Page 41 of Savagely Yours
“There’s never been a breach before this one?” I asked.
“No, never.”
That fact made this breach even more suspicious.
I would investigate it, but it wasn’t because I cared about the camp’s safety. If more than one of these “beings” made it onto the campus, it could cause chaos. Chaos could make it back to Larke, and she and Mae were the only people I cared about in the entire community.
“Looks like a woman, right?” Cerner asked.
I nodded. “Looks like it.”
The last thing he needed to know was that I knew who this was. I was already uncomfortable with the way he was looking at her like a child with a magnifying glass at an ant hill.
“So,” he looked up at me, “what do you think we should do with her?”
“If there’s no ‘human’ left behind, I say we humanely end her suffering,” I suggested. “This is cruel. The reports said that someof the infected feed on human flesh. Whoever this was, I have a hard time believing she would want to live like this.”
I knew for a fact that Solana wouldn’t.
“I don’t want to kill her,” he added. “Not yet. I think I’ll have them take her to the lab to get some blood samples.”
“Blood samples? For what?”
“Not like Mengele or anything. To see if she’s healthy. You know, you’re very judgmental, Harding.”
“I’m aware.”
He laughed. “Well, in any case, we might be looking at an opportunity. We have a few MDs at Totten. We’ve reached out to see if we can get more. Maybe, if we study her blood, we can come up with some sort of treatment. Maybe a prophylactic. We could save the world, and the New World Order could start here, at Totten. Can you envision it?”
“No. Now, do you need me for anything else?”
I felt him eyeing me. “You know, Class Ones don’t have terribly busy days for a reason. There’s no need for you to overwork yourself. I’ve noticed you don’t visit the more communal areas of Totten, like the parks and marketplaces. Take some time off and enjoy being alive. Be thankful for it.”
“No,” I reiterated. “Now, I’ve scouted this area before, and I don’t remember coming across anything that suggests there could be a breach. Then this area also has a ton of blind spots. If this happens again, it could be worse.”
“We don’t have enough solar to put cameras out here. It’s more important to protect the families. People have to feel safe, Dez. I mean, the average person can’t handle the truth. They can’t handle how terrible shit really is. Right now, only a handful of uniforms are allowed outside the walls. I’ll do anything I can to keep our people in the dark.”
“For their safety,” I deadpanned.
“Yes.” He continued to eye me. “Something wrong, Harding? You’re more tense than usual.”
“Just would like to get back to work.”
“What’s the name of the woman you came with, again? Larke or something like that?”
I met his eyes. “Why are you asking about her?”
“Some things have come up with other people we brought in. We’re reconsidering some of our intake protocols. It really is better inside these walls, and we need people to see that.”
“Reconsidering in what way?”
“Reducing or getting rid of forced separation and removing the social barriers regarding fraternization. I mean, I don’t want people thinking that being assigned to Sanitation is a punishment.”
“But it is,” I pointed out. “Their lives are markedly different from ours. They don’t have the same opportunities or rights, and it’s intentionally set up to ensure that things remain that way.”
“Different from,” he motioned to me, then himself, “ours. As in, you and me. However, their lives are not so different from the more commonfolk. You can argue against it all you want, but history has shown that a functional society needs class division.”
“History is inundated with revolutions and rebellions related to having authority figures overstep their boundaries and pin everyday citizens to the ground, boot to the neck.”
