The Variables

A family stopped and shook Blair’s hand. A little girl tugged on her skirt.

“My daddy says Copia is amazing,” she said in a chipper voice.

Blair put her hand on the little girl’s head. She closed her eyes and seemed to be holding back a range of emotion. “It is, darling.”

The father pushed the little girl forward with a sibling and he leaned close to Blair. He spoke to her in a mock-whisper, his voice clearly audible above the alarm. “So, is Copia as beautiful as I’ve been telling everyone?” he asked.

Blair nodded. “My father...”

The man wagged a finger in her face, “...is the breaker of promises.”

“He’s tried very hard to—”

“I’ll speak to Gordy next time I need something. And you make sure to pass that message along.” He disappeared into the crowd without another word.

Grant cleared his throat after the first wave passed. “Do you think I should go in?” he asked, extending the leash like an olive branch.

“Just stay,” she said. “I don’t like talking to some of these people...they can be so...”

“Rude?”

She smiled sadly. “I didn’t bargain for this. I’m here so that my dad and brother don’t have to be.”

“How can you be so calm? So friendly to them?”

He watched Noah approach with his family. Despite all his attempts to partner up with Grant through the week, Noah shot Grant a condescending look as he walked by. They were on their way to a new place and the kid had no use for Grant’s friendship anymore.

“Leash holder for the Elektos, Grant?” Noah laughed. He looked around to see who was laughing with him. “Just find someone else to follow around like a lovesick puppy dog. Grant Trotter, the puppy dog.” Noah rolled his eyes and kept walking.

Blair winced and then stared off down the hall where more people filed in. “Seems like we’re both targets today,” she said.

“That didn’t even make sense,” Grant added, shaking his head. “That guy is so dumb.”

“I’m not even a member of the Elektos. My own dad didn’t even want me to have any say in anything,” she said and let out a small self-deprecating laugh, and then she looked away from him, back down the hall where the last of the Copia residents entered through the double doors. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but no one really cares what I think about anything.”

Blair’s walkie-talkie squawked and Mick’s voice came on the line. “Ma’am...or...er...Blair do you copy?”

She turned to Grant and pointed to her chest with her index finger. “Did he just ask for me?”

Grant nodded.

“I’m here,” Blair answered a bit too eagerly.

“We have activity in a Clearance Level 1 area.”

“Could it be Private Ryley?” She tugged on Frank’s leash. Her eyes flashed with the excitement of being included in this adventure.

“Could be. I just wanted you to know. Elevator analysis says someone went to Floor B. We set the elevator shut-down sequence after that, so I have no idea where the person or persons could be now.”

“That’s the King’s and Salvant’s floor? Which pod door was triggered?” She turned to Grant and whispered, “I think he’s telling me this because he finally sees that I was right!” She gave a self-congratulatory squeal.

Mick answered swiftly, “Pod 6, Ma’am.”

“Can you check it out?” Blair asked. She gave a small jump and pushed a piece of blonde hair behind her ear.

“Ms. Truman, ma’am, we’re all set here. All residents of Copia are accounted for in the Center. We’re on time for our operation.”

As if on cue, Grant could hear the Huck video starting down the hall. His big booming voice greeted the Copia residents through the giant speakers. He was thanking them for their patience, and reminding them that they were the most important members of this world.

“But...if it was Ryley,” Blair said to Mick. She was pouting, her lower lip jutting out. Grant now realized that Ryley’s act of kindness in the morning had stirred something larger in Blair. Her worry for him was bred from misplaced loyalty, and he couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.

“We don’t have an extra person to supply you for checking it out. But if you want to look yourself, Ma’am, we have ten minutes before evacuation.”

Blair turned to Grant and raised her eyebrows.

“Should I go?” she asked.

Grant stammered. Why was she asking him? Huck droned on in the background. The Copia residents cheered and clapped for something they had seen on the screen. “Sure, I mean, if it’s important to you?” he said. “I should probably get into the Center anyway...hear what Huck has to say...”

“Oh,” she said. “Ummm...maybe...” Blair looked conflicted, but Grant felt anxious to get into the large gymnasium and hear about his future home. “Maybe just stay here with Frank until I get back?” she asked.

“I guess—”

But she was already skipping down the hallway when she answered Mick back. “I’ll go to Pod 6. I’ll take my dad’s direct elevator. Turn back on the power and I’ll let you know when I’m done.”

“Copy that.”

Grant took a short walk down the hall and dragged Frank with him. He stood next to the corner, close enough to hear the video drone on.

“We have appreciated your contributions to our world...”

Grant smirked. He had contributed nothing to this world. The people watching that video had given money and years of their lives to a cause that ended the world. The only thing Grant had done was get lucky enough to survive. Somehow he felt like he kept cheating the system.

The video was wrapping up. “For us, those who are going to live the next five hundred or more years on the Islands, we will look to you – the Copia – as a tale worth telling. You are worth more than you know.” 

Grant felt Frank tug at the leash toward the Center, but Grant pulled him back. Undeterred, Frank barked once and then again.

“Shut up, Frank,” Grant mumbled toward the dog, giving him a gentle tap on the head.

Down the hall, Grant saw Nate look his way. He stared at Grant and then lifted the walkie-talkie to his mouth, still keeping Grant in his line of sight. Behind him, the other guards moved quickly to shut the doors to the Center, and his heart began to pound. Jorge and one of the other guards brought big boxes out from a room down the hallway. They were metal and hooked to them were long floppy plastic tubes. Working fast, the men tucked the tubes under the door to the Center and then flipped a switch.

The boxes hummed and churned.

Grant pulled Frank tighter and took a step toward the men.

Nate lifted his gun in Grant’s direction.

From behind him, Jorge shouted, “All six boxes in place. The ones behind the screen are going, the ones from the theater room are operational.”

“Can anyone see what’s happening?” someone shouted.

Inside the secluded room, Grant could start to piece together the sounds of panic. Voices rose and fell in worry and alarm; a woman’s scream, a man’s yell, the sound of traveling feet across the gym floor.

“What’s happening?” Grant called to Dylan, who had taken his place several feet back from the closed metal doors of the Center, his weapon raised.

Now he could hear coughing. A thin film of vapor seeped out beneath the doors and disappeared. Someone hit the doors with full force and they bulged, but didn’t open.

“Prepare for breach!” Dylan shouted.

Huck’s video played on. His voice seeped underneath the new sounds of horror. “You must understand your role. And understand that I realize you will not have seen this sea change coming. But it is imperative to the success of my Islands. Only a true tempest will refine us. I bid you a fond farewell. Please know, in your final moments here, that your memories will not be forsaken.” The video turned to static as some women shrieked in shrill trills. Frank growled and then barked, yanking on the leash and crying out wildly—his cries mingling in with the cries of the people.