Chapter Three

 

 

"Come on. Get up." Someone slapped something smooth and crinkly over my face. "Breathe through this. The gas will get out of your system. We have to hurry before reinforcements come."

The person--a young man about my age--wrapped the crinkly thing around my nose and mouth. I breathed. The air was fresh through it and the drowsiness lifted. It was like the pollution masks that we all wore but made from a different material.

It took me a second to realize what had happened. The gas. I opened my eyes to see the hallway filled with fog. Through this mask, I smelled a bit of smoke.

I sucked in another breath and realized that the effects of the gas were clearing. Paj lay on the floor, passed out and breathing. So did Blake. Winnie lay slumped against the wall, out cold. She still breathed, too. My friends had succumbed to the gas's effects.

Then who--

A boy about my age faced me. He held my arms as he kneeled over me. In the fog, I saw that more forms lay on the floor, forms in gray-blue uniforms.

"Huh?" I asked.

This boy was green.

As in, plant green.

His dark, curly hair was normal, and his eyes were a deep brown, the most common color. The green in his skin, though weird, looked natural somehow. It reminded me of the pigment in leaves.

And he, too, wore a mask over his nose and mouth. It wasn't one of the pollution ones that everyone had. I could see through it, and he wasn't falling over from the gas that now filled the chamber.

"Are you okay?" he asked in a normal voice.

"My friends," I said. A green boy stood before me, and that was my first thought.

"They're only asleep. I only had two masks. We have to go. You're an Earther. You might be useful." He looked at my patch. "Come on. If you want to fight for your cause, follow me."

"I'm not leaving my friends!" I pulled my arms away from him as the last of the gas's effects wore off. Other than us, the hallway was quiet. The mop robot had powered down.

I blinked, glad that the vapor didn't bother my eyes.

About ten Task Force employees lay on the floor. A strange burning smell came from them, one that could creep through this gas mask I wore. The coffee woman lay face-down on the tile. Her collar had flipped, exposing her neck. There was something black and burned sticking to the back of it. It looked like a fried octopus with tentacles wedged in her skin. I couldn't see the rest of the hallway clearly, but the sight was enough to make me nauseated. What had happened?

The boy had a gun in his belt. It had a large barrel with an orange glow emanating from it.

And he was shaking.

It looked like some laser or a heat ray, and it must have stopped the Task Force and the robot. It must have. The Task Force people all wore gas masks. The woman was no longer breathing, unlike my friends. I had a feeling that none of the Task Force people were. My friends, on the other hand, continued their slumber. They had survived whatever this green boy had done.

And what was that thing on the back of the woman's neck? I couldn't see if the other Task Force people had them.

"You have to," he said. "You don't want to go to Mars. I just came from there." He pulled on my arm. "You can stay, or you can go!"

"Let go of me!" I raced over to Winnie, jumping over the woman in the process. The smell worsened. I shook Winnie. She groaned and turned her head, but she didn't wake up. I grabbed her shoulders and searched around for a mask. The woman wore one, tied around her ears. A Task Force man nearby lay dead, eyes open and not breathing. I caught a glimpse of another roasted tentacle poking into the back of his skull.

"She won't wake up. There's too much in her system," the boy said, desperate. "I need someone to show me where Woking Park is. Taking Earth back depends on it."

"Winnie!" I shouted. I'd drag her into safety. I could get her into the theater. Hooking my hands under her arms, I managed to drag her a few feet. "Help me!"

The boy sighed and took Winnie's legs. Together, we lifted her while he tucked the strange gun under his armpit. The green boy wore a gray jumpsuit that looked like something from a prison. He was skinny like he had spent a few years in reduced gravity. He lifted Winnie, shaking, and dropped her legs.

"I can't," he said, checking back in the direction of the spaceport. "I'm not used to this much gravity anymore. We have to leave."

He was right. His muscles had atrophied. "Then I'll do it myself," I said. Why did he need me so badly? This boy from Mars didn't have to stick around. "Winnie! You have to help me."

She continued to breathe. I dragged her further from the woman's body and that gross thing on her neck. I had never seen a dead person before. The disgust and the horror would hit later. Right now, it was just shock and need to get my best friend out of here.

In the direction of the spaceport, doors banged open.

"Drop her!" the Mars boy shouted, grabbing my arm.

In my shock, I did.

Footfalls raced for us. I couldn't see our pursuers in the fog, but they were coming. They would make eye contact with us soon enough. I thought of this boy and how Mars had ruined his body. He had a hardness in his eyes that I didn't want to match. The Red Planet had made him into something strange and terrifying. If I went there, I might become like this.

The animal brain took over again, and I ran.

I left Winnie behind, but there was nothing I could do. If I dragged her, they would take us both.

I followed the green boy to the theater doors, panting through the mask. He rammed into them, opening them, and we both bolted into the room. The same gas that filled the hallway behind us also filled this place, as if the Task Force expected people to try running this way. If this boy hadn't shown up, I would be getting dragged away right now.

I had to escape.

I wouldn't do my friends any good captured. Right?

"Keep going!" he shouted, brandishing the strange gun.

I could be running with a lunatic. The Mars boy could be a serial killer, and I'd be his next victim.

The boy pushed the next set of doors open.

Lin lay on the floor, passed out.

"Lin!" I shouted.

The Mars Exhibit, too, was filled with white vapor. The Task Force wanted to be thorough. I wondered if the entire museum was like this. Maybe they took everyone away who stepped in.

I had no choice but to jump over her. The footfalls drew closer to us.

"We have to hide," the boy said, grabbing my arm. "The Grounders don't like heights."

I didn't protest. I thought of looking out at Mars for real, and I followed, leaving Lin to her fate. I would never live with myself for this.

The tall, hulking form of the tripod loomed large in the fog. The boy paused, then bolted for it, still grasping my arm. There was a ladder leading up to it, attached to one of the back legs.

"What are you doing?" I heard someone ram into the first set of doors. The Task Force would break into the exhibit in seconds.

"Up," he said, green face inches from my own.

This boy might be alien and gangly and armed, but he was a gentleman. He let me scramble up the ladder into the back of the tripod first. I had never climbed anything so quickly, not even during the obstacle course in Physical Conditioning. Adrenaline had taken over. There was a small opening in the back of the tripod which led into darkness, probably made for maintenance people. I climbed in, scooting along metal, and the boy scaled the ladder, tossing his weapon up to land next to me.

I had been around my father's vintage collection of old style rifles many times, but those didn't have actual bullets in them. This weapon still glowed with orange in the barrel. It could kill. The only mystery was whether it did it by attaching gross things to peoples' necks or by burning gross things that were already on peoples' necks. I blinked and saw those burnt, gelatinous masses again. What were they? I would have to hold my questions. The green boy climbed in beside me. Some of the vapor came up with him.

"Take out your contacts," he ordered.

"What?" I asked. My notice that my ship was boarding flashed in my vision, red and angry.

"Do it. They track you through those."

I couldn't imagine cutting myself off from the world, but terror was making me do some crazy things. I took out the lenses.

"Now break them."

"What?"

He seized my arm. His grip was weak. Years on the Red Planet had ravaged his body. "I'll do it if you refuse. The world depends on this."

Something about the desperation in his words made me drop my lenses to the floor of the tripod. I brought my remaining shoe down on them.

The crunching sound made me feel like a part of me had shattered. I felt naked without my lenses. They had belonged to me since I was two years old. I could barely remember life without them.

"Now stay quiet."

I did. It wasn't like I had a choice. Down below, voices droned. The people searching for us sounded as dull as Henry had. What was wrong with them? They weren't androids, but they weren't acting like normal humans, either. I thought of the burned blobs on the backs of the others' necks. All of the spaceport employees wore high collars, almost as if they were hiding something.

A terrifying theory crept into my mind, but I cast it away. I'd had enough horror for one day.

"They must have exited through the main doors," a woman said in a flat monotone. She must be walking right under the tripod.

"We must check. I will contact the Great Council," a man said in the same drone. "The team can track her." His footsteps stopped.

I ground my foot down again onto the broken contacts. I wasn't sure what made them up--just that the Great Council issued them to all citizens. The green boy breathed slowly. I felt like I was sharing this tripod with a plant stalk which had grown arms and legs. I thought of those Mars fossils in the museum below and whether or not they had a chance to evolve into anything.

Like those blobs on the necks of the Task Force, maybe?

We remained quiet. There wasn't anything else we could do. The boy didn't try to climb down and confront any of the employees. No one tried to climb up. I heard several pairs of feet heading away, towards the main entryway of the museum.

"The Grounders aren't creative," the boy said. "You know them from how they speak. I would have killed that second group, but too many deaths will bring in more Task Force members for us to fight. Besides, these people used to be human. I feel bad about killing them."

"Grounders?" I asked.

"I'll explain later," he said. "You need to take me to Woking Park. You're an Earther. You should know how to get there from here. I'm not very familiar with this area."

I eyed my Earth patch on the front of my shirt, which I wore proudly every day of my life. "My mother manages the park," I said. "It's the biggest one in the world." What did this boy from Mars want with it?

"Is it still green?" he asked as if it were the most important thing in the world.

"Yes. Very green." Who was he, and why was I about to lead him home? My house was in the back of the park. My parents and I had lived there for the past year. We'd taken the place of the old managing family after they'd fallen victim to the draft.

"My aunt used to have a garden in a park like that before she got shipped to the colonies," the boy said. "Her name is Cecily."

"I didn't know her." Lots of people rented gardens inside the park, free from the pollution that ravaged the rest of the world. Places like Woking Park served as nature's last refuges. Like other Earthers, my family was determined to preserve what little we had left.

"Take me there," the boy said.

"I can't. Not until the Task Force clears out and not until you explain what you want with it." In the dim light, my contacts looked like dust on the floor. I couldn't believe that I was now cut off from everyone. I would never be able to speak to my friends again unless I got forced to board one of the ships. From the looks of this boy, Mars wasn't kind. "Why are you green?"

It was a rude question, but I had to know.

"It's part of surviving at the colonies," the boy said. "They inject plant cells under our skin so that we can get some energy from sunlight. I know, it's stupid and ironic--"

More footfalls filled the space below us. The vapor outside the tripod was thinning. I held my breath. The Task Force--the Grounders--were running back in the direction we had come. They hadn't found us. The Great Council's computers hadn't turned back my whereabouts.

I would never look at social media the same way again.

The Task Force didn't speak. I waited until I had the faint noise of the theater doors opening and closing again.

"Now," the green boy said. "I'm Matt, by the way."

"Tess," I said. We did a brief handshake before he scrambled down the ladder, gun in hand. So far, he showed no signs of wanting to kill me. I wondered he would change if I refused to take him to the park.

I had better do what he wanted, then.

Anyway, I'd trust Matt when he said that I didn't want to go to Mars. We had that in common.

I thought of Winnie and Lin and Blake. "What's going to happen to my friends?" I asked, landing on the red ground. The vapor was much thinner now, but I didn't feel safe taking this mask off.

"They're on their way to Mars. They'll wake up. That gas just knocks you out. Ask me how I know."

I wasn't sure whether to feel better or worse. I imagined Winnie with green skin and shrinking muscles. We were both top students in Physical Conditioning. It would be a nightmare for both of us. She reached out to me, asking why I had abandoned her. I couldn't even keep my best friend here on Earth.

Matt and I ran for the exhibit exit. I hoped that no one was out in the main part of the museum, waiting to intercept us. I pushed the doors open first, shocked that they gave way. He was right that the Grounders weren't the most intelligent things in the world--whatever they were.

The main room was empty of people and absent of vapor. I stepped in, checking the perimeter. The only movement there was the holographic Terminus, inching along the wall in its super big, super slow orbit. The other planets whizzed around the fake sun. The Task Force had already checked this room and abandoned it.

"Come on," I said. "There should be another magnet rail at any time."

"I can't go on a train. Or any form of crowded transportation."

Matt stood there, green as ever. This light brought the color out even more.

"Then what?" I asked. There would be plenty of people on the rail, especially those who were trying to duck out of school and work early. A green boy wouldn't draw any attention.

And the moon was made of cheese.

"They have gas in the rail stations," Matt said. "The Grounders will use it if they find us. We need to find another way.''

I wondered how he knew about all of this. I searched around. The City of Woking had a network of connected tunnels so that people could walk about, away from the pollution. I spotted a door on the edge of the room with the universal tube symbol--an upside-down U--above the door. "This way."

I hadn't been over in this part of the City before. My family had only moved here last year after Mom bought the park. My parents were still worried that they might be in trouble with the City of Rockville for refusing to vacate our now-razed house years ago, so we moved a lot. Last year, Rossville officials had tracked down my family and tried to hit us with a huge penalty, forcing us to relocate yet again. I was sick of it.

But now that Mars called, the City of Woking felt like a home that I didn't want to leave. I was tired of being ripped out of my life and my identity. How could I be an Earther on the Red Planet?

So I led Matt into the tunnel. As I suspected, it was made of glass and went in the direction of the city center. Woking Park was close to there, about a kilometer away. The transport belt would get us there in no time. Only one older couple rode the belt towards us, and they were too far away to notice anything strange about Matt. A single man walked a dog further down the tunnel, in the middle pedestrian section, but there was no one else. "If we're going to get away, it's now," I said. I waited for traffic delays to come up on my display until I remembered that it was no longer there.

I was blind in the world.

Matt and I got onto the belt that would take us to the City center. At least we were headed to the same place. My house stood at the far edge of Woking Park, far from the public gardens. I had to tell my parents about my summons. They would figure out a way to hide us. We had moved before. We would do it again. I also had to warn them about their contacts. We'd have to go off the grid. Dad was always paranoid about ways the government could be watching us, so he wouldn't mind taking them out. He would tell Mom that he was right, and he'd have a strange satisfaction in that, too.

But I would also have to admit that I had left my friends behind.

So Matt and I rode the belt to the City Center. There would be more people there, but he didn't seem to care. The rails were faster than the belts, but we couldn't risk the Task Force finding us there.

After ten minutes, the belt slowed. I eyed the sky above. Yellow today, with a hint of green. What was it with the color green lately? The sun was an orb trying to breathe in the smog. I hadn't seen a clear sky since our farm in Rockville.

Matt looked up as well. "I see the Great Council is still polluting full force."

"Yep," I said. "We hate the government."

"I'm glad we met, then."

I thought of telling Matt that I had hated them all my life. The more he was on my side, the better. He still carried that gun on his belt. Dad would want to see it--if Matt managed to walk through the city center without getting stopped by the Enforcers. The Great Council had banned guns a hundred years ago, except for vintage ones like my dad collected. I wondered if there were any scanners for weapons still embedded in the city.

If yes, we weren't going to get very far.

"You might want to tuck that into your pocket," I said. "You still haven't told me why you need the park."

"It's part of the plan."

"What plan?" I figured that after what we had been through, he wasn't going to kill me. He didn't have the eyes of a psychopath--just someone who had gone through a lot. We had studied psychopaths in school, and so far, Matt wasn't showing the signs of one.

"Taking Earth back," he said with pride. He smiled at me. "That's why I was hoping to meet an Earther. You guys will want to work with us."

The belt slowed further. I couldn't see the end of the tunnel, but we were getting closer to the City. We passed a bathroom facility and a few potted plants that marked a vending machine. A dog barked. A woman looked up at us. We passed in a blur, but I didn't miss her mouth falling open when she caught sight of Matt.

"Happy Halloween!" I shouted, waving.

It was March. Matt would need another excuse for his hue.

Matt sighed. "You're not going to hide me very well. It won't matter, anyway."

We passed under a holographic sign that told us that the Center was two kilometers ahead. The smog continued to float hundreds of feet above our heads. Choking red weeds grew against the glass outside. They were mutants, caused by the chemicals in the air, and they were taking over the world, choking out healthy vegetation. Had the Great Council been polluting on purpose? And what were Grounders, anyway? Were they those things on the backs of the Task Force's necks?

"Why won't it matter?" I asked, but Matt turned away. He was dodging my question.

I urged the belt to move faster. It picked up speed. A crowd must have moved aside, letting it adjust itself. Two minutes later, I spotted the pink letters hanging above the belt that marked the City limits. Beyond it, the City stretched out, right along with the smog of the outside. I took the gas mask off and put on my pollution one.

Matt did the same. His mask appeared old like it must have aged a couple of years. It was fraying right around the straps.

"You know," I said. "You have to replace those every six months."

"Couldn't," Matt said. The belt slowed. Fans blasted at as if urging us into the City center. The blowers were there to make sure the pollution didn't enter the tunnel. I just wished someone would install them over all of Woking.

The park would be busy right now.

And so was the Center.

Matt stuffed the gun into his pocket.

The round plaza was bigger than that of the Solar System museum, now two dozen kilometers behind us. Vendors peddled tablets and frozen food. Bright lights made the smog take on rainbow hues. One shopkeeper had a cart with pots of daises. From the looks of the flowers, they were struggling.

"Poor things," Matt said.

"You can't linger here," I said. The light in the Center was dim. Hundreds of people gathered in the plaza every day to shop and do business. This market kept peoples' bills paid. At least there was so much smog and neon light that my skin appeared purplish in the glow that came from a nearby tablet stand. Matt now fit in better than he did at the museum. So far, no one was staring at him, but he still had a gun.

"I know I can't," he said, now speaking through his mask. At least it hid the bottom half of his face, and he was wearing long sleeves. To be safe, he tucked his hands inside his sleeves. "I forget that not everyone is green here."

"Come on," I said, taking his arm.

I blushed a little bit, but there was no time for that. I led Matt through the market and towards the twenty-story buildings that towered into the sky. We walked through the financial district. I wished there were transport belts here. A few people rode bikes down the narrow streets, barely missing us. So far, Matt was doing okay.

"How long were you on Mars?" I asked.

"The Council drew my number and my father's number two years ago and sent us to Mars. My dad's a geologist. They chose him first so that he could help with the terraforming."

The present colonies had been there for the past eight decades, but the government hadn't stepped up the draft until recently. "I moved here last year," I said. The smog was a bit clearer here, but not enough to take off the mask. The last thing I needed right now was to develop asthma.

The financial district wasn't huge, but people walked out of buildings in business clothes, heading either in the direction of the transport belts or the magnet rail station. Matt kept his gaze down at the sidewalk. I held his arm, hoping that no one from my school would notice this.

The Task Force was after us both, and I was walking with an armed boy, and I was worried about what my peers would think. Great.

We emerged from the financial district, leaving the tall, gray buildings behind. Matt and I stepped onto another transport belt, a shorter one that led to Woking's outskirts. We sped through an unfiltered tunnel for the next thirty seconds, right behind a man with a briefcase. The glass here was covered in grime the color of old cheese. I didn't dare speak. Matt checked behind him. I followed his gaze to make sure that no one was coming behind us, especially anyone in blue-gray uniforms with high collars and blank expressions. I still had to ask Matt what a Grounder was. Why wouldn't he just explain it all to me?

The belt curved. The buildings around us got shorter, hugging the ground like they were trying to avoid the pollution. The Great Council had opened yet another mine and refining plant a couple of miles from here. Mom said they had opened it about five years ago. Through the grime-covered glass, I could see towers pointing into the sky, spewing more smog. It was sad that the people of the past had done a better job filtering pollution than we did now.

The belt slowed, and we stepped off, right behind the suited man. Short homes lined streets. The glass dome that housed Woking Park arched over the residences.

"That's it," I said. "Come on. The gatekeepers will let you in if you're with me."

The employees knew that I was Cabby Scopelli's daughter. Sasha would open the gate.

Matt might take some explaining.

"That wasn't bad," Matt said. "If you hadn't removed your contacts, the Task Force would be on us right now. Most people don't realize that the Great Council uses them to track everyone's movements. My father told me that."

I thought of Dad, who suspected it. "By the way, you still have a lot of explaining to do." I tightened my grip on his arm and thought of Winnie again. Matt had chosen me out of the four of us to save.

Matt's pocket bulged. Dad might notice, but the rest of the people inside the dome might not think much of it. People took vegetables and fruits in and out all the time like that. We jogged down the street, passing bicycles and a driveway that held a rare car, shined to perfection. The old man who owned it was out, waxing the vehicle that he would never drive.

The gate to Woking Park was closed, and Sasha manned the booth, checking out a man with an armload of squashes. I ran up, hating the fact that Sasha had the bright entrance lights on today. Matt kept his gaze down.

"Hello, Tess," Sasha said, tapping the side of her head to turn off her contact display. "How was the field trip?"

"Interesting," I said. "My friend and I need to get some homework finished."

Sasha pressed the button to open the gate. "I don't think I've seen him before," she said. "Where are Winnie and Lin?"

I couldn't bear to tell her. The guilt pressed on my chest, constricting it. I wanted to scream. Emotionally, I was the worst person in the world. My rational brain tried to tell me that I hadn't had a choice but to leave Winnie and the others, but there was no way it was going to win.

"They went home," I lied. "Winnie wasn't feeling well. Lin walked with her." My friends usually came to hang out in the garden with me after school hours ended. Already, I could smell the fresh air from inside. The fans blew a bit of it out. The dome rose above us, a hundred meters high and as wide as the neighborhood. Matt stared at it like he couldn't wait to get inside. Homesickness filled his eyes.

I stood in front of him, blocking Sasha's view. She smiled. I'd let Sasha roll with the theory that I'd brought my first boyfriend home. Her happiness was about to get shattered when she learned about the draft.

The double doors came open, revealing the greenery within. I led Matt into one of the final refuges of nature. Trees towered over us, bathing in the artificial sunlight. Voices echoed. We ran along the worn grass and through a row of greenhouses, each one marked with a family's name. The artificial sun blazed on the glass above. It had moved to the three o' clock position. Shadows stretched across the park. Somewhere, young children shouted at each other. I loved it in here. Inside Woking Park, the sky was always blue.

A woman was inside a greenhouse, picking a basket of strawberries. She waved to me. I waved back, the ache in my chest worsening. I didn't know all of the families in this park yet, but I was getting there.

Even if I escaped the Task Force, I'd never see them again.

I had been--

Our house was inside the park, on the far side. Our hill rose above everything else, with my home wedged against the glass. Inside Woking Park, everyone walked. There were no transport belts. It was Mom's policy to keep things as natural as possible.

"I miss this," Matt said.

"You've been here?"

"I used to come to another park like this to draw."

"As in, on paper?" I asked. "You should join that guy who has a car."

"Yes. On paper," Matt said. "I draw plants and other things. There aren't many on Mars."

That was odd, coming from him. I tried not to stare at his green skin. Wasn't there a food mascot once that had green skin? He used to be on packages of vegetables.

"Tess!" Oliver Chang greeted from the doorway of his family's greenhouse. He gave me a warm smile and waved.

I returned it. "Later," I called. Then I lowered my voice and spoke to Matt. "I'm not going to stay away from the Task Force for long, am I?" A horrible thought filled me. Maybe I shouldn't have come home, but I had to warn Mom and Dad about the draft. So far, I didn't see any Task Force people--or Grounders--here. We passed the playgrounds and the nature trails in silence. Matt still didn't open up.

The house was quiet when I reached it. Without my contacts, the door wouldn't unlock for me, so I had to knock. It was embarrassing. How was I supposed to function?

Mom opened the door, dressed in her best suit. She had her hair combed back and in a ponytail. "Tess?" she asked, stiff and formal. Then her gaze landed on Matt, who dared to face her. "Who is this?"

"Are you the manager of Woking Park?" Matt asked.

"Yes," Mom said. "May I help you?" Confusion stole over her face as she took him in.

"You have to let me in," he said. "The Task Force is after your daughter and me."

I felt kind of hurt that Matt hadn't gotten official with me first. But, Mom was the manager, and he needed this park for something. She stepped aside to let Matt in, not noticing his pocket.

"Mom," I said. "I don't know what's going on, but I got drafted."

Silence fell over her. Mom wasn't the type to cry. Earthers didn't show weakness. She fingered her patch on the front of her suit and backed into the house. "You got...drafted?" Tears formed in her eyes, but she blinked, not daring to let them spill.

"Let us in," I said, hoping that I was making the right decision. "I'm just as confused as you, so I--"

"Just what is going on?" Mom asked, eyeing Matt.

"Ma'am," he said. "The colonists of Mars are planning to retake Earth from the Grounders. They sent me to request a place to begin the invasion."