D. MacHale - SYLO

My clothes were gone. So were my cross-trainers. It struck me as a pretty effective security trick—taking the clothes from prisoners at night so they don’t have anything to wear in case they decide to jump the wall at midnight. It made me wonder what Kent’s escape plan was and if we were going to go at night. I couldn’t imagine going anywhere wearing old-man white boxers and flip-flops.

I stretched out on the cot, let the squeaky springs settle, and stared up at the tent’s ceiling. I was exhausted in every way imaginable. There was no telling what the next day would bring. I had to rest and be ready. I hoped for a long night of sleep with no nightmares because I sure couldn’t stop them when I was awake. Sleep would be the only thing to stop me from seeing the image of my mother on the far side of that fence, not helping me. That would stay with me for a long time, maybe as long as the sight of Quinn about to jump from that boat…and disappearing in a lethal flash of light.

“No worries, my friend,” I whispered aloud. “Somebody’s gonna pay for that.”

I didn’t care who heard me.

By the time the lights went out, I was long gone.

The next time I opened my eyes, it was to the sound of another horn. It was the wake-up alarm. I opened one eye to see that all of my bunkmates were quietly rising and getting dressed.

True to the soldier’s words, my jeans, shirt, sweatshirt, socks, and underwear were on the locker at the foot of my bed, freshly cleaned and folded. Even my cross-trainers were there and looked as though they had been buffed up a little. It creeped me out that little SYLO elves were scurrying around at night messing with my stuff. I dressed quickly and followed the others out, headed for the food tent. The breakfast experience was pretty much a duplicate of dinner, only with scrambled eggs, bacon, wheat toast with jelly, and juice.

Tori sat in the same spot. I tried to get a seat across from her but there were too many ladies crammed in. All I could do was walk by and give her a little smile. She winked. I took that to mean that she was doing okay.

I found a seat not far from Kent but we didn’t speak. When breakfast ended, he made a motion with his head as if I should follow him. The whole group was let back out into the recreation yard, where everyone quickly went about their business of doing nothing. I walked to the far end of the fairway and up to the fence where I had confronted my mother. I’m not sure why. Maybe I was hoping that she had come back to see me.

She hadn’t.

I scanned the compound to see that every so often a SYLO soldier would approach one of the inmates and lead them into a hut. I had to believe that everyone went through random interrogations the same as me, which was probably why nobody spoke to anybody else. If they had any secrets, Granger would do his best to get it out of them.

“It’s why we’re all here,” Kent said. He had walked up behind me without my realizing it. “They’re afraid of us.”

“Of us?” I repeated, incredulous.

“They’re afraid of what we know.”

“I don’t know anything,” I argued.

“They don’t know that,” Kent said. “And who knows what anybody else knows?”

“That makes no sense,” I said.

“C’mon,” Kent said and took out the Wiffle ball. “Let’s just have a catch.”

“Is this allowed?” I asked. “I mean, nobody else is—”

“So let’s give ’em something to think about,” he said. Kent was back to being the cocky son of privileged parents. For once, I didn’t mind.

He tossed me the loaded ball, and I tossed it back. It was about as innocent a scene as you could imagine. At least that’s what I hoped. I also hoped that the guards didn’t notice the odd wobble of the loaded ball.

“There’s something about to happen,” Kent said. “Something big and they’re afraid somebody might scuttle it. That’s why we’re here. We’re the suspects. They’re looking for somebody to rat on somebody else and smoke the troublemakers out.”

“I heard them call it an event,” I said, showing Kent that I wasn’t totally in the dark about what was happening. “Do you know what it is?”

Kent shook his head. “And I haven’t met anybody else who does either, but that doesn’t stop SYLO from asking.”

“How did you get the, uh, the…?” I held up the Wiffle ball. I didn’t want to use the word Ruby in case we were being listened to.

Kent smiled. “Sorry, Rook. I’ve gotta watch my own ass. Until we get outta here, you’re on a need-to-know basis.”

I tossed the ball a few more times while letting his words sink in, then said, “Sounds to me like you might be one of those people who have information they’d like to know about.”

Kent’s answer was to smile. He tossed the ball back and said, “We go tonight.”

He walked passed me but I grabbed his arm and said, “Tori’s coming with us.”

He pulled away quickly. “No chance.”

“Then I’m out,” I said and tossed the ball back to him.

Kent looked at the Wiffle ball, weighing his options.

“I can do this without you,” he said.

“Then do it,” I replied. “But I don’t think you will or you wouldn’t have asked me in the first place.”

I’d seen Kent angry before. He wasn’t good at hiding his emotions and just then he was clenching his jaw. It wouldn’t have surprised me if he flipped me off, or took a swing at me. Instead, he lobbed the ball back.

“Okay, Rook,” he said. “But she’s your responsibility.”

“So what’s the plan?” I asked.

“The plan is for you to shut up and wait for me to get you,” he said with a snarl.

He really was angry. I guess he didn’t like it when “the help” bit back.

“What barracks are you in?” he asked.

“First one beyond the gate.”

“Keep your clothes on,” he said and walked off.

I watched him for a few seconds and was about to turn away when a SYLO soldier came up and grabbed him by the arm. Kent pulled away angrily, but then gave in and walked toward the row of huts. It was his turn to be interrogated. Was it because the two of us had been talking?

Before he went into the hut, Kent threw me a quick “See? I told you” look and stepped inside.

I was glad to be the one holding the loaded Wiffle ball.

The rest of the day was spent swinging between boredom and total stress. I wasn’t pulled into a hut again, but I was nervous about what Granger might have gotten out of Kent. Was the plan still on? I had no way of knowing because I didn’t see Kent for the rest of the day.

The Wiffle ball o’ Ruby felt as though it weighed fifty pounds in my pocket. Whatever Kent’s plan was, I felt certain that it involved us taking the stuff. With the Ruby doing its work, we would have an advantage over anybody who tried to stop us—so long as we didn’t get shot. But the idea of putting myself under its influence again was terrifying, and not just because it was dangerous. I wasn’t worried about overdosing. I knew how much I’d taken from Feit and would make sure I didn’t take any more than that. I was more worried about losing control.

Though it had given me incredible strength and impossible speed, the experience was just that—incredible and impossible. There was nothing right about doing that to your body. It was frightening, yet strangely exciting. I didn’t want to do it again, but to be honest, in some perverse way I was also looking forward to it. I wanted the feeling again and that scared me even more than the physical danger.

There was yet another wild card in the mix. Where did the Ruby come from? I was pretty sure that SYLO had brought it to Pemberwick based on the wreckage on the bluffs and the fact that they had total control of the island. But why? Were we all being used in some massive, sinister experiment by the government? Was that the deal? Were we just guinea pigs?