Read Secret Value of Zero, The for Free Online

tree trunk, chest rising and falling in a rapid beat. “In a way, it doesn’t matter, I can’t go much further.”
    Meke stopped at a tree, panting. She hadn’t slept in twenty-four hours and they had been on foot for hours. She couldn’t scrounge up more than a feeble nod.
    Despite the exhaustion muddling her mind, the prickly touch of the tree’s rough trunk awed and enthralled her. Her fingers grazed the tree trunk, feeling the hard ridges. Meke had never been this close to a tree before. Before the institution, she had lived in Vigorton where no trees or grass dared to grow. Concrete, glass and steel lined every street, building and light in Vigorton. Vigorton was no different from any other Prosperous city—all metal and concrete. Nature wasn’t efficient enough for Prosperon.  
    Meke sighed, letting her fingers sweep through the evergreen’s needles. They didn’t prickle and hurt, as she had expected. Instead, they were soft and pliant in her fingers. She looked up to the sight of Trove staring at her. She dropped her hands away from the needles. Color and heat flushed her neck and face.
    Why was she embarrassed? Meke forced her eyes to keep contact. She wasn’t doing anything wrong, just touching some plant.  
    Trove glanced away, breaking the strange stupor between them. Meke smiled. She didn’t want his gaze forced upon her. Especially not when her opinion of him wasn’t much higher than her own boot.
    Then Meke remembered how tired Trove had seemed last night. He looked a bit better, but still worn around the edges. She wondered why he looked so tired, but then she got too tired.
    Meke yawned, all thoughts of Trove fading into a stupor. Everyone else nestled in the thick woods, taking refuge at tree trunks. Theria slumped at the base of a tree, a dagger clutched in her lap. The strange blond-haired boy had his eyes closed already, his head leaning back on the same tree as Theria.
    Trove slid two swords into a back-holster. The swords shone as they crisscrossed each other. Everyone knew that the sword was the hardest of all weapons, the most prestigious. Meke felt begrudging admiration for these shiny weapons.  
    Arya sat by a tree, arms hanging over her knees. She glanced up as Meke approached. “Hey. I’m sorry about all this,” her small hands swept across the horizon, but Meke wasn’t sure what she meant. Sorry for last night? Sorry for the experiments? Sorry for the escape? Meke supposed that it didn’t really matter and crouched down at a tree across from Arya.  
    “So, why did you bring me here?”
    Arya smiled—a weary upturn of her mouth—and nodded. “Right to the point.” She tucked in a stray strand of long, rich black hair. “Well, as you probably know, the institution isn’t really about curing people. It killed me to sit there and watch them do it.” She spat onto the ground. “It’s called Genex. It’s a military-grade program. I don’t know a lot of details since I was just an employee. I just know that Genex is about turning humans into weapons. You can guess why.”
    “Are they trying to fight the Foreign Powers?” Meke almost gasped.
    It was unthinkable. The Foreign Powers controlled everything in the world: the trade, the technology, the raw materials of civilization.  
    Arya shrugged. “I suppose so. Although, I can’t be sure. I was just a tutor.”
    “Why us? Why Zeroes?” In her mind’s eye, Meke could still see some of the other patients, their sunken cheeks and dull eyes.  
    “Because you’re Zeroes,” Arya said. “I’m sorry.”
    Zeroes didn’t matter in the grand evolutionary scheme of Prosperon. They were the least efficient, least productive and the least loved members. Most parents, rather than to suffer the embarrassment of having a Zero offspring, abandoned them on the side of the road. Some were luckier and lived on the streets until some trouble befell them: starvation, beatings or neglect.  
    Meke had been even luckier. Her mother