Lucy looked to her father and mother as they watched Huck. She wondered how many people defied him in their hearts and their minds, unwilling to show on the outside how his fine sounding arguments affected them. How, she wondered, could one man make so many people afraid?

“But I am gathering us together today to remind ourselves why we are here and why others are not. Perhaps enough time has passed that we may begin to let our thoughts wander to fairness.” Huck leaned over and took a cup of water from Gordy and sipped it. “I’m here to say I understand. Your concerns are valid. And I am not an unconscientious leader. As a matter of fact, when I outlined what kind of leadership our new world deserved, I set up the tenets of honesty, morality, and of working within our own conscience as a foundation. Together we are working toward a world void of the pain and dishonesty and deceit that has plagued our earth.”

Lucy felt her heart-rate increase. Her chest heaved and her eyes narrowed. Like a bull storming before the color red, Lucy watched Huck with such unease, that she felt like she was going to be sick. Her stomach clenched and she brought her hand up to her mouth.

“We are the chosen few,” Huck continued and Lucy shuddered. “We will bring the earth back to its former glory by letting it heal. And we will let ourselves heal too.”

“Mom—” Lucy whispered, leaning into her mother.

Maxine hushed her without looking down.

Lucy struggled against Maxine’s grip. “I don’t feel good.”

“You’re fine. Hush,” Maxine insisted and tried to snuggle Lucy in closer.

Huck’s voice rose throughout the crowd, his jovial smile evident even from across the room.

“But we must discuss fairness. That word that means so much to us here, in this place. I’ve heard whispers and rumors of how I have acted unfairly as your leader. I’ve allowed someone who was left behind to enter the System…even though in the days after our arrival, I said I would not.”

Murmurs spread across the room. People whispered, pointed. Eyes fell to Lucy and she absorbed their attention with embarrassment. She wished to disappear and she felt her trademark blush creep and spread.

“Oh God—” Maxine said.

Lucy didn’t say anything and she looked to the ground and concentrated on a small section of the floor. There was a black scuff mark and Lucy studied it, refusing to acknowledge that she had become the center of attention.

“Lucy King,” Huck said her name. The room went silent and people shifted; Huck’s head panned the crowd, but Lucy didn’t move. Her mother squeezed her hand.

“They said Lucy’s name, Mama,” Harper said and tugged on her mother’s shirt.

“Hush,” Maxine replied.

Huck continued. “I will not lie to you. Lucy arrived here at our compound and, due to a strange array of circumstances, she discovered the System. We did not bring her here or choose her over other survivors. No, Lucy came on her own accord and showed initiative and loyalty. We had a choice to keep her out there in the world, tank her…”

The crowd gasped and muttered collectively. Lucy knew what they were thinking: the tanks are real. Her father reached over and tousled her hair, Lucy pulled away. She glanced up for just a moment and caught a glimpse of Cass, only a few feet away. Cass winked at her and Lucy ducked her head again.

“Or,” Huck raised his voice, “we could show her kindness. And reunite her with her family…and her father…Elektos Elder board member Scott King, was thankful. As we all should be,” his voice rose even louder. “Lucy is a member of our collective family. Harboring resentment that she lives while others did not is a cruel and bitter way to live.” He paused. Cleared his throat. “I should know,” he added and sniffed. “Ultimately, as your leader, you must trust that I am making decisions that are good for the whole. Even if my decisions appear to contradict your expectations. It should comfort you that I do not live in a black and white world, governed by the law instead of compassion for the individual.”

People muttered their approval. One by one the heads and attention turned forward, although a few people still stole glances in Lucy’s direction.

“Great change sometimes requires great sacrifice. Even innocent sacrifice; and don’t think that it isn’t hard for me to make those final decisions. Just know that every step forward we make toward our goal, we are fully realizing a future in paradise! You, my loyal and amazing friends, are at the beginning of history. We will rise from the ashes, we will build our Eden. We saw injustice and did not stay silent. Things in life were cruel and we met their cruelty with swift retaliation. With God on our side, we have taken back the world from the clutches of evil, corruption, and depravity,” Huck’s voice rose and shook. Gordy, standing next to his dad, put his hand on his father’s arm and Huck chuckled into the microphone. “Sometimes my emphatic speaking embarrasses my family,” he said, and a murmur of laughter rippled through the crowd.

Someone closer to the front called out words of encouragement and there was scattered applause.

“No, no,” Huck replied to the crowd. “No praise to me. Applaud yourselves. You are the cornerstone of this new world. The builders. The creators. Those who followed, even though you could not see the fruits of our labor in action. Celebrate faith!” Then the room erupted into cheers and clapping; Huck bowing gracefully down from the podium and walking through the crowd, the people parting like the Red Sea.

It was then Lucy realized he was walking straight toward her. People shifted and moved, turned and made an opening, and Huck landed right in front of her, his hands extended, his face lifted in a bright smile.

Lucy turned to her mother.

“Go on,” Maxine urged and gave Lucy a subtle push.

Lucy put her own hands out and Huck grabbed them in an exuberant handshake. Everyone watched them, and there was scattered applause, as if they were celebrating his humanity in saving her life.

“We meet again,” he said in hushed tones. Gordy, like a bodyguard, stood at his father’s elbow and appraised her with wariness. He had saved her life after Blair let her drown in the tank, but maybe he regretted allowing her into the System.

Lucy remained mute.

“I hope your time with your family has been wonderful and relaxing,” he continued and then before Lucy had time to reply, he leaned in and under the pretense of a hug, whispered in her ear, “Adjust your attitude and your company. You are now the face of acceptance and grace…I trust you will demonstrate your gratitude when given the chance.” As quickly as he arrived, he was gone, assisted away with the help of Gordy and a small collection of other guards. He exited the Center and the people began to disperse by pod.

“What did he say?” Galen asked. “What did he say to you?”

“You’re famous!” said Malcolm.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lucy saw Cass nod toward the hall and she looked back to her family.

“Do you all just eat that up?” Lucy said, turning to her parents. Her mother bristled. She cracked her neck. “You buy that magnanimous, it’s all for you, bull-shit? You think he’s being honest with you?”

“You’re incorrigible,” her father said to her and he crossed his arms. “I don’t even know what to say to you anymore. If you don’t want to see the truth, then we can’t help you.”

“You want to know who gave really awesome speeches and made the people feel special? Hitler. I wonder if you put their speeches side by side if either of you would even be able to tell the difference.” Then Lucy spun and followed Cass’s braids back out into the fray, leaving her parents to contemplate the magnitude of their allegiances.