SWAB (A Young Adult Dystopian Novel) by Choate Heather

Author:Choate, Heather [Choate, Heather]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction, young adult, dystopian
Publisher: Akela Publishing
Published: 2014-05-09T03:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Bearer

The next morning, Derrick was gone to the shipping yard before I pulled up to the round table for breakfast. I was grateful. I wasn’t sure I could face him until I figured things out. I had taken one bite of a cheddar biscuit when Jack—the grim reaper himself—appeared, looming over the table.

“We have a lot of work to do today,” he said glumly. “We’d better get right to it.”

My brain screamed at me to tell him to shove it, but Nathan shot me a look from across the table. I had to keep my promise to follow the plan.” I crammed the rest of the biscuit into my mouth and followed the tall scarb scientist away from the common room and all hope of happiness for the day.

Just like the day before, the lab was dark, humid, and stuffy. The tiny red Origin beetle was still sleeping. I guess he’s still not too interested in talking to me, I thought as I settled back into the seat across the room from Jack’s microscopes. Jack had told me he wanted to talk to me again, but he hadn’t even moved in two days.

“He’s preparing for hibernation,” Jack answered my thoughts matter-of-factly. I cringed internally, knowing that my study session with Derrick the night before had yielded me no more protection over my thoughts.

“Thanks,” I grumbled sarcastically, knowing that he already knew how unhappy I was about not being able to hide my thoughts. He could at least do the decency of pretending not to hear me instead of answering my internal questions.

Another mountain of files greeted me. “Saki pulled these out for you this morning,” Jack told me, like she’d given me a gift or something. I groaned but got to work sorting and organizing them into folders.

After three hours, my lower back was sore, and there was a crick in my neck. Jack was still hunched over his microscope. This is stupid. I thought about Nathan off at his flying lesson, and even Derrick helping bring in shipments far below us. At least they get to move. I wished that I’d been given wings like Nathan so that I could be up there with him. I don’t belong down here, stuck in this prison. I need to be out in the fresh air. I need to be looking for Iva so I can find Ray, not sorting through these stupid papers.

“Why do you study these?” I finally asked Jack, picking up a graphic of a Spur-Throated Grasshopper eating a Luna Moth. Jack didn’t look up from his slide when he answered.

“We are part of a much bigger picture now, Cat,” he emphasized my name as if he distasted it. “There are nine hundred thousand known species of insects.”He turned the turret on the microscope’s tube. “That’s three times as many as all other animal species put together. More are discovered every day. It is important to understand where we fit into the picture of it all.”

I crinkled my

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