Biome by Ryan Galloway

Author:Ryan Galloway [Galloway, Ryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: action, forgiveness, colonization, thriller, identity, interpersonal relations, space, female protagonist, mystery, terraforming mars, adventure, survival, dystopian
Publisher: Stranger Fiction
Published: 2016-12-04T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

“What are you doing?”

Terra scowls at me as she pauses beside a bioreactor. She clicks off a tiny blinking device in her hand. I stare at her in a daze.

“Huh?”

“I said, what—are—you—doing?” she repeats each word deliberately, as if I’m a child. “You’re supposed to be hiding, not out in plain sight.” Her eyes narrow. “God, Lizzy. What, are you crying?”

“No,” I say, wiping my nose on my jumpsuit. Reliving these memories so soon after the glade should make me nauseated. But as I struggle to my feet, I’m surprised to find that I actually feel a little better. The weight of the knot has eased.

“Liar,” Terra sneers. She adopts a mocking tone. “Oh, what happened, Lizzy? Did you finally realize you’re not very popular around here? Is that why you’re sad?”

“This isn’t about the glade,” I mutter.

“No? Then why are you sitting in here blubbering?”

I hesitate.

“None of your business.”

This sets her off. She closes the gap between us in two steps, and for a second I think she’s going to hit me again.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t turn you in right now,” she says acidly. “One good reason.”

“Why don’t you?” I yell back at her. Suddenly I don’t care if the doctors hear me. All of the tension, the fear, the lies, the sadness, the loss of Noah and his memories, it’s broken free, and I don’t care to contain it anymore. “Isn’t that what you’ve wanted all along? To prove you’re better? Why did you even help me in the first place?”

For a second her features are stiff as iron. Then a cold smile curls her lips.

“None of your business.”

We just glare, each daring the other to take it further. But we don’t. Slowly the tension bleeds out of the room like oxygen sucked from an airlock.

“They took him,” I say, averting my gaze.

“Who?”

“Noah,” I say bitterly. “They’re probably scanning his mind right now, trying to figure out who I’ve been working with. Assuming your rebels haven’t already told.”

“They haven’t,” she says. “I’ve been working on some of them for a couple days. Even if they think you’re crazy, they know I’m not.”

Beside me, one of the bioreactors beeps and starts whirring.

“We need to get him back,” I say.

“Noah?”

“Yes, Noah. Who else?”

Now her smile isn’t cold but triumphant.

“So there is something going on between you. I told Chloe. She practically bit my head off, saying your ‘sleeping arrangements’ were innocent, but I told her—”

“There’s nothing between us,” I snap, and this time I’m in her face. She just laughs.

“Yeah, okay. Whatever. But like you said, they’ve probably got a Stitch on him by now.”

“Then we need to act,” I say, lowering my voice. “We go for Dosset—now. It’s our only chance of stopping him before Noah’s memories are gone.” I don’t say it, but that old fear is growing in the back of my head, that rather than erase every troublesome memory, they’ll simply erase me from Noah’s mind entirely.

I’m the root of the problem, after all.

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