Colony 41: Volume 1 (The Era Rae Series) Read online

  “Well,” he was saying to me, “the stiffness in your back will go away on its own. The headache you’re experiencing is dehydration. An effect of the fire, and I’m guessing a little celebration after the Ceremony?”

  He raised an eyebrow to me and I looked down at my hands. The 26ers had all come back here in a group afterward and someone had produced two bottles of actual whiskey. God alone knew where they stole that from. Everyone did their best to get drunk.

  Everyone, except me. I’d had two small swallows of the stuff and then passed on the bottle every time it came to me after that. I wasn’t in the mood to party.

  I was worried about Saskia.

  He touched another device to my leg just above my knee. A neural stimulator. The pinpoint needle sent subtle electric pressure zipping through my body and back again. He nodded. Apparently my body was all in working order. Other tools lay in his case, each in its own slot, and he reached for the one everyone feared most even as his tone stayed conversational. “So tell me. How does it feel to be a senior member of the Academy now? Just two short years and then you’ll be out of here, right? Off into the real world, as they say.”

  “I’m looking forward to it, if that’s what you mean.” I know that wasn’t the standard answer, but it was the truth, and First Marshall Blake had always put such a high value on the truth. “I can’t imagine life outside the Colony. If I had my choice, I’d stay here forever.”

  He studied me for a moment, tapping the little handheld device against his palm. “Do you really feel that way?”

  “Well, sure,” I said, sorting through my own feelings as I did. “I mean, outside the walls there’s death, and disease, and chaos. It’ll be our duty to bring order out there, sure, but… I don’t know.”

  “You’re scared?”

  “No!” I insisted to him. The intensity in my voice was surprising. “I’m not scared. Not exactly, I mean. I just don’t think I’ll like it out there. I want to be an Enforcer and put things right but things need to be done a certain way outside the walls, and…”

  “Outside the Colony,” he said, finishing my thought for me, “are the Outlands. They represent everything that is wrong with our world.”

  His perfect green eyes held me. “Exactly. How am I supposed to act around people who refuse to conform to what’s best for them? How can I be expected to show mercy and compassion to people who are basically just barbarians?”

  “Excellent questions,” he told me. I was expecting him to chastise me or correct my thinking with one of his carefully prepared lessons, but instead he nodded and smiled at me like he’d just noticed me for the first time. “I’ve thought the same things myself. Being out and among the rest of the world can change a person.”

  “You must have more patience than me,” I told him, the words slipping out before I could stop them. “You’ve been out there with the Enforcers for years, and I… not that you’re old, I mean. You’re older than I am, sure, but that doesn’t mean—”

  Just shut up, I told myself.

  I clamped my lips together and wondered why I always acted so foolish around this man.

  The First Marshall chuckled. “Yes, well, time comes to us all. Have no doubt about that. You might be more mature than you realize, Era.”

  One of his hands covered mine, over my thigh, and sent an electric thrill through me more intense than the neural stimulator’s. I leaned closer to him, my eyes still on his, and he held up his other hand to me…

  And scanned my eyes with the little machine that had sent so many people to their deaths.

  I jumped back, startled.

  “Sorry,” he told me, amusement now shining in his eyes. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  In my mind, I put together every single bad word I knew, in very colorful combinations. Outwardly, I held my breath, waiting as Avin read the results of the scan on his wrist monitor.

  “There,” he finally said. “No sign of disease. You’re as healthy as a newborn, Era.”

  I could breathe again. I know these constant scans are necessary in this new world we lived in, and that was just the way of it. Besides, I was healthy. What did I have to worry about?

  As he packed up his tools I remembered what I had asked him earlier, and the way he had avoided the question.

  “First Marshall Blake? Actually, there is something I wanted to ask you about.”

  He lifted one eyebrow. “And what’s that?”

  “Saskia. Is she okay? Can I see her?” I tried not to think about the smell of burning flesh and hair. Or how I’d failed her. “She did well, didn’t she? It wasn’t her fault. Not being able to finish, I mean.”

  It was a long moment before he answered me. While he talked, he put the medical equipment back into their foam cutouts in the case, one by one. “Yes, Era, Saskia did very well. She was very brave.”

  Was? Was? I didn’t like the way he used that word.

  “But Saskia is going to be okay, isn’t she? A few weeks in the medical facility and they’ll bounce her out good as new? It wasn’t that bad,” I said, my voice wavering.

  “Era. I know you and Saskia were close friends. How do I say this?” He closed the case, and there was a sense of finality in the motion. “You should know what’s happened. I’m just sorry you have to hear it from me. Saskia’s condition got worse after leaving the amphitheater. The medical staff aren’t sure what they can do for her”

  “She was burned,” I protested. “Just burned. They can fix that.”

  When he shook his head the hope I’d been holding onto sank. “You have to understand how it is, Era. Burn wounds can become infected. The infection can spread through the tissues of the skin, into the heart, and if left unchecked the infection can even become contagious.”

  “I’ve… never heard of that,” I tried to argue, my voice hardly above a whisper.

  Avin shrugged a shoulder, his eyes finding mine again. “You aren’t trained in the healing arts, Era. You’re on the path to be an Enforcer. I have no reason to doubt the medical staff in their assessment here. You know the danger.”

  I did. Every member of Colony 41 did. Disease. With Humanity on the edge of extinction, with remaining resources stretched to their limits here in the decades after the Event, even something as simple as the common cold could decimate an entire Colony overnight.

  According to rumor, that was why there wasn’t a Colony Sixteen anymore.

  “Can’t I see her?” I had to ask. I knew what the answer would be, but I had to ask.

  “Oh Era, you know the rules. Always Quarantine. Anyone sick gets quarantined.”

  I dropped my head. He couldn’t break the rules for me. If you felt sick, you had to report it immediately to the Enforcers, and then you would be taken to the medical facility for days of observation and testing. Isolation. Quarantine. I’ve known people who went into medical quarantine.

  Not all of them came back.

  Anyone who didn’t follow the rules and report themselves when they were sick would inevitably be found out anyway. Coughing. Sneezing. Unknown growths on your skin. Someone would notice eventually. The sick person who tried to hide would go to Quarantine anyway and then, if they got well again, they would be imprisoned for five years. No privileges as citizens. All standing in the Colony stripped away.

  Tears flooded my eyes and Avin’s masculine face blurred in front of me. I turned away, holding my head in my hands. I did not want him to see me like this.

  “Hey,” I heard him say, his hand coming to rest on my shoulder. “It’s all right, Era. These things happen, even to the best of our friends. It’s no one’s fault. It just happens.”

  I opened my mouth to tell him. I wanted to tell him, so much. It was my fault. What happened to Saskia, what she was going through right now, was my fault. I should have protected her more. She got hurt because of me.

  That’s what I should be telling Avin.

  But I couldn’t.

  “Well,” he said, giving my
shoulder a squeeze before standing up. “We’ll see you later today at the first of your Eccoliculum lessons, yes? You and the rest of the 26ers. I’m very proud of you. I want you to know that.”

  I actually grabbed for his hand, but he was already up with his medical kit, and leaving me alone in my room.

  Era’s Journal, entry #2308

  Colony 41 is an island. To travel across it from coast to coast only takes a couple of hours. The wall I’ve mentioned before runs around the entire island, several hundred feet from the shore, with enormous mechanisms to open gates that allow water to flow through and boats to leave or return. It’s a relic from another time, a marvel of construction that I doubt anyone could duplicate today.

  When I first came here I had never seen the sea, let alone been to an island. The constant noise of the surf and the endless movement of the waves made me feel sick. The sea seemed so big, and I was just so small. The jet copter we rode in held me and three other children, kids my own age who would become part of the 26ers. Saskia was one of them.

  You can’t see any other land mass from Colony 41, but we know that the Restored Society is just out there, just beyond reach over the horizon. They send their supply ships once every few months, huge white metal beasts that leave miles of foam in their wake.

  The Outlands lie beyond the horizon, too. Enforcers are chosen to travel to these territories and enforce order on a society that no longer wants it. That will be my job, one day. Will I ever return home?

  I doubt it. Outside of the Colony there is only anarchy and death.

  I’ve talked to the people who work and live on the supply ships from the Restored Colony. Not much. They don’t talk much. Apparently after us, they go on to Colony 38, and then 36, 25, and 19. They bring us rumors of the outside world, like the loss of Colony 16, or an outbreak of whooping cough on Colony 25. One day, I might end up in one of these places, and finally see the people who live there for myself.

  If I could stay here at Colony 41 I would, but everyone has their role to play in society, and mine will be the role of Enforcer.

  Besides. Island life has its own problems.

  For one thing, the storms. When it rains it can go on for days. The winds can be so strong they throw you to the ground out on the plains. I’ve seen lightning that arched from one end of the sky to the other, discharging enough electricity to shut down the Monitoring Station on Cloud Point. The thunderclap that followed left my ears ringing for hours.

  The Monitoring Station was there to receive signals from other Colonies and send messages of our own. The boats who came in spoke to us through the Station as well. Once upon a time there was chatter from all fifty of the Colonies from around the world. Now we only get signals from twelve.

  The Enforcers know more about the silence from the other Colonies than they tell us. First Marshall Blake knows, too. I figure it’s a secret we only get to know when we become Enforcers ourselves. So, I’ll know in two days.

  I guess I can wait.

  But Colony 41 always pulls through. Us students get on with our lessons. Every few days we do hiking in the central hills and pine woods of the island, learning tracking, archery, shooting, climbing. Usually tag-team stuff where we try to kill the other teams. The fun stuff.

  Like I said, I hated the sea when I first came here. Now one of my favorite lessons are the ones out by the coast. Some of the beaches are stony, and we learn about traversing rough terrain and scavenging for food. Other spots along the coast are sandy, and we have wrestling tournaments and learn swimming techniques and underwater hand-to-hand combat.

  And always, there is the wall, surrounding us and keeping us safe.

  I wonder what would happen if I just kept on swimming.

  Where would I be, if I left the Colony?

  Chapter 3 - The Colony

  It was just meant to be a short trip. Kinda breaking the rules maybe, but not by much. I mean, not really.

  The rest of the 26ers were enjoying their first morning of Eccoliculum life in the Academy, spilling from our dormitory and onto the green lawn, relaxing in the sunny weather. We were all wearing our green and black jumpsuits. The new uniforms for us Eccoliculum members would be gray with black stripes along the arms and legs. Closer to a real Enforcer’s uniform. We’d graduated last night, but the new clothes wouldn’t be issued to us until today. So for now, green and black it was.

  I was so careful to blend in with the other 26ers wandering about, pairing off or forming up into groups. I tried real hard not to draw attention to myself.

  So of course my best laid plans to sneak away got ruined.

  “Hey Era, where you off to?” It was Verne, sitting under a hydromelon tree while the wind blew out tufts of his hair in goofy directions. He was using his broad-bladed knife to whittle a stick. “Me and some of the rest are gonna go check out our new privileges, now that we’re senior Academy members. Gonna hike up to the woods past the perimeter fence, want to join?” He smiled, his long face filled with pride.

  Usually, I would have jumped at the chance. Now that we weren’t Secondary alumni anymore we wouldn’t be chaperoned everywhere we went. We could go anywhere we wanted to in Colony 41. Um. Except for the Prelate’s house and the Enforcer’s dormitory and a few other places. Other than that we weren’t going to be treated like little kids anymore. We’d earned that kind of trust.

  We held the future in our hands, after all.

  This was a day I’d looked forward to forever. Now that it was here, I had other plans.

  “Later, Verne,” I told him, trying not to react to the sudden suspicion in his eyes. “I just want to mellow it this morning, get the smoke from last night out of my lungs.”

  I coughed a little for emphasis. Then I walked past him with a sharp, sarcastic salute.

  “You’re not getting weak on me, are you?” He called after me, throwing the worst insult in the Colony at my back. Weak meant that you weren’t able to keep up with the pace of Colony life. That you weren’t fit to be here. That maybe you should go join the dregs of Humanity in the Outlands.

  Nobody called me weak.

  Turning on my heel I stalked back up to him, finger raised in the air like I was going to shout back at him. “Let me tell you something,” I said.

  Then without warning I snatched the knife out of his hand with a downward swoop that spun my entire body around, legs scissoring in the air, and when I came back down I landed on one foot with my arm out for balance.

  And buried the knife in the soft trunk of the tree, right above his head.

  His eyes rolled up to the knife, staring with his mouth open, as I lowered my other foot and raised my upper torso at the same time. I’ve worked harder at the Academy than anyone. I don’t care what Verne says. I’m not weak.

  I was thirty paces away from him again when he finally found his voice.

  “You’d better not be late for classes! I’ll tell Professor Blake that you went off on your own! I’ll tell him you attacked me!”

  I snickered at the thought of it. Verne was just trying to scare me like I’d scared him. He would never go puppy dogging it to Professor Blake. It would make him look weak.

  And like I said, no one wanted to look weak.

  Leaving the grounds of the Academy wasn’t hard to do. The place was ringed by old growth trees, a mini-woods where we could practice our skills without having to go out on field trips. The cycle and running paths twisted their way between the trunks, looping all the way from to the beginning of the campus buildings out into the Colony. As Primary and Secondary students, we only went out on those trails in a group, in the company of an Enforcer or a Professor. Now I had the freedom to go there all by myself.

  I followed one path at an easy pace, jogging like I meant it, taking sips from my suit’s water filter. The catch pockets sewn into the sides and other places were actually empty, and all I was sucking through the collar straw was air. I hadn’t started to sweat yet. To anyone observing, it would look like I
was just out for a morning run on the day after my graduation.

  The thought of what I was actually out here to do slowed my steps. I was almost at the top loop of one of the longest trails. At the top of the rise stood the walls of the medical facility. There weren’t any guards here. The Enforcers would be inside, stationed at the Quarantine rooms.

  There were more direct ways to get to the medical facility, of course. Main roads from every important part of the Colony led right here. Health was very important to us. Stay healthy, stay alive. Get sick… well. Anyway, I hadn’t taken the main road because I didn’t want anyone to see me coming here.

  My heart hammered in my chest. I tugged at the braid of my hair as I stood there, staring up the hill at the wall, knowing I might be seen by someone else coming along the jogging trail at any moment. I needed to work up my courage.

  And if that little rat Verne made good on his threats and told First Marshall Blake…

  Saskia was in here. I needed to know if she was all right, or if she had already been sent to the Quarantine rooms.

  I needed to know.

  I climbed up the little rise from the trail through the brush, my breathing loud in my ears. Using branches as handholds I made it easily to the back of the building. White cement blocks formed the wall here, crumbling in spots, vines growing up and forcing slender tendrils into cracks. It stopped me for a moment, because I’d never noticed decay like this in the Colony before. Were all the buildings like this? Why didn’t someone monitor them more closely to keep them from falling apart?

  Someone should say something. Only, I realized I couldn’t, because then whoever I told would know I’d been here, and would figure out where I’d spent my first morning of freedom.

  I could find myself in a Quarantine room as a precaution. Or worse.

  The years of school lessons paid off. Running the techniques, the self-disciplines, I relaxed my breathing and slowed my heartbeat, forcing myself to focus, just as we had all learned to do in tracking and hunting class. I took a step, noting the areas where leaves would crackle on the ground, or fallen sticks might give me away.