Oasis Read online

  ‘How did you escape?’ Mark says, and my head snaps around in his direction. I can tell, by the way he’s looking at me, what he really means.

  How did someone like you escape Oasis?

  I imagine them pulling me from the river, soaking wet, ice cold and unconscious, and it’s not hard to believe I might not seem capable of escaping the fortress of Oasis.

  I clench my jaw.

  ‘I had help,’ I say, and it’s harder to get out than I would have expected. ‘Someone hacked the mainframe and left a message. There was a girl back in the Dorms, she knew what it meant. She knew of something, or someone, who was getting past the firewalls and leaving messages in monitors all over Oasis. They cut the power in the middle of the night. The rest was …’ I think of Bea, of the sound of the gun, of the boy holding that gun ‘… easy.’ I swallow.

  ‘What happened to the girl?’ Lacey asks quietly.

  I immediately seize up, my jaw clamping shut. Understanding floods their faces, but before the silence can linger too long, I notice Kole, his eyes hungry as they roam my face, looking for something more than I’m telling him.

  ‘You know who hacked the mainframe,’ I say. Not a question, but a statement, my stomach plummeting as I speak.

  I can see him holding his breath. ‘I don’t know who did it.’ He exhales. ‘But I’ve heard … rumours.’

  ‘What kind of rumours?’ I ask, wary.

  ‘That they have power,’ Clarke says. ‘That they have people on the Inside. That they’re planning something.’

  My eyes fly back to Kole, and he answers my question before I can ask it.

  ‘A war,’ he says.

  I can’t drag my eyes from his face.

  ‘They call themselves Genesis. Supposedly, they believe that those with the X gene are not a threat.’

  ‘And you don’t?’

  ‘We don’t have proof of either side. What we do know is that sometime last year, people started escaping Oasis, and they were able to because of Genesis. They leave messages in maps and broadcasts, create gaps in patrols and short out the power to the fence so people can escape. They don’t seem to fear Oasis in the least. We know that they have the resources and know-how to hack the most highly secure networks in Oasis. But we don’t know important stuff, like who they are, or where they stay – that’s why we haven’t been able to find them, and presumably why Oasis hasn’t found them yet either.’

  ‘But what are they trying to do?’ I ask, my mind’s eye still seeing the logo, and the x.

  ‘No one’s really sure, but it’s clear they hate Oasis. They’re trying to pick it apart from the inside out,’ Kole says.

  ‘But from what people have said, they have everything – running water, electricity, food, invisibility. Wherever they are, it sounds good,’ Mark says, a warble of longing in his voice.

  ‘Rumours,’ Clarke says, shaking her head dismissively. ‘We can’t be sure of anything.’

  ‘Except that they mean business,’ Kole says, sitting forward.

  ‘So then why not try to find them? If they’re the ones with all the answers, why not try to track them down?’

  ‘One, that’s impossible,’ Clarke says, a vague layer of disgust still soaking her every word. ‘If Oasis hasn’t found them, there’s no hope of us ever tracking them down.’

  ‘And two,’ Mark cuts in, ‘there are others we’re waiting on before we go further away.’

  ‘A lot of people still have family inside Oasis,’ Kole says, running his hands through his dark hair as he leans his elbows against the table. He sounds exhausted. ‘We can’t just leave them behind.’

  ‘You’re planning on waiting for them?’ I say, borrowing a little of Clarke’s disgust, along with my own disbelief.

  ‘Yes,’ Kole says firmly. ‘Our plan is to gather everyone together and then we’ll set out to find a place far from here where we can settle safely. We never wanted to fight Oasis, we just want safety from it. We need to get as far away as we can, and then we can start rebuilding. A roof over our heads, food, a proper bed to sleep in – we can have all of that once everyone is here, and we find someplace safe.’

  I look at him doubtfully. It all sounds a little too romantic to me. I prefer the idea of picking Oasis apart – that I can understand.

  ‘But doesn’t it make more sense to focus on finding allies, finding these hackers and fighting with them to undo everything?’

  ‘We don’t even know if Genesis exists,’ Kole says impatiently, ‘and we certainly don’t know if it’s anything like we’re imagining. Plus, like Clarke said, no one can find them. We’re not giving up on our people Inside just for some slight hope of finding a rebellion no one’s even sure is real.’

  I sit back in my chair, chewing on my lip. I wonder if that’s what I should do, once I get what I need. If I found Genesis, maybe they could help find the Cure.

  Unlike these people, who seem to have forgotten about it.

  Kole looks out the window. ‘We need to get moving. The daylight won’t last long.’ He pushes his chair back, and they all follow suit.

  ‘Lacey, do you want to get Quincy set up with something while we’re gone?’ Kole murmurs.

  ‘Sure.’ She brightens, turning towards me. ‘I was just about to start fixing up some of the clothes. Do you know how to sew?’

  ‘A little.’ I think of the hidden pockets in my uniform.

  ‘Wonderful!’

  ‘Okay then,’ Kole says. ‘We’ll be back in a few hours. Clarke and Walter, come with me. Mark, stay here and make sure everything runs okay with the repairs.’

  He gives Mark a pointed look, and I get the feeling that he’s leaving him here to watch me. But I don’t care. I remind myself I’m here for a purpose, and these people have nothing to do with it.

  Kole and the others move out quickly, leaving the kitchen cold and alien, and I get the sense that the brief respite from their distrust is over as Mark watches me from the other side of the room.

  ‘The supplies are upstairs,’ Lacey informs me. ‘You ready?’

  ‘Yes.’ I nod. My mind is whirring with everything I’ve just learned.

  I’m ready. Ready to get answers, find a way to survive and get out.

  16

  I hiss, jerking my hand away as I stab myself with the needle for the hundredth time. I’ve been on the third floor for three days, only going downstairs for meals and to sleep. Lacey spends most of her days helping downstairs, but she visits me from time to time and helps with the boring work I’m doing: sewing until I’m seeing double.

  Lacey sits across from me now, her fingers fast and nimble as she patches up a pair of trousers. She’s a chatterbox, and when she’s up here there’s a never-ending stream of words coming from her mouth, most of which I try to ignore. But somewhere along the way, her story of a strange berry she discovered one day while out foraging has drifted towards Clarke, and I suddenly tune back in.

  ‘What did you say?’

  ‘I said that it’s because it’s her family’s, that’s why she won’t let anyone call her by anything else.’

  ‘Her name?’

  ‘Yeah. I asked her once what her first name was and she wouldn’t tell me. She said it didn’t matter anymore.’

  It reminds me of the day I was stripped of my last name, Emerson, and had it replaced by a serial number. And later, when even the serial number was too much of a privilege and had to be taken along with my job. The thought makes my blood boil all over again, but there’s no point getting angry.

  I feel like I’m banging my head off a brick wall. I’ve been trying to get to Kole again, to ask him more questions, but he’s out hunting all day, and comes in so late he can barely walk in a straight line.

  Whoever it was that I overheard arguing with Kole about rations was right. We’re being fed two small portions of food every day, barely enough to keep us going. A large group goes out every morning to hunt, and every night they come back empty-handed. They have a small st
ore of canned foods on the third floor, but it’s dwindling quickly as the days pass. No one will tell me where they got the food, or how they can get more, but I keep asking anyway. I even tried to talk to Kole about it last night, but he just held up his hand and told me he couldn’t deal with it right now.

  I need to be studying them, to learn from them, to figure out how they survive out here, how to hunt, what to eat, but they won’t let me get close enough. I finish repairing the ripped knee of the trousers I was sewing, breaking the thread with my teeth and throwing it down on the floor beside me with a grunt.

  Three days. I’ve been here for three days, and all I’ve learned is how to fix clothes. I stand up, throwing my supplies onto the floor. Enough.

  I jog down the stairs, ignoring the way the unstable wooden structure moves under my feet, and then I’m outside. I can see them walking towards the tree line, six men and two women. The only ones I really know are Mark and Kole, but I notice Clarke on the outskirts of the group, fixing a knife at her hip as she walks.

  I move up beside them, slipping into the group without a word, my heart racing in my chest.

  ‘What the hell are you doing?’ Kole asks, looking down at me with wild eyes.

  ‘I’m coming with you,’ I say firmly, sounding more confident than I feel.

  ‘What is she doing here?’ the middle-aged man standing beside Kole practically hisses at me. I remember Lacey telling me his name is Jonas.

  I lean across Kole, looking straight at Jonas.

  ‘I’m coming with you,’ I say, my voice clear and unbending.

  He blinks at me several times and then looks away, angry.

  ‘Kole?’ Mark asks quietly, unsure what to do.

  Kole is still watching me, sizing me up. ‘Why do you want to come?’ he asks.

  ‘I want to learn.’

  He narrows his eyes, sensing something more behind my words, but he’s wrong. He’s wrong and at the same time he’s not, but I keep my face completely blank as I look up at him. I see him thinking, then I see him deciding.

  ‘Fine, she can come,’ he says. ‘But you better not get in our way.’

  ‘No problem.’

  He nods. ‘Then let’s go.’

  We start moving again, all nine of us, heading into the wilderness.

  17

  The forest is cold as we trudge through the underbrush. Kole has split us into three groups of three so we can cover more ground. The first group is made up of me, Kole and Clarke. The second, which heads north, includes Mark, Walter and a boy I haven’t met yet, and the third is Jonas, his wife, Meredith, and an unfamiliar man they call Don. I know Kole put me with him because the other groups don’t want me. I try not to let it get to me, that it’s going to take time, but I can’t help feeling frustrated. I haven’t done anything to them. I haven’t made a single move against them, yet they’re still treating me like the enemy.

  I kick a branch underfoot, and Kole glares at me.

  ‘Quiet,’ he hisses.

  ‘It’s not like there’s anything out here,’ I fire back.

  ‘Well there won’t be if you keep tramping around the forest like an elephant.’ He catches my arm and pushes me down to avoid a low-hanging branch. ‘Are you trying to make as much noise as possible, or does it just coming naturally to you?’

  ‘Shut up,’ I growl, shaking his hand off me. ‘And I’m being as quiet as I can.’

  He barks out a disparaging laugh, just as Clarke comes up behind us.

  ‘You both need to shut the hell up, or we’re going to starve to death, got it?’ she says, her eyes boring holes through us.

  ‘Got it,’ we both say at the same time.

  We glance at each other as Clarke walks away, and Kole’s face suggests that if I was anyone else, he’d be smiling right now.

  ‘Don’t. Move.’

  Kole’s voice is the smallest whisper, his hand laid against my arm to stop me. My eyes take in our surroundings, trying to spot what’s made him pause. I see the tiniest movement ahead, no more than six metres in front of us.

  Kole pulls his gun from his backpack, a long rifle of some sort, and his movements are as smooth as water. He rests the gun against his shoulder, taking careful aim as I hold my breath, afraid my heart is beating so fast it will alert the creature.

  Out of nowhere, something flies through the trees, and I hear it, a thump and then a crash, the animal is down, but when I look back at Kole, he hasn’t fired.

  I look at him in confusion, then we hear a loud whoop go up in the forest and Clarke jumps out in front of us, a wide smile spread across her face.

  ‘I told you it would work!’ she says elatedly, holding a roughly hewn bow above her head.

  ‘You didn’t,’ Kole breathes, eyes wide in awe.

  ‘I did,’ she says. ‘I did!’ And then she takes off towards the animal.

  ‘What was that?’ I ask, turning to him. My heart is still thundering in my chest, and I have to resist the urge to lean against the tree beside us.

  ‘She shot it with a bow,’ he says. ‘I said it would never work, but it did.’

  ‘What did? The bow? What?’ I feel like an idiot, lagging behind, not understanding a single thing that’s going on around me.

  ‘She’s been making that bow for weeks. Trying to find a new way to hunt that would save bullets. I never thought it would actually work. We’ve tried before, to make something similar, but we could never generate enough power to kill anything. But she wouldn’t let it go.’ He shakes his head. ‘And she finally got it to work.’

  We start following Clarke’s path through the thick foliage, my mind scrambling to keep up. Maybe this changes something. Maybe if there’s food, if people are properly fed for the first time, then they’ll calm down. Maybe, with the threat of hunger taken away, they’ll tell me more about Genesis. Or at least let me learn enough to find them myself.

  We find Clarke standing victorious above the body of a huge deer, a grin plastered across her face, her dark curls a halo above her head. Kole smiles at Clarke, and then at me, and I think, This is the chance I’ve been waiting for, and I smile back.

  18

  It takes hours for us to get back to the house. First we have to track down the rest of the group, and it quickly becomes clear that dragging the buck on ropes isn’t going to work. It’s incredibly heavy and slows us down to a stumble. When we find the others, Kole and Mark pull out knives the length of my forearm and set to work chopping the still warm body of the buck into chunks, so we can carry it home.

  My stomach is turning at the sight of the blood soaking into the ground, but I won’t let myself look away. I hold my ground and grind my teeth, and I try to ignore Clarke’s grin from across the clearing, the look in her eyes at once quiet and vicious. Once the entire thing is in pieces, Kole starts delegating parts for people to carry.

  I surreptitiously glance away, heaving in a deep breath as I try to calm down. I’ve never seen anything like this, never seen so much blood in one place, and I want to vomit at the sight of it.

  Meredith comes to stand beside me, and offers me something in the palm of her hand. She’s tall and lithe, with long, dark hair that’s beginning to grey at the roots, matching the startling grey of her eyes. She nudges me with her elbow, a small smile on her lips.

  ‘For your hair,’ she whispers, winking at me. In her palm lies a thin strip of leather and I take it gratefully, using it to tie my hair away from my face. The cold air that hits my cheeks and neck immediately calms me.

  ‘Thank you,’ I say, surprised at my own sincerity.

  She smiles at me and takes a single step back, as if she’s about to leave, but at the last second she steps closer.

  ‘It’s hard in the beginning,’ she whispers. ‘It’ll get easier, I promise.’

  I nod numbly. She smiles again before stepping up to Kole, who hands her a haunch of meat, which she takes as if it weighs nothing.

  I’m left a little rocked, unsure what to fe
el about her approach, which is so different from how I’ve been treated up to now. I don’t get the chance to think about it much, though, because a moment after Meredith walks away, I hear a whistle at my back and whip around to find Clarke standing directly behind me, the deer’s head in her hands.

  Its blank eyes stare at me, and I take a stumbling step backwards as she cackles.

  ‘Sure you don’t want to hold it?’

  ‘Clarke.’ Kole’s voice is deadly from behind me, but I won’t turn around. I won’t turn away from the dead thing’s eyes and Clarke’s sharp mouth turned up in a snarl. ‘Drop it,’ he growls, and I’m not sure if he means the head or harassing me, but I’d be glad for either one right now.

  She rolls her eyes and throws it at my feet, stomping away like a petulant child.

  I step aside, trying to stop the bile rising in my throat. My heart is pounding in my chest so fast that I start to feel lightheaded, and it’s not just my reaction to the bloody head. It’s my reaction to Clarke. To that look in her eyes, like if she could just slit my throat and get me out of the way, she would happily do it.

  As I turn around I notice Kole staring at me, an inexplicable emotion on his face. I give him a questioning look and he looks away from me. He picks up one of the front legs and holds it out to me. My piece of the kill. Heavier than some of the other cuts, but a lot less gruesome.

  ‘Thank you,’ I say, nodding at him. I understand the gesture, and I appreciate it, even if he’s just trying to make up for Clarke’s malice.

  ‘We better get moving,’ he orders, heaving the last piece over his shoulder. I fall into line behind him, watching as blood soaks into his T-shirt.

  The sun is beginning to set when we arrive at the clearing, the newly boarded-up windows of the house coming into view first. That’s Mark’s handiwork, an attempt to keep the heat from leaving the house. I release a heavy sigh at the sight of the place, my pace picking up as I anticipate finally being able to put down the piece of meat somewhere.