My eyes widen and I glance over my shoulder suddenly paranoid that we’re being overheard. Running away isn’t something that you just discuss lightly.
“Like to the Wilds?” I hiss back. Rhett nods vigorously.
“I, well. Yes, I’ve thought about it. But- no. I-,” I trip over my words, unsure of what to say exactly.
“We can’t run away, Rhett. We’d be killed!”
Rhett says nothing.
“You’re wondering if you should go after Hunter,” I breathe, realization dawning.
Rhett hesitates, “I’ve thought about it, yes,”
“No, Rhett! You can’t! I’m sure Hunter’s fine,” I plead with him, my heart pounding. Mixed feelings or not, running away is begging to be captured by the government.
“I’m not going to. I wouldn’t be able to find him anyway,” Rhett sighs, putting his head in his hands. “I just feel like if I’d done something different maybe…”
“They’re was nothing you could have done. None of us saw it coming,” I assure him.
“I guess,” he says, looking away. We’re nearing the cafeteria now, and Elaine and Lexie have completely disappeared from sight. Lexie peeks her head out of the door to the cafeteria.
“Hurry up!” She urges impatiently, her voice abnormally low. We reach the door, and Lexie yanks me by the arm into the cafeteria. Inside it’s dead quiet. There are half a dozen Regulators, soldiers that guard the Unpurified Cities, moving through the crowd of kids. Eighteen is the age you get the Purification, so everyone under eighteen lives in an Unpurified City, like me living in Texas’ Unpurified City. These are sprawling cities made up mostly of dormitories and schools. Every state has only one and no Unpurified is allowed outside of the city.
“What are they doing?” I whisper in Lexie’s ear, as the Regulators question each person in low voices.
“I don’t know,” She murmurs back.
“Wait, where’s Elaine!?” I ask, suddenly panicking.
“I’m here,” Elaine steps from behind Lexie. I pull Elaine close as the Regulators make their way toward us. “Please state your names,” A regulator says to Elaine and I, as another one says the same to Rhett and Lexie.
“Eva Rose Halloway,” I say first.
“Elaine Maria Halloway,” Elaine murmurs, her voice shaking. The Regulator writes down both of our names. “I’m going to have to search you,” He says gently, giving Elaine a kind smile. I stiffen as the Regular moves to search Elaine.
“With all due respect,” I say before I can stop myself. “What are you looking for?”
The Regulator pauses to look up at me. I can see immediately that he’s Purified, of course he is. His eyes are slightly glassed over, like he’s not seeing everything clearly. He’s kind, but he doesn’t care. There’s a difference.
“We’re looking for anything that has to do with Hunter James Turner,” His voice is dull as he answers.
My blood runs cold at this response. Hunter. I instinctively look over at Rhett, whose face is contorted in a strange mix of grief and rage. The Regulator finishes searching Elaine and comes over to me. I scramble to search through my brain, trying to remember if I have anything related to Hunter on me. When the Regulator gets closer to me, I move away on instinct. Immediately the Regulator’s fake smile is gone. He grabs my shoulder, forcing me to look at him.
“Don’t. Move,” He snarls in my ear.
Elaine gasps in fear and I freeze. The Regulator looks up a moment later, his smile plastered back on his face, “You’re good,”.
I breathe a silent sigh of relief. I crouch down in front of Elaine.
“Are you okay?” I ask, hugging her to my chest. Elaine nods against my shoulder.
“Rhett,” She whispers in my ear. I follow her gaze over to where Lexie is straining to keep Rhett from lunging at one of the Regulators. I pull away from Elaine and run to Lexie’s side and grab Rhett’s arm.
“What happened?” I demand at Lexie.
“They took it,” Rhett finally relents and collapses to the ground, a defeated, almost broken look filling his face. “The note. Hunter’s note,” Rhett closes his eyes as a single tear slips down his face. “It was the only thing I had left of him,”
I open my mouth to say something- anything-to reassure him, but a Regulator comes back.
“Rhett Brian Turner?”
Rhett looks up, “That’s me,” He says, carefully swiping at his face.
“Your Hunter Turner’s older brother?” The Regulator asks.
Rhett nods skeptically.
“Come with me,”
Lexie grips my arm as the Regulator leads Rhett out of the cafeteria. It’s still completely quiet, even after the Regulators have left, taking up their usual positions outside the door. “He’s going to be okay, right?” Lexie’s voice breaks. She wants me to tell her that it will all be okay. That Rhett will come back fine. But I can’t bring myself to lie to her like that.
“I have no idea,”
***
Rhett didn’t come back during breakfast. Elaine, Lexie, and I said barely five words during the meal and left to go back to our respective dormitories after. As soon as Elaine and I arrive back at our dormitory I grab my book, immediately going back into my favorite position, hanging upside down from my bed, and escape into the world of my book. The day speeds away from me and I read on. I forget about Hunter and Rhett and the Regulators. Forget about the Purification and Lexie’s expression when I told her I didn’t know if Rhett would be okay.
Finally, I closed my book a few minutes before dinner. A glance at the clock told me Lexie should come by soon to drag Elaine and I back down to the cafeteria. For once, I didn’t mind. Just please let Lexie be back to her normal, happy self. I pleaded with the universe. But the universe must be harboring some grudge against me, because Lexie shows up, she’s a mess. Lexie’s daily, carefully applied makeup is smeared beyond belief, her hair is in a quick, overly messy bun, and normally ever-present smile is nowhere to be found.
“He’s still not back,” is the first thing she says to me, when she lets herself in my dormitory, as she always does. My heart drops at her words. He should be back by now. My mind whispers the truth at me. Elaine moves over to stand next to me.
“Let’s go eat,” She says, changing the subject at the perfect time. I nod quickly, leading the way back to the cafeteria. Lexie doesn’t say anything as we walk, which worries me more than the fact that Rhett’s not back yet. Suddenly Lexie lets out a strangled gasp.
“Do you think they’re going to give him the Purification early?!” Lexie asks, covering her mouth in horror.
“No!” I rush to assure her.
“They wouldn’t do that, Lexie, think about how rare that is!”
Getting the Purification early is everyone’s worst nightmare, there’s a reason that the government waits until you’re eighteen to give to Purification. Back when the Purification was still in its earliest stages of development, they tested the operation on all different kinds of ages. The results showed that the Purification works best when the brain isn’t fully developed, but also isn’t too underdeveloped either. It’s risky to have the Purification early, the side effects are unpredictable and possibly deadly. Since Rhett isn’t too far away from being eighteen, even if he was to get it early, he would probably be fine, but no one wants to take that risk. And, besides, early Purifications are very rare, teachers have reassured us for years that there have only been a couple in the Purification’s history.
But Rhett’s still not back after dinner.
“Maybe he’s here, and just in his dormitory?” Elaine offers hopefully.
“We have to check,” Lexie decides for us, and Elaine and I follow her down one of the narrow hallways. When Lexie knocks Rhett’s roommate, Kyle, answers the door.
“Hi, Kyle,” Lexie gives him her best attempt at a smile.
“We’re looking for Rhett, is he here?” Lexie’s voice is overflowing with hope.
But Kyle’s pale face turns even whiter. “Um well…” Kyle stutters, running a hand through his hair. “So, here’s the thing. Rhett came back a while ago, a Regulator was with him. I went to lunch pretty soon after that, and when I came back…” Kyle trails off
“Well, it might just be easier if I show you,”. He moves out of the doorway and into the room. Lexie shoves past Kyle, getting into the dormitory as fast as she can. I hear gasp, and soon I know why…
My heart stops in my chest. No. No. No. Rhett’s side of the room is completely bare. All of his comic collections have disappeared, there are no clothes in the open dresser, and from what I can see of the closet, it’s empty too. And on his carefully made bed, is a piece of crisp white paper. I’ve seen this before. This exact scene is something I witnessed exactly two weeks ago. When Hunter disappeared.