Meritropolis by Joel Ohman

Author:Joel Ohman [Ohman, Joel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781500189600
Amazon: 150018960X
Barnesnoble: 150018960X
Goodreads: 23198675
Published: 2014-09-08T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

Human Farm

Abigail hated fairy tales. She had read her share of them during her time in the underground dormitories, just like most of the other High Scores in her class, because there was little else to do underground other than read. She had hated every one of them. The damsel in distress? The dashing prince who would always rush in to save the poor helpless maiden? No thank you was Abigail’s reply to every one.

The weakness that the female characters exhibited in every tale infuriated her. She spent her time wondering why Rapunzel didn’t just chop off her own hair, braid herself an escape rope, and rappel down the side of the tower? And Cinderella, if she wasn’t so busy prancing and twirling around in her glass slippers, then she could have escaped from her evil stepmother without so much as a backward glance. As for Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, it pained Abigail to even think about those paradigms of male chauvinism—the moral of the story is that the woman is just supposed to lie there helplessly and wait for a kiss from a prince. Really? Just thinking about it made her fume.

By all outward appearances, Abigail could be perfectly cast as Cinderella or Snow White, and she was well aware that she perhaps even cultivated the ingénue look to some degree. But on the inside, she was no storybook princess.

Abigail used her beauty as a tool, just as she did with her other assets. Abigail knew that with a Score of 118 she had the highest Score of any female in Meritropolis. But she certainly was not going to lay around in a glass coffin with her bosom heaving and her mouth parted waiting for a prince’s magical kiss to arrive and save the day. Abigail was, in fact, a princess on a mission to upstage the lead.

And in Meritropolis the lead was, of course, Commander Orson. Abigail was happy to let him think he was in control. For now.

On the outside, Abigail flounced her hips and batted her eyelashes: all the usual helpless-maiden theatrics. On the inside, she carefully plotted and schemed.

Meritropolis was a functional kingdom under Commander Orson. And she knew that every king needed his queen, but that was not where Abigail ultimately aimed to rest. She wanted it all.

For now, Meritropolis was a kingdom. Soon enough, Abigail would make it her queendom.

But she was aware that this new high-Score brat might turn all her hard work and planning to naught. She was beginning to wonder if she had hitched herself to the wrong train in choosing Commander Orson as her target. Charley was already close to having as high a Score as Orson, and it was only a matter of time before the highest Score either rose to the top position of power, or met with a very bloody end—of that, she was sure. But there were no rules against her targeting the both of them at the same time.

Abigail pulled her shoulders

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