Deadlocked 8 by A.R. Wise

Author:A.R. Wise
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: apocalypse, zombie, post, undead, fallout

19 – Tests

Celeste

I made the most of my meetings with Elise Dawn. She was always chipper and eager to visit, and she brought messages from the other girls who wished me well. Elise had been relating my struggle with the fictional illness to the other Dawns, and it’d become a major topic of conversation.

I had their attention.

“Do you ever dream of the surface?” asked Elise as we sat together on the floor of my room, drawing pictures of wildlife the Administrators had shown us videos of.

“All the time.”

“I can’t wait until I get my Surface Status,” said Elise as she used her thumb to smudge a streak of pencil into shade. “It’s been a long time since any other Dawn got their status.” She sounded forlorn and distant as she focused on her drawing of the elephant.

I was trying to draw the small dog that Ben and Harrison had at Vineyard, but the details of his scrunched up face were a mystery as I tried to duplicate them. I kept erasing him until the paper was wearing thin.

“We’ll get there, one way or another.”

This was a dangerous game I was playing. I knew that I was risking mother’s wrath.

“One way or another?” asked Elise.

“Of course,” I said as if the answer should be apparent. “I mean, it’s not like we’re going to be stuck down here forever. All the Dawns will make it to the Surface. I’m sure Paris and Echo are there now.”

“Maybe, but if they are then they’re lower class citizens,” said Elise as if disgusted by the thought. “I’m not sure I’d want to be up there if I didn’t have Surface Status.”

“I don’t care either way,” I said as I tried to stay focused on my drawing to continue the illusion of nonchalance for the cameras. “As long as I can get out of this place, I’ll be happy.”

Elise stopped drawing and focused on our conversation. “You’d be willing to give up Surface Status just to get out of here?”

I ignored the question and instead slid my pad of paper over towards her. “Can you look at this? I just can’t seem to get the face right.”

I’d hidden words inside of the picture, along the dog’s neckline. I’d been spending nights obsessing over the perfect phrase to instigate a rebellion in the Dawns, and I hoped this would do it:

We’re prisoners. Administrators lie. Fight back.

I’d used quick, punchy phrases because I had to write small enough not to be captured by the cameras and I couldn’t risk Elise sitting there reading for a long time. I watched her eyes pass from left to right as she read the words, and then I ripped the page out of the notebook.

“Oh forget it,” I said as I stood up. “I’m not as good at drawing as you are.”

Elise was dumbfounded. Her mouth was slightly agape as she stared up at me.

I walked to the small door on the wall that led down to the incinerator and quickly tossed the crumbled paper inside.

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