Reboot (4 page)

“I was the lowest number in my newbie group, so he got stuck with me.” She shrugged. “He was good, though. Thank goodness Lissy wasn’t here yet. I probably would have been dead the first week.”

Plenty of Lissy’s trainees had made it through training perfectly fine, but a string of bad ones had cemented her reputation as a newbie killer. Perhaps it was deserved. Perhaps Twenty-two would be the next victim of her bad luck.

I looked up at Ever as she sank the knife into the wall again.

“How many is that?” she asked.

“Fifty-two.”

“Hot damn.”

I couldn’t help a smile as she grinned at the target. Maybe the Under-sixties weren’t all hopeless.

MANNY MARCHED THE NEWBIES INTO THE GYM EARLY THE NEXT morning for the choosing. They followed him through the door in a straight line, their faces tight with fear and exhaustion.

They were followed by a few doctors in lab coats. Their tests and X-rays continued into today, which contributed to the newbies’ exhaustion. I remembered having to run on a treadmill at a steep incline while attached to all sorts of contraptions. The doctors kept increasing the speed until I finally fell off.

Groups of Reboots stood in clumps behind the trainers, curious to see who got which trainer. Ever was in the corner to my left with several Under-sixties, leaning against the wall as she watched the newbies line up in front of us.

I turned and my eyes went immediately to Twenty-two. His gaze was on Lissy, but when he caught me looking a smile broke out on his face, followed by a pout.

Please?
he mouthed.

Pleading didn’t work with me. Human targets pleaded with me all the time. “Please don’t take me.” Or, “Please don’t touch me.” Or, “Please don’t kill me.” Didn’t work.

That smile, on the other hand . . . I almost let one creep onto my own face.

No. That was ridiculous. I couldn’t let this weird smiling boy convince me to do something stupid. I was the best trainer; I only took the best newbies.

Maybe they’re the best because you make them that way
. The thought had been nagging at me since last night.

The door banged open and the gym quieted as Officer Mayer, commanding officer of the five HARC facilities, strolled across the room. He came to a stop next to the medical personnel and folded his arms over his protruding stomach. Officer Mayer spent the most time in Rosa, the largest of the five facilities, and often showed up to observe the newbies. He watched them throughout the entire six-week process, to keep an eye out for the good ones and weed out any who might be trouble.

“One-seventy-eight,” Manny said.

I turned my gaze to One-twenty-one, who nodded at me. He already knew I would choose him. The other Reboots would have told him.

I looked at Twenty-two. How long did he have with Lissy? They’d be out in the field in a couple weeks, and with Lissy’s track record, he’d be dead within two months.

His dark eyes held mine. Not many people looked me in the eye. Humans didn’t want to look at me at all and Reboots were either scared or felt I was some sort of superior.

And that smile. That smile was strange here. Newbies didn’t come in smiling; they came in terrified and miserable.

He was definitely weird.

“One-seventy-eight?” Manny repeated, looking at me expectantly.

“Twenty-two.” It was out of my mouth before I could change my mind. A grin spread across his face.

The trainers looked down the line in astonishment. Lissy’s mood was already improved.

“Twenty-two?” Manny repeated. “Callum?”

“Yes,” I confirmed. I stole a look across the gym to see Officer Mayer rubbing his chin, his mouth twisted in something bordering on disappointment. I thought he might object, make me chose a higher number, but he stayed silent.

“All right,” Manny said. “One-fifty?”

Hugo opened his mouth, closed it, and turned to me with a frown. “Are you sure?”

Twenty-two laughed, and Manny motioned for him to be quiet.

No
. “Yes,” I said.

“I . . . One-twenty-one, then,” Hugo said, looking at me like I might protest.

I didn’t. I stood there as the other trainers picked their newbies and broke off to start discussing the process. I waited, numb from my decision, until Twenty-two strolled over to me, his hands shoved into the pockets of his black pants.

“You like me after all,” he said.

I frowned. I didn’t know about that. I was curious. Intrigued. Like? That was pushing it.

“Or maybe not,” he said with a laugh.

“I considered what you said. About the lower numbers not having me.”

“Ah. So not because of me.”

He smiled at me and I got the impression he didn’t believe a word that had just come out of my mouth. I shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably. I wanted to fidget, and I never fidgeted.

“Are you a good runner?” I asked quickly.

“I doubt it.”

I sighed. “We’ll meet at the indoor track every morning at seven.”

“Okay.”

“Try not to scream when I break your bones. It bothers me. You can cry if you want; that’s fine.”

He burst out laughing. I didn’t realize that was a funny statement.

“Got it,” he said, trying unsuccessfully to cover his grin. “Screaming, no. Crying, yes.”

“Have you ever handled any weapons?”

“No.”

“Skills?”

“I’m good with tech stuff.”

“Tech stuff?” I repeated with a confused frown. “Where did you see computers in the slums?”

“I’m not from the slums.” He lowered his voice when he said it.

I blinked. “You’re from the
rico
?”

He laughed slightly. “No one calls it that. It’s just Austin.”

No one from the
rico
called it that. Outside, in the slums, we used the Spanish word for
rich
to refer to the wealthy side of the cities.

I took a quick glance around the gym. There were a few Reboots from the
rico
, but they were certainly in the minority. I’d never trained one. My last trainee, Marie One-thirty-five, had lived on the streets in Richards, and she’d been tougher for it. Slum life made better, stronger Reboots. Twenty-two was doubly screwed. I wasn’t sure I would have picked him if I’d known that.

“How’d you die?” I asked.

“KDH.”

“I thought they had mostly eradicated the KDH virus in the wealthy parts of town,” I said.

“They’re close. I’m just one of the lucky few.”

I grimaced. KDH was a nasty way to die. They named the virus for the city that had been ground zero of the outbreak, Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. It was a different strain of a respiratory virus common in children, and killed most humans within a few days.

“My parents took me to a slum hospital because they couldn’t afford any medicines,” he continued.

“That was dumb.” Everyone knew KDH was rampant in the slums. No one was getting treated for it there.

“Yeah, well, they were desperate. And they didn’t realize . . .”

“You only go to the hospital in the slums to die and be sorted.”

“Yes. How did you die?” he asked.

“I was shot,” I said. “Any other skills?”

“I don’t think so. Wait, how old were you when you died?”

“Twelve. We’re not talking about me.”

“Who would shoot a twelve-year-old?” he asked with the innocence that could only come from living his entire life inside walls where nothing bad happened.

“We’re not talking about me,” I repeated. What was the point, anyway? How would I explain a life of strung-out parents and dirty shacks and the fighting and screaming that came when they went too long without a fix? A rich kid would never understand.

“Newbies!” Manny called, motioning for them to join him by the gym door.

“We’re not starting now?” Twenty-two asked.

“No, you have more tests to do,” I said, gesturing to the medical personnel. “We’ll start tomorrow.”

He let out a sigh as he ran a hand down his face. “Seriously?
More
tests?”

“Yes.”

He looked from me to the other newbies, who had already joined Manny. “All right. I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

“Twenty-two!” Manny yelled. “Move it!”

I gestured for him to go and he jogged across the gym and disappeared out the door. The trainers all stared at me as they filed past. Hugo and Lissy stopped in front of me, wearing matching confused expressions.

“What’s wrong with you?” Lissy asked. She had her hands on her hips, her eyebrows lowered.

“Is he special or something?” Hugo asked.

Lissy rolled her eyes. “Yeah. He’s real special, Hugo.”

I shrugged. “Maybe I can make him better.”

“Don’t count on it,” Lissy muttered. She stalked away. Hugo gave me another befuddled look, then followed her out.

I turned to go, my eyes catching Ever’s. She was smiling, her head cocked to the side, then she nodded as if to say,
Good for you
.

A SOUND WOKE ME IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT.

I blinked my eyes until the dream I’d been lost in faded, loosening the death grip I had on the sheets. I’d been in the corner of a tiny apartment, watching my parents yell at the people in the living room. In the dream, they were yelling about me. In reality, I’m not sure they had cared about me enough for that sort of attention.

I rolled over to see Ever crouching on her bed, her teeth bared as she let out a low growl. The noise grew louder as she rocked back and forth on the mattress.

“Ever,” I said, sitting up. Violation of the rules, but surely they would want someone to wake her up and stop the racket.

She turned to me. Her bright eyes showed no sign that she recognized me. In fact, she snarled.

“Ever,” I said again, tossing off my covers and placing my feet on the cold floor. I reached for her shoulder and her head whipped to me. She opened her mouth and her teeth scraped across the skin of my hand.

I snatched it away.
What the hell was that?

I held my hand to my chest, my heart beating oddly. I was nervous, I think. I was rarely nervous.

My eyes darted to the hallway. Through the glass wall at the front of our cell I could see a guard approaching, his flashlight aimed in our direction. He stopped in front of our room and peered inside, reaching for his com. He turned away as he spoke into it and I looked back down at Ever, rocking on her bed and growling from deep within her throat. I wanted to press my hand to her mouth to stop the noise, to make the guard go away before Ever got into trouble.

I heard the pounding of footsteps and turned to see a scientist in a white lab coat running down the hall. I took in a sharp breath as I watched the scientist talk frantically to the guard, his bushy eyebrows lowered in worry as he watched Ever.

Humans didn’t worry about Reboots. They didn’t run to help them.

The scientist pulled a syringe from his pocket and my stomach turned over as I pieced together what was happening.

They’d done something to her, and now they’d realized they’d messed up. Messed
her
up.

Ever pounced out of bed with a height and speed I had never seen before, smashing her body against the wall. I gasped, stumbling back until my legs hit the bed.

She head butted the glass, a line of blood trickling down her face when she straightened. She bared her teeth at the humans and they both jumped away, the scientist almost dropping his syringe.

“One-seventy-eight.”

I turned my eyes to the guard yelling from the other side of the wall.

“Subdue her.”

Ever began pounding her hand against the wall, a slow, rhythmic hammering.

Pound
.

Pound
.

Pound
.

Her face determined, she looked at the humans like she would rip their faces off if given half a second.

“I said subdue her, One-seventy-eight. Get her down on the ground.” The guard glared at me.

I slowly rose from my bed, clenching my hands into fists when I realized I was shaking.

I’m not scared
.

I repeated it in my head. There was no reason to be scared of a Fifty-six. She couldn’t hurt me.

Or could she? I’d never seen a Reboot act this way. There wasn’t a hint of the Ever I knew in her.

I’m not scared
.

I reached for her arm but she was too fast, darting across the room and jumping on top of her bed. She bounced from foot to foot on the mattress, looking at me as if she accepted my challenge.

“Ever, it’s fine,” I said.

What was wrong with her?

She launched herself off the bed and landed on me. I hit the ground hard, the back of my head knocking against the concrete. I blinked the dots of white out of my eyes as she slammed my wrists to the floor above my head and opened her mouth, bending low as though she wanted to take a chunk out of my neck.

I kicked my legs, knocking her off me, and she flew into the bed with a grunt. I leaped on top of her, pressing my body into her back as she thrashed and snarled.

The door unlocked with a click and slid open, the footsteps of the two humans echoing across the room.

“Keep her down,” the guard ordered.

I locked my teeth together, lowering my face closer to Ever’s shoulder so he couldn’t see the disgusted look I wanted to aim at him.

The scientist knelt down and plunged the syringe into her arm. His fingers shook.

What was that idiot doing? We didn’t need medicine.

“It will help her sleep,” he said, glancing at me. “She’s just having a nightmare.”

It wouldn’t help her sleep at all. Reboots processed everything too quickly. Her body would metabolize it before it even had a chance to work.

Ever went limp beneath me and I looked down at her in surprise. When I turned to the humans they both gave me their hard expressions, the ones that were supposed to scare me.

Hard to be scared of them when I could break their necks before they realized I was on my feet.

“You’re not to tell anyone about this,” the scientist said sternly. “Understand?”

No. I didn’t understand.
What did they just give her?