“You know I have no say in her verdict.”
“I know Authority is listening to us right now. Or aren’t you wearing a listener?”
Abbott looks really annoyed by this, and he taps at his eardrum, as if he’s listening in on a different conversation. After a second he looks back up at us, faking that gross creeper smile our way. “Congratulations, doctor. Authority will withdraw the accusation of Violation of Thought.”
“And the other accusations?”
“Doctor, they were accusations of the lower order. Surely this suffices.”
I look up at my dad. “What does that mean?”
He smiles. “They can’t afford to let you go without some form of punishment. If they did, Authority wouldn’t be Authority. They have to live by their code. But you can only be sentenced to Reinforcement for a violation of a higher order.”
“Wait. I remember when Danny was Reinforced. Why did he… ?”
Dad looks at me and takes a knee, wrapping an arm around me. “Your trial was broadcast throughout Floor 1. They all are. Normally everyone gets a sentence of a higher order because they always find a way. It makes for good entertainment.”
“What?”
“Now that Authority’s declared that you can go free, they can market it on Floor 1 as showing their great mercy. Believe me, it works out for them, too.”
I want to say, this is completely screwed up. Instead, I just nod. “Okay.”
Dad gets back up to face an eminently bored Abbott and says, “I concede.”
“Fantastic,” he says with a nod as he beckons toward his Security team. They circle us like wolves and push us forward, Dad leading the way as he guides us all deep into the maze that is the west wing of Floor 16. He replaces his mask back on his head as we go, his weapon clutched in his hand. As we move, large clusters of the Creep are visibly breaking through the floor or walls. Security fans out to drive it back, igniting huge patches of growth in flames.
Dad points from one guy to the other. “This is all being broadcast. Abbott’s wearing a listener, which does more than just listen. It records everything visual, too.”
“What? We have the technology for that? Why don’t the Scavengers wear them?”
“Who says they don’t?” he asks with a heavy breath. “They just don’t know it. We get constant feeds of the Scavenging. You know how everyone on the lower floors gets to play the games and do the tallies? How they celebrate when the Scavengers are out there?”
“Yeah, duh.”
“Floor 1 has a different way of doing it. Each person on a scavenging team has a listener they’re not aware of. Secretly, Authority enjoys it when a few Scavengers die. It keeps people invested in it, gives it high stakes. So they don’t necessarily give the teams all the best technology to survive with. Everything is divided in this tower, though, Jackie. The video feeds go through a central planner. He decides what looks like scientific material and what looks like good entertainment. If it’s scientific it gets sent to me. If it’s entertaining it gets sent to editors that cut it and make it look good for the broadcasts. After that he forgets whatever he saw by stuffing himself with Voluptas.”
“What? Why?”
“Because this Tower survives by forgetting the past, Jackie. That’s just how it is. People on the lower levels don’t have to care about it so much because they’re kept ignorant. On Floor 1, though, people are exposed to a lot of sensitive information. That information even filters down all the way to Floor 4, to people like me or the Morale officers. That’s why we have access to Voluptas. Your mom pretends to take it so that Authority will assume she doesn’t know anything. If you know too much, you’re a threat.”
“I don’t get it, Dad. Why do we have to forget?”
He just shakes his head. “I don’t know, Jackie. The reason itself was forgotten a long time before I entered Science. All I know is that something happened way back when that got us here, and Authority is dead set on making sure we don’t get too curious about what’s in the Darkness. Because they truly believe that one day, we’re going to get saved from the skies. Just like the verse says, ‘They will be taken out of Darkness and into the light.’”
“That’s pretty much the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
He laughs. “Yeah, well… I’m not going to argue that.”
It’s fairly obvious we’re getting into some far-out sections of the Tower. All the doors are lit red, which means that nobody’s living here. I mean, just the fact that the shutters aren’t working should tell you that it’s been a while since anyone has done maintenance in this wing.
It’d be a lie if I said that’s the worst part, though.
I look up as we’re walking and catch sight of a big Creep growth. At first I just shrug. It’s Creep, big deal, right? That’s sorta what Floor 16 does. Creep.
Then I take a good look inside.
It’s a guy. Well, a skeleton, and it’s pretty clear he’s covered in what used to be Security gear. I mean, the helmet’s halfway evaporated and the clothing’s all ripped up, but it’s obviously Security armor. It almost makes me gag before I can look away, and Dad grabs my shoulder to brace me.
“Hold on there, kid,” he says, squeezing me with his hand. “That’s just a natural effect of the Creep absorbing nutrients.”
“God, it’s like it’s feeding.”
“Well. It kind of is.”
That doesn’t help, and I’m about to wretch again when we all stumble forward. The floor shakes and sends us tripping, but apparently, I should give Abbott more credit, since he manages to be the only person that stays on his feet.
I mean, he can’t be a Scavenger commander just because he’s a total ass.
Everyone recovers quick enough to see a flood of Creep rush into the upcoming intersection. The stuff’s like a living wall, and it slows and recedes until the figure of a person is all that’s left. She’s got long hair, like, down to her knees. It does this creepy bangs thing, where it covers the upper part of her face, moving down over her eyes before flooding backward along her back. The girl’s skinny, too. Whatever skin she has looks like living Creep, and it’s pulled so tight that you can make out the bones in her chest and hands.
This is what happens when you take a diet too far, kids.
And I’m not sure what she’s wearing, but it looks like some sort of sundress. I don’t know how it’s kept any color, but it’s still a faded pink. The thing that really stands out about her, though? That smile. She just keeps grinning at us with this smile that stretches too far across her face, like she’s tearing the skin at the edges of her mouth from smiling too wide. It gives us a sight of her teeth, and they’re like dull lightbulbs, just this dingy yellow color.
It gives me the creeps. “I can’t believe she’s alive,” I say.
Dad shakes his head. “She’s not. Not the way we think of living.”
The wall next to us suddenly bursts apart like an egg, Creep lashing at us. It pummels one of the guards and pins him to the wall, the stuff cascading over him until he’s buried. Dad turns along with some of the other guards, and they just let loose with a wave of fire. Long streaks of flame spew across the twitchy muscle, and it releases this howl that shakes the ground underneath me. It ignites in orange blossoms and pulls away, ashy gray globs of it falling to the ground as it releases its prey. The Security guy that got hit stumbles back to his feet, and I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or not that he survived. Creepy Sally relentlessly plods toward us as tendrils of muscle start flying from the ground, whipping at the team’s legs.
I just get away as one of the men gets caught by the calf, his leg twisting at unnatural angles as the Creep hauls him off. The guy’s just about to get picked off when Abbott unsheathes this long sword. His pace becomes thunder as his thumb flips a switch on its hilt, the blade igniting in orange and red like a beam of living fire. Abbott moves faster than even the Creep can, and he slices the tendril in half before it can even react to him, the long fleshy stalk burning off black smoke. Without realizing it I backpedal, kinda just gasping at the sight. I get it now.