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I don’t see any signs of rebellion as we arrive inside the white barricade The Society appears to be in absolute control of the situation A huge white tent hts throughout the grounds inside the walls Officials wearing protective gear oversee everything Other air cars full of medics and patients land near us

I’ And, without knowing it, the Society has delivered me almost exactly where I need to be I wish Cassia and I could be together to see it all happen and to hear the Pilot for the first ti She ue, too

"Infected to the right," an Official in a hazmat suit tells our lance over to the left to see where he’s pointing Camas’s City Hall

"They must have run out of space in the medical center," Official Lei says softly to ue iswill need to step in Already, most of the Society Officials look harried as they direct the traffic of people

We walk up the steps and into City Hall For a second I i next to me and we’re on our way to the Banquet

Official Lei pushes open the doors "Keep ," soht stop in their tracks The Hall has changed

Inside the huge open area under the dome, there are rows and rows of tiny clear cells I knohat they are: temporary containment centers that can be constructed anywhere in case of an epide but have never seen them for ether in different configurations, like the pieces of a puzzle They have their oage and pluybacked onto those of a larger building Each cell has a tiny cot, a slot for food delivery, and a sh for a latrine Thefeature of the cells, besides their size, is the walls They are, for the most part, transparent

Transparency of care, the Society calls it Everyone can see what is happening to everyone else, and medical Officials can watch their subjects at all times

The rumor is that the Society perfected this syste for Anomalies Sometimes the Society had to set up centers to contain all the Anomalies they found in order to evaluate them, and so that’s when they developed the cells When the Officials fro down the erous, they turned the cells over to the Medical Department for use The Society’s official story is that these have always existed only for medical quarantine and contain, I hadn’t heard much about the way the Society eneral populace--but I believe it Why wouldn’t I? They did soain years later, with Ky and other Aberrations

I run a quick calculation as I look at all the cells They’re over half full It won’t be long before they’re at maximum capacity

"You’ll be in here," an Official says, pointing to Official Brewer He nods to us and goes inside the cell, sitting down on the cot obediently

They uess they don’t want to put people next to those they knohich o doith the illness, even when you know they’ll get better

"Here," the Official says to Official Lei, and she walks inside the cell I smile at her as the door slides shut and she s

A few more cells over, and it’s my turn The cell feels even smaller on the inside than it looks on the outside When I stretch out my arms, I can touch both walls at the sah the walls They’re playing the Hundred Songs to keep us fro crazy with boredom

I’ to save us, and I also know that I’ue And when you’re lucky, like my faht thing My parents told us that "We’re on the right side of the Society’s data," one the other way Things aren’t fair It’s our job to do e can to change that"

When my parents discovered that my brother, Tannen, and I were both immune to the red tablet, they beca to res that even they couldn’t But they also told us that this was so important, our immunity It meant that ould knohat really happened and we could use that knowledge toapproached me, I knew immediately that I wanted to be a part of it

Soainst the wall on the other side of the cell and I turn It’s another patient, a kid who looks like he’s about thirteen or fourteen He’s lost consciousness and fallen against the ithout putting his hands out to catch himself He hits the floor hard

Within moments, the loves on They lift him up and take him out of the cell and then out of the Hall and, presumably, to the medical center Some kind of liquid sheets down the walls and a che the cell to get it ready for the next person

The poor kid I wish I could have helped hiainst the walls, pushing back so that I can feel theer

CHAPTER 5

CASSIA

A girl sits near own But she doesn’t look happy The confused expression on her facehoy and very tired And I’ feels the way it did in the Borough thethey took Ky away There’s a sharpness in the air, an echo of a screaht?" I ask the girl, and the moment the words come out of my mouth I think, What a stupid question Of course she did There’s no other occasion besides a Banquet where someone would wear a dress like this Her dress is yellow, the same color irl looks at lances down at her hands to see if the answer is there It is, in the for up "Of course"

"You couldn’t have the Banquet at Central Hall," I say to the girl, re renovated"

"That’s right," she says, and her father turns to look at me, an expression of concern on his face

"So where did you have it?" I ask

She doesn’t answer me; she snaps the silver box open and shut "It all happened so fast," she says "I’et ho," I say, and I do

Remember