Designed : A Young Adult Dystopian Romance

I whirled to face him. His expression was grim. “What is it?”

“I found some possible leads on the location of the Haven. But then I checked the transit station schedule. There are no trains north tonight. The next one is at seven tomorrow morning.”

“Oh. So… I guess we’ll have to sleep in the van.”

He shook his head. “That’s the other problem. I got a communication from work. They’re calling me in. If I don’t answer or show up—soon—they’re going to scan the city for the van. We’ll have to dump it somewhere and go on foot.”

“To where? Your house?”

“No. They’ll look there, too. We’ll have to stay in a hotel tonight. I’ll pay in cash.”

“Oh.”

That was unexpected. Going to the beach with a guy I barely knew was one thing. Spending the night in a hotel with him was another.

All I could think was that if my parents could see me now, they wouldn’t just send me in for a recall, they’d send me to my room until my eighteenth birthday.

Heath hurried down the aisle to where some racks of clothing stood. He grabbed three dark, hooded jackets from one of them, putting one on and offering a smaller one to me.

“See if this fits. It’s going to be colder in the mountains, and the hood will come in handy.”

I passed the supplies I’d collected to him and pulled the jacket on. The sleeves were a bit long, but the fit wasn’t terrible. It was very warm, probably due to the insulated lining, which had a silvery, metallic appearance.

Heath chuckled at the sight of the sleeves covering my hands. “It’s the smallest size he’s got here. Poor Daniel’s gonna be swimming in his.”

I started to take it off again, but Heath stopped me with a hand on mine. “Keep it on, okay? I’ll explain later.”

Syd emerged from the back of the store. “Here we are. Three fresh starts.”

Heath went to the front counter and deposited the items I’d gathered plus the one remaining jacket. “Thank you, my friend. We’ll take these things, too.”

Syd smiled. “Those I’ll throw in for free. The I.D.’s though, are gonna be a bit pricey.”

He named an amount that made me gasp. The money I’d saved wouldn’t even come close to covering the total. Heath didn’t flinch.

“Oh—have you got a chip remover?” he asked, pulling out his wallet.

Syd gave him a narrow-eyed glance. “Those are illegal.”

“So are fake I.D.s,” Heath pointed out. He pulled several large bills from his wallet and laid them on the counter.

Syd’s eyes were no longer narrowed. In fact, they bulged. “One minute.”

He disappeared into the back room again. So… Gebbies had imbedded identifiers. I hoped the removal procedure wouldn’t be painful for little Daniel.

Heath turned to me, doing a quick survey of my clothing. “Is any of that tech-wear?” When I shook my head no, he asked, “Not even the shoes?”

“No. It’s all vintage—my grandmother’s clothes.”

Heath grinned. “Smart girl. You were planning ahead, weren’t you?”

“I tried. What about you and Daniel?”

“Well, he drowned his tech shirt in saltwater, so we’re good to go there.”

Gesturing to himself, he said, “My uniform isn’t connected.”

Just then Syd re-emerged with a small metallic device and a sheepish grin. “We happened to get one in recently.”

“Sure,” Heath said. He paid the man, thanked him, and swept me out of the shop, carrying our purchases in a bag.

We made our way back through the teeming crowds toward the garage where we’d left Daniel in the locked van.

As we walked, I glanced several times at Heath’s serious expression, his determined stride. He looked stressed out.

“I’m sorry I got you into this,” I said. “I’ll pay you back.”

Blinking as if resurfacing from some very deep thinking, he said, “What? No. The money’s no problem. It wasn’t that much.”

Wasn’t that much?

Was he rich then? How much did Gideon pay his delivery van drivers? Maybe I had a completely warped view of what things cost out here in the world.

Thank God I’d run into him today. I could have been in serious trouble bumbling around out here in the city alone.

“Besides, you didn’t ‘get me into this.’ You helped me,” Heath said. “Without you, I wouldn’t have realized the danger of taking Daniel in for the recall. I could have lost him today.”

We decided to leave the van parked where it was and take public transport to a hotel on the opposite side of the city near the train station so we could walk there first thing in the morning.

Heath opened the van’s back doors and picked up a few white boxes, reading the labels of each.

Seeming to find what he was looking for, he opened one of them and withdrew a handful of blister packs.

“Here—put these in your backpack.” He tossed them to me.

Each sleeve contained a week’s worth of tiny red pills—my daily anti-viral—oops, anti-rejection—medication. I stuffed them into a pocket of my pack while Heath stood by the van’s open door, tapping a message on his holoconn.

Then with a look of regret I could relate to, he slipped the device over his hand and tossed it into the back of the van. Opening the passenger side door, he reached into the back seat and lifted his sleeping brother then closed and locked the van’s doors.

Outside the garage we passed a trash receptacle. Heath threw the key fob into it with a metallic clang and hailed a cab.

“It’s almost like you’ve done this before,” I teased when we were inside the vehicle. “Do you go on the run often?”

His serious expression lightened a bit but not by much.

“I’ve never done anything like this. I’ve always been a rule-follower. But there are times when you’ve got to say, ‘enough.’”

He glanced down at Daniel’s peaceful face. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect this kid.”

Seeing the gentle way he held the boy, hearing the love in his voice, my heart squeezed almost painfully.

Here was the kind of real love I’d been longing for from my parents all my life, and it was being freely given to someone who wasn’t even human.

I was happy for Daniel but couldn’t help being a bit sad for me.

I stayed in the vehicle with the sleeping child while Heath secured hotel rooms for us, which he’d insisted on paying for. My debt to him was accumulating so fast I could hardly keep up with it.

I’d never stayed in a hotel before. The exterior of this one didn’t exactly fulfill my fantasies of what the experience would be like. It looked old, sort of shabby.

But I supposed spending a lot of money on overnight accommodations wouldn’t have been smart.

My resources were limited, and Heath was essentially quitting his job, so it was wise to conserve.

When he returned, I got out of the car. Heath scooped up Daniel, and the cab departed as we walked into the building together.

“Put your hood up while we walk through the lobby and hallways,” he instructed, drawing Daniel’s jacket over him like a blanket and covering his face with it.

“Are there cameras?” I asked, suddenly understanding the need for the hooded jackets.

“Could be. And pretty soon someone’s going to sound the alarm—either about the van or about Daniel. Not to mention the people who must be looking for you. Dammit. I wish there had been a train to Virginia tonight. I wanted to be far from here when that happened, but we’ll have to make the best of it. Anyway, better not to take chances. Keep your head down till we get to the room.”

I followed him through the lobby, up a flight of moving stairs and down a twisting, turning hallway until we stopped in front of a door.

“This is my room?” I asked.

He nodded tightly, waving the clear keycard in front of a sensor on the door to open it.

“It’s our room. I think it’s better if we stay together.”

Before I could argue, he added, “They would have asked for an additional I.D. for separate rooms. We’ll leave less of an electronic trail with only my I.D. swiped. Besides, we’ve got some business to take care of before we turn in tonight.”

“What do you mean?”

What “business” could we possibly conduct in our hotel room so late at night? And why was I so nervous thinking about it?

Heath pushed the door open and stepped inside, checking the room before glancing back over his shoulder.

“You’ll see.”

Okay then.

After hesitating in the hall for a minute, I followed him into the room. What choice did I really have but to trust him?

The prospect of spending the night alone on the streets—or even in a not-so-nice hotel room with people possibly after me was even more worrisome.

The room was simple and on the small side, containing two double beds, a desk and chair, and a vid screen on the wall.

“Don’t turn that on,” Heath said as he passed it. “Those have cameras in them, too.”

He went to the bed closest to the window and laid Daniel on it. “This poor kid. He’s gonna be so confused when he wakes up tomorrow morning. Watch him for a minute? I’ll be right back.”

“Where are you going?” I asked in a semi-panic, watching him head for the door.

“Vending machine down the hall. Getting us some waters. Be right back.”

As promised, Heath returned two minutes later, three water bottles in hand. He offered me one and took another to Daniel’s bedside. Twisting off the top, he set the bottle on the small bedside table, and extracted a small packet from his front pocket.

“What is that?”

He tore the packet and removed a pill. Crushing it with the bottle cap, he added the powder to the water bottle, replaced the cap, and shook it to mix the contents.

“A sleeping pill,” Heath said. “Sometimes I have trouble going to sleep.”

“You’re going to take it tonight?”

“No. It’s for Daniel.”

“I thought you said he slept like a rock.”

“He does, usually. But I have to take out his chip. It’s gonna hurt. I’m hoping if he takes this, he’ll sleep through it and not feel any pain.”

“Oh.”

Heath pulled Daniel’s slack body into his lap, ruffling the boy’s hair.

“Hey buddy. Wake up, okay?” No response from Daniel. “I want you to take a drink, okay? Open your mouth for me pal.”

When Daniel roused a bit, Heath put the open bottle to his lips. Though he did not open his eyes, the boy obeyed, taking a few swallows of the drugged liquid.

“Good job. Okay, buddy, you can go back to sleep.”

Heath lifted Daniel from his lap and tucked him beneath the covers, smoothing the boy’s hair from his once-again peaceful face.

“How long will it take to work?” I asked.

“Not long. He’s small. I’m gonna give it about half an hour though, to be sure.”

He stood. “Would you mind sitting with him a few minutes while I grab a shower? It’s been a long day, and I’m still salty from the ocean.”

“Oh. Sure. Of course.”

“Thanks.” Heath walked toward the bathroom, already tugging his shirt over his head.

I quickly averted my eyes, going to my own bed and pulling back the covers before sitting down on it. What had I brought to sleep in? I’d packed so quickly I couldn’t even remember.

Dragging my backpack over, I went through it, searching for sleepwear that was appropriate for shared sleeping quarters—not something I’d planned for.

I settled on a long tee shirt and some soft short-shorts, pulling them out along with a pair of clean underwear I rolled inside the bundle. Ten minutes later, Heath emerged from the bathroom wearing clothes he must have picked up at Syd’s shop.

His hair was wet, and water from his freshly washed body spotted his shirt as he approached.

He looked different without his Gideon uniform on—younger—and the tee shirt revealed his physique in a way the stiff, long-sleeved uniform shirt had not. A clean, soapy fragrance wafted toward me, making me conscious of my own in-need-of a shower state.

“My turn,” I said, rising from the bed and attempting to veer around him.

He moved in front of me, a wary expression on his face. “In a minute, okay?”

“What—did you use all the hot water?” I joked, suddenly feeling nervous about him blocking my path.

“No.” Heath didn’t smile. “There’s uh… something we need to do first.”

I blinked. What could we possibly need to do before I took a shower?

“It’ll be best to do it before you shower so you can, you know, clean up the blood.”

Now I was alarmed. I took a step back. “What are you talking about?”

“Your chip. We’ve got to remove it.”

“What?” I gasped. “I don’t have a chip.”

“Of course you do. Everyone does. I have one—had one.”

He held out his forearm, showing me the freshly glued incision on the underside of it.

“I cut mine out in the bathroom before I took my shower. All Gideon employees have them. All military personnel have them. Even people who live in the exclusive apartment buildings have them.”

“But… I’m not in the military. My dad is.”

“Doesn’t matter. You live on base, you get a chip. We’ve got to take it out before someone uses it to track you here to the hotel.”

My heart fluttered with alarm. All this time I’d believed I was untraceable.

“It could already be too late. I’ve been gone for hours. They must be looking for me.”

Heath nodded. “No doubt. And I’m sure they tracked your signal here to the city. But it’s a big city. And the insulating layer in the jacket blocks the signal. As soon as you put it on, you went off the grid. You can’t wear it every second, though. It might slip off in your sleep, and if you’re going to shower, we’ve got to get the chip out first.”

My voice was very small when I answered. “Okay. How?”

He held up the tool he’d bought from Syd. It looked like a cross between a corkscrew and a flashlight.

It didn’t exactly look like fun.

“How much does it hurt?”

“A bit. Want to finish the bottle of water with the sleeping pill and I’ll take it out while you’re asleep?”

“No,” I blurted. I definitely didn’t intend to drug myself unconscious before spending the night in a hotel room with a guy I barely knew.

I mean, Heath seemed like a good guy, but that was just stupid. Besides, if there were base personnel searching for me, I needed to be ready to run at a moment’s notice, didn’t I?

Regaining my composure, I said, “I mean, you’re right—I’ll want to clean up afterwards, in case there’s a lot of blood.”

“Shouldn’t be too much. And the pain’s not awful. You’ll feel it, though. I’m sorry. It has to be done… unless you’re ready to go home.”

I strode toward the bathroom. “Let’s do it.”

Once inside the small, humid room, I pushed up my jacket sleeve and offered Heath my forearm. He smiled and shook his head.

“That’s not where yours is. It’s on the back of your neck, up under the hairline. Turn around.”

I did as he said and turned my back to him, automatically reaching for the base of my skull to probe it with my fingers. I spoke to his reflection towering over me in the mirror.

“How do you know this stuff?”

He met my eyes with a chuckle. “It’s not like it’s a big secret. Everybody knows this stuff. Employment chips go in your arm. Military chips go in your neck.”

“Why?” I asked, truly baffled.

“In case, you know, you… lose an arm.”

“Oh.” I looked down at the sink, not exactly glad I’d asked.

And he was wrong—not “everyone” knew this stuff. I didn’t know about it, and as far as I was aware, Ketta hadn’t known that she and I and all our friends were walking around with identifying chips under our skin.

It was creepy. And it was super disconcerting to find out this kind of information about yourself from a near-stranger.

When Heath pulled the neck of my jacket down and lifted my long hair from my nape, I got chill bumps for a different reason.

“Hold it up, okay? I need to work fast.” His breath was warm on the back of my neck.

I nodded and did as he asked, holding the mass of hair in a pile on my head and trying not to tremble.

I was afraid of the pain, yes, but it was also his extreme nearness that threw me off.

As he gently probed my scalp, the chill bumps became chill mountains. I couldn’t believe how much his touch affected me.

How many times in my life had I been touched, by how many people? It had never felt like this before.

There was a series of beeping noises from the instrument he held.

“Found it.” His voice sounded victorious. “This won’t take long. Brace yourself.”

I dropped one of my hands to the sink rim, gripping it tightly so I wouldn’t flinch or jerk when the device bit into my skin.

As it happened, I didn’t jerk but I did let out a pretty good yelp. Behind me, Heath sucked in an audible breath.

“I’m so sorry. Almost done. You’re doing great—hang in there.”

Squinching my eyes closed, I gritted my teeth, feeling beads of sweat pop out at my temples. A minute later, Heath pronounced the procedure finished.

“Okay, let me glue the incision and then you can wash off. There’s still plenty of soap and shampoo in there. And I left the towel for you.”

“Thanks.”

I braced myself for stinging from the wound glue, but it never came. All I felt was Heath’s finger rubbing over my neck, and then he told me I could let my hair down. I turned to face him.

“Can I see it?”

“Sure you want to? There’s some blood.”

“Yes. I want to see it.”

Heath opened his fist. There in the center of his palm was a tiny wire-like device. I’d pictured something larger, maybe covered in circuitry, but this was barely longer and thicker than an eyelash.

“What will you do with it?” I asked.

In answer, he dropped the electronic eyelash into the toilet and flushed.

“I’m going to go extract Daniel’s now. Enjoy your shower.”

“Yes. I mean, okay.” I cleared my throat, suddenly uncomfortable. “I’ll only be a few minutes.”

“No rush. Take your time.” Heath said. “I’ll keep his chip wrapped in my jacket until I can get back in here and flush it.

“Okay.”

He closed the bathroom door behind him. Turning on the water, I looked around me. My eyes landed on the single dry towel, still folded neatly across the rack.

No wonder his t-shirt had been water-spotted after his shower. It was sweet of him to save it for me.

I turned on the water and began removing my clothes, marveling at the strangeness of the situation and the day.

It was beyond strange to think of Heath only feet away as I undressed. I’d hardly even talked to the guys at school. Spending an entire night with one felt like going to the moon.

And even stranger, I was about to sleep away from home for the first time in my life.

Well, I’d be spending the night away from home. Sleep might prove hard to come by as keyed up as I was.

I couldn’t help feeling no matter what tomorrow brought, my life would never be the same.