The Azuli, Cassidy Shay [books to read now .txt] 📗

you can see his muscles rippling under his skin. His back gleams with sweat.
A white man walks up to him, followed by a black female. She’s sturdy, with wide shoulders and strong muscles. The white man explains that he will be breeding the man with the new woman.
“But, Suh, two weeks ago… two weeks ago you gave me permission to marry my Abby. It’s to be done this Sunday afternoon.”
The white man only laughs. “I guess I did say that, didn’t I? Well, it doesn’t matter anymore. I just bought this young woman yesterday, with you in mind. Oh, can you imagine the strength that your children will possess?” He walks off them, leaving the two slaves to get better acquainted with each other.
The Memory focuses on her for a moment. She is very young, maybe fifteen or sixteen.

“Just like me,” I mumbled to myself. I opened my eyes, still not quite believing the news.
I stumbled out the door, but I couldn’t go any further than a few feet. My knees started shaking, and they collapsed under my weight. I got back up so I wasn’t a heap on the floor, and I leaned my back against the wall and started taking deep breaths. After a couple seconds, I slid down the wall so I was sitting with my back to the wall and my knees up.
It wasn’t long before I heard the click of another door, and Jack came out of Section D. He walked over and sat next to me, but neither of us offered a word to the other. I rested my head on his shoulder as a tear slid down my cheek.
“They can’t do this,” he stated, as if it were a simple thing. “They shouldn’t be allowed to do this. At the very least, they could get volunteers. Why are they doing this?” I sensed that he was on the verge of a break down, and I knew that I had to do something. He’d never cried in front of me, and I knew that as the older brother, he wanted to keep it that way. He wanted to stay strong for me, even if it seemed impossible.
“Jack.” I grabbed his hand and squeezed it, letting him know that I was right there next to him. “They keep us locked in here for our entire lives, and then kill us as soon as we reach 75. They poke us with cattle prods. They only allow us to bathe once a week. If they can do that to us, they can do anything they want. We have no choice in the matter. We’ve always been treated like livestock. This is just the next step.” We heard another door, and Carl came out and sat next to me. It was silent in the hall again, and I turned to him.
I was about to say something, but as soon as I tried to look at him, he looked away. I thought it was strange, because Carl was one of the people that always make eye contact. Instantly, I knew that he had been told more than Jack and I had been, and I didn’t like it.
“Carl, what’s wrong? I mean, I know what’s wrong. But why won’t you look at me? What did they tell you in there?”
“You’re like a sister to me,” he answered. “I haven’t seen my real sister since she was three, when I came here. You’ve become the sister that I lost. And they still have the guts to do this?” He put his head in his hands, then looked up at the ceiling. Although his eyes looked dry, I knew it was taking a lot of effort to keep them that way.
“Carl. What does being like my brother have to do with this?” I asked. Nothing, not even the news that I’d received earlier, could have prepared me for what came next.
“They didn’t tell you?” he asked, incredulous. I shook my head and he said, “You and I. They already have all the pairs set up and everything. And one of them is me… and you.”
I stared at him, positive that they’d told him the wrong information. When he didn’t say anything else, though, I knew what he was saying had to be true. I didn’t want to think about any of it, so I put my head on Jack’s shoulder and cried.

Chapter 2

When I woke up, I was alone, except for a guard that was walking by. I stood up, stretched, and then headed for my cell. There was a note on my pillow, stating that everyone had gone to lunch, and that Macy would bring something back for me.
I went out into the hall for a minute and just stood there, not sure what to do. There weren’t many activities for people in the Academy, so I couldn’t think of anything to do. As I was standing there, a man walked by.
He was wearing a jumpsuit similar to mine, only it was dark green, labeling him as a sanitation worker. I had known that they came by during lunch to clean the rooms, but it still surprised me a bit to see him. He pushed his cleaning cart into the cell next to mine, and I went into my cell to make sure I didn’t have anything embarrassing on the floor or on the bed. When I came back out, I walked right into the cart that he was pushing.
That’s when I got a real look at him. He was handsome, with big hands and broad shoulders. He had big, brown eyes and long eyelashes, with a big nose. His ears and lips were just the right size. He was tall, and he filled out his jumpsuit in a way I wasn’t familiar with. I knew that as a sanitation worker, his jumpsuit was much more fitted than mine was, but it still wasn’t nearly as fitted as the Vipero’s suits. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing the hair on his arms, along with a small white scar on his right arm. His hair was a little messy, as if he’d woken up and hadn’t brushed it. His eyes seemed deep, thoughtful, and intelligent, and I felt like they could see right through me. His fingernails were cut short, and he looked very strong. At first sight, I’d thought he was a grown man, but closer inspection revealed him to be nothing but a boy only a few years older than me.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, revealing very white teeth. “I didn’t mean to run you over. I just need to get into that cell,” he added, pointing to the one I shared with Macy. He then walked over to my side of the cart, grabbed my elbow, and looked into my eyes. “You are okay, right? Please don’t tell anyone that I helped you and made sure you’re okay. I will get in trouble.” As an explanation for the way he was acting, he said, “I didn’t want a job here, but I was recruited. And I can’t stand it here. The way you guys are treated just isn’t …” He trailed off, and then looked down at the ground. I didn’t say anything, but I nodded, and then went into my room and sat on my bed.
“So how old are you? You don’t look old enough to have a job. What’s the average age for that anyway?” I asked as he followed me in. I watched as he dusted the little end table, and then switched out the clothes in the drawers.
“I’m seventeen,” he said. “The average age now is fifteen. But for sanitation workers, the average age is around 40. You know… the kind of losers that can’t do anything else in life. Glad I got off to an early start.” I could tell he was being sarcastic, but he flashed me a smile as he said it, pulling the whole thing off as a joke instead of a complaint. “How old are you? And why aren’t you at lunch right now?”
“I’m fifteen. I guess… out in the real world, I’d have a job right now. But lucky me, I even have a butler.” I smiled, but didn’t really look at him when I did it. “And I’m not at lunch because… well, I don’t really know if I could eat right now. I received some disturbing news earlier and ended up falling asleep while everyone went to lunch.” He paused, but it was only for a second.
“So are you one of the lucky Azuli that was selected for the grand experiment?” he asked, and I nodded. “I’m sorry. If there’s anything I can do, just let me know. By the way, my name’s Collin.” He left then, as he was done with his work. As I watched him walk away, I felt suddenly very, very lonely.
There was nothing else to do, so I decided to sit and wait. As I waited, I thought about the things that my new position would mean. First, Macy would have a new roommate. I’d be moving to a new cell with Carl. So I could breed with him.
I shuddered at the thought of having children with Carl. It’s not that he is, or ever was, repulsive, or disgusting, or anything bad. He’s sweet, and kind, and I’ve known him for years. He’s my best friend. But he has been like a brother to me since I was nine.
Also, with this new experiment I’d become a mother. This thought drove me crazy, because I knew I wasn’t ready for anything like that. I was only fifteen, and had never held a child. I hadn’t even seen anyone under the age of five for ten years. And now I was expected to carry and raise one?
Macy walked in as I was thinking this, and she was followed closely by Carl and Jack. Right away, Macy wrapped me in her arms, just like she had on that first day, and all the bad days in between.
I remember all the times that Macy had comforted me. On countless nights, she had given me her blanket to keep me warm, while she lay shivering in her bed. The first day that I had been shocked by the cattle prods, she had helped me to ignore the pain. After I’d seen my first Special in the halls on his way to the Warden (the Warden saw all of them before giving them clearance to be exterminated), she had counseled me, helped me to forget the image during the day, and helped quiet my nightmares.
But unlike those first days of my imprisonment, Macy couldn’t protect me from this one. This one was for me to face alone.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The next two days flew past, and I didn’t remember