Savage Run by E. J. Squires

representatives.
Busses zoom past us, their exteriors plastered with red, yellow and
white saber-toothed tiger heads. Being here feels all wrong because
Gemma should have been here with me. The plan was that we make it
together. Now who will I have at the end of all this? Who will be
there if I succeed? Gemma’s mother is still alive, unless Master
Douglas has gotten to her. My chest tightens. A Laborer can never
be safe. Never. Even if she’s alive and I do make it, then she’ll
want nothing to do with me when she discovers that I killed her
Gemma. She’ll be able to read in my eyes that I made the choice to
run. To abandon her. And if she can’t, then I won’t be able to stop
myself from telling her. I rub my hands over my eyes to make it
look like I’m trying to force the sleepiness out of them—not stop
the tears that are threatening to come. I can’t start to cry now.
They’d all have yet another reason to think I’m a weakling and a
Laborer who should never be a Master. Who doesn’t deserve to be a
Master. Quick, focus on something else. Anything!
    When I open my eyes, I see that I’m alone in
the transporter. This helps me to redirect my thoughts. I climb out
of the vehicle, counting the steps on my way out to keep my mind
off of Gemma.
    Once outside, we stand in a
group and wait for Mai and Nicholas to exit their transporter. To
keep my mind busy, I scan Volkov Village and really let each detail
catch my eye. But what catches my eye isn’t inside the village,
it’s right outside of it. Right outside the fence is a large, blue
and green glass structure with a bar, a band, and a dance floor
inside. I’ve biked by dance clubs in Culmination many times, my
eyes lingering on couples entwined as one. I’ve often wondered what
if feels like to be in
love , as the Masters call it. Just once, I
would like to feel that magic, as they call it. Once before I die.
I always knew that it was never for me. Laborers are required to
accept the mate their Master chooses for them.
    Standing here so close to the rest of the
participants, it’s glaringly obvious how much smaller I am than
them. The shortest guy besides Arthor stands a whole head taller
and must have at least seventy-five pounds on me. And it’s not just
that. They have this aura of confidence—fearlessness—that a Laborer
never would have. Advisors are taught that they’re important,
almost as important as the Masters, and it’s drilled into them from
the time they’re born. They’re not the scum of the earth like
Laborers, but free individuals who can own businesses and create
the lives they desire. Just the way their eyes don’t lower to the
floor when spoken to, and that alone sets them miles apart from us.
And they know it. Many Advisors I have come in contact with are
worse than the Masters—more arrogant, proud. I have a theory about
it. I think deep down inside their souls they know they’re not
completely free, and it eats away at them. They fight hard to keep
up the façade, proving to the world how much they matter. Well, at
least I’m fast, and I have developed pretty good endurance riding
around the mountains and hillsides of Culmination all these years.
At least I have that.
    When Mai comes out, her eyebrows are
gathered low over her eyes, and as she walks by me, she glances at
me, like I’m her archenemy. “They’re coming for you,” she whispers
in a voice so low that I’m sure no one else could hear.
    My stomach feels as if I
just swallowed a gallon of poison. Coming for me? Who? Wait, does
she know I’m a girl? Did she tell them, whomever it is that’s coming? I look
around to see if they’re here—the Unifers. It has to be Unifers,
I’m sure of it. But before I have time to locate my pursuers a
Savage Run bus pulls up in front of us.
    “ This is our bus,” Nicholas
says.
    I quickly elbow my way to the front of the
line so I can get on first. Not that I think it will matter much
having someone after me. I’m sure