Vitro by Jessica Khoury

Author:Jessica Khoury
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Young Adult
ISBN: 9781595146052
Publisher: Razorbill
Published: 2013-07-30T05:00:00+00:00

TWENTYONE

LUX

S

he watched mournfully as Jim disappeared beneath the water. She wanted to follow him, but the man holding her was too strong. Recalling how she’d fought the boys and girl on the beach, she knew she could get free if she tried, but Jim had said Don’t fight them.

Her heart throbbed painfully in her chest and she watched the water to see if he would reappear the way he had when he swam in the ocean, but he was gone.

Gone.

Panic and fear twisted in her stomach she could not see him but she needed him without him she was losing control was falling apart.

The men dragged her away away from Jim and she could not stop them because don’t fight them don’t fight them.

“What’s wrong with her?” someone said. “Is she having a panic attack?”

“She’s a Vitro, just woke up. Strauss said she imprinted on that pilot.”

“Christ. What a mess.”

“You’re telling me. Let’s get her back inside. Call Chad’s group, tell them to search this area. He won’t get far.”

“Think he drowned down there?”

“I’m not gonna find out. We’ll go down later and check, with the right equipment, see if he’s there.”

They marched through the trees and Lux marched with them, but she twisted and turned, trying to look back, trying to find him but he was nowhere. Drowned drowned drowned the man had said and Lux exploded inside couldn’t bear it couldn’t breathe.

“The hell’s the matter with her?”

“Separation anxiety, looks like. I’ve seen it before with the new ones. Sorry creatures can’t handle the stress of being separated from their, well, whatever you call them. Masters? Owners?”

“Whatever. I don’t want to know anyway. My contract’s up in three months, and then I’m out of here. It’s too weird on this island. Isn’t natural.”

The man holding Lux grunted. “You got that right. Don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to.”

“But you have to know what it is you’re guarding,” a third man said.

“I already know more than I want to know. Take my advice, Thornton: stay out of it. Corpus pays well, but I’ll be damned if they aren’t the shadiest, prickliest employer I’ve ever had. And that includes Colombia.”

“You ran in Colombia? Hey, I knew a guy worked down there. Maybe you knew him…”

Their conversation wandered out of Lux’s grasp, and she gave up trying to listen. Her heart pounded in her ears. Without Jim to balance her, the world moved too quickly and confusingly, sucking her down and crashing against her like the waves.

Soon they reached a building on an open hill, and Lux gazed at it in wonder. It was huge and black against the setting sun. She didn’t want to go inside. She wanted to run back into the trees to find Jim. But the men dragged her along even when she dug her feet into the ground, and then she had to relent and go with them because don’t fight them.

Inside she found a strange new world, a world of walls and too-bright lights and solid floors that squeaked beneath the shoes Jim had put on her feet.

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