Z 2134

for you, Adam. Now, before we get started, is there anything I can do for you? Anything at all?”
    Adam shook his head, confused, but not wanting to admit his confusion.
    Keller waited a moment, parted his lips, and sucked in his breath as though his next words were as painful for him as they would be for Adam. “I know about the rations.”
    Adam said nothing, but he wasn’t sure if his face had hid the lie.
    “Your friends,” he shrugged. “They ratted you out.”
    Adam wondered which of his friends Keller meant. Morgan, Tommy, and Daniel were all with him when Miss Abby came to take him, and had been since stashing the pillowcases. It had to be one of the girls. He hoped it wasn’t Jayla.
    “I propose we settle this,” Keller paused for a second, dropping his voice like his words were secret, then said, “without any of the difficulties that normally accompany such unfortunate situations.” He sighed. “There are too many problems in this place already, no need to add anything else to your difficult life.”
    Keller smiled an apology, then fell into a speech, with few pauses and not one interruption, detailing Chimney Rock’s long and horrible history as a place where everyone was a victim of unfortunate reality, and life’s odds are stacked so high against its residents, it takes but one mistake for everything to crumble. According to Keller, the majority of orphans wound up in the Dark Quarters.
    “Do you know what happens in the Dark Quarters, Adam?”
    Adam swallowed, moving his head in an awkward circle that turned in no particular direction. He’d heard hundreds of stories, going back as early as he could remember, some true, most probably not, and not a single one he would say out loud, especially to an elder.
    “Sort of.”
    “I know how you feel,” Keller smiled, his face filled with understanding. “Most of the stuff that happens in the Dark Quarters is too horrible for words — the stuff of nightmares, right?”
    Adam nodded.
    Keller tapped one of the schoolmaster’s pens against the top of his desk, then leaned back in the chair. “Well, I don’t want to burden you with bad dreams, but I would like to tell you a little story. Is that OK?”
    Adam nodded again, knowing that Keller wasn’t really asking for permission.
    Keller smiled. “This story’s about a kid named Alex. It’s an older story, since Alex has been gone from us for a few years now. But our tale starts when he was a boy about your age, give or take a year. Alex was moved to the orphanage after his parents were killed, getting involved in some things they shouldn’t have been doing. You know how that goes. Eventually, Alex came of age and had to leave Chimney Rock. Without a proper foundation, his situation went from bad to worse. He fell into the Dark Quarters, then sure enough found himself in trouble with City Watch. He wound up getting to play The Darwin Games for a chance at freedom in City 7, but of course, he screwed that up, too, and wound up as a meal for a horde of starving zombies. The real horror of the story, Adam, is that not a single thing that happened to Alex was his fault. He was a good kid, fell in with some bad seeds, and got screwed by life’s circumstances — a lot like you.”
    “What did he do?” Adam whispered through his trembling lips.
    “What didn’t he do?” Keller shrugged. “I don’t know how many of life’s atrocities you already know of, son, and I don’t wish to put anything inside your head that doesn’t need to be there or isn’t there already. My point in telling you Alex’s story is to make sure you don’t end up like him.” Keller paused, then leaned forward from his chair and said in a conspiratorial whisper, “You don’t want to end up in the Dark Quarters like Alex, do you?”
    Adam swallowed, shaking his head furiously back and forth.
    “Well, you don’t have to,” Keller reassured. “You’re not like these other deviants and lowlifes wasting God’s good air in the orphanage. You’re special. You weren’t born in Chimney Rock or sent here as punishment. You’re an unfortunate victim of circumstance. Just because your father committed an unconscionable act doesn’t mean you should suffer. You, Adam, are not your father, and don’t deserve to end up in prison, outside The Wall, or anywhere near the Dark Quarters.”
    Keller let his words sink in. Adam wished he could melt through the floor. Keller leaned back again, setting the flat of his