Read Online The Choosing (The Arcadia Trilogy Book 1) by Rachel Hanna, Bella James - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Rachel Hanna, Bella James
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for food.
The boy with the bruised and discolored cheekbone came up on one side of Livy, and Lilac on the other. Silently they watched the wretched masses begging for succor until more Centurions arrived out of nowhere, beating the already broken creatures, sending them running from the whip.
Livy turned away and covered her face.
"Best watch, girl," the soldier closest to her said. "You never know when that might be you. Maybe you'd better become familiar."
Livy looked at him coldly. The Centurions still frightened her, but after a week on the bus, she knew they didn't have permission to kill any of their charges. She let her dislike show and turned her back, choosing instead to watch the throngs of Untouchables.
Chapter 6
T he building they were taken to at twilight was immense, climbing more than twenty stories, so high most of them became giddy and disoriented. They'd never had to look so high to see the tops of buildings and it made them dizzy.
The city glittered too, in the slow long light of evening. Street lights were coming on and buildings lighting up. They watched in amazement as electricity lit the town, then turned when new Centurions came to claim them, stamping their staffs for attention and Livy saw the guards who had been with them the entire journey move away without a backward glance.
"Line up!" shouted the Centurions, and began moving through the youth, pushing and sending them tripping through the streets. The orders were loud and too fast, demands to hurry and comply, get to where you belong, the lines were long and organized as green for Pastoreum, blue for Oceanus, grey for Tundrus, and they needed to move, to run, to hurry, to not ever hold up ones who ruled.
"Line up and get inside. Now, now, now! Inside you will find regulation uniforms, in your home colors. You will file inside, strip, throw away your clothing. You will not need it again. Your clothing here will be provided for you. Shower. Change. You will have ten minutes before guards are sent to haul you out, so do. Not. Dawdle."
They stared at each other, horrified, boys and girls from different lands, dark faces facing light faces facing those pale and angular, the people from the islands of Oceanus. The buzz of voices cut through their ranks – do they mean for us to shower together? It's not right.
They didn't just mean boys and girls, the problem of which was solved when they approached the structure the guards had indicated and found the line split in two with boys one way and girls the next.
They also meant showering with each other.
Between provinces.
T here were indoor showers , with warm water.
There was food and there was clothing and most of them didn't mind discarding the soiled rags they'd been traveling in.
It was the lights that startled. The way indoor was changed from night to day. There was some electricity in some of the lands. Not much and most of the time it didn't work.
It's wonderful, Livy thought, and instantly felt guilty.
But she did like the way the electric lights pushed back the night.
T hey ate while they moved slowly through lines, being processed. Their ID chips were modified by a woman with a sharp knife who cut into the flesh of their wrists and extracted the cards long enough to add filaments of wire, changing them somehow.
Clutching bloodied wrists, they moved past into the Institute, separated again now as they were led into the dorms, girls on one side and boys on the other.
Livy found herself in a small room, no door to it but bars lifted up to the ceiling in the doorjamb, ready to slam down if their jailors meant it. The room itself was large enough to hold two identical desks, with two identical chairs, two storage lockers, open and empty, and a bunkbed arrangement. A girl with a sharp foxy face lay on the top bed, her dark hair braided down her back. When Livy walked in, she rolled onto her belly and gripped the edge of the bed with both hands as she stared down at Livy.
"I took
The boy with the bruised and discolored cheekbone came up on one side of Livy, and Lilac on the other. Silently they watched the wretched masses begging for succor until more Centurions arrived out of nowhere, beating the already broken creatures, sending them running from the whip.
Livy turned away and covered her face.
"Best watch, girl," the soldier closest to her said. "You never know when that might be you. Maybe you'd better become familiar."
Livy looked at him coldly. The Centurions still frightened her, but after a week on the bus, she knew they didn't have permission to kill any of their charges. She let her dislike show and turned her back, choosing instead to watch the throngs of Untouchables.
Chapter 6
T he building they were taken to at twilight was immense, climbing more than twenty stories, so high most of them became giddy and disoriented. They'd never had to look so high to see the tops of buildings and it made them dizzy.
The city glittered too, in the slow long light of evening. Street lights were coming on and buildings lighting up. They watched in amazement as electricity lit the town, then turned when new Centurions came to claim them, stamping their staffs for attention and Livy saw the guards who had been with them the entire journey move away without a backward glance.
"Line up!" shouted the Centurions, and began moving through the youth, pushing and sending them tripping through the streets. The orders were loud and too fast, demands to hurry and comply, get to where you belong, the lines were long and organized as green for Pastoreum, blue for Oceanus, grey for Tundrus, and they needed to move, to run, to hurry, to not ever hold up ones who ruled.
"Line up and get inside. Now, now, now! Inside you will find regulation uniforms, in your home colors. You will file inside, strip, throw away your clothing. You will not need it again. Your clothing here will be provided for you. Shower. Change. You will have ten minutes before guards are sent to haul you out, so do. Not. Dawdle."
They stared at each other, horrified, boys and girls from different lands, dark faces facing light faces facing those pale and angular, the people from the islands of Oceanus. The buzz of voices cut through their ranks – do they mean for us to shower together? It's not right.
They didn't just mean boys and girls, the problem of which was solved when they approached the structure the guards had indicated and found the line split in two with boys one way and girls the next.
They also meant showering with each other.
Between provinces.
T here were indoor showers , with warm water.
There was food and there was clothing and most of them didn't mind discarding the soiled rags they'd been traveling in.
It was the lights that startled. The way indoor was changed from night to day. There was some electricity in some of the lands. Not much and most of the time it didn't work.
It's wonderful, Livy thought, and instantly felt guilty.
But she did like the way the electric lights pushed back the night.
T hey ate while they moved slowly through lines, being processed. Their ID chips were modified by a woman with a sharp knife who cut into the flesh of their wrists and extracted the cards long enough to add filaments of wire, changing them somehow.
Clutching bloodied wrists, they moved past into the Institute, separated again now as they were led into the dorms, girls on one side and boys on the other.
Livy found herself in a small room, no door to it but bars lifted up to the ceiling in the doorjamb, ready to slam down if their jailors meant it. The room itself was large enough to hold two identical desks, with two identical chairs, two storage lockers, open and empty, and a bunkbed arrangement. A girl with a sharp foxy face lay on the top bed, her dark hair braided down her back. When Livy walked in, she rolled onto her belly and gripped the edge of the bed with both hands as she stared down at Livy.
"I took
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