The Azuli by Cassidy Shay (best summer reads of all time .TXT) 📖

Quietly, of course. “How do you think you’ll get out? And do you know how hard it’ll be to get a plan? If anyone hears about it, they’ll turn you in and get promoted to the sixth floor, while you’ll get terminated,” said Jack, pointing out all the flaws as usual. I didn’t even have a plan yet, and there were already things wrong with it. I knew it would be a tough job, but I also knew that I could do it.
“If I get terminated, it will be better than living the rest of my life breeding children and covering for the people that have kept me here my whole life.”
I had meant every word of what I said that day. I didn’t, and still don’t, care what way I die, just as long as I’m not made into someone’s slave, forced to marry someone I’m not in love with, and breeding so some slimy scientist can experiment on my children.
But my closest friend and brother didn’t believe this. They thought I was just mad, and would stop talking about it soon, like I always had in the past. But in the past, things hadn’t been this bad.
Chapter 3

Those two weeks went by fast, with people being sent to the cafeteria at strange times when the contractors came to modify the cells. The food got progressively better, and at the meeting we had during that time period, we discovered that it was because the chefs were practicing for when the parents arrived. They’d never had to cook quality meals before, and they didn’t have long to prepare for it.
Before the experiment, the food was atrocious. The texture was always the same, similar to old oatmeal. The colors had grey hues to them, and it all seemed to hold together as if it was all made of the same thing.
The bread tasted like the potatoes, which tasted like the vegetables and fruit. The flavor was a little different, but the variations were small. If I closed my eyes, there would have been no way to identify what I’d been eating.
During those two weeks, I tried my best to join into the conversations and I tried not to let my thoughts show too much. But I didn’t always succeed. Several times, I would come out of my own little world with tears streaming down my face, or I would wake up screaming at night.
Some of my drawings of Memories reflected my thoughts. I brought to life slaves, along with other things that just brought my mood down even more.
A few of them, though, showed the other thing that was on my mind. My Memories became elaborate pictures of times when children were reunited with their parents. Some were cheerful, with tears of joy streaming down their faces.
Others, though, included screaming and tears. These tears, though, were caused by sadness, anger, or pain instead of happiness. These Memories created a fear inside me that grew with each day.
What if we all changed too much? What if we can’t get along at all?

I try to tell myself that of course there will be differences, but that they’re still my parents, and they still love me no matter what. However, the Memories create a doubt that never really leaves my thoughts.
Finally, the day came when they made the announcement. It was heard on the intercom, and I knew it would be appearing on television screens all over The New World, with the “principal” of the Academy reporting it. The man that everyone knew as the principal was really the warden. He was replaced every four years with a new one, but no one knew the criteria by which the new wardens were chosen.
“Ladies and gentlemen! If you have mothered or fathered an Azulate child, you will be thrilled by the news that you are about to hear,” we heard over the intercom in his deep, scratchy voice. “The Great Dictator, Maddox Warrington, has granted our Azuli Academy the privilege of marriage. Twelve couples have stepped up, wanting to be the first to marry. If any of your children are on this list, you will be sent an invitation for the wedding, as well as a tour of the Academy. Here are the names.” He then read off the list of names, and after the announcement ended, I thought about how pitiful that sounded. We had to be granted permission by the dictator to get married, but everyone else could do it anyway?
I tried to talk to Macy about it, but she didn’t answer. Since she’d heard me say that I planned on escaping, she’d been pretty quiet, except for a few remarks here and there that stung. Her comments cut me deep, and I felt like I was losing a best friend. I rarely listened to her, though, because I knew she didn’t understand what I was going through.
The day after the announcement, we were called in for another meeting. I didn’t pay much attention, because I was still working on my plan.
I’d run into a few problems, like look-outs. I’d need people to keep an eye out so I wouldn’t get caught. I didn’t think cameras would be a problem, because I knew for a fact that they didn’t view the tapes for a few hours afterward. I knew this because I’d heard two Vipero talking about it one day. But I still needed someone to keep an eye out for guards, doctors, scientists, or anyone else that might be a threat. The problem here was that no one thought I was serious enough about this to help me. And if they did believe me, they’d either try to stop me or they’d report me. But I had worked things out so that even if my plan failed, they wouldn’t get in trouble. I wouldn’t mention them to the Vipero. Instead, I’d make it seem like I was working alone. But of course, no one wanted to listen to me.
There were still people that I hadn’t asked, like Catherine and Mary. I didn’t like Ben that much, so I wasn’t even going to ask him about it.
When we were dismissed from the meeting, I pulled Mary aside. “Sit with me at lunch? I want to get to know my future sister-in-law,” I said in a voice so sweet it couldn’t have belonged to me. But she agreed anyway, her smile just as fake as mine.
At lunch, I eased into things, not sure if she would be up for it or not. “So, what do you think about this whole thing?” I asked her. “Do you think you’re ready to raise children?”
She took a bite of her sandwich, and then gulped down half of her juice before answering me. “Well, I’ve always loved little kids, Any new Azuli that come, I try my best to help them out with anything they need. So I have a little bit of experience, but I’ve never been around babies. In the neighborhood that I lived in, I was the youngest.” She looked around the room, smiled and waved at someone, and then focused her attention back on me. “I didn’t have any friends outside the neighborhood that might have had babies around because I came here instead of going to school, so I never met anyone in the rest of the community. You could say I’m a little nervous about it.”
I looked down at my plate, which had hardly been touched. A little nervous?

I knew that she would need to be more than a little nervous before she would agree to help me. I looked back up at her and saw that she was studying my face, searching for emotions that I’d hidden deep inside me.
“I kind of feel the same way. Except I’m not good with kids at all. I tried to help one in the halls one time, and I ended up stepping on his foot, running him into a wall, and a number of other things. By the time we found his room, I’m sure he wished I had been born as a normal human instead of as an Azulate. It would have saved him some pain. Anyone smaller than me makes me all jittery. I’ll be a horrible mother.”
“I’m sure you won’t,” she assured me. “It’s probably different when it’s your own child, building inside you for nine months.” She had this look on her face, like she thought that this would be a wonderful thing, even though she was being forced to get married and have children against her will.
“But… you are a little young, don’tcha think? And so small for your age, too. By the time you’re nine months along, your weight will have doubled!” She started laughing, a strange honking noise that made me feel embarrassed to be sitting with her. Still laughing, she said, “I wouldn’t be surprised at all if you’re thinking of escape. That’s what I’d be doing if I were you.”
I could tell that she wasn’t serious. But I also could tell that this would probably be my only chance. “Actually, I have been, sort of.” That stopped the laughter, it made the smile disappear.
“Wow. I mean… wow. You must really trust me if you’re telling me that.”
I remember a time, back when I was eight or none, that a man had tried to escape. He had been from Floor Two, so I didn’t know him. But that didn’t make it any easier to stomach what they did to them. He was in his thirties, and I guessed that he had just about had enough of the Academy. I felt the same way, but my childish thoughts had never yet led me to think of escape.
The man had blond hair. He was short, but his hunched shoulders made him appear even smaller. I know this because, even though he wasn’t from our floor, they showed him to us.
The Warden brought him to our lunch period three days in a row. For those three days, I didn’t eat. How could I?
The entire time, on all three of those days, we listened to the Vipero beat the man. Each day, he was beaten until he passed out.
After the three days of starring in our lunchtime show, he was beaten in front of the residents of the other floors, three days each. Finally, he was beaten in front of Floor Two, the people who he had lived with since he was a child, until he collapsed, dead, on the cafeteria floor.
Next, they went after the man’s friends. Anyone who might have possible been working with him was exterminated.
They did it publicly. Floor Two was actually present for the executions, but the rest of us were forced to watch it on a screen during our lunch.
I knew that, that day, Mary was thinking about that man. I knew that she was terrified that