Chapter 16
Rain decided she needed to find something else to talk to 24C about, other than her friendship with Mist. Still sitting on the floor, waiting for the Mothers to unlock the door, she pondered whether or not to ask him more questions, but the only one she could think of at the moment seemed silly.
“It sounds pretty amazing out there.” He had that far off tone to his voice, like he was imagining a wonderful world where people could do whatever they liked, which wasn’t quite the case, but compared to his reality, it was close.
“It’s not bad. Better than in here. What do you wear in the workout room? You don’t….”
“Walk around naked all day?”
Rain dropped her eyes, feeling her face redden yet again. She didn’t mean to think about him in a workout room, lifting weights, completely nude, but the image was there just the same.
“We have gray shorts and white shirts. White socks, black trainers. We aren’t allowed to wear underwear, though, because it might restrict our sperm count. And we have to sleep in the nude.”
So much of what he was saying was hard to hear. Rain realized she’d been taking her freedoms for granted. She didn’t know what to say to him. “Do you… do you ever wonder what it would be like… if things were different?”
“All the time.” He had a haunted look in his eyes, and she couldn’t blame him. “But I don’t think there’s much point in it.” The announcer blared again, telling them they expected it to be five more minutes. “Although… I’m not sure what this is.”
Rain had been wondering the same thing. Of course, she remembered what Sunny had said about staying away from IW today. Had she been aware that something was going to happen? Was this it? “You should keep dreaming about it,” she said, though under other circumstances, she might’ve agreed it was futile. “You never know.”
A small smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. “I don’t know how I’d get up in the morning if I didn’t have at least a little hope that things might change someday. But… I know plenty of guys who’ve been taken away thinking that.”
“Taken away where?”
“To the Bridge, mostly. Some to other jobs. But not usually.”
“They take you to the Bridge if you don’t perform well enough?”
“Yes, and if they find out we can’t produce quality offspring. If too many of our fetuses have to go to the Bridge, so do we. But if we do a good job, we can age out at thirty-five, and then we might be transferred to Construction or Cleaning. Those guys… they get to work outside, at least part of the time. That must be…that must be really good.”
Rain thought about the man she’d seen at the new build when she was headed to the woods with Mist. She wondered if he’d aged out. “Do they tell you if you’re doing well ahead of time? How many viable offspring you’ve produced?”
“They tell us if we are ‘adequate’ or ‘below expectations,’” he replied, shifting his eyes upward when he said the key words. “So far, I have always been ‘adequate.’ But I’m still in trials. I won’t be held accountable for viable offspring for another six months, when I reach the age of maturity.”
Rain had no idea the men had trials as well. “Oh.”
“I do know a few guys who have disappeared before maturity, though. Some for insubordination, others for being reported.”
“Reported? What do you mean?” Rain shifted on the floor. Her bottom was starting to hurt from sitting on the floor. It had been more than five minutes, she was sure of that, but the announcer hadn’t come back on. It was still quiet in the hall.
“When a woman reports abuse or an otherwise negative experience,” he explained. “If you get a few of those, they get rid of you.”
“You mean the Bridge?”
That made her stomach ache. The idea of 24C being taken away to the Bridge…. She couldn’t think of it.
“Are you all right? Your face is a little green.”
“I’m fine.” But she wasn’t.
“Attention! Regular operations will be restored in one minute. Women, prepare to depart your rooms in one minute. Men, you must be seated and strapped in when regular operations resume, or you will be severely punished. Any reports of men interacting with women or moving from their seats will result in severe punishment.”
“Well, I guess that’s my cue to resume the position.” 24C sighed and leaned back into the seat. Rain looked away, wanting to give him some privacy to put his shadow sock back on.
But she also wanted to ask him one more question before she wouldn’t have the chance. “Hey,” she said, without turning her head to look at him. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see him pulling the black fabric back down over his face. “If you did have a name… have you ever thought about what you’d want it to be?”
“A name?” he repeated, his voice muffled from the mask.
“Yeah. Did you ever think about that?”
“I have thought about it, “ he said. He went quiet, and she thought he might never tell her, but after a pause he said, “I read somewhere once, a long time ago, that the first man’s name was Adam. I think, if I ever get a chance to have a name, I’d want to be like him, like the first man. To have a chance to fix everything, and start over.”
“Adam?” she echoed. Rain liked the name, even though she wasn’t quite sure why anyone would want to be named after the first man, the one who got everything off on the wrong foot. Still, she liked thinking of him as Adam much more than 24C.
A whirring noise brought everything back to normal--the straps came down around his wrists and legs. His head was thrust backward as well, and the room went dark. A click at the door let her know it was unlocked, but Rain remembered from her safety classes she wasn’t allowed to leave yet. She got her backpack out of her locker, wishing she’d had a chance to grab a wipe earlier, but she didn’t dare go across the room now for fear that whoever checked on her would think she was up to no good.
A few moments later, her door opened. A Mother stepped in, a frazzled expression on her face. “Are you hurt, Rain?” she asked.
Assuming she’d checked the scanner to see who was in the room since she’d never seen the woman before, Rain shook her head. “No, I’m fine.”
“Good. Did this Inseminator move or attempt to speak to you while the lights were on?”
Rain looked at 24C--Adam. He didn’t flinch. Turning back to the Mother, she said, “No, he did not.”
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