Replica by Lauren Oliver Read Free Book Online Page B

Cassiopeia turned and shoved Nurse Dolly. “Get off me,” she said, and several people cried out, and Lyra took a step forward, saying, “ Don’t .”
    Maybe she hadn’t meant to push Nurse Dolly hard, or maybe she had. Either way, Nurse Dolly lost her balance and went backward. In an instant, NurseDon’t-Even-Think-About-It had crossed to Cassiopeia and wrenched her to her feet.
    â€œWicked thing,” Don’t-Even-Think-About-It spat at her, keeping hold of her wrists. “How dare you touch her—how dare you, when we’ve fed and clothed and kept you all these years? The judgment of God will come for you, don’t you forget it.”
    â€œYou don’t own me.” Cassiopeia’s eyes were very bright and she was shaking. Lyra stared at her, filled with a sudden sense of dread. She didn’t understand what Cassiopeia meant—she didn’t understand where she’d found these words, this anger, and for a second she felt as if the room was splitting apart, revealing a dark gulf, a hidden fault line. “You can’t tell me what to do. I don’t belong to you. I’m real. I am.”
    â€œYou’re not anything,” Don’t-Even-Think-About-It said. Her face was mottled with anger, like the veined slabs of beef shelved in the kitchen freezers. “You belong to the institute, and to Dr. Saperstein. You can stay here, or you can leave and be killed.”
    â€œI’ll be killed anyway.” Cassiopeia looked almost happy, as if she’d successfully passed her Cog Testing, and Lyra didn’t know why, knew that couldn’t be right. Goosedown, one of Cassiopeia’s other genotypes, stood hugging herself, as if she were the one getting yelled at. They were identical except for the vacancy of Goosedown’sexpression. She’d had a habit, when she was little, of smacking her own head against the ground when she was frustrated, and she still had to wear diapers to sleep. “Isn’t that right? We’ll all die here eventually. What’s the difference?”
    â€œLet it go, Maxine.” Nurse Dolly was climbing to her feet, wincing, holding on to her lower back. Lyra was unaccountably angry at Cassiopeia. Nurse Dolly was one of the nicest ones. “It doesn’t understand.”
    Nurse Don’t-Even-Think-About-It stood for a moment, still gripping Cassiopeia’s wrists. Then, abruptly, she released her and turned away. “Unnatural,” she muttered. “Devil’s work, all of it.”
    â€œEnough.” Nurse Curly spoke up this time, addressing everyone. “You two”—she pointed at Goosedown and Bounty, still watching, frozen—“help number six clean up.”
    But Cassiopeia bolted for the door instead, pushing past Nurse Don’t-Even-Think-About-It and shaking Lyra off when Lyra went to touch her arm.
    â€œGrab it!” Don’t-Even-Think-About-It shouted, but Nurse Dolly shook her head.
    â€œShe’ll be back.” She sighed. She looked exhausted. There were dark circles under her eyes, and Lyra found herself wondering briefly about the nurse’s other life, the one off the island. What would it be like to have a secretworld, a private place away from Haven, away from the replicas and the nurses and the Glass Eyes? She couldn’t fathom it.
    Nurse Dolly met Lyra’s eyes, and Lyra looked quickly away.
    â€œThere’s nowhere for her to run, anyway,” Nurse Dolly added, but gently, as if in apology.
    Cassiopeia wasn’t at lunch. The replicas didn’t speak about her. They didn’t speak at all. It was difficult to feel comfortable surrounded by half the nursing staff and several guards, all of them posted around the perimeter of the room, silent, expressionless, watching the girls eat, many of them wearing masks or full hazmat suits that made them resemble inflated balloons.
    Lyra had no appetite. She was still nauseous, and