Steven Santos - The Culling

Even though I’ve completed Orientation and successfully made it all the way to graduation, these soldiers still see me, Lucian Spark, as a traitor to the Establishment. They’d never accept me into their ranks. The contempt they feel for me now is just as potent as it was on the day I stepped off the freighter ten weeks ago. If not more so.

I want to shout at them at the top of my lungs, tell them I don’t give a damn, that the last thing on earth I want is to be one of them. But I can’t make a scene. Not with so much at stake. And they know that.

The only thing I care about is seeing Cole at last.

Inhaling deeply, I raise my head high and match their stares until they start to fidget and look away. Then I dash up marble steps two at a time to the balcony, my eyes searching the crowd for the others.

Cypress is standing not more than ten feet away, peering over the railing at the crowd below. She looks stunning in her uniform. Her raven hair’s been washed and combed to a lustrous sheen, plaited at the sides and joined in a long braid that hangs down her back. Her skin looks like it’s been polished to a smooth creamy finish, with just the right hint of pink on her cheeks to complement her wine-colored lips.

She could almost pass for one of those princesses pictured in the Establishment’s banned fairy tales-except for her eyes, which are vacant and puffy. In the three months that I’ve known her, I’ve never seen her look so … defeated .

I walk over to her. “What’s wrong? Why haven’t you gone into the auditorium?”

She barely glances at me. “Not sure I can face them. Don’t know what to say.”

“ Them ? You mean your Incentives?” I sit down beside her.

She nods. I can feel her shoulder trembling against mine.

I sense that now’s the time she’ll be the most receptive. I can’t help her unless I know exactly what’s troubling her, even though there’s probably nothing I can do. Reaching out, I hesitate a moment, then take her hand, expecting her to rip it away and shove me. But she does neither.

“Cypress. I know it’s none of my business, but after the Fallen Five disappeared, how did you … I mean …?”

“How did I survive ?” Her smile is laced with bitterness. “Believe me, I’ve asked myself that question many times over the years. When my brother was recruited, his only options were my mother and me. Two out of the ten Incentives who had no one to fight for us after the Recruits disappeared. Since it couldn’t be proven one way or another that the Fallen Five had deserted, the Establishment decided that rather than shelve us, the adults would be taken to the mines.” She pauses. “I never saw my mother again.”

She looks away as if she’s reliving that painful memory. I can see the anguish etched into her face as if by a powerful chisel.

“I’m so sorry, Cypress. I know what losing a mom feels like.”

“She was one of the lucky ones. Probably died within a year or two.” She shakes her head. “Us children weren’t as fortunate. We were forced into servitude at the Emporiums. Harmony House.”

The Emporiums. Centers of unspeakable perversions, where every depravity can be purchased by sick minds in possession of enough currency.

Her eyes squeeze shut. “I was only six at the time. Unfortunately, I was a very pretty child … ”

“I’m so sorry.” I squeeze her hand. “But with your brother missing and your mother dead, who are your Incentives?”

She takes a deep breath and stares at me, her eyes hollow, empty wells. “My two children.”

I can barely contain my rage. “Those animals . They took an innocent young girl and-”

She sneers. “ I’m the animal, Lucian. I wanted to have a child, replenish the stock. Though I didn’t bargain on twins.”

I grab both her wrists. “But why -?”

“So I’d be deemed tainted and decommissioned. Nothing spoils the mood more in the pleasure pits than a girl who’s in the breeding stage.” Her eyes meet mine. “Boys have a longer shelf life.”

I grip Cypress tighter, this time to steady myself.

“So you see, I used my own children-gave them up as ransom-to get transferred from that hell hole to a work farm without ever once laying eyes on them.” A chuckle dies in her throat. “And now it’s all come full circle and I’m getting exactly what I deserve. No wonder my brother abandoned me. He could sense what kind of terrible, selfish person I am.”

“Cypress, don’t … ”

Her eyes grow soft. “I never told you this, and I’ll deny it if you ever repeat it, but I really admire you, Lucian. The way you love your little brother … the way you’ll do anything to be with him again, unlike my brother. Maybe that’s why a part of me still hates you.”

“Maybe you’re wrong about your brother. Don’t you think it’s possible that something could have prevented him from coming after you, something beyond his control?” Thoughts of our experience with the Fleshers turn my blood cold. I block them out as best I can. “I mean, you have no way of knowing that he abandoned you.”

“Maybe someday I’ll find him and I’ll be able to hear the explanation from his own lips. Until then, the Orestes I knew is dead to me.”

A jolt rips through my body. My brain bobs in my skull. How do I tell her what became of her brother?

“Spark? Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

I shake my head. “We’d better get inside.”

Every time the door to the small reception room swings open my heart surges-then deflates like an old tire at the sight of yet another stranger crossing the threshold. It’s been over thirty minutes already-the Graduation Ceremony is about to start-and still no sign of Cole or Mrs. Bledsoe.

And Digory’s still a no-show, too. I’m finally going to find out who his Incentives are, find out how who is so important to him.

Who it is that he loves …

A high-pitched giggle echoes across the room. Ophelia’s jumping up and down, embracing a woman and a little girl. She reminds me of that naive girl who bounced into Slade’s welcoming-committee speech on the first day we arrived at Infiernos, so long ago it seems now. The sight of their tender family reunion causes sadness to cluster in my throat, making it hard to swallow.

What’s taking Cole and Mrs. Bledsoe so long? I’m about to rip through my skin.

“Don’t panic, Spark,” Gideon says, as if reading my mind. “I’m sure your family will be here any minute.”

He’s standing alongside two other people, a man and a woman with shell-shocked eyes, their drab, plain clothes in stark contrast to his neatly pressed uniform. The woman’s graying hair is twisted into a bun, resembling a wrung-out washcloth. Even though the skin under her eyes is dark and puffy, her stare is strikingly similar to Gideon’s.

The man has his arms folded. His salt-and-pepper hair recedes from his forehead like an outgoing tide, draining what’s left of its color. The tip of his aquiline nose veers sharply to the left as if it’s been broken.

“These must be your folks,” I say, trying to draw them in with a smile. But it’s as though I’m not even there.

Gideon fidgets, his eyes bouncing back and forth between the couple and me. “Mom, Dad, this is-” He looks at me pointedly. “This is my friend, Lucian Spark.”

Friends. Yes. After Cassius, I never thought I’d be able to call anyone else that ever again. But with everything we Recruits have been through, we’re bonded now for the rest of our lives, however short that might turn out to be.

I hold out my hand. “It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Warrick.”

Mrs. Warrick stares at my hand as if it’s covered in manure. “We know who you are.”