March City: Land of the Gifted [Book 1 | Fantasy/Sci-fi | Complete]

Chapter 39: According to Plan

It felt almost surreal when Ari's front door slid shut in silence behind her. She slumped. Fris had seen them to the front door and left, citing urgent business as Rale had done. Mina wobbled under her weight before they both crashed onto the spotless floor in a heap, Ari holding tightly onto her sister. The slim picture frames on the wall wobbled, their moving images playing a looping video of Ari's favourite memories.

"Are you okay?" Mina said, anxious. She managed to disentangle herself and prop her head up by one arm before Ari threw herself on top, wrapping her arms around Mina. Ari held on for dear life, her heart ramming against her ribs. Mina's long messy brown hair tickled her nose.

"I'm sorry," Ari said in a muffled voice.

"Sorry?" Mina said, surprised. "What for?"

"For... for everything. For being so mean. I know you try hard. I know you don't naturally score so highly. I shouldn't have made fun of you, or of Hine, or anyone else... I'm sorry."

"It's okay. You didn't do anything wrong."

Ari sat back, her eyes burning at the edges with unshed tears. The guilt wrenched her stomach, a new sensation for her.

"But that's it. I didn't. I just stayed at the back and enjoyed the privilege I was born with." She hesitated. No. She wasn't born with it. She didn't know how she was born, how anybody was born.

"Anyone would have done the same. You didn't know."

"I do now." She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Make something of yourself. Work hard. Those Users underground – they wanted a better future for themselves, for everyone. They didn't go about it the right way, but maybe if they had stronger people on their side, more people will understand like you have now."

Ari stared. When had Mina gotten so mature? "I can't agree with Kena transplanting abilities."

"No. It's horrible," Mina agreed. She sat against the wall, her knees drawn before her. Ari held her hand, drawing circles in her palm.

"But, you know, she found a way around that."

Mina's brow furrowed. "She did?"

Ari showed her the little prick mark on her arm where Kena had taken her blood.

"She's created this serum that can mimic my ability – she called it some kind of stimulating factor. And then she took my blood. She said that was all that's needed to stabilise transplanted abilities from now on and there's no need for people to become monsters... but I guess her research will never get completed now."

"Unless she escapes capture again like she did last year."

Ari peered at her. "How did you know all this?"

"Kids gossip." Mina shrugged and brushed stray hairs off her face. "They said Kena did a lot of illicit research for several years before she disappeared to avoid disciplinary action."

Or a 'Purge', as she called it, thought Ari, her mouth going dry.

"It makes sense, though. March City would hardly sanction stuff like this, even if it was for good. It's always been against the law."

Or has it? Ari's mind was brought back to Kena and her conversation. Every maintenance day, consistent under-achievers would be purged and all their acquaintances' memories altered so that it seemed the purged never existed. Maybe the laws were changed in the last maintenance – nobody would know any difference. She had thought those ideas absolutely mad at the time, but now that things calmed down, Ari wasn't so sure any more.  There was no way March City, with its widespread cameras and encompassing information network system, would allow something like Kena's experiments go unnoticed or undetected. And there was the puzzle behind the under-ten-year-olds and over-eighteen-year-olds. All of March City's citizens were aged between eleven and eighteen. How did they get here – and where do they go?