Lotus and Thorn (11 page)

Then I remembered Edison’s intercom—him climbing up to
the top of the dune to get a signal. “Of course! That’s
exactly
what we need.”

The sun was straight overhead by the time we got everything set up again at the top of the camp. But once we did, the static was much louder. But it was still static.

“Hello? Hello?” I tried out the microphone as I punched various buttons. “Crap.”

“Maybe it’s time to take a break. There’s no shade up here and we need lunch.”

I nodded, peering inside the radio with my flashlight. “You go on, I’m just going to see if any connectors came loose. If I can get it working, I could find that signal again. Can you imagine it? Us? Finding a way home?”

“Leica, I’m
already
home.” Her voice was careful. “Don’t you see? All those years spent making up stories about another world.
This
is that world.
This
is our chance to make Gabriel beautiful and green.”

She reached out and turned off my flashlight, waiting till I met her eyes. “You could find a hundred Earths and the Abuelos would still call you Corrupted.” Lotus squeezed my hand. “But not here. This can be your home too . . . if you want it.”

I blinked hard. I shouldn’t have been surprised Lotus saw through me. And I wanted to believe her—to believe in the Indignos’ dream. I wanted to say something like
our side
and mean it.

I wasn’t ready to give up on Earth. But Lotus was right. And for now, I reached out and switched off the radio.

AS WE PUT
the radio away in the shed, I noticed the empty field was now filled with people working. I recognized the green glossy leaves on the tiny saplings they were planting. “Lime trees? Where did you get those?”

“I brought them with me,” said a voice as familiar to me as my mother’s.

I turned and there was Sarika. It seemed impossible that she was standing in front of me. And in the Indigno camp, of all places. I’d dreamed of and dreaded this moment, this moment I never thought I’d get—my chance to explain myself to Sarika. I’d failed her, even more than I’d failed Tasch and Lotus. I would never forget her face when the Abuelos pulled the naming gifts out of my pack in front of all of Pleiades—like I’d physically hit her. One more daughter who’d betrayed her.

Now that the moment was here, my mouth was dry—empty of words. Sarika stared at me hard, her hair falling around her like a silvery-black curtain. Her nose cut a sharp line across her strong, weathered face. Then she opened her arms to me and I let myself collapse into them. As they wrapped tight around me, I disintegrated.

“I was just trying to protect them.” My voice was muffled against her shoulder. “I was just trying to keep Tasch and Lotus safe.”

“I know you were.” Sarika soothed my back with her hand. “You did well. You were brave and you survived.”

I gripped her tighter, the horrors of my exile pushing out of me in a primal sob. “I thought I’d die . . . without . . . without getting to say it.” I forced myself to meet her eyes as I said the words that’d been heavy in my chest for so long. “I’m sorry.”

“I know you are.” And I was amazed to see understanding in Sarika’s stern eyes. “I blame myself for not being vigilant. For not seeing what was right there in front of me.” And for the barest fraction of a second, Sarika’s eyes flicked down to my hands.

It was so quick, it was easy to believe I’d imagined it. And the next second she was wiping away the tears that were still streaming down my cheeks. Then Sarika held me at arm’s length. “It’s okay. I forgive you. You’re safe with us now.”

I nodded, feeling as if a slideboard harness had suddenly been cut from my shoulders. With Lotus, I’d shared my grief, but Sarika had lifted it from me, even if it was just for this moment. But I discovered something else was left behind—along with relief, there was a tiny grain of anger that I didn’t understand. I took a shaky breath, pulling myself together.

Only then did the incongruity of Sarika’s presence here hit me. “You’re the last person I expected to see with the Indignos.”

“Well, I guess that makes you the second-to-last, then.” Sarika actually laughed, the lines clearing from her face. I suddenly had a flash of what she and my mom must have looked like, running around together as girls. “I didn’t dare believe Jaesun when I got here this afternoon. You, safe and sound and here with us? It felt
like a
miracle
.” And she said the word with the gravity of scripture, the illusion of youth disappearing.

And there was that incongruity again. “I’d think all of this was against everything you believe in.”

“Maybe if I show you what we’re making here, you’ll understand.” Sarika put her arm around me and together we walked through the fields. There weren’t just lime trees being planted, but olives and pecans as well. This grove wouldn’t bear fruit for at least five years. These people were planning on staying.

Sarika led me to a cornfield. Only when we were well out of earshot did she give me a real answer to my question. “God’s work is not always how you imagine it. The Abuelos have gone astray—become too dependent on the Curadores—and so my path has strayed as well. Sometimes the righteous must walk among their enemies. Remember that, Leica.”

I squinted down the narrow corridor of corn—who were Sarika’s enemies? The Abuelos? The Indignos? The Curadores? But I knew better than to ask.

Once when I was little, I made the mistake of asking Sarika if the Remembering stories were true. She sat me in her lap and said, “Truth is like the agave . . . someone else can plant a cutting, but if you want it to take root, you have to make room for it inside yourself. Even so, it can stay there, small and forgotten for years. Then one day something will happen, and it will shoot up, seven meters into the sky, and give you flowers.”

So now I asked a simple question instead. One I might get an answer to. “You said you brought the saplings with you. From where? Is there a part of the camp I haven’t seen?”

“You misunderstand. I still live in Pleiades. There’s certain advantages to being head brewer. I can journey into the desert to find herbs or harvest agave. It makes me the perfect inside man. Or woman, rather. Still, I usually send supplies and news with defecting Citizens . . . three days across Tierra Muerta is no easy task for someone at my age. But it’s the height of planting season now, and the saplings are too valuable to trust with anyone else.”

“So
you
are how people find this place.”

“Yes. At the moment, the Indignos and I want the same thing—to be independent from the Curadores’ technology. That’s enough for now.”

We walked in silence. Here and there some of the stalks had turned a nasty shade of brown. “What happened to them?”

“Some kind of blight. It’s happened in the other fields as well. Whole sections just withering and dying. We’re adjusting the water levels and compost, but so far it hasn’t made a difference. We’ll find an answer, though.” Sarika touched the crinkly leaves. “It’s just a matter of time.”

Time. That was the difference between the Indignos and the rest of Pleiades. Time was not a series of days spent digging for atonement in a hot desert. Time was a building block that created a new future. And it was a tantalizing idea.

• • •

I wandered through the uninhabited middle layers of camp as the sun set that night. My headlamp lit up small rooms—sinks, beds, desks all in their own spots. I flipped light switches that didn’t work. Investigated computer panels installed in some of the walls. Happily, I hadn’t run into any dead occupants so far.

As a scout I’d often explored ruins, but I’d always been dismantling them. No one had ever asked me to put things back together again. And the biggest question was what to do first.

Down below, Indignos were unscrewing the caps from metal cylinders sticking out of the ground. Lotus had told me about the hydrants when she explained why all the fields were planted on the lowest layer of the camp.

I hadn’t understood what she was talking about, but now I saw for myself. As the cap came off, water gushed out, flooding across the fields. Aside from storms, it was more water than I’d seen in my entire life—put together. The ground in the grove had been ingeniously slanted so it collected in the middle, pooling around the water-hungry pecans. I stood there in the last of the light, looking down on the water flowing through the trees. Turning the sandy dirt a dark blue. And eventually, the land green.

In that moment, I caught a glimmer. Not of the scrawny twigs or the sandy field. But of tall trees giving shade and food. Children climbing in the thick branches. A world we’d made ourselves.

Awwrawk!

The noise caught my attention and I spotted turquoise eyes glowing in the shadows of a decaying house.

“How in the world did you find me?
I
barely know where I am myself,” I whispered. I took a step closer, more fascinated than afraid as I looked into the bird’s strange eyes illuminating its round face. It ruffled its feathers, almost like a nervous twitch.

I reached out a hand. “I won’t hurt you.”

But the bird twitched again, cocking its head like it was listening. Then, with another soft
awwrawk
, it took off. Becoming
a silhouette against the evening sky. A second later, angry voices reached my ears as well. Lotus and Alejo—mid-argument.

They were coming up the stairs from the workshop and Alejo’s voice rose loud enough that I could hear what he was saying. “You know as well as I do she shouldn’t be here.”

Then Lotus. “But we
need
her. There’s no getting around that.” Her voice was light but careful—an offhand tone I’d heard Tasch use a thousand times when she was trying to defuse an argument between Lotus and me.

But it didn’t help. Alejo’s words were full of venom when he said, “It’s a deal with the devil. We’re gonna regret we ever brought her here.”

I switched off my light and stepped into the doorway of a room as they came up the stairs past me. But they were too engrossed in their fight to notice me anyway.

There was a warning in Lotus’s reply. “Sarika is not the devil. She’s a true believer. Our goals are the same—to break away from the Curadores. To do that, we need to find a way to feed ourselves, figure out what’s wrong with the crops, keep recruiting people from the inside. We can sort out differences later.”

“I’m just afraid later might be too late.” Alejo’s voice faded as they made their way up to the fire.

And I was left alone with my thoughts. Maybe making a new world wasn’t as easy as splicing wires and planting seeds. Even if the Citizens managed to feed themselves in this barren desert—managed to grow themselves a forest of lime trees—the real question would still be unanswered.

Who was going to rule this new world?

THE NEXT MORNING,
Jaesun was back for more. This time as we sparred, we fell into an easy rhythm. Punch and parry. Kick and dodge. The pup jumped around us, yipping, like a referee. It felt good to have a capable training partner—almost like having my dad back. And after yesterday, there was no pressure to prove myself.

“I have to patrol this morning. Would you like to join me? A few of the other guards are curious about you.”

I immediately went on the defensive and it must have shown on my face.

“Let’s just say a couple of folks witnessed our fight yesterday and saw . . .”

“Me kick your ass?” I couldn’t help grinning.

“Saw your demonstration of skill,” Jaesun finished, answering my smile. “It made you a popular girl yesterday.”

“In that case . . .” I paused to scratch the pup’s ears. Her tail thumped on the packed mud, sending up a cloud of dust. “I’d like that.”

• • •

At breakfast, I tried to choke down the nettle tea Lotus gave me, but I was grateful when Jaesun interrupted us.

“You ready?”

“Let me grab my pack.”

“You taking her on patrol? Is that safe?” Lotus sounded alarmed.

“No more so than any other day,” Jaesun said. “Don’t worry, I promise to take good care of your sister.”

But Lotus looked uneasy. And I understood. We were still practicing at being sisters again. We might have to let each other out of our sight, but we didn’t have to like it.

Jaesun and I climbed out of the Indigno camp in silence—the pup charged ahead, leading the way. Jaesun whistled up toward the mountains before following.

“Always smart to let them know we’re coming.” Jaesun’s shrill whistle was returned and we headed up a gritty trail. It helped knowing there were guards up there, but going into the mountains went against every survival instinct I had. “Lotus told me about your radio. And the message from Earth.”

Of course she had. I suppose there were no secrets in a place like the Indigno camp. After Lotus’s reaction, not to mention Alejo’s, I knew this was my chance to make my case about why the radio was so important. “Not just a message,
voices
.
People.
We managed to get the power working, and if I can get the signal back, then just think about it! We can contact Earth! They can help us.” I glanced at Jaesun, but his eyes were on the steep path that zigzagged back and forth, slowly easing us up the mountain.

Finally, he looked at me. “Well, you’re welcome to try keep
trying. But don’t be disappointed if no one around here is very excited by the idea of a miraculous rescue.”

I kept my eyes on him; he seemed to be leading up to something.

“I was a loyal Citizen once—a digger in the Reclamation Fields. I believed the Rememberings and taught them to my children. Then three years ago, Red Death came to claim them. My wife had already died in childbirth and I was left completely alone in the world. And
still
I believed.

“But the grief wouldn’t lift, and so I went to talk to the Abuelos. They told me that God had punished us for our arrogance. That our people must try harder. That we must dig deeper. Cleanse the Fields.

“What kind of God punishes children for the world they were born into? That was the day I stopped believing.”

I didn’t say anything. I knew the pain of loss. Of doubt. The ache in my chest was from more than the steep climb.

“Everyone here’s got a story like mine. They all have different reasons for coming, but this camp works because we all see the same vision . . . a place where we make our own way. The people of this planet are standing on our own feet for the first time in five hundred years. We rescued
ourselves
. The last thing the Indignos want is someone else showing up and telling them what to do. No. Earth turned its back on us a long time ago.”

We reached the top of the trail and Jaesun stopped, leaning against a rock. Taking a drink from his water jug.

You could see the whole camp from here, spread out below us. People busy shoring up the stretch of tarp-covered buildings. Moving in and out of the rows of corn. Planting new fields. I suppose Jaesun hoped this view would inspire me—but after all this
time in Tierra Muerta, all I felt was exposed, standing on the steep mountainside. Even with the guards, even if wild animals weren’t carriers for Red Death, I was still uncomfortable being so out in the open.

“Do you have your scope with you?” Jaesun asked.

“Yes.” I dug it out of my bag.

“Do you see that clump of boulders and mesquite west of camp?”

I raised the scope. There were no guards today. Instead I caught a glimpse of white. And as it came into focus, I recognized an isolation suit and the towering Curador inside it. Edison.

The surprise of seeing him there set off a chain of tiny explosions inside my head. Edison . . . who’d saved me. Who’d deserted me. Who’d invited me to be part of his world.

Edison. Who’d known things about me that he shouldn’t have known. Who was part of the very system Lotus and the Indignos were rebelling against. Who was risking his life, even now, just by being here.

Edison . . . who was the same as me.

As I looked through my scope, all I said was, “I see a Curador down there.”

Jaesun nodded. “Your Curador, I think. We’ve been watching him since last night.”

If I found Edison’s sudden appearance near the camp confusing, the Indignos’ reaction was even more so. “Why don’t your guards grab him?”

“Because he’s worth more to us this way.”

I lowered my scope. “I don’t understand.”

“We should keep moving or he’ll know we’ve seen him.” Jaesun
continued his path along the ridge. “At the time of the epidemic three years ago, when you and Lotus lost your parents, some of the Citizens had already begun questioning the doctrines of cleansing and redemption. You know the Abuelos blamed rebellious Citizens for the new outbreak. But I for one do not believe it was God doing the smiting. I believe it was the Curadores.”

It crossed my mind that the Indignos were being led by a madman. “For what possible reason?”

“What do you think they’re doing with all that junk we give them? Do you think they’re cleansing our sins for us? No. We’re sure they
need
those raw materials to keep their Dome functioning.”

Our trail was no longer going up, but paralleling the side of the mountain. We walked side by side now as Jaesun explained the Indignos’ theory.

“If we find another source of food and water, then the Citizens can live perfectly well without the Curadores. But what about the other way around? The Curadores are stuck inside that Dome, inside those suits. Without us, they will have no way to get enough salvage. We always imagined that the Curadores were doing
us
a favor, but I think it’s the other way around.”

We met up with a couple of guards—their grey clothes blending in with the mountain. Jaesun stopped to talk to them for a moment, introducing me briefly, and then we moved on, the trail guiding us back down the mountain.

“So you think the Curadores are infecting us with a terrifying disease, just so we’ll keep excavating the Reclamation Fields?” I shook my head. The idea didn’t match up with what I knew of Edison. Then again, Planck and Sagan had been far from kind to me.

“Yes. That and to keep our numbers down. The more of us
there are, the stronger we are and the more supplies they have to give us.”

“And the more salvage we can give
them
.” I was relieved to find a flaw in Jaesun’s argument.

“That’s the thing. The Curadores have managed to get what they want by demanding more salvage for less food. The outbreaks haven’t hurt them a bit.”

“So instead of helping us, you think the Curadores have been killing us.” The idea was impossible and ridiculous, but my mind kept coming back to the bitterness and fear in Edison’s voice when he’d mentioned Jenner. When he’d talked about himself and his brother being the future. What had he meant?

And I had to admit I’d learned very little about the Curadores from Edison. All I knew was that his people had mistreated him, the way mine had mistreated me. That didn’t speak well for the Curadores.

And there were things about Edison himself. Things that didn’t make sense. How he’d known about my sisters even though I’d never mentioned them. How he’d given me that particular bottle of mezcal. And now he was here. Why? To get the radio? To attack the Indignos? And an unsettling little voice inside me whispered,
He came back for me.

Jaesun came to a dead stop on the trail, turning to face me as he answered my question. “Yes. I think the Curadores have been killing us. Repeatedly and systematically for the last three years . . . ever since Red Death resurfaced. And I know Lotus told you about Tasch. The nature of the disease has changed. It’s swifter. More deadly, if that’s possible.”

His face was intense, but there was no trace of madness in his
eyes. Whether it was true or not, Jaesun believed in what he was saying. I made myself ask the next question. “What are you going to do about it?”

“With your help, we’re going to infiltrate the Dome.”

“Edison.” I understood now why Jaesun had brought me up here on the mountain with him. Not just so I could see Edison, but so Edison could see me.

“Yes, he seems to be scoping out the camp. Watching our patrols. Looking for a way in. We think he’s going to come for you, maybe tonight. Maybe tomorrow.”

“And what if he’s not here for me?” Even as I said it, I realized I
wanted
Edison to come for me. And on the heels of
that
realization—another, conflicting one: I also wanted to make a home for myself here, with my sister. And thinking of Lotus, the danger Edison posed felt very real. “What if he brings more Curadores?”

“We’re ready for that. But for now, he seems to be alone. I want you to know, no one here will make you go with him. The whole point of this camp is for people to make their own decisions.”

“What will you do to him if I don’t go?”

“We won’t let him hurt anyone or take anything. But if you refuse and he leaves quietly, we’ll let him go. But, Leica, if he comes for you, you need to be ready. You need to know your mind. You need to be sure what you want to do. This isn’t just your life anymore. It’s all of ours.”

• • •

Lotus was waiting for me when we got back from our patrol, fidgeting by the campfire. As soon as she saw me, she came over and gave me a hug. She must’ve known why Jaesun had taken me with him—that was the real reason she’d looked concerned earlier.

There was no one else around, so I asked Lotus straight out, “Do you believe Jaesun? Do you think the Curadores are really killing our people?” I asked, hoping that she would say,
No, of course not. Jaesun is crazy.

But Lotus pulled herself tall and looked me straight in the eyes. “I do.”

And looking at Lotus, at this camp of damaged, but determined Citizens, I could no longer deny that something was very wrong in our world. I had gotten one sister back . . . but the other? The other had been taken from me. And I could not let that stand.

I said the words that had been taking shape in my mind as Jaesun and I had hiked down the ridge in silence. “I believe him too.”

Still. I was so tired of fighting. So tired of being an exile. I looked around the Indigno camp and, in my mind, I could
see
myself making a home there. I was sitting by the fire scribbling plans for the new houses. Down in the ruins, supervising work. Picking limes for our first Chuseok Festival. Fighting Jaesun in the ring.

I could see myself doing a hundred little everyday things. And I wanted the chance to do them. And yet . . .

Some part of me wanted to see inside that Dome. Had wanted to ever since my mother had dared to ask her question:
Do you think it’s very beautiful inside?
It was time for Citizens to do more than gaze up at the Curadores’ shimmering glass bubble, wondering.

Carefully, almost casually, Lotus asked, “What are you going to do . . . when the Curador comes back?”

“Do I even have a choice?” I threw the words at her, suddenly angry. Mad that it had to be me. Mad that I had leave my sister. That I had to go into exile again. Like Jaesun said, it was my decision to make—but in reality, there was
no choice
.

And when I was completely honest with myself, more than anything I was furious that some treacherous part of me
wanted
to go with Edison.

“I didn’t know he’d come here, I swear. I never dreamed we’d get this chance.” Lotus’s voice struggled to stay level, but there was excitement underlying her words. “I would go in your place if I could.”

When her eyes flicked up to meet mine, there was sadness, but there was no apology in them. The girl I’d once had to push toward the fighting ring was gone. This Lotus was stronger, but there was a hardness there too.

“You know what you’re asking me, right? Not only to leave you. Not only to become a kind of spy. But if I go with this Curador . . . I’ll as good as belong to him.” It hurt to think Lotus would just let me go. Would let me to walk into danger. “Look me in the eye and tell me you understand what you want me to do.”

And suddenly the hardness in her eyes caught on fire and Lotus snapped. “When have you
ever
cared about what
I
want you to do? You do whatever the hell you want anyway. Don’t you get it?”

She was shouting now. “You left me! You left us! If you’d just told Tasch and me what you were going to do, if you’d asked, we would’ve helped you. We could’ve distracted the guards, kept a lookout, maybe gotten away with it. Or maybe we wouldn’t have! It doesn’t matter, because either way, the three of us would’ve been together.

“But you didn’t do that, did you? You chose to do it yourself. And your
choice
, Leica? Your choice left me alone. Can you imagine what that was like? Mom and Dad dead. Tasch dead. Sister
exiled. Ostracized by everyone. Sarika barely speaking to me because of the secrets we kept from her.”

Lotus was shaking as she paced back and forth. I wanted to go to her, wanted to comfort her, but I couldn’t because I was the one who had cause this pain. And I wished more than anything I could undo it.