Rebellion (The 100 #4)(23)
But he’d already disappeared into the shadows.
CHAPTER 12
Glass
Glass and the seven other girls seized from the camp stood in a long row. In their newly issued white dresses, they looked like the spokes of the picket fence Luke had built around their cabin.
They’d been led from the den through a series of winding, crumbling hallways into a vast, empty hall. Huge chunks of the ceiling and walls were missing, and early-morning sunlight pooled on the floor. A few flowering trees grew out of the cracks in the cement, filling the air with a subtle, sweet fragrance. In another situation, it might’ve seemed pretty, or at least striking, but the longer Glass spent at the Stone, the more her stomach filled with dread. She wasn’t sure what was going on here, but it all felt very, very wrong.
“What are they going to do to us?” Octavia whispered to her.
“I don’t know,” Glass said, glancing around nervously.
A blond woman in her late twenties, wearing a gray tunic dress, walked up and down the line, inspecting the girls. With each tiny frown or eyebrow raise, Glass grew more anxious. She didn’t know what they were being evaluated on, and even worse, she didn’t know whether it was better to fail or succeed.
The woman in gray reached Glass, looked her up and down, then peered into Glass’s eyes, unblinking. Glass wasn’t sure what to do except stare back. But it felt so intrusive, so personal, she could only hold the woman’s gaze for a second before averting her eyes.
The woman had already moved on to Octavia before Glass had a chance to gauge her reaction, beyond a vague sense that it had not gone well. But should she be upset or relieved? What was the point of impressing these people?
Survival, came the answer. It was like she was on autopilot, feeling nothing but a stark determination to do whatever it took to get out of here. To get back to the camp. To get back to Luke.
When the line of girls started to move, it took a glance of warning from Octavia for Glass to realize she needed to follow.
“We’re going on a tour of the Stone before your cleansing,” the blond woman called out. “Soren wishes for you to get a feel for your new home, now that you’re staying with us.”
“Staying with them?” Lina whispered from behind Glass. “They make it sound like we’re guests.”
Glass nodded, but said nothing, not wanting to incur the wrath of the woman who was already watching them suspiciously.
“This is the scullery,” the woman called from the front of the line, as they wound their way down a corridor.
They passed a bombed-out, windowless space, and Glass got a view of a few red-faced women in white dresses scrubbing earthenware on one side and clothing on the other side in giant, steaming pots. Something to look forward to.
The woman stopped, hand raised, and nodded into the room. “Tomorrow, all of you will take a turn with each of our tasks and will be given a position based on aptitude.”
Octavia scoffed quietly beside Glass. “Right. Aptitude. To see whether we have a god-given gift for washing disgusting clothes, or an innate talent for cleaning dishes.”
The woman in gray scowled at Octavia, and she fell silent.
The line moved again, and soon they were being led outside. In the distance, Glass saw a group of Protectors with shaved heads running alongside some exhausted-looking figures. From the way the Protectors were screaming at them, Glass gathered that they were also prisoners. Were more of her friends among them? She squinted into the sunlight, mind racing.
More alert than she’d been before, Glass tried to observe as many details as she could about the Stone. What had looked like a single structure from the outside was more like a collection of buildings in a honeycomb pattern, not unlike the layout of the Colony. Some structures they passed were no more than skeletons, bare steel beams surrounding piles of rubble, while others were more intact.
White-clad Protectors were everywhere, but oddly, they didn’t seem to be doing much. Since she’d arrived at the Colonists’ camp, every day was a constant flurry of activity, with people weeding the garden, collecting firewood, chasing after the children, or building new structures. What did these people do all day?
There were at least some signs of actual life in the center of the building, which the woman called the “Heart of the Stone” as she led them toward it. It was a tiny forest—maybe a courtyard once—now full of trees, some of them bearing fruit. Glass breathed in the smell of ripening apples and pears, dimly hearing the woman’s droning explanation of something about religious ceremonies and offerings to Earth. The group started out again before Glass was ready to leave the comforting green canopy.
“Now I will take you all to meet our leader and see our bounty,” the blond woman said reverentially, leading them back through the building. “Soren has returned from a long spirit walk and is eager to meet you all.” Glass and Lina exchanged nervous glances. Meet felt like an odd word to use with girls who’d been drugged and kidnapped. And this was the person in charge, who’d given the orders and approved the Protectors’ violent actions.
The building opened up onto a huge vista, so sprawling and bright that Glass nearly staggered from the scope of it. An enormous rectangular field full of planters stretched out before them, and beyond that, a river basin, glittering in the midday sunshine. As her eyes adjusted, she took in more details: the remains of fallen buildings along the far horizon, the crops in the field. There was a lone woman in a white dress picking through the crops with a careful squint, her black hair falling over one shoulder.