Read Online The Resisters by Eric Nylund - Free Book Online Page B

“One way or another we
will
get what we need out of you. In the end, you’ll see the Ch’zar Collective is the best thing that ever happened to the human race.”
    “I don’t think so,” Ethan said. “You know why?”
    “Tell me, son.”
    “Because the Ch’zar don’t
ask
if anyone wants to join. If the truth was really so great, you’d give us kids a choice. You wouldn’t have to lie.”
    Coach pinched the bridge of his nose and replied, “Would you give a baby a choice to get a life-saving vaccination?”
    He jotted a few notes on Ethan’s file folder:
    CAUTION—high intellectual potential
Confirmed leader type
Irrevocable contamination
     
    Coach rubber-stamped it with large red letters: SRS.
    “I’m sorry, Ethan,” he said. “We’ll get your willing co-operation, whatever that takes.”
    “SRS …,” Ethan whispered. He had a sinking feeling about those three letters.
    “Sterling Reform School,” Coach told him.
    Reform school was for criminals and kids who went crazy. Ethan had never known anyone bad enough to go … although he’d heard stories. Reform school had forced labor and remedial training, and no one ever got into a good high school after reform school.
    He caught himself. What was he thinking? Why worry about high school now? That was just another lie.
    He had to get out of here!
    Ethan stood, knocking over the metal chair.
    Officers Grace and Hendrix grabbed him from behind.
    He struggled, but they were too strong.
    “It won’t be that bad,” Coach assured him. “A couple of injections of growth hormone and a few other chemicals will trigger puberty for you in a matter of hours instead of months. We would’ve preferred to have you fully developed before you understood the Ch’zar’s universal message—but this will have to do.”
    Ethan kicked and screamed, but they dragged him off.
    “Don’t worry, son,” Coach said as he filed Ethan’s record. “Soon you’ll understand … like the rest of us.”

 
    OFFICERS GRACE AND HENDRIX ESCORTED Ethan into the hallway.
    Any ideas he had about making a break for it died the instant he stepped outside. Every Northside teacher and janitor was in the hall making sure students didn’t enter the central corridor.
    The adults turned at the same time to look at Ethan—all staring at him with unblinking eyes.
    Ethan had seen that look before. Bottomless. Unreadable. It was the same look in the segmented eyes of the giant wasp when it had first noticed him.
    The adults went back, holding up their hands and telling everyone that this hall had to be kept clear for five more minutes. It was an “emergency drill.” There was “nothing to worry about.” And the kids were told to “move along to your classes.”
    Ethan spied his soccer teammate Bobby walking from first-period English to second-period pre-algebra. Mary Vincent was with him. They were talking and laughing. Neither saw Ethan.
    What were
they
doing together?
    He jerked toward them and opened his mouth to shout.
    Officer Grace pulled him back. “Not a word, Blackwood,” he whispered. “Contaminate any of these others and we’ll ship them off with you.”
    Ethan considered.
    For a moment he imagined he’d tell everyone what was going on—yell it out—and all the kids would join and rise up against the mind-controlled adults.…
    But that’s not what he did.
    If he started shouting the truth, he’d get dragged off, probably hurt in the process, and he’d definitely get Bobby and Mary into trouble with him.
    Plus … who’d believe him?
    He
barely believed any of this, and he’d seen the Ch’zar firsthand.
    He hung his head and reluctantly let himself get pushed along by the police. A half-dozen adults went with them to make sure there was no problem.
    Ethan wondered if Coach Norman had been an A student and all-star athlete too. Raised in a neighborhood just like this, he probably thought he’d go to high school … then he hit puberty … his brain