The Deviant Future

Chapter 2

"She pushed me." Horatio gulped between sobs.

"Is this true?" A stern gaze turned her way.

Laura pointed to Horatio, who did a good job looking pitiful and benign. "He - he made some kind of ghost monster." It never even occurred to her to lie, and she felt guilt over the times she'd heard stories and assumed those telling them made things up.

The newly arrived ptmerr gasped. "What kind of feeble excuse is this? He's a child."

"Hurt," Horatio said, lower lip trembling, but Laura saw the conniving in his eyes.

She jabbed her finger. "He's lying. Look at him. You can see it in his face."

The tawnt gestured to Laura. "Come with me."

"But the children," she said weakly.

"Will be fine. This is not open to debate."

With no choice, Laura followed her. She knew better than to explain as they threaded the halls leaving the nursery. Out in the recreation green space, the baby nannies walked their charges. Why couldn't Laura get a cushy task working in the youngest wards?

They didn't go toward the dormitory, nor the stocks for a whipping, but instead quick-marched to the gate. Overhead, the dome rippled. A thing made of flexible panels but not completely invulnerable. Strong storms could penetrate it, but those kinds of weather conditions didn't happen too often anymore.

The guards at the gates wore body armor head to toe, the visors reflective and hiding any details of the person inside. If there was a person. They seemed rather inhuman. Good thing she didn't deal with them often.

The tawnt swept her past those armored guards, and they stepped onto a moving sidewalk where it became quickly obvious that she was the only sawr outside the wall. Judging by the clothes, there was only a handful tawnts and ptmerrs riding the sidewalks. More guards, too. Kind of eerie how they towered over everyone.

She couldn't help but take in the sights. She'd not been outside the wall since her arrival. Only those in trouble ever left.

And never came back.

She tried not to think about that, and yet it proved insidious. The dread creeping through her every nerve. The fear stuttering her heart and making her palms clammy.

How would they punish her? After all, she'd laid hands on a child. They would never believe her story of him attacking with an invisible monster.

Between the sidewalk and their hurried pace, they made it quickly to the massive building that was Merr's seat of power. They entered a vast antechamber empty of people and even decoration, just a high domed ceiling and the sound of their feet clacking on the floor.

The tawnt yanked her through the grand space to a set of doors. Rather than the armor-clad guards Laura was used to seeing, a pair of ptmerrs stood watching, armed with scythes. Long-shafted to grip two-handed if wanted and the blades slightly curved. She'd never seen them used but heard they could slice a person in half.

The one to the left pulled open the door, and they swept into a much smaller room, empty of people.

"Wait here," said the tawnt.

Laura found herself seated on a plain chair while the tawnt knocked on a thick, yet plain door before entering.

Time stretched, an eternity for her to run through all kinds of possibilities.

A whipping in front of all the sawrs to show what happened to those who disobeyed.

Banishment to the deadly wastelands.

Death.

It never even occurred to her during all her frightful scenarios that they would believe her. Children did not create monsters out of thin air.

When the door eventually opened, Laura couldn't help a morose expression. She rose, body heavy, step slow. The fine grain of a wood floor underfoot was a rare and expensive thing. Most flooring tended to be of the concrete or rubber variety. It gleamed, not enough to reflect, but it did show its cleanliness.

"Hurry up. I haven't all day." The sharp rebuke brought her jerking forward to stop in front of a large desk. More wood, but older. Gray and knotted, the exterior rough. The top of it was smooth, some kind of clear resin coating it.

Laura kept her head bowed and did a short bob. A gesture of respect couldn't hurt.

"She's older than expected," said a gravelly voice.

"A few years shy of thirty, Merr."

"Past her bloom, so why now?" A query spoken musingly aloud. "Look at me, sawr."

Laura's gaze lifted and met the keen gaze of an older woman. Her skin a light tan, her eyes not quite round. Her jet-black hair stopped at the shoulders and had streaks of gray.

Merr said, "You may leave use, Tawnt Odelle."

No argument, just quick obedience.

The door shut with a quiet click, and Laura fought not to fidget in front of the stone-eyed stare.

"You are sawr Laura, correct?"

She nodded.

"According to your file, you've been here quite a long time. And other than a minor period of adjustment when you arrived, never a complaint before this."

It didn't seem to be a question, so Laura didn't reply but did burn slightly at the "minor" thing. The whipping at the time felt anything but. She'd balked at the tight strictures that bound her upon her arrival. She'd asked questions. Argued. Shown too much spirit and so they broke her. They broke everyone who didn't toe the line.

"I was told you had an incident with Horatio this morning."

What had the tawnt told Merr? Should she downplay it or stick to the truth? The truth would make her sound crazy. Yet it wouldn't be the first time a sawr claimed the children had done something odd. Laura had been one of those who sneered when they tried to tell their tall tales. Those sawrs took a walk and never came back.

The reminder made Laura scramble to find a plausible lie. She opened her mouth -

"I would not suggest lying to me."

The rebuke brought heat to her cheeks. "Does it really matter? Truth or lie, I will be punished."

"Making decisions for me?" Merr arched a brow. "How impertinent. You don't know what I want from you. Although I will start with answers. What happened with Horatio? The truth from your lips, or I'll rip it from your mind."

Laura's mouth opened and shut as she processed the threat. "He conjured some kind of ghost beast and used it to scare the children." She didn't add it scared her, too.

"Is that what the Academy teaches these days? They tell you of ghosts?" Merr snorted. "Perhaps they do a disservice by not explaining simple ectoplasmic manipulation via psionic energy."

Laura blinked at all the unfamiliar words. "I'm sorry, Merr. I don't understand."

"Meaning what you saw was not a magical spirit being controlled by Horatio but the shaping of energy into a mirage."

Laura gaped as Merr confirmed what Horatio had done. "He made a monster."

"Only the image of one. The rest of it was bluff."

"I beg to differ," Laura huffed. "It hurt."

"Hurt how? Did it touch you?"

"No. Not exactly. More as if it tried to crack into my mind."

"Tell me more." Merr leaned forward.

"It was like this thing, this creature, was trying to get inside my head. And it hurt." The phantom pain of it was not easy to forget.

"You seem fine."

"Because it attacked me in here." She tapped her temple.

"And you fought it off?"

She nodded.

"How?"

Her shoulders lifted. "I don't know. One minute, Horatio was making us all scream, and the next, the pain was gone and he landed on his butt. Perhaps falling broke his concentration."

"You shoved him."

Laura shook her head. "I didn't touch him."

"Not entirely true." Merr touched her desk, and an image appeared over it.

Laura's mouth rounded as her encounter with Horatio played out in front of her, the beast not as fearsome this time. The encounter didn't take long. Merr rewound it and paused it to the moment where Laura grabbed Horatio by the arms.

"You shook the child."

"He was scaring - "

"I don't care what he was doing. You laid hands on and shook Horatio."

"Not very hard."

"Yet hard enough you obviously triggered him."

It took her only a second to realize. "You're blaming me for what happened."

"You obviously set Horatio off."

"Because he was being bad."

"Hardly bad. Merely experimenting with his abilities. But that's neither here nor there. I'm more interested in the fact you fought him off. How did you do it?" The hard gleam in her eyes demanded an answer.

"I don't know what you mean. You saw the video. He fell on his own."

"Because you shoved him. Before that, he was attacking your mind. You fought him off. How? Did you use a large door that you slammed shut? Maybe a moat or a wall?"

"Wall," she murmured. "How did you - "

"Know? Because it's my job to know. But you are unexpected." Merr settled in her chair and didn't say anything for a moment. When she did, it took Laura by surprise. "Have you been outside the dome?"

"Not since I was transported here."

"Perhaps you came in contact with something from the outside."

"No."

"When was the last time you had a full screening? Blood, scans, everything."

Laura blinked. "At my last physical, Merr."

"Which is yearly?"

"Every three now since I hit twenty-five."

"And you are twenty-seven now. More than two years since your last exam." Merr's lips clamped tight. "You will submit another sample. Today."

"Is something wrong with me?"

"No one gave you leave to question." Merr slapped something onto her desk and spoke to the surface. "Bring her to the lab. I want a full screening done. Tissue, blood, hair, full scan."

"Full? What for?"

Laura didn't react as Tawnt Odelle's voice emerged from a speaker, but she did listen. Why was Merr so interested in her health?

"Yes, full. And then test the rest of the sawrs. Could be she's a fluke, a late bloomer. Maybe we've been getting false negatives. I want to know by the end of today." Merr took a pen and began to write as the door swung open.

"Let's go." The tawnt signaled, but as Laura rose, she couldn't help but ask.

"What's wrong with me? Am I sick?"

"Do we have to gag you?" Merr snapped. "Sawrs should reply only when spoken to."

"We'll remind her of her manners, Merr," Tawnt growled. "Come along." The sharp grip of her arm and the yank snapped her jaw shut.

There would be no answers forthcoming, but the questions brimmed within. Did they think she had the Toxic Wasting Disease? Didn't it start with the mind? Followed by the lungs. No one actually knew for sure.

She was brought to an infirmary much larger than the one in her dorm. She was placed on a bed, the privacy panels drawn around her area. Machine arms emerged from the walls to draw samples, meaning she had no one to ask questions as they took her blood. They even took samples of hair and nails. Embarrassment came at the urine sample she had to produce in front of Tawnt Odelle in a provided cup.

Then she was placed in a solitary room with only a thin mattress for a bed to provide comfort. A scratchy blanket and no light. In the darkness her fearful imaginings multiplied.

She'd be whipped for sure. Flogged until her back resembled raw meat.

And it was utterly unfair. The Creche would punish her as if she'd failed somehow. Yet she'd only sought to protect the other children The Merr knew she told the truth.

Knew what had happened in that room. Not been surprised one bit. Because she knew Horatio had a strange power.

It was that realization that made her suddenly grasp why no one ever returned to the nurseries once they left. So they couldn't tell the others.

I'm going to die.

That thought like no other finally turned her religious. She prayed all that night. On her knees, eyes shut, and hands clasped.

"The Creche is life. Life is good. Serving the Creche makes a good life better."

But no one answered. Her meals arrived through a slot in the door with no warning or kind word. She didn't dare disdain the bounty given her. She ate the slop, drank the chalky water, and prayed some more.

By the time someone finally came to visit Laura, she had sobbed herself hoarse, rubbed her knees raw, and resigned herself to whatever fate was in store. She felt as if she were in a fog, all her senses dull.

The Merr herself stood in the doorway, towering over Laura where she cowered on the floor. "Sniveling and weak." The disdain appeared in the sniff. "And yet the blood doesn't lie. At least not this time it didn't."

"I'm sick?" she asked hoarsely.

"Far from it. And because of our mistake, there is a lot of scrambling to track certain possibilities down."

The enigmatic words didn't make anything any clearer. "What's going to happen to me?"

"Get up and you'll find out. You're leaving."

"Leaving?" she repeated, pushing herself to her feet. "Are you banishing me from the Creche? Please, don't. I am sorry for whatever I did."

The snort came from Tawnt Odelle who waited outside the cell. "You're not being punished, more like promoted with a relocation."

The news made little sense. "Where?"

"You will be taking up a position within the Incubaii Dome," Merr announced.

The statement brought a frown. "Isn't that where babies are made?"

A nebulous concept only whispered about. Some said it involved machines and fluids and some weird mix of ingredients to create a child. More science than she understood. Why send her there?

"It is not your place to question why you've been deemed worthy to become a Madre," the tawnt declared, and yet she wore a sneer.

Laura frowned and, despite being warned, couldn't keep her mouth shut. Not with her life being turned upside down. "I don't understand. Why am I being given another position?"

The Academy chose the rank of its students as they graduated. It didn't change. The best Laura could have hoped for was to work hard and maybe one day prove herself wise enough to become a ptmerr. Now, instead, she'd have to start over.

"Your circumstances have changed."

"This is because of what happened with Horatio. What about him?" Laura asked. "Is he being sent away, too?"

Merr's smile didn't reach her eyes. "Another late bloomer, he will be moving to a new location as well."

"You can't send him to the Academy. He's dangerous," Laura exclaimed.

"There are special schools for the gifted. And he's not your concern, at any rate." Merr walked ahead and didn't look back as Laura trailed behind her, Odelle bringing up the rear.

"I don't want to leave. This is my home." Which she hated and yet preferred it over the unknown.

"You act as if you have a choice." The smile over her shoulder held a sneer. "You will do as you're told."

"Yes, Merr." Laura bowed her head and pretended to understand, yet she didn't.

No one got relocated at her age. It happened young, or not at all. The oldest she'd ever seen leave was Marie at twenty-one. Rumor had it she'd done something bad. Having seen her before her departure, Laura often wondered what evil resided inside Marie's swelling belly. Perhaps she'd inhaled some toxic dust before the goods brought in by truck could be decontaminated.

"Clean her up and put her in the robes. I've got transportation waiting to take her," Merr ordered.

Laura was led from to a bathing chamber, where she was cleansed head to toe. Her long hair was brushed until it shone then tied back into a tight braid.

The ptmerr in charge of her grooming sighed. "If only they'd waited a few more days. She was due to be shorn. Think they'd mind if we kept it?"

Kept it for what? Laura wondered. She'd often wondered why they allowed the sawrs to grow out their hair past their shoulders only to then cut it close to the scalp when it reached a certain length.

"Leave the hair alone," Tawnt Odelle barked. "Get her dressed. They're waiting for her to move out."

So quick. She wouldn't even get a chance to say goodbye to the only home she knew. Or gather the tiny treasures she'd tucked under the clothes in her chest. Not much really. A picture book given by a ptmerr who used to be kind to her. An extra pair of socks for the times the chill ran through and the heat couldn't keep up.

A pair of underpants was handed to her, along with long socks and thin slippers. A white gown was dragged over her head.

The ptmerr shoved Laura toward Tawnt Odelle. "She's ready."

"Let's go."

Brought forth into daylight, Laura squinted as she walked in the unfamiliar skirts, the bulky white fabric getting caught in her legs. The arms had long, tight sleeves that ended in wide tapers. A white belt somehow hung below her waist but above her hips, drawing attention to her shape. A revealing outfit, but one she wasn't given a choice about.

A pair of armored guards, their metal parts creaking, flanked her on the moving walkway, taking her even farther from the nurseries.

The soaring edge of the dome appeared closer and closer, rippling as the panels shifted with an outside breeze. Sizzling, too, because of the energy coursing through it that would zap anything that tried to penetrate. From a young age, they were taught to never touch the dome's shielding. It would shear flesh and not leave any ash.

She eyed the dome, and the wall that supported it, with trepidation as they approached, the closest she'd been to the outside since her arrival so long ago. Her mouth went dry. Her fingers clenched, as she knew that past its sheltering protection, the Wasteland waited. Despite their claim she was going to another dome, another safe place, she had her doubts.

As the walkway neared the exiting arch, she balked. "I can't. I can't be outside the dome."

The guards on either side gripped her by the arm. It only increased her panic.

"Behave and you won't be out in the open for long," the flat voice of one of the guards claimed.

That more than anything sucked the fight out of her.

The first arch led to a door, which opened as they rolled past. It shut right behind them. Another door opened, and the moment it did, she could smell it. Dry dust. Not the clean cycled air of the Creche.

Her breathing came in shallow pants, as she feared taking in a deep one. The armored soldiers obviously didn't fear the air outside with their helmets protecting them. Must be nice. They dragged her toward a truck with more of the armored people milling around it.

One of the guards, tossing armfuls of empty bags into the vehicle, turned and barked, "What's this?"

"The cargo you were told to wait for."

A hand thick with a glove slashed through the air. "We don't transport live things."

"You do today. Order of the Merr."

"The Merr can suck it," grumbled the guard.

"She also says to tell you that if you refuse, don't bother coming back."

The threat worked. Pity. Laura was shoved from one set of armored guards to another. The new pair being even bigger, their armor dented and motley compared to the Creche ones.

"We'll expect extra in our account," the guard stated as he pushed her toward the opening of the truck.

The rumble of its engine filled the air. She'd not been close to one since her arrival. In the Creche, walking was the preferred method of transport, with moving sidewalks aiding with the farthermost locations. In the close confines of the nursery, there wasn't even any need for those.

"Move it." They shoved her toward the gaping maw in the back of the truck. The mouth of a beast ready to swallow her and carry her away from home.

For a second, panic suffused her. She jerked free and ran back to the door leading into the dome, even as she knew it was hopeless. The portal remained shut, and she banged on it, only to whirl when a guard reached for her.

"No!" Laura screamed. "Don't touch me!" The demand pulsed from her, pushing past the numbness.

To her surprise, the guard recoiled. He recovered quickly. He reached for her and began to drag her back to the truck, not daunted at all by her flailing and yells.

The blow to her head knocked her into unconsciousness, and when she woke, it was in darkness, lying atop a pile of rough fabric.

The truck rumbled and rocked as it took her away from the Creche. Her home.