The Cage (The Cage #1)(53)
Author: Megan Shepherd

None of the others spoke. Nok seemed intently focused on the tip of her paintbrush. Why weren’t they happy about her news?

“Cora,” Lucky said slowly, “you haven’t been sleeping. You really just need to rest.”

Cora shook her head in frustration. “It isn’t about that. Look, I can’t do it on my own. And I don’t want to. Mali, you must know the hallways of this station. We’ll need you to get us back to the market without anyone seeing us. Leon’s a black market trader at home, so he can handle the negotiations. Cassian said they aren’t loyal to any particular race. All they care about is payment. We’ve got all the tokens from the games, and I saw the same tokens out there too, so maybe they’re worth real money. If I have to, I’ll cut off my hair and use that to pay for our trip.”

Nok and Rolf exchanged a troubled glance. Lucky clenched his jaw, listening and nodding as his eyes darted around to nothing in particular. He had seemed relieved to have her back—so why did she now feel ice down her spine?

“Cora.” His voice was soft. Too soft. Pitying. “There’s something you don’t know.”

The ice down her back spread to her tailbone. She looked to Mali, who only nudged a paintbrush with her toe. Rolf whispered something in Nok’s ear; she let out a giggle before clamping a hand over her candy-stained lips.

Lucky didn’t meet her eyes. “Cora, there’s no point trying to escape. Earth is gone.”

37

Cora

THE WORDS CREPT OVER her like a cold mist. Gone? She felt like a stranger in her own body. The wind was blowing, but she felt nothing. The air had lost the smell of flowering trees, replaced with the ozone she’d smelled the first day. Gone? What about Charlie? Her parents? What about her bedroom with the stars on the ceiling, and Sadie asleep at the foot of her bed, and her notebook of half-written lyrics stashed beneath her pillow? Gone? She didn’t need to look down to know her hands were still attached to her wrists—in the same way, she still felt the pull of home.

She shook her head like he’d spoken a foreign language. “What are you talking about?”

Lucky rubbed the back of his neck. “Mali told us. She found out from the Caretaker. It happened right after they took us. That is why there’s no point in trying to escape—there’s nothing to escape to.” For once, he wasn’t popping the knuckles in his left hand.

The fog in her head grew, turning colder by the minute. She threw a hesitant look between the others. None of it made any sense. If Earth was gone, why hadn’t the Caretaker told her? He certainly wasn’t shy about showing her the terrible things that happened in the menageries. And there were the Mosca’s words in the market too. He’d talked about his next supply run to Earth like it was a foregone conclusion.

Her eyes fell on Mali, standing cryptically silent, pinching her own wrist. “How do we know you aren’t lying? If you were working with the Kindred, this would be the perfect thing to say to make us give up hope. And if it was coming from you, not them, we’d be more likely to believe it.”

Mali didn’t answer.

“They’ve never lied to us,” Rolf declared.

Cora threw out her arms toward the mountain range and the ocean and the farm. “This whole place is a lie!”

“No—it’s a chance.” Rolf had been massaging his temples like his head ached, but he abruptly dropped his hands. His voice had an edge of authority that she’d never heard before. What had happened, while she was gone, that made him the leader? “They’ve created an entire new world for us. We’re like gods to them.”

“A world? Props and tricks, that’s all it is. Do you know what the Caretaker showed me, out there? Kids for sale in a market. A little girl made to do tricks. She had blond hair just like mine, but they’d cut it all off, and two of her fingers as well. They drugged her and made her curtsy and clap her hands and kiss like a deranged sideshow. That’s how much they value us, Rolf. We aren’t gods to them. We’re playthings.”

“Listen to yourself! First they give you special treatment. More tokens. Your stupid song on the jukebox, over and over. A private tour of the Kindred’s space station. And now you’re ungrateful for all that they’ve done for you? Why in the world are they still keeping you around? You’re stealing our food. You’re trying to sabotage us. It doesn’t make any sense! What, are you sleeping with the Caretaker or something?”

Everyone fell silent. Cora’s heart started thumping. He didn’t know how close he’d hit to the truth. That moment in the fountain room, his lips so close to hers . . .

No. It wasn’t like that. That was sick.

The light shifted to a late afternoon gold. The Greasy Fork door slid open, and the sound of Cora’s song cranked up on the jukebox. All their heads turned.

“The diner’s finally open again,” Nok said in surprise.

“It’s a trick,” Rolf answered quickly. “I told you, she’s got the Caretaker on her side somehow. She probably asked him to do this, so it would look like she wasn’t behind them stealing our food. We shouldn’t trust it. I have the system in the farm perfectly planned out. If we just stick to our vegetable rations—”

“I am tired of raw carrots,” Mali said flatly. She started up the diner steps. Nok had a hand pressed over her stomach, practically drooling at the smells coming from the diner, but she kept biting her lip and looking at Rolf in indecision.

“Fine,” Rolf said. “We’ll eat the food. Cora, I’m in charge now, and I say that you aren’t allowed in. You can try surviving off the farm for a while and see how you like it.” He started moving toward the door.

“Wait—I can prove it!” she cried, standing between them and the diner. “I saw a comic book from Earth in the market. Its date was two years in the future. That proves that Earth couldn’t have ended when we were taken. They must be lying.” Cora’s heart thudded to the heavy beats of music. They had to see that this was all just a trick. Just the thought of Earth being gone shrunk her soul. That it was ashes now, Sadie and her family, the gap-toothed girl from Bay Pines, and the NPR reporter on the radio with his smooth voice, and her entire town, and state, and country.

No. It couldn’t be gone.

Nok brushed the pink strand of hair from her face to reveal a pitying look. “You look really tired. After lunch, let’s go to the beauty parlor. I’ll paint your nails. We’ll get some chocolates, yeah?”