The System

“I fit in the request category,” she said after a long pause. She let her eyes fall to the table and she waited to be dismissed.

“Of course,” was Huck’s response. “First things first. Are you more of a bread girl or a protein girl?”

“Bread girl,” Lucy answered quickly.

Huck rang a silver bell beside his water glass and their server appeared. He then raised a single finger in the air and then man nodded, spun, and left. Lucy watched the exchange with puzzled scorn and he noticed. With a smile, Huck leaned forward, and lowered his voice.

“You’re thinking it’s too excessive. The service. I see it in your eyes. You must understand there are perks that come with being the leader. But I won’t lie…I’ve always been a man of means. Some of this…the Sky Room, my office…are luxuries for me.”

She didn’t know anything about Huck’s office or his living quarters, but she imagined he wasn’t roughing it. Maybe his shower didn’t have a timer.

“Hey,” Lucy replied, “It’s your world. We’re just living in it. Right?” She grimaced, aware of her tone, and when she saw Huck’s face—his apprehension, a flash of frustration—she backpedaled. “No, I mean…my mom always used to say we deserve little luxuries…” she trailed off and then sighed.

“Don’t be nervous, my dear.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry either,” Huck laughed. “If I didn’t want to entertain your requests and if I didn’t think I’d enjoy your company, then you’d still be in your apartment with your parents…and from what I hear, your little field trip last night didn’t go as pla

Lucy turned red. All her emotions related to last night bubbled to the surface. Huck treated the incident with such nonchalance, but Lucy knew that he had been the one to turn her in to her parents. She narrowed her eyes, hoping to shame him into confessing his role. But Huck didn’t seem concerned with keeping his role in her discovery a secret.

“Ah, I see,” Huck hummed. “You blame me. Well, of course.”

She didn’t reply.

“No, no. I accept your blame. You are right. I told your father. But for your own good, Lucy. Out of worry for you alone.”

Lucy started to protest, but Huck put up his hand to stop her.

“You think that’s hyperbole,” Huck continued. “But your father has been experimenting with Grant. Testing viruses on him. Infecting him…” He paused and waited for her to fully understand. She blinked twice and furrowed her brow. “He could have been highly contagious to you. Depending on what stage of the viral infection he was in.”

His words sunk in and Lucy thought of her attempted kiss.

Maybe she hadn’t been rejected after all. Maybe Grant had known that kissing her would have put her at risk. Her body slumped and Lucy felt even more ashamed for her behavior: assuming out of humiliation that her feelings for Grant would never be reciprocated.

“Why won’t you let me save him?” she asked. Now, more than ever, she needed to see Grant again. Beyond that was the need, the compulsion, to not let his life end at the hand of her father.

“Where does it stop?” Huck asked. “Where do you draw the line?”

“I don’t understand,” Lucy said.

The server appeared carrying a tray. He walked the length of the Sky Room to their table and delivered two plates full of French toast, dusted with powdered sugar and cooked apples.

“Bread,” Huck a

“Stop, please,” Lucy said with her mouth full of breakfast. She set her fork down and finished chewing. “That’s a lie. That’s either a lie you’re telling me, or just a lie you’re telling yourself. But you ca

“You’re wrong,” Huck noted and he kept eating. Shoveling the egg soaked bread into his mouth with grotesque efficiency. “It was the only way. If there had been any other way,” he lowered his voice, “then we wouldn’t be here. And we wouldn’t be heading to the islands…”

“The islands,” Lucy repeated. People had talked vaguely of their future, about a move, but no one had fully explained to her what would happen when their time in the underground system was over.

“We are building them. And they are wonderful. Eden, my darling. Heaven on earth. When our time here comes to an end, the chosen ones will be rewarded with a life beyond anything they could imagine. But paradise, utopia, doesn’t just happen. It is conceived from the most amazing of dreams and plotted with utmost care. I will leave nothing to chance…”

Lucy couldn’t help but shake her head. “I’ve read enough books to know that your utopia is an illusion,” she said. She paused and looked at Huck’s reaction; he motioned for her to continue. “This place is not utopia.” She waved her hand to the ceiling of the Sky Room. “People are afraid that if they defy you, they will die…”

“I’ll stop you there. Just for a second. Did your parents ever teach you about traffic?”

Lucy hesitated. “Like…cars?”

“Yes,” Huck said and took a bite. “Cars. Look both ways before you cross the street…because, as crass as it may sound to a child…if you don’t follow the rules, and hold your parent’s hand, watch for cars…you will die.”

“That’s not the same thing.”

“Don’t put your finger in the electrical socket. Don’t jump into a pool if you don’t know how to swim. Rules. They are for protection.”

Lucy shook her head. “Yeah, but if I ran out in front of a car, my parents wouldn’t punish me by killing me anyway.”

“The tanks are a scare tactic,” Huck added flippantly. “Designed as a precaution against extreme rebellion. Because our world will not accommodate…”

“Democracy?”

“Democracy is a lie,” Huck blurted, his agitation seeping through. He cleared his throat. “Your entire life until now has been a lie. You and the billions of people who lived on this earth have never been free. But in addition to living in chains, you bought the idea that you had freedoms. Lucy, I will never proclaim that what we are creating is perfect. But it is better. Better than the world we came from, better than any place the world was going. I have faith that by stopping the cycle…by choosing our future and choosing who we share that future with…that we will have our utopia. You see, my dear Lucy, I am creating the world I wish to raise my grandchildren in…a world that is not overrun with greed, evil, lies, and conspiracy…”

“By killing people. I

“No one is i

Lucy’s shoulders slumped. “So, your world will not work unless only your chosen people survive?”

“This is all about Grant, is it? You can buy into this world…if you can have the boy?”

She hoped it would be easy enough to say that was the case and be done with breakfast, but her wishes were not even that simple.

“And my brother. And the people we left in Oregon. Good people. People who deserve a future too.” It wasn’t until after she had finished her sentence, and she saw Huck’s cheeks flush, and his eyes flash upward, that she knew she had made a mistake.