Z 2134

Ana powered her machine back on and began to feed material through.
    After her 44 minutes of punishment were over, Ana returned her thumb to the scanner. It cleared her to go, then she stiffly rose from her seat, stretched her back, grabbed her bag, and headed for the door, hoping Michael wouldn’t be even madder at her when she finally got to The Social than he seemed to be at lunch.
    The elevators retired each evening at 7:00, so Ana went straight for the stairs, racing to the bottom floor — two stairs at a time — spilling from the factory and out onto the City 6 streets only a few minutes later.
    She would get to Michael, gain some perspective, go home to Chimney Rock for a good night’s sleep, then wake in the morning and tell Adam everything after breakfast. After that, she would figure her next move and maybe deal with the possibility that she had betrayed her father.
    It was a reasonable plan, but none of it would ever happen.
    Two blocks from The Social, a rough, gloved hand fell onto her shoulder from behind as a synthesized voice filled her with dread. “Anastasia Lovecraft,” it said. “You’re under arrest by authority of City Watch.”

CHAPTER 7 — Anastasia Lovecraft
    A nastasia felt like little more than luggage.
    Her arms were yanked behind her back, her hands roughly cuffed, and then her body was tossed into a large, unlit cargo hold in the back of a black, windowless van. The van’s door hummed with the same unsettling electric warble that hummed around The Wall, or even the invisible “gate” surrounding Lookout Gardens, where citizens could stare outside The City, eating open-faced sandwiches while watching grazing zombies.
    The front of the van slid open, then closed, followed by a muffled thwap behind the solid wall between cabin and cargo box. A second later the engine purred, and Ana pictured the giant tires of the raised van peeling from the City curb.
    She kicked at the van walls and screamed, “Let me out!” and “Help!” but she was answered by nothing but silence as the van gained speed.
    The Watchers had come to get her, maybe even kill her.
    Ana had seen what they could, and were willing, if not eager, to do. She raced through the scenarios in her mind. Why had they come to get her, and what were they going to do now that she was in their custody? Had they discovered she was at the church and that she knew what The Watchers had done to several innocents — that they’d killed a child for nothing?
    If so, Ana was sure she was as good as next.
    She struggled against her handcuffs, the thin humming magnets biting deeper into her wrists as she pulled harder at her restraints, tugging with all her strength against them, not stopping until they felt like they might slice her hands clean off if she kept at it.
    Ana wanted to scream or cry, but kept everything inside instead. Emotional control was her only shield, and she had no sword to speak of. She had to stay strong, prepare for whatever would happen when the van stopped and the doors opened.
    Maybe she could save herself if she was smart enough to see opportunity’s arrival.
    Ana closed her eyes, trying to calm her thoughts, and turned her mind to Adam — how sweet he was, and how she would still think that even if he weren’t her brother.
    When Adam was five, they used to lie outside together, under the stars, on the top of their roof. There was one stretch when they didn’t miss a single night for nearly a month. The clouds were always too thick and dark, but there was a two-month period back then when much of the sky went clear for some reason. It looked like the atmosphere was getting better, but then it got bad again and hadn’t been clear since. Now, the only time Ana saw a clear or sunny sky was when watching a City 7 promo.
    Those nights when she and Adam stared at the stars together were magical. Every wish made then was a wish never forgotten, even if it was a wish that would never come true. He spent much of the time asking her questions — the normal stuff that kids ask a million times and a million different ways. But while many kids were annoyed by their younger siblings’ endless questions, Ana loved being a big sister and having him look up to her. She had all the answers back then.
    But now, as she lay helpless in a van, she had none.
    She thought of Adam. If she were locked up, or worse, killed, he would be truly lost.
    The pain formed a knot in her throat, and she wanted to cry.
    But she had