Arisen, p.11
Arisen, page 11
part #2 of Awaken Series
“If you don’t mind me asking, why do you live with them?”
Clouds shielded the sun, and the wind picked up, putting a chill in the air. We were coming upon a small playground on the edge of the neighborhood.
“My parents died,” I said. “They say my sister did too, but I don’t believe it.”
Julian looked at me curiously. “Why not?”
“She escaped,” I said with a shrug.
Now it was Julian who had stopped walking. “What did you say your name was? Your last name, I mean.”
“Beckham,” I said slowly. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Megan Beckham, sister to Luna Beckham?” He looked at me in disbelief. “How did I find you without even trying?”
“How do you know my sister’s name?” My heart was thumping hard as I looked to Julian. My knees felt wobbly.
Julian slipped his backpack from his shoulders and unzipped the main compartment. “You can still sneak things in if you’re creative enough,” he said, pulling out a paperback copy of a book.
Escape from Oportet, by Luna Beckham.
I took the book from him, sitting down on the sidewalk so I wouldn’t fall over. I had to remind myself to breathe. I flipped through the pages to make sure it was real. Luna’s name was at the top of every even-numbered page.
A single tear slid down my face. “I was right,” I whispered to myself. No one had believed me, but I’d refused to buy into Lancaster’s lies. “My sister is alive.” And she had achieved everything she’d set out to do on the Outside.
Julian sat down next to me. “She’s definitely not dead, Megan. She lives in Portland.”
“You’ve met her? Did she send you here?” I wiped the tear from my cheek.
“No, I’ve never met her,” Julian said, ignoring my other questions. “Keep the book. I trust you know how to hide it from the authorities.”
“I wouldn’t lead them to you regardless,” I said. I was about to ask him more about why he was in Oportet when screaming erupted from the playground ahead of us.
I slipped the book into my backpack and pushed myself off the ground. Julian and I moved closer to get a better look.
“You’re traitors!” a woman yelled at two kids. “I heard everything you just said, and I’ve alerted guards to take you to the OSD building immediately.”
What looked like two twelve-year-old boys stood in front of a swing set, a middle-aged woman facing them. A toddler I assumed was the woman’s daughter cowered behind her.
“Don’t even think about running,” she spat. “They’ll catch you.”
My chest ached as I remembered my parents sending Luna off in a similar manner. These kids were too young to have their brains wiped. I couldn’t imagine it was safe do perform that kind of procedure on bodies that were still developing.
“This is so twisted,” Julian said, his voice barely audible. “I don’t know if I can stand here and let this happen without getting involved.”
“Welcome to my life,” I said, taking a deep breath.
One of the boys wiped his face. “We didn’t mean it,” he said. “We’ll never talk about it again, I swear.” There were tears streaming down his face now, and the boy next to him appeared pale and statue-like.
When the guards came they shoved the two into a black SUV, stopping to talk to the woman.
“They aren’t going to erase their memories, are they?” Julian asked.
“I don’t think so. Usually the first step is to send them to mandatory counseling sessions, but they’ll be closely monitored for a long time after this.” I shuddered. “What’s going on under Lancaster is scaring the hell out of me. It wasn’t this bad back when Luna was here, but during the past three years everything has escalated so quickly.”
“Your sister sure did send a message, didn’t she?”
“You think this is all because of her?” I asked. Sure she made a great escape, but I wasn’t sure how that could’ve sent a powerful enough message to turn Oportet even more authoritarian than it already was.
“No, of course not. Someone like Lancaster had to have been waiting at the ready a long time to swoop in and take control like he did.”
I watched as the woman picked up her now hysterical daughter, bouncing her up and down to soothe her. The juxtaposition between her motherly instincts and her obedience to totalitarianism was frightening. It was true selective compassion.
Julian and I continued walking, and I realized my disagreement with Melanie seemed ridiculous after all that had happened on the walk home. My sister really was alive, and my happiness far outweighed the trivial words exchanged with my best friend. Not to mention there were far more sinister things going down in Oportet than mind games with Liam.
“So do you live by yourself?” I asked. Eighteen-year-olds were considered adults in Oportet.
Julian shook his head. “No. I’m required to live with an adult until I graduate next year,” he said. “I actually haven’t met the lady who volunteered to take me in. I stayed in a temporary household last night because they were still setting up my permanent living arrangement.”
“Do you know her name?”
“Nope. All I know is that she lives alone,” Julian said.
“Do you think you could prolong the meeting for a while longer? There’s someone you need to meet.”
Julian nodded, and I led him back to the house. Ms. Wilson worked late hours as a chef, and when she got home she usually went straight to bed. That’s why it was so easy for Melanie and me to sneak out at night.
I rang the doorbell about fifteen times, even though the door was clearly unlocked.
“What the hell is your problem?” Melanie asked, pulling open the front door. Her pale face instantly reddened when she saw Julian beside me.
I wasted no time wrapping Melanie in a hug. “Luna’s alive,” I said. “She’s really alive.”
Melanie relaxed her body, hugging me back. “Oh my god, Megan. That’s incredible. How—how do you know?”
Remembering the good deed I plotted during the past five minutes, I released Melanie and gestured to Julian.
“This is Julian,” I said, and then I moved my hand to gesture to Melanie. “And this is my non-biological sister, Melanie.”
Julian offered a small wave, and I could tell Melanie was growing anxious. She’d thank me for this…eventually.
“I don’t know the neighborhood as well as you do, and Julian needs to get to Stone Drive. I figured you wouldn’t mind showing him the way,” I said.
Melanie’s lips moved to form a thin line. “It’s not like you’ve lived here for three years or anything,” she said under her breath.
“I have homework.” I gave her a pointed look, using our telepathic connection to alert her that Julian was probably feeling awkward standing on our doorstep like this.
Melanie stepped outside. “Megan really cares about her school work,” she said to Julian. “I’d be happy to, um, lead you to Stone Drive. If you want me to, that is.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it,” Julian said, grinning. He turned his attention back to me. “I’ll see you later, Megan.”
I smiled at them and shut the front door, far too happy with myself. I managed to find solutions to multiple problems all at once. First there was the issue of finding out more about Julian, like if we could trust him and why he came to Oportet. Then there was getting back into good graces with Melanie. I remembered the look in her eyes when she told me Julian was cute, coupled with the fact that I really needed to be alone. Now, Melanie could start getting to know Julian while I processed the news that my sister was actually alive.
Luna was alive. I knew to trust my gut feeling, even when everyone told me otherwise. My sister had escaped, and now she had sent Julian to help me escape, too. What other explanation was there? This was all an orchestrated scheme to rescue me—why else would Julian happen to be carrying Luna’s book? He said he had ‘found me without even trying.’ That had to mean he was planning on finding me, right?
I ran to the phone, typing in the number to Liam’s basement. I was about to hit the call button when I stopped, setting the phone back on the wall. Why did I suddenly think Liam wanted to talk to me?
But it was Liam. He would want to know that Luna was alive. Wouldn’t he?
He also flaunted a girl right in front of me, inconsiderate about how that would make me feel.
Then again, I was the one who told him I didn’t feel anything for him, and I was the one who all but gave him permission to move on without me. Not to mention I did exactly the same thing to him before pre-calculus.
My mind was racing around in circles. Tired of it all, I sat down on my bed and opened up Luna’s book.
And I read.
When I heard the sound of the front door opening and closing I glanced at the clock. It had been more than an hour.
Melanie entered the room, her arms crossed. I could tell she was trying to look irritated, but the smile tugging at the corners of her lips threw it off.
“Could you have been any more obvious?” she asked, her eyes narrowed.
I grinned. “Yes, actually, I could have.”
She sat down on her bed. “It was really awkward at first, thanks to you,” she said, but then her smile broke through. “But it got better. We ended up walking around the neighborhood a few times before he went to his new home.”
“What did you guys talk about?”
Melanie smiled down at her toes. “Random stuff. He told me about his friends back in Portland. He agrees with me about you and Liam, by the way.”
I frowned. My personal life was far from the list of topics I had hoped they would discuss.
“We also talked about Luna. Apparently she wrote the book about a year ago while living in Portland with her boyfriend, and it’s a memoir all about her life leading up to the escape. Julian said she wrote about you,” Melanie said.
I was growing impatient. “That’s really cool and all, but did he talk about why he was here? Or who sent him?”
“I didn’t pry into his personal life, Megan. If he didn’t want to tell you about it, then you should just drop it. Some people come for protection, you know. He might disagree with the Council and the Rules, but everyone has a good reason for coming here. You wouldn’t be able to survive the long reeducation process otherwise.”
I shut my mouth, keeping my suspicions to myself. I knew there was more to Julian’s motives than just protection. He seemed to know exactly what he was walking into, and I couldn’t imagine any reason good enough to subject himself to the horrors of Oportet. He was sent here, and I had a feeling Luna had everything to do with it.
The abandoned house on the edge of Oportet was filled with people by the time Melanie and I arrived.
To my relief, Amelia was there, hopefully with the others who might harbor doubts about our cause. I looked around the crowd, suddenly aware of the scores of new faces.
I spotted Lacy, Amelia, and Liam in the back, and I made my way over to them before I addressed the group.
“Hey, who are all these new people?” I glanced at two new faces beside Lacy, my eyes widening as I realized just how young they looked.
“Middle-schoolers,” Lacy said, excitement slipping into her voice.
“But…how?” I faltered. “How did they find us?”
“How does anybody find us?” Liam said, the first words I’ve heard from him since the incident in the janitor’s closet. “They’re awake. That’s all that matters, isn’t it?”
“I guess. Just—wow. I can’t believe this,” I said. “This better not blow up in our faces.”
“Yeah, what if they’re, like, spies or something?” Amelia whispered beside me.
“We aren’t spies,” a girl said, walking up to me. She reached out her hand. “I’m Tanya,” she said. “You’re Megan, right? The leader?”
I shook her hand, offering a smile. “How’d you find us?” I asked, curious on so many levels.
“Me and my best friend found one of your fliers in the school Tuesday, and we agreed with everything it said. Like about the propaganda and brainwashing and all that,” Tanya said. She spoke so quickly that it was hard to keep up. “So then we went to my older brother, and he asked us a bunch of questions, I guess to make sure we were really serious about getting involved in the Society. He talked to his friends and they all decided that we should come.” She took in a deep breath after her marathon of words.
Liam nodded, giving me a look as if to say, what did I tell you?
“Welcome,” I said. “I trust you’ve been told how imperative it is to keep all of this a secret?” My eyes hardened.
The two girls offered shy smiles and nods. I took one last glance at Liam before scaling the raised platform. I didn’t have a speech prepared, so like most things in life, I’d be winging it. I let the group of teenagers, and now pre-teens, quiet themselves as I stood before them.
“This is one of the things I love most about the Society,” I started, the words coming to me in an unpredictable stream of inspiration. “No one listens to me because they have to, unlike in school or at Lancaster’s assemblies. People come and listen because they want to—and in some cases, need to—in order to make sense of themselves and the world around them.
“We are here because we feel alienated from our families, peers, and society. We see through the Council’s façade, and we see through the deliberate oppression and manipulation the Council employs to keep citizens quiet and obedient. The Society is more than a conduit for petty acts of rebellion. It’s a place where no one has to hide themselves and their thoughts, and a place where we can organize direct action to send a message to the people who have been committing crimes against us our entire lives. We have been stripped of free speech and free thought, and now we are being stripped of our own minds.
“There are people being sent to the OSD everyday now, and soon enough some of us will be sent, too.” At this, murmurs broke out across the room and the temperature seemed to drop a few degrees. “The procedures carried out by neurosurgeons employed by the OSD are designed to brainwash us into submission, and to eradicate any thoughts of our own. If you enter the OSD building, only your body is coming out. Your mind will be lost forever.
“I know that there are those among you who are doubting yourselves, and doubting the Society. I am here to tell you that the Terrorist Syndrome myth instilled by Lancaster and his minions is nothing more than an unscientific deception, and it is aimed to serve as a chilling effect for anyone who is awake—anyone like us.” I scanned the faces around the room. All eyes were on me, their attention unwavering. “We have come too far to start buying into the Council’s lies now. If we are ever going to start a revolution within Oportet, we need to be able to see the truth.
“That is what being awake means. To awaken is to see the truth beneath the layers of deceit purported by those in power, and also by those who are asleep themselves. The truth is the truth, even if no one believes it, and a lie is a lie, even if everyone believes it.
“To awaken is to realize that the world doesn’t operate in black and white. No one knows all of the answers, and you should never trust anyone who claims to. Being awake isn’t about being better than anyone else, if anything it should remind us that we are all equal, regardless of authority derived from social constructs.”
Anyone who was sitting before my speech was standing now. As I scanned the faces before me, I was caught in one of the greatest surges of energy I had ever felt. We were free—no longer bound by the doubt and fear that kept us up at night.
“This Society and those in it see the world for what it is, not for what it is said to be. That is why we are here. We are here to question everything, to speak the truth, and bring a new wave of consciousness to Oportet, so that one day we will all be free of the Council and its rules.” Applause erupted.
Lancaster could make his best threats, but they were nothing compared to the power of a group of people awakened.
I was looking out into the frenzy of raised voices, laughter, and tears when I spotted Julian next to Melanie. They stood in the back corner, completely absorbed in conversation.
After the applause died out, I stepped off the hearth, dodging anyone who looked like they wanted to speak to me. I managed to reach Melanie and Julian with only a few slaps on the back and murmurs of admiration.
“Don’t be mad,” Melanie started. “You always talk about trusting your gut, right?”
“Well, yeah, but not when the well-being of an entire group of people is at risk,” I hissed. Sure, I might’ve trusted Julian enough to tell him about the middle school right after I met him, but I didn’t like the idea of Melanie bringing him to a meeting without telling me. There was still so much we didn’t know.
“I’m not a spy,” Julian said. “Not for anyone in Oportet, that is.”
“So you were sent here by someone. You’re one of the rebels, aren’t you?” I asked. “The revolutionaries?”
“Megan, you’re being rude,” Melanie said. “You can trust him, okay?”
I ignored her, started to speak again, when Julian cut me off.
“That was quite a speech you just gave. Really impressive,” he said. “You have a way with words.”
“Some of which aren’t even in my vocabulary,” Melanie said, beaming at Julian.
I suppressed an eye roll at her obvious infatuation. What was I thinking getting Melanie attached to some guy we knew absolutely nothing about? For all we knew, guards could bust us any minute now.
Melanie was so fragile. I never advocated for violence at meetings or anywhere, but I would undoubtedly make an exception if Julian hurt my best friend.
I wanted to stay and question Julian more, but there were too many pairs of ears.
“I’ll meet you back at home,” I said curtly, turning to walk off in the opposite direction. Before I could stop myself I turned back around. “This isn’t over,” I said to Julian.
Melanie’s eyes widened, her mouth opening slightly. She begged me wordlessly to walk away before I said anything else. Julian drew his brows together, his eyes thoughtful.
