The Woodlands

“After they let me go, we thought it would be over.” Alexei sighed, showing his weariness. I did pity him.

“What? They let you go?” I was confused. I thought they had run away to save Alexei. Little bits of the truth kept getting lost. Their lies ru

“We’re not matched. We’re too genetically similar and they were never going to allow us to use the technology to have a child together. If we were ever going to have a chance at a family, we had to escape,” he admitted, the truth coming out at last. They ran just so they could have a baby.

“So Joseph and I…” I said, following a single blossom twirling to the ground.

“It is very rare for people from the same town to be matched, but the two of you are so genetically different, the computer selected you as an ideal match.” He finished my thought for me. I laughed. It was not news to me that Joseph and I were different.

It didn’t make much sense. Now that they were on the run, they would not have access to the technology needed to conceive that child they so desperately wanted—there was something missing from his story.

“So, what, the plan was to steal Clara’s baby all along?” I could feel the rage boiling up inside me. How could this possibly make me sympathetic to her? I hated her even more. Had she let Clara die? I pushed Alexei and he fell backwards to the ground, jarring his arms to break his fall. The curtain of blossoms fell more rapidly to the earth as I pushed through them. I stood over him, considering calling for Joseph and Deshi to come help me, stalling as I watched him fumbling around, trying to find his glasses in the dirt.

“No, no. Apella loved Clara. She wanted to give her a chance with her baby. We knew it was a risk, but Clara was never going to leave your side,” he stammered. It was slightly hilarious that this six-foot-two man was afraid of me. “Now that Clara’s gone, she wants to try and make it up to her, care for Hessa as her own. Hessa would be a brother to our child.”

“Apella’s pregnant?” My voice ran high, coasting along a wave of disbelief and anger.

He just looked at me with his sickly blue eyes, so pale they were almost clear. He gave a diminutive nod, confirming my suspicions.

Ugh! I felt sick. Was I always to be surrounded by gooey-eyed pregnant women and expectant fathers? I put my foot to his chest, pushing down. It was unbelievable to me the things people were willing to sacrifice for a child. Lie, steal, risk lives. At the same time though, I knew I would have done anything to protect Hessa. I eased off, a little.

How many lives had she ruined so that she could have this child? Too many to count.

“So why aren’t they scouring the wilderness to find you two traitors?” I asked. There were so many questions.

“Apella and I are inconsequential to the project now. They have everything they need to continue. My guess is, they don’t believe us to be alive. Clara was on her fourth pregnancy, she was to be disposed of after this child and you…well.”

I never got used to it. The way the Superiors treated us like we were nothing. Vessels to be used and disposed of. What was the purpose of all of this? Where was it leading?

“What about me?” I was afraid to ask.

His pale face twisted, his nose wiggling like a mouse. He ran his hand through his fair hair, coming up with a handful of flowers. Shaking them off, he told me, “Well, you were always considered slightly defective because of your extraordinary eyes. You were an experiment. The babies they are aiming for are more like Hessa, an interesting combination of characteristics, blue eyes, light brown skin. If your eye colors were passed to your child, you would no longer be useful.” He put his head down, ashamed, as he should be.

I was defective, in the Superiors’ minds. I stood taller. Out here, those things didn’t matter. I searched myself. Letting my eyes follow one blossom, drowsily wandering to the earth, picking up minute winds and changing direction. I think I liked being defective.

“What about Joseph and Deshi? Won’t they be looking for them?” I asked, thinking they must be missing us by now.

“I don’t know,” he said honestly.

I only had one more question. “What exactly is the Project?”

“The Project is the Woodlands way to become as they have always wanted,” he wheezed. “To be All Kind. They use the samples to create the perfect race, a raceless race where every child will look almost the same. They have around four-hundred girls at the moment. Each girl can produce an indefinite amount of children.”

I gulped. My mind was spi

“Do you remember when they took all the eldest children about eight or nine years ago?” I nodded. Of course I remembered. I drew a breath, which cut my lungs sharply.

“Well, that’s where it started. Those children were the first test subjects.”

I couldn’t believe it. A lot of those kids were only well, kids.

“Apella worked very hard perfecting her methods. Her technology is flawless,” he said. I tried to control my rolling stomach at the thought of what ‘perfecting her methods’ may have actually involved for those poor children. “And Este has taken that technology to another, dreadful level. There will be no need to continue interracial marriage or breeding. No need for breeding at all.”

“I don’t understand,” I said, feeling like I was drowning in this information. I shook the droplets of horrible revelations from my hair. “What about the children in towns now?” I thought of my mother and her baby.

Alexei, the bearer of bad tidings said, “They will be fine. But it is the end of families. Soon, they will a

I guess they could. They had enough girls to produce the children required to make this work and they were always going to have a fresh supply.

I was reeling. Feeling faint. I dropped the apples and the nuts I’d collected. They fell with a dull thud in the dirt. I stepped off Alexei and he breathed a sigh of relief. I felt myself being sucked into a black hole, pulled backwards in time and space. Angered and frightened. The arrogance of the Superiors. It was insane. It was as I had always suspected. We were not protected—we were controlled. I felt a cloud of nausea hit me and I fell. Joseph caught me under my arms and sat me down on the ground.

They had come to find me.

I turned and vomited, physically purging myself of the information I had just heard. I wiped my mouth inelegantly.

“How long have you been standing there?” I asked.

“Long enough,” Deshi replied, glaring in Alexei’s direction. Joseph looked sympathetic, like he could see the two sides, his brows pulling together in consternation. So many lies. Part of me wished I hadn’t heard the story. The thought of all those girls, walking in line like zombies. What a miserable future they had in front of them. I couldn’t bear it.

“Where’s Hessa?” I asked.

“He’s with Apella,” Deshi said.

My feelings for her were confused. She was weak and selfish, yes. But she was just a pawn in a much bigger and disturbing plan. I was not able to forgive her, I’m not sure I ever would, but I understood her better.

I said plainly, “I will think about what you asked.”

Joseph handed Alexei his glasses, which he put on, dirt still clinging to the thin wire frames. He walked past me, without saying a word. I was tempted to say boo to his back, to see if he would scamper away.

Joseph lugged me to my feet. “I think you scared him,” he said, lips crooked to the side, a wicked glint in his eye.