Read The Burn for Free Online Page B

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    One . I press send .
    Not Rint. One of his
students.
    Agonizing, terrible silence as I wait for a response.
Will she cut the connection when she realizes it isn’t Mr. Klein? I
close my eyes, mad at myself. Stupid. Always stupid. Admitting I’m
not Mr. Klein. Acting and not thinking. Then the computer blips at
me again. I open my eyes.
    Terra?
    I almost jump out of my seat. How does she know
me?
    How do you know my
name?
    I know all about you. Rint talks a
lot.
    Who are you?
    Gaea.
    Yeah, I know. The earth goddess.
But what does it mean?
    From what Rint’s told me, I think
you’re smart enough to figure it out.
    She’s being forthright. Maybe I will be too.
    I want to leave the colony. I want
to go to the Burn.
    Just a second too long of a hesitation, but I suppose
anyone would have that reaction.
    I can help you if you’re willing
to make sacrifices. In the Trench. On the far side of the
observation station. On the east wall, look for a fold in the rock.
It hides the entrance to my home. Tonight.
    The message window goes blank and the screen says,
“Connection terminated.”
    Then there’s a whirring sound. Mr. Klein is on the
other side of the door, his hand up against the scanner. I close
the laptop and turn around in the chair. I give a furtive glance at
the watcher. Did I stay in front of the screen well enough? My
heart races. Will I leave tonight? Am I ready for that? I think so,
but then why am I shaking?
    The door slides open, and Mr. Klein carries a clear
bottle. He holds it up.
    “Aloe vera.” He tosses it to me. “Rub some of that on
your skin.”
    I squeeze some onto my palm and rub it on my burned
arms and face. The goopy gel feels cool and tingly on my skin, and
I sigh in relief.
    “Just apply it every couple of hours. You aren’t
blistered, so you should be fine.” Mr. Klein clears his throat. “Do
you think today’s lesson will be interesting?”
    He’s studying me, a look of worry etched in his eyes.
I nod.
    “Yeah, very. Thanks for letting me prep for it.” I
walk to the door. He stands to one side to let me pass.
    “Are you going to the dance tonight, Terra?”
    I turn around. Mr. Klein is sitting down and opening
his laptop. This time he really does look at lesson plans, and he
doesn’t care if the watcher sees the screen or not.
    “Um, yeah. Some guy I met on a transport asked
me.”
    “That’s good. Good you’ll be out. Everyone will be
out, you know. No after-hours vocations tonight. No farmers, no
sanitation crew, no submarine dockers.”
    And I know instantly what he’s telling me. If I’m
going to meet with Gaea, if I’m ever going to leave for the Burn,
tonight is my chance. If I’m serious about this, as Mr. Klein
apparently hopes I am, this is it. No more dreaming, no more
complaining about the colony. I have to act. This is what I’ve been
looking for for so long. So why am I terrified?
    I leave Mr. Klein’s office. I need to be to class in
twenty minutes, so I’m not in a hurry. Just chemistry and then Mr.
Klein’s class. Two hours that I know will stretch interminably.
    I’m right. As soon as my chemistry teacher starts
talking, my mind shuts off and my eyes drift to the map of the
earth tacked to the wall behind her. The land is all shaded gray,
and the oceans are shades of bright blue, a different shade for the
territory of each colony. My colony, the Mariana colony, has the
largest territory. Then I have a gut-wrenching thought.
    Where am I going to go?
    When I actually leave for the Burn, where will I go?
It isn’t labeled on the map, but I know the closest country is
Japan. I don’t speak Japanese. Everyone down here speaks English.
“The language of science” had been the logic when everyone came
down here in the beginning, without much other thought to what
language they would use. The language of the colonies.
    So what is it like on the Burn? Does everyone still
speak their own languages? Did they choose one common language—the
language of the