before artfully wrapping around my neck and extending down my right arm. My left arm was fully exposed, my glowing shackle on display. I only saw the Illum and the disgusting things they stood for.
“Why are you wearing that face?” Rose squawked at me. “You’re ruining my masterpiece.”
It did not matter the image they created. It wouldn’t conceal what was stolen from those women today. Being thrust into a room filled with the Elite and Illum, forced to perform for them, felt like torture.
“When I left my building, a Pod showed up”—I sucked in a shaky breath—“and men in green got out. They opened the Sanctuary doors . . . and took the offspring away. They took them away.”
“The Parting,” Violet stated as she drifted closer to Rose.
“The what?” I didn’t understand why they were handling it so calmly. Maybe I should have explained the screams, the desperation and soul-wrenching pain. “You don’t understand.”
“We understand. She lived it,” Violet said quietly.
