Recruits (New Haven Book 1), page 17
My heart raced as the tears fell. I looked up at my three friends. My only friends in the world.
“I’m being eliminated from Recruitment.”
T he three of them sat there, stunned. I couldn’t continue. The whole thing had overwhelmed me. How could I face my family after this? My mom? How would I explain it? I had completely let them down. I'd let myself down.
Eric had stood, so Dee came over, sat next to me, and put her arm around me.
Tina was the first to speak. “When?” She reached across the table and took my hand. “Are they coming tonight?”
I took deep breaths, trying to calm myself. When I finally got it together, I pulled my head up but continued to lean on Dee. Eric stayed standing, resting both of his hands on the wall next to us.
“After all the testing this week,” I said.
“Why are they waiting?” Tina asked.
“He wants me taken out during a physical challenge,” I said. “He said he didn't want it falling on River Springs. The only thing I can think of is that they want to make it look like I did something wrong and needed to be taken out of Recruitment. They want a scene.” Maybe they intended to make me an example. The thought sickened me.
“I guess that makes sense,” Tina said. “Of course they wouldn’t want it to look like they had anything to do with it.”
“We need to find a way to talk with VP Oliver,” Dee said as she stroked my hair. “There has to be some mistake. We need to fix this.”
I laughed and sat up to look at her. “Dee, there’s no fixing this. Once President Randall has made up his mind, it’s done. There’s no changing it.”
“Can’t we just be really careful during the challenges?” Tina asked. “They need something plausible to be able to pull you from Recruitment.”
“RH Johnson's the one on top of it. He’ll find a way. He’ll make a way. There will be no right or wrong way for me to perform.” I wiped the tears off my face. At least they had stopped coming.
“So, you’re just going to give up?” Tina let go of my hand and scooted back. “Just like that, you’re going to let it go and let them do this to you?”
“It’s not that simple, Tina.”
She swore, taking me by surprise. “It is simple. You're a fighter, Emmie, so fight.”
I sighed. “I broke the rules. I signed the contract. They have every right to eliminate me.”
The fact that they weren't going off what I'd already done and were planning something bigger and better worried me. Why? So many questions and no answers.
“Tina's right,” Dee said with a nod. “You can't give up. We'll find a way to talk to your mom, or VP Oliver, or someone.”
They were right. I didn't want to give up. It wouldn't be easy to fight. But I wasn't one to back down to a challenge. There had to be a way to stay.
My heart jumped as a loud bang erupted in the room. Eric had slammed his fist into the wall, shaking his hand out afterward. Until then, I had forgotten he was even in there. He hadn’t said a word since I told them I was going to be eliminated.
“What are you trying to do, Eric? Scare us half to death?” Tina placed her hand on her chest. “What if someone heard that?”
Eric breathed heavily. I had never seen him so upset.
“Dee, Tina, would you mind leaving Eric and me alone for a minute?” I asked, standing. Tina and Dee both stood as well.
“We’ll figure this out, Emmie. It’s going to be okay.” Dee gave me a tight hug. “Love you.”
“Love you, too,” I said.
Tina hugged me. “I’ll see you back at the dorm.”
Once they had left, I went up to Eric and tried to place my hand on his arm, but he shook it away. He looked me in the eye. “They can’t …” His jaw was pulled tight and the veins on his neck became visible. “They can’t do this to you.”
“They can, Eric. What can I do to stop them?”
“VP Oliver. I can tell you trust the guy. Let’s go talk to him.” Eric turned toward the door.
I hurried and got there before him, blocking him from leaving. “What are you going to do? Walk up to his office? Demand to talk to him?”
“Yes.” His eyes were determined.
I shook my head. “Are you crazy? They would never let you. You would get stopped as soon as you leave this building. You can’t just walk around this town, you know. Not as a Recruit. And you can’t sneak your way there, seeing as there are cameras all over the place.”
“You've left to talk to him before.” Eric ran his fingers through his hair. “He just needs to stop them. We’ll tell him what you heard, and he’ll stop it.”
“He’s the vice president, Eric, not the president. He’ll be overruled.”
“But they can’t …” Eric leaned into me, placing his forehead against mine. “They can’t just take you away. I can’t lose you, too.”
I hated to bring it up right then, but it seemed like the only time I would be able to. “Eric, what happened to your dad?”
Sighing, he pulled away. “My dad was a researcher for River Springs. He kept track of everything that happened so they could check for patterns in our society. He had access to all the events that happened in the past, before the divide. Most of what he did was top secret. Two years ago, my dad changed. He came home every night flustered. You could tell he had a lot on his mind. He kept mumbling to himself, which he hadn’t done since we lost Mom.”
My breath caught for a second. “You lost your mom?”
Eric nodded slowly. “Five years ago. Cancer.”
“But I thought they had cured every cancer.”
At least, they had always claimed that. It seemed fishy to me since we'd lost so much technology and supplies after the divide. But that was their main focus during the rebuild of the city. Medical research and technology became the two biggest focuses, before running water or other necessities. With so many people gone, the number of diseases had dropped dramatically. They put the best scientists and doctors on the issue to stop anything before it spread or became serious.
“That’s what they say, but there are still a couple of rare forms they haven’t cured. We weren’t allowed to tell anyone how she died. They didn’t want to alarm anyone.” Eric rubbed his temples. “One night I overheard my dad on our house phone. He sounded upset. He kept talking about his ‘findings’ and that something needed to be done or the city would be in trouble. Whomever he was talking to didn’t want to listen. They told him to drop it.” He laughed. “My dad never drops anything.”
“So that’s where you get it from,” I said, smiling a little.
“I guess so.” Eric leaned against the wall. “My dad kept making phone calls. He came home with stacks of paper and would keep them locked up in his room. One night he came home, completely out of sorts. He was going around the house like a mad man. I tried to ask him what was going on, but he wouldn’t acknowledge me. He finally snapped out of it for a second when there was a knock at the door. He told me to go to my room and keep the door closed. He told me not to come out, no matter what I heard.”
He closed his eyes. “There was so much shouting. I heard doors slamming over and over again. It went on for a good half hour. Dad yelled at them, telling them to stop and that they wouldn’t get away with it. Then suddenly it went quiet. I sat in my room, unable to move. After two hours, I decided to go out. When I opened the door, I couldn’t believe what I saw. The house was a mess. Everything was scattered about. I went into my dad’s room and noticed everything had been taken but the bed and dresser. The place where he kept stuff locked up was empty. I went out into the front room and there …” He stopped. His eyes were wet.
I walked up to him and took his hand in mine. He squeezed my hand tight.
He opened his eyes. “There was blood on the floor. My dad was gone.”
“Is he …?” I didn’t want to finish the question.
Eric looked into my eyes. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since. Two guys came to my house the next morning and took me away. They gave me to a couple who had only been able to have one child but wanted more.”
“So, what did they tell you about your dad?”
“To forget about him. They made up this horrible lie that he was a traitor. That he'd stolen stuff from River Springs and couldn’t be trusted. They even accused him of killing my mom.”
“Just to cover up cancer?” I couldn’t believe it. I had doubts about River Springs growing up, but I never thought it was that bad.
“Just to cover their backs. They don’t want anything pointing to them. Not everyone knows about my dad. The people in my precinct know he’s gone, but they were never told why. The only people who think he's a traitor are the people President Randall wanted to know so they would trust him and be on his side.”
“What does Luke's dad do for the company?” I asked. Tina always brought up how brainwashed Luke had been.
“He's the head of research and development, so he worked closely with the researchers, my dad being one of them. Of course, plenty of rumors have gone around, but none of them are confirmed. Just Tina and Luke’s families think they know the actual truth.”
I shook my head. “I’m not sure Tina believes it. I think she has her suspicions about Randall. So, you don’t know for sure that your dad's dead, right? Where would they take him?”
Eric let out a sigh. “I’ve thought about that for the past two years. I’ve thought about him being dead, being locked up in the infirmary, but my cousin Richie has an idea, too.”
“What?”
He rubbed my hand with his thumb. “He thinks that maybe he was banished from the city.”
Banished? Would they do that to a person? And if so, could someone survive? Could they live in another city? “If he was banished, do you think he's still alive?”
“That’s what I hope. He was a brave guy, but I don’t have any idea what's out there. I’ve tried many times to escape, but they always stop me. I’ve tried being reckless in the hopes that they would banish me, too.”
“No wonder you've been willing to break the rules.” It all made sense now. “You didn’t care if you got caught.”
Eric chuckled. “Nope.”
“And here I thought you were breaking the rules just to impress me.” I gave him a playful smile.
“That played into it. It would have been easier to say no if you weren't so hot.” He pulled me into him, and I leaned my head against his chest.
“So, what am I going to do?”
Eric sighed. “I have no idea. But there has to be something we can do.” He squeezed me tight. “We’ll figure it out.”
“I hope you’re right. We should probably go. We’ve been gone a while.”
“True. Emmie,” Eric said, pulling away from me to look me in the eye, “I’m not going to let anything happen to you, I promise.”
I bit my lip. I needed to know how much faith I could put in him. “Eric, can I trust you?”
He kissed me on the forehead. “Yes.” That was all I needed to hear. Eric took my hand and went to the door. He opened it slowly and looked out. “Coast is clear.”
We stopped near the bottom of the stairs that led to the girls' dorms.
“See you tomorrow.” Eric squeezed my hand, let go, and started down the hall.
“Hold it right there.” RH Johnson came down the stairs and stopped, his arms folded making his muscles look more threatening than they usually did. Behind him, smiling big, was his evil brat of a daughter, Amber.
“Where were you two?” RH Johnson asked.
“What?” I asked.
“Don’t play dumb with me, Emelia,” RH Johnson said. “Where were you?”
“We were in the dining hall, eating,” I said.
“That’s a lie, daddy,” Amber said, using a baby voice. “They left a half-hour ago.”
“It took you a half-hour to walk down the hall?” Dean asked, his eyes drilling into mine. I could tell he was looking for some reaction, waiting for me to be flustered.
“We were just down the hall,” I said, as calmly as I could.
“Doing what?” Dean asked.
My thoughts raced as I tried to think of a plausible answer. What took a half-hour?
“We were making out,” Eric said from behind me.
I turned around to look at him, my eyes wide. Had he really just said that?
He came up next to me, putting one arm around me and putting his other hand in his pocket. He shrugged. “We were just down the hall, making out.” He really had said it. And now he had said it twice, making it hard to say he had just misspoken the first time.
“Ewww!” Amber’s face scrunched. “You were making out? With her? How desperate are you?”
I threw out my arms. “Hey!” Why wouldn’t he want to make out with me? He had said I was hot. Although, that probably wasn’t a good thing to use as an argument.
“Quiet, Amber,” RH Johnson said, making her pout. It also made me smile a little. But the smile quickly faded when RH Johnson turned his glare to me.
“Do you need to be reminded of the rules?” RH Johnson asked. “You aren’t allowed to date during Recruitment.” He watched us, waiting to see our response. If he wanted me to feel guilty, that wasn’t about to happen. I, for one, would rather have been making out than talking about me being eliminated.
“We aren’t dating, sir,” Eric said. “We were just kissing.”
“Well, that's still not allowed,” RH Johnson said. “Eric, you can join Emmie, Tina, and Dee tonight for their workout with SO Clark. I'll make sure to let him know to make the two of you stay later. I never want to hear of you kissing again. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, sir,” Eric said.
RH Johnson looked at me, waiting for my response. After a couple of seconds, Eric nudged me.
I cleared my throat. “Yes, sir.”
“Good. And the touching,” RH Johnson said, pointing to Eric’s arm that was still wrapped around me, “has to stop, too. Now, you two had better get back to your dorms immediately.”
Eric slid his arm away, brushing my back with his hand, sending a shiver through me. He was lucky RH Johnson had just said no touching because otherwise, I would have slapped him upside the head since he did that on purpose.
“Goodnight, sir. Goodnight, Amber. Goodnight, Emmie.” Eric turned around and marched down the hall.
“That’s it?” Amber’s voice squeaked. “Daddy! That’s unfair! They broke a rule! They should have a bigger punishment! She should be taken out of Recruitment!”
I flinched. She would have her way in just a week when they eliminated me.
“Stop it, Amber,” RH Johnson said to her, his voice laced with annoyance. “This is just a minor infraction and I will handle it how I see fit. They agreed to not do it again, right Emelia?”
“Yes, of course, sir. Never again.” I smiled on the inside.
“No harm, no foul,” RH Johnson said. “Don’t let us keep you, Emelia. Good luck tonight during your workout.”
“Thank you, sir.” I walked past them, ignoring Amber and her ever-annoying pout.
I knew he kept the punishment light because he was going to have me taken out of Recruitment in just a few days and probably because President Randall wasn't there to overrule him, but I didn’t care. It still felt like a small victory in my book.
O ver the next week, I tried on multiple occasions to sneak out so I could find VP Oliver, my mom, or my dad, but there were too many security officers everywhere. No way my leaders wouldn't give me a pass to leave the Recruitment dorms.
I only had one day left, so I had to find a way out. If I got caught, would it matter anyway? It would just push up my elimination from Recruitment, which could be a good or bad thing.
I waited until Tina fell asleep and then snuck out of my dorm. I'd put on my black top and pants, hoping to blend in with the darkness. I couldn't hide my blonde hair, though. The only thing I could do was pull it back in a ponytail.
At the bottom of the stairs, two dorm leaders stood near the door that led outside. I couldn't sneak past them without being seen.
Crouching down, I leaned against the stairwell trying to come up with a plan. A few minutes later, a loud bang came from the other end of the hall.
“What was that?” One of the dorm leaders had spoken.
“I don't know,” the other one said. “Let's check it out.”
Knowing I'd be seen if I stood and ran back up the stairs, I made myself as small as I could and kept still. The two dorm leaders were too focused on the other end of the hall to notice me. Once they were far enough away, I crept to the front door and snuck out. How convenient for me.
The cool fall air hit me right when I stepped out. I welcomed it. I'd been so nervous that I'd made my temperature skyrocket. When I got to the end of the sidewalk, I started to cross the street, but someone pulled on my arm.
“Ah!” I clamped my hand over my mouth, hoping I didn't draw too much attention to me. Luckily, it seemed empty out on the street.
“Emmie?”
When I turned to see the source, Richie stood there. He pulled me down the alley where we first met after I'd ridden on his motorcycle with Eric.
Richie smiled at me. “Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I was expecting Eric.”
“Eric?”
“Someone call my name?”
The sudden voice behind me made me jump. Both Eric and Richie let out quiet laughs.
“She's jumpy tonight,” Richie said.
I frowned at them. “Of course, I am. I just snuck out of Recruitment, I'm going to be eliminated tomorrow and a guy grabbed me in the middle of a dark street. Then Eric creeps up behind me.” I shivered, the cold finally getting to me.
Eric stepped up close, putting his arm around me and rubbing it for warmth. My heat suddenly came back.
“Sorry,” Eric said.
“What are you two doing?” I suddenly wondered if Eric had been the source of the commotion that caused the dorm leaders to leave the front entrance.
Richie looked at Eric then back at me. “Eric asked me to meet him here. He mentioned it the other day in the mechanics class.” He scratched the back of his neck. “I don't know why, though.”
