Her mom rolled down the window. “Becca!”
Becca hung up the phone. It would have to be enough.
She stayed where she was. Her mom pulled up beside her and stopped the car. “Get in.”
Becca obeyed, still thinking about Jake, wondering whether he would understand her message. Or if it would even reach him in time.
She didn’t remember to be afraid for herself until the car door’s lock softly snapped into place.
They drove in silence.
Becca waited for her mom to say something. She didn’t.
“Where are we going?” Becca finally asked.
Her mom didn’t take her eyes off the road. “We’re going to 117.”
Becca felt her heart stop.
Her mom was giving her to Internal. Even as she had confided her worries about this very thing to Jake, she hadn’t actually believed it could happen.
Was that what Jake had meant when he had accused her of seeing herself as untouchable?
“You’re turning me in?” Her voice came out small and scared, a little girl’s voice.
“No!” The car swerved. Her mom lowered her voice. “No. There’s no need for that. You’re not a dissident. You’re just confused.”
Relief fought with wariness. Could she trust what her mom told her? “Then why are you taking me to 117?”
“So I can help you.” Her mom was gripping the steering wheel so tightly that her fingers had turned white.
Her mom… Heather… everyone wanted to help her. Heather wanted to do it by reporting Jake. Her mom wanted to do it by taking her to 117. Becca wished people would stop trying to help.
The road that had seemed so long a few minutes ago whizzed by outside. “What do you mean? Help me how?”
Her mom didn’t say anything else.
The sunrise was starting to fade as they pulled into the parking lot of 117. Her mom got out of the car without a word. Becca followed only because she knew her mom would drag her if she didn’t get out on her own.
They walked toward the building—not to the front door, the one Becca had used when she had come here to find Heather, but to a smaller door along the right-hand wall. Becca’s legs shook from fear and exhaustion. Her heart sped up with every step she took that brought her closer to the building.
What had her mom meant about helping her?
Her mom took a card out of her wallet and slid it into the card reader by the side of the door. The door clicked open. Her mom stepped inside; again, Becca had no choice but to follow her.
They stepped into a small square room, with white walls to either side and an elevator in front. Her mom slid her card into the card reader beside the elevator. The elevator doors opened silently.
The elevator hummed as it descended. Becca’s limbs twitched. She had to get out of here, before it was too late, before…
The elevator came to a stop.
The doors opened onto a gray hallway lit with dim yellow lights. The hallway stretched much further than the building above. Its rows of doors were broken up only by intersecting hallways.
The underground levels.
They stepped out of the elevator. Their footsteps echoed on the concrete floor. The hallway smelled like stale air and disinfectant.
The elevator doors closed behind them. No way out.
“What are we—” Becca’s words echoed as loudly as her footsteps. She dropped her voice to a whisper. “What are we doing here?” She couldn’t ask the rest of her question: Why are we down here if you’re not giving me to Internal?
Had that been another lie?
“I need to show you something.” Her mom didn’t whisper like Becca, but somehow she kept her voice from traveling further than the two of them. “I need to show you what will happen to you if you keep going down the path you’re on.”
They walked through the maze of hallways, each one identical to the one before it, until Becca had no idea what direction the elevator was in, let alone how to get back there. Each hallway was deserted, silent except for their footsteps and the hum of the lights… and once, so faint Becca thought she must have imagined it, the sound of screaming from behind one of the doors.
They reached a dead end. At the end of the hallway, a man sat with his back against the wall, knees and elbows jutting out in all directions. His head hung down toward his chest; his eyes were closed. Becca thought he might be dead at first, until she heard a soft snore.
As they approached, he brought his head up with a start. “Raleigh! I didn’t know you were here.” He unfolded his limbs and clambered to his feet as quickly as his gangly legs would allow. Becca had to tilt her head up to see the blush spreading across his cheeks.
“I came in early,” said her mom. “I was hoping you would still be here.”
The man looked maybe ten years older than Becca, at most. His eyes traveled to Becca, to her arms hanging loosely at her sides. “Um, Raleigh? Are you sure that’s safe?”
“She’s not a prisoner,” her mom answered sharply. “This is my daughter Becca.”
“Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…” His blush deepened. “It’s nice to meet you,” he said to Becca. “I’m Eli. I work with your mom.” He turned his attention back to her mom. “Why were you looking for me? Did you need anything?” He asked the question as though her assigning him some task would be the highlight of his day.
Was this the moment of betrayal? Was her mom going to hand her over to this man and walk away?
“Are you still planning to execute prisoner K10-843 today?” her mom asked.
Jake. They’ve got Jake in here. That’s why she brought me.
Eli nodded. “Why? Do you need her?”
Her. Not Jake after all, then. She let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding.
“No,” her mom answered. “But I want you to let us watch.”
Eli looked from her mom to Becca and back again, a question in his eyes.
“She’s here for a school project,” her mom lied smoothly. “With everything that’s been going on in the schools, her Citizenship teacher thought an in-depth presentation on Processing would be appropriate, and Becca was the natural choice.”
If Eli doubted her story, he didn’t show it. “I can do it right now, if you want. I already brought her to room five.”
Becca’s mom nodded. “Lead the way.”
So her mom had been telling the truth. She wasn’t turning Becca over to Internal after all. She had brought Becca here to see a dissident executed, to show her what could happen to her.
Becca could handle that. She had seen executions on TV before. She was safe, and—for now, at least—so was Jake. That was what mattered.
Her stomach clenched.
She could handle this.
They traveled further into the maze, until they stopped at a door that looked the same as all the others. Becca’s mom used her card to unlock the door. She walked in first, then Eli, who held the door open for Becca.
All she had to do was remind herself it was just like the executions on TV, and forget she was in the same room. Forget that her mom was right and she could easily end up dying just like this.
She could handle this. She could handle it.
She stepped inside.
The room wasn’t much bigger than a closet. The same dim yellow light that shone in the hallways illuminated the gray concrete walls and the bloodstains someone had tried in vain to bleach off. Becca wanted to run, might have done it if Eli hadn’t closed the door behind her.