Susan Kim - Wasteland

“Garrrh,” he said, reaching out to grab her chin.

Esther knew she must get him out of the Source, and yet she could not help herself. She closed her eyes for a moment to better feel the touch of his tiny, soft hands as they explored her filthy face. She found she was enchanted by this mysterious little being, this baby.

The boy looked like Caleb: He had the same dark hair and the same hazel eyes. And yet, there were subtle differences: his rounded chin. His forehead. He probably took after his mother as well, Esther thought with a pang. Yet instead of being jealous of her, she was surprised by the pity she felt for the dead girl, as well as a strange sense of connection.

In the meanwhile, Kai had seized the string to her hood and was attempting to suck on it.

“Don’t do that,” admonished Esther; “it’s dirty.”

Then it occurred to her that he might be hungry. It would be too risky trying to escape with a fretful child, she reasoned; his cries would alert the guards. Looking around, she noticed an untouched bowl of rice in his pen. As she stooped to pick it up, he was already reaching for it, grabbing at the cereal with both fists and pasting it onto his face.

“Slow down,” Esther whispered. Then she made a decision.

Feeding him would only take a minute or two. Once they were on their way, she would give him more food from the meager supplies she had remembered to pack in her bag.

She had thought of all things, except one.

The security camera in the corner of the room.

There was a loud bang, and Michal screamed.

But it was only the sound of a bottle being opened, a bottle of rare and special wine that fizzed and bubbled when exposed to the air. Levi had read once that champagne was traditionally used by kings and generals for centuries to celebrate important victories; and he had long saved several bottles unearthed during a Gleaning for a moment such as this. For he had never felt more like a king than he did today.

Levi had won everything he wanted.

He had conquered his despised brother while visiting revenge on the ghosts of their parents. He had found an heir, a healthy boy tied to him by blood, whom he would raise to succeed him as ruler of all he had created. The townspeople were out of the way, for good. Levi was only seventeen; he had at least two good years left. Maybe he could live even longer now that he had found clean, drinkable water in Prin, where none had existed for decades. Who knew what he would be able to accomplish in that time?

And it was all due to his singular vision, his perseverance, his strength; you might say it was because of his genius . Such an occasion called for a momentous celebration, one he had thought hard about and planned accordingly.

There was only one detail left to attend to.

As Michal carried the champagne away from his office to pour it into special glasses, Levi watched her go. Earlier, he had ordered her to apply her makeup with extra care and selected which clothing she should wear: tight, colorful clothing that accentuated her figure. She had never looked better, he thought to himself.

It was almost a pity.

When she returned with the drinks on a silver tray (Danish sterling, from a Gleaning), she looked flushed and expectant. She offered him a heavy glass goblet that sparkled with rainbow facets (Austrian lead crystal), then set the tray down on his desk.

“To the future,” he said, raising his goblet.

“To the future,” she replied, her eyes lowered.

They clinked glasses, and he knocked back his drink in one swallow. He had never tasted champagne before; the bubbles gave the wine a remarkable airiness, a tingling sweetness, that made him shiver.

“I could get a taste for this,” he remarked.

Michal giggled. She was about to raise her own glass when Levi stared at her.

“And don’t think I’ve forgotten about you,” he said. “I have a little present I’d like to give you.”

He reached into a drawer. Without taking his eyes off her, he pulled out something that he tossed onto the desk between them.

It was a filthy piece of cloth. Michal leaned forward, smiling if puzzled, to examine it. Levi was amused to watch her jerk back in terror when she realized what it was.

It was Caleb’s shirt—stiff and blackened with his blood, and torn in two places where the arrow had broken his skin.

“I can explain,” she stammered. All of the color had drained from her face. But Levi ignored her.

“I searched your room,” he said. “You weren’t there, of course.” He was watching her, studying with almost clinical interest the open expressions of terror, denial, and helpless defiance that played across her pretty features. “This was stuffed under a corner of your mattress.”

“I… I don’t know how it got there,” she mumbled.

Levi smiled. “I suppose you were waiting for an opportune moment to dispose of it,” he suggested. “Unless you were keeping it as a souvenir of your good deed?”

Two dots of red appeared in Michal’s pale cheeks; and she flashed a look at him that was strangely confrontational.

“What are you going to do?” she asked in a low voice.

Levi rocked back in his chair. “I’ve given that quite a bit of thought,” he said, as he drew on first one, then a second leather glove. He sounded as if he was talking about the weather or what to order for dinner. “I could, of course, have you banished, or killed. But those are too general, too common. No, I wanted a punishment that would really suit you .”

He bent down to pick something up from the ground beside him. It was a square metal canister with an open spout. Before Michal had a moment to react, he hurled its contents into her face.

She let out a high-pitched shriek and jumped to her feet as clear liquid dripped down her front and splattered her clothing. Wherever it landed, the bright colors instantly dissolved and started to run in long streaks.

Levi made a gesture and two guards materialized on either side of Michal. She was clawing at her face, screaming in a voice that seemed more animal than human.

“Industrial-strength lye,” Levi remarked. “The label says it dissolves fatty acids, which makes it wonderfully effective for cleaning a place as big as the Source. But it’s a little hard on human skin.”

He followed as Michal was dragged, shrieking, through the halls of the Source. He watched as one of the guards activated the machinery that raised the giant metal door. The girl was shoved outside into the glaring heat of the day. She fell to the dusty ground and crouched there, still clutching her face, rocking back and forth in agony.

With a nod, Levi dismissed his guards. Even he had the desire to keep some things private.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “It may burn for a while, but you’ll almost certainly survive. As for your pretty face… well, I’m afraid that’s another matter. I’m not sure who’s going to want to look at you very closely again.”

He turned to go but was unexpectedly stopped.

“At least I’ll be in better shape than you,” Michal said.

Her voice sounded hoarse and ravaged, either from the lye or her screams; it was hard to tell. Levi looked back down at her.

“How’s that?”

“Your drink,” she said. “I put rainwater in it.”

Levi froze. Then he attempted to laugh it off.

“Did you hear me?” she said, raising her voice. “I been saving it up. I put it in when I poured the drinks. That’s why I didn’t have any. I put rainwater in your wine, Levi. You’re a dead man.”

Levi was walking away from her, walking fast, before breaking into a run. Behind him, her voice rose to an unholy shriek.

“ You’re dead! ”