CHAPTER TEN

Nyla squeezed Ethan’s hand. She had volunteered to go first, but now wished she had let one of the guys begin. She looked over at Claire and found her best friend’s eyes shut tight and her full lips were sucked inward so that only a thin line showed. Her olive complexion had paled to a ghostly white and a pained expression creased the smooth skin of her face.

“Are you ready?” Jared whispered.

Nyla nodded and looked away from Claire’s less than comforting expression. Metal shimmering in the candle flame captured her attention as she watched Jared pull a blade through the heat turning it over and over, careful not to miss a spot which might taint her blood with infection. He did the same with the tweezers and then handed both to Ethan.

“Take a deep breath and try not to faint on me,” Jared said as he smiled at Nyla.

“I don’t plan to pass out, so just get it over with.”

Jared nodded and took the scalpel from Ethan. Placing the tool Ethan had snatched from biology class close to the scar on Nyla’s palm, he took a deep breath and pulled the sharp blade slowly across her skin, making a small incision. Using the tweezers, he widened the wound and began poking around, unable to see his target through the blood oozing from the cut and the dim light cast from the flickering candle flame.

Blood pooled in Nyla’s stinging palm and slid down her wrist. She was afraid the sight might make her sick to her stomach, so she refused the temptation to take her eyes off Ethan. She focused on the sharp chiseled features of Ethan’s face. Some might have thought the slight upward tilt of his chin looked arrogant, but to her the angle made him look confident and strong and right now, she needed his strength.

Ethan tried to offer comfort, but all Nyla could see in his weak smile and his coal-colored eyes were the depth of the pain he was feeling on her behalf. She hated to see him suffer on her account, but his caring touched her heart.

“Come on man. It can’t be that hard to find,” Ethan demanded as he wiped up the blood gliding down Nyla’s arm before it reached her shirt.

“Back off. It’s not as if I want to cause her anymore pain than I have to. You know the lighting in here stinks. I can hardly see what I’m doing.”

Nyla bit down hard on her lip to take her mind off her throbbing hand. She fought to keep from whimpering because she didn’t want Jared to feel bad or for Claire to chicken out.

“Got it,” Jared declared as he held the tiny microchip up in triumph.

“Didn’t hurt a bit,” Nyla lied, hoping to ease the apprehensions of her friends.

Jared cleaned the small but invasive piece of technology, careful to avoid any damage to the chip which would expose their plan, while Ethan tended to Nyla’s wound. Ethan pressed a cloth firmly to her palm to stop the bleeding, and then dried her skin, applied an antibiotic ointment to the cut and secured the chip to her palm near the incision with a flesh colored dressing.

“Who’s next?” Jared asked, slowly pulling the blade of the scalpel through the flame.

“I’ll go,” Ethan offered.

Nyla rose and gave Ethan the only seat available, an old rusty bucket they had found outside the cave’s entrance several years back. She stood behind him and massaged his shoulders until she could feel the tension drain away.

This time, Jared operated quickly and with more confidence, making Nyla wish once again that she hadn’t gone first. He retrieved the chip with such speed that Ethan’s ordeal was over in a fraction of the time it had taken for her chip removal.

Nyla tended to Ethan’s wound just as he had hers and secured the chip to his palm. When she was done, Ethan and Jared switched places. Ethan sterilized the scalpel and after seeing the procedure done twice already, he sliced Jared’s palm and retrieved the chip as efficiently as if he had done it a thousand times.

Once Jared’s hand was bandaged, everyone looked over at Claire. She was still huddled in the shadows with her eyes tightly closed. Nyla put her arm around Claire’s slender shoulders. She knew her friend was squeamish about blood and had an even lower tolerance for pain than she had, but Nyla also knew Claire wanted this as much or more than the rest of them.

“Claire, open your eyes.”

Claire looked up at Nyla. “I don’t think I can do it. I’m sorry, but I just can’t.”

“It really didn’t hurt much and it was over in a second. I don’t want to push, but we have to hurry. The cave blocks the GPS signal in our microchips and if contact isn’t made at least once during the automated hourly checks CTA’s alarm will trigger and the authorities will come looking for us and everything we’ve dreamed of will be lost.”

Nyla loathed the Central Tracking Authority and was astounded by how easy it had been to manipulate the citizenry. At first, the CTA convinced parents to have the chips implanted into their small children so it would be virtually impossible to abduct a child, a rationalization Nyla could understand, but the CTA slowly whittled away at the hesitant and before long so many people had chips the Authority made it mandatory. Now, no baby left the hospital without her radio frequency identification tag and microchip and her DNA fingerprinted.

Jared approached the two young women and Nyla stepped back. She knew if anyone could convince Claire to go through with the chip removal it was Jared. It had become clear as of late that the two childhood friends had developed a deep bond Nyla doubted could ever be broken. She watched as he took Claire’s face between his palms and made her look up at him.

He gently kissed her forehead as he stroked her long brunette hair and looked deep into her scared eyes. “It’s now or never. I don’t want to live without you and this is the only way we can be together forever. If we don’t leave, I’ll be forced to go away a year after Ethan.”

The thought of losing Jared scared Claire more than the thought of the scalpel slicing through her skin, so she took another deep breath and sat down on the rusty bucket. “Not really much of a choice when you put it that way. Okay, let’s do it. Ethan, you’ll have to make the incision. I need Jared to hold my other hand so I don’t pass out.”

Ethan worked quickly and Claire hardly flinched. Nyla was so proud of her for not backing down and of the guys for having to do the dirty work as usual.

“We did it,” Claire announced proudly. “What’s next?”

“We need to take care of our wounds so they don’t get infected and keep them hidden. These bandages are great camouflage, so unless someone looks close, I doubt anyone will notice. As soon as we’re all healed up and the timing is right, on to phase two,” Nyla replied.

With only minutes to spare, they crawled out of their secret limestone cave and concealed its entrance. They hesitated only briefly at the mouth of their sanctuary before saying goodbye.

“Are you doing all right?” Nyla asked.

“Couldn’t be better. Did you hear what Jared said to me?”

“Yeah, I heard. Ethan and I have always been more rebellious, but we knew it would be you and Jared who eventually sealed our fate. You two are destined to be together, which makes it impossible for us to back out. Thank you,” Nyla said as she hugged her friend.

“What about you and Ethan? I doubt it’s a coincidence you brought this idea up now. You’re afraid he’s going to be taken away from us and you’ll never see him again.”

“Ethan and I have been talking about it for years. Ever since Crystal slipped the first note to me from Carlos to give to my mother I knew we had to take charge of our destiny. Carlos still loves her so much that he loves me just for being part of her. How can I turn my back on such unshakable devotion? I have to help him keep his promise to my mother the best way I can.”

Claire reached for her friend’s uninjured hand and gave it a firm squeeze. “No Nyla, you couldn’t turn your back on that kind of devotion any easier than you could turn your back on Ethan or the rest of us. We’re all in this together now and it’s going to workit has too.”

“Doors open. Ignition on. Minimum window tint. Air conditioning high.”

The car’s artificial intelligence component recognized Nyla’s voice and the doors swung open, the engine puttered to life and cold air spewed from the vents as the tint in her front window gradually lightened. The technology amazed and frightened her. It made her question what else was going on in a world hidden from the unquestioning public and wonder if it would prevent her and her friends from realizing their dream.

Nyla glanced at her palm before getting into the car. The wound throbbed, but it was a pleasant pain, a small price to pay for the possibility of true freedom.