The Outcast Ones by Maya Shepherd Read Free Book Online

to sleep. She damaged her bed. She has to go to sickbay immediately.”
    I falter, seeing her in my mind’s eye as she taps on her lower lip, waiting for her food. She seemed so peaceful, completely harmless. Now everyone’s looking at her as if she’s mad. She’s a threat now, and must be isolated. I hope the doctor can help her like he helped me back then.
    We step back and let the teacher and child enter the lift. One of the guards presses a button and I can feel the lift start to move. It should really be going down, but I’m sure it’s taking us up.
    In a moment, as if they were ordered to, the two guards pull gas masks over their faces—masks they only wear outside. Everyone sees. Everyone panics.
    “What’s going on? Is it an attack?”
    “Is radiation leaking?”
    The questions stop all at once. My legs grow heavy and I can hardly keep my eyes open. My throat starts to scratch, but then it freezes like ice, and I can’t even swallow. My whole body is crippled and everything sounds like a faint echo in my ears. I can’t feel it when I hit the floor, can’t feel the lift door opening. I’m trapped in silence and darkness. 
    Rough stone scratches under my fingers. When I rub it, the rock falls apart like sand. The wall behind me is the same rough, sharp material. A sharp edge is poking into my shoulder. I try to roll to one side, but a swift pain bores into my head and I have to stop moving. Although I can’t see, I’m sure everything’s spinning. Just don’t open your eyes, I tell myself. It would be best if I go back to sleep.
    My body collapses again. I ignore my shoulder, it’s harmless compared to the torture in my head. Far away, I can hear two people talking. Both male.
    “Where is she?” He’s angry. So angry that it makes the hair on my neck stand on end. I’ve never heard so much rage and hate.
    “Maybe you just don’t recognise her,” says a friendlier voice. This man seems to want to calm the other down.
    “I will always recognise her,” growls the other, not so hard this time, more disappointed. “She’s not with them,” he adds, very quietly. The sadness in his words wraps itself around my heart. One moment I thought he was the angriest, cruellest person I ever encountered. The next, I’m so sorry for him that I want to scream. I would like to see this man who carries so much feeling within himself, but my eyes are too heavy and my head too exhausted. Sleep embraces me again.
    The scratching in my paper-dry throat makes me cough loudly. Soft sobbing comes to my ears. I run my tongue over my lips. They are so dry that my tongue sticks to them instead of moistening. I clear my throat and open my eyes carefully. It’s dark. I’m sure I’ve never been in this place before. Has there been an accident?
    My gaze wanders across the small room and I count six other inert bodies, besides myself. Light from above falls into the small cell. I look up and raise a hand to shield my eyes from the brightness. It’s not a light panel. The lamp is round, but it has sharp edges that don’t seem to follow any pattern. But the light is strange, too—much weaker than usual, and it’s a strange colour, almost orange.
    My hands touch the sandy ground again. I rub it in my fingers and hold it up to the light. It breaks, leaving red dust on my skin and on my brown suit. What kind of weird place is this? Why were we brought here? Did someone notice that I manipulated the nutrition distribution?
    I look back to the others. F701 is clutching her knees and swaying back and forth. Her eyes are wide and she’s trembling. As for the others, some are still sleeping and the rest are staring at the floor, apathetic.
    “Where are we?” I can’t stop myself from speaking, but it sounds scratchy, not like a voice at all.
    My question hangs in the air, finding no answer. Only F701 looks up at me with hope. She seems to be happy that someone’s speaking, because she stops her seesawing. She crawls across