Slated

Chapter 28

headspace—thomston
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It takes some convincing. Mum would never have let me go, but Dad is still home: just on his way again, bag in hand, for a work trip.

"Please. I need to run," I say, and he seems to understand. Somehow talks Mum around.

He is gone by the time Ben knocks at the door.

"Are you sure about this, Kyla? It feels like rain," Mum says, anxiously scanning the dark sky.

"I'll be fine," I say. "This is waterproof, isn't it?" And I tug at my jacket sleeve. And I'm not in any danger from cars: it's not like anyone could miss seeing me in this fluorescent vest she made me wear over the jacket.

"You will stick to main roads?"

Ben promises to look after me, and stares levelly back at Mum. She seems satisfied and off we go.

We start out slow and speed up. We've got an hour until Group, five miles to go: easy.

Ben looks at me curiously now and then as we run. I can tell he is waiting for me to talk, but suddenly, I am unsure what to say.

Fact: Phoebe was mean to me; fact: she was taken from school by Lorders, and wasn't on the bus home. But that is all I know, isn't it?

I run flat out. Ben keeps up, matching my speed. His much longer legs don't have to work as hard.

"We'll be there early at this rate," he says. "Slow down?"

So we do; first to a light jog, then a walk.

"Is this about Phoebe?" he asks.

"What do you know?"

"I heard about it when I got off the bus this afternoon. Someone said someone saw her getting pushed into a Lorder van this morning. But it was all "he said – she said", none of them actually saw anything, themselves. Though she wasn't on the bus home."

"It's true: I saw them. Two Lorders went into the class, and a minute later came out. One was holding her arm; they marched her down the hall and out the building."

"Does anyone know why?"

"I was going to ask you that."

He hesitates. "Some people think you might have said something. Got her into trouble."

"I didn't! I wouldn't."

"I know that. Especially after she got your cat back," he says, and I can see he means it. But I'm not so sure. I might have had something to do with it, whether I meant to or not.

"Is there more?" he asks.

I shrug. "Just stuff Phoebe said: that we are spies for the government, because of the chips in our brains."

"That's not true."

"But what if it is, and we don't know? Maybe I gave her away without even knowing that I did. Maybe somebody just scanned my brain, and pow: she's gone. Because she said stuff the government didn't like."

Ben shakes his head. "That can't be true."

"Why? How do you know?''Because if it was, we'd have been the first to go."

I stare back at him in shock. Out of habit I check my Levo, but it is all right – still up from running, at nearly 7 – but my skin is reacting to what he said, crawling like little spiders. I shiver. He's right. We've talked about Tori being returned, and those others taken from Assembly, and questioned what is going on. Much worse than anything Phoebe did or said.