Cages by Chris Pasley Read Free Book Online Page B

you?  When he was
thirteen years old it seems that our boy here pedals into town past the
Barricades on this clunker of a bike.  I mean, the thing's fifty years old
if it's a day, and it sure is a day.  Well, he takes in the atmosphere,
all the people, and boy, does he like it.  He decides right then and there
that he's never going back."
    "I'm not going to stand
here and listen to this."  Remi tried to walk away.
    "You stay right where you
are, boy."  Conyers's voice was coarse and commanding. 
"I'm just helping you get more aquainted with your friend here. 
Everyone knows how shy you are, so by my reckoning I'm doing you a favor. 
See, the first thing Remi does here is go into a supermarket and walk out with
a dozen bananas.  He'd never actually had fresh fruit before and those
retards he calls parents never told him that you actually had to pay for
things.  So when a security guard starts chasing him, he assumes that the
guy's a Bitten after some young blood.  So he goes screaming down the
street, hollering that there's a Bitten after him.  Sure enough, he gets
away in the panic, but now he's in a quandry.  Whatever will he do
now?  His family was so stupid, they never taught him about school, about
Quarantine, about anything resembling civilization.  But our boy Remi's
quicker than most Bite Country hicks and he figures out a money-based economy
in a day or two.  He falls in with a bit of the wrong crowd, living on the
streets as he did, and they found in him a marketable skill."
    Remi glared at Conyers, hate
evident on his face.
    Conyers chuckled. 
"Most kids Remi's age are just mules, but nobody the pushers ever met knew
chemicals like this kid.  In just a couple of days he had them churning
out custom drugs faster than you can say 'what a retard.'  Kept them in
good money another solid year.  It was about a year, right, Remi? 
Then it gets to be that time in a young man's life where he gets the urge to
tear people's throats out, and his drug buddies dumped him on our
door."  He clucked his tongue at the dark-haired boy.  "So
sad.  You want to tell us the things you told me when you first got
here?  Oh, you should have heard him, Sam!  'I thought they were my
friends!  How could they leave me here?'  You would have
laughed."
    " Screw this," Remi swore and pushed
away.  Conyers nodded to the barricade guards to let him through,
chuckling the whole time.
    "Jesus," I
spat.  "What is wrong with you?"
    Conyers's smile faded.
"Make no mistake, Sam.  Remi's a bad kid.  Grade-A Beast
material."
    "No one can tell –”
    "I can." 
Conyers breathed in deep.  "I can smell it on him.  In some kids
it just takes a single nudge to make them go over the edge.  And Remi's
just that sort."
    I snorted.  "And
what about me?"
    Conyers squinted at me,
looking me dead in the eye, studying.  "I don't know yet.  But
I'm watching.  Mind what company you keep and you may stay off my
list."
    The bell rang.  Conyers
nodded his head that I should go.  "But I'm late.  You need to
check me in or –”
    Conyers laughed again. 
"It's your own responsibility to get to your classes on time, Sam."
    "Don't trust
them."  Remi fumed as he limped down the hall, sweaty from his
volleyball intramural. "No matter what they say, or who they are, they are
not on your side."
    "Conyers certainly
isn't," I agreed.  "Did you really tell him all that
stuff?"
    Remi rolled his eyes. 
"Of course I did.  I was stupid.  I actually thought that he was
here to help.  Remember, this is the first 'school' of any kind I've ever
been to.  I didn't learn the lessons everyone else did when they were
young. Yeah, lessons.  Think back on it and I bet you can think of
the first time you realized that the adults around you didn't have your best
interests at heart."
    Hamster echoed in my head, but I ignored
it.  "If you were so buddy-buddy with Conyers, what happened?"
    "I just didn't
know."  We reached our dorm cell and I