Read Variant for Free Online Page A

released.
    I sucked in air and stumbled forward, turning to keep my face to Oakland and Skiver.
    “You’re with the V’s, right?” Curtis said. It was a statement, not a question.
    “Sure,” I said, and held my hand against my face to stop the nosebleed.
    “Then let’s get out of here.”
    He backed out of the room, and I noticed that there were six or seven guys moving with him.
    Oakland climbed to his feet. “You’re dead, Fisher.”
    I didn’t like getting pushed around. “Bring it on.”
    Curtis put his hand on my shoulder and led me into the hallway.
    “I’m Curtis. And that probably wasn’t wise,” he said, a smile breaking across his face.
    I nodded. I didn’t know anything about Curtis, other than that he had tried to run and he warned me about the other two gang leaders. That was good, I guess, but the V’s—whatever they were—could be just as bad as the others. Not that it mattered. I just needed to get back outside. I wasn’t going to stay long enough for any of this to matter.
    Curtis led me through the crowd and down the long corridor. Some of the onlookers we passed looked angry, but others gave me pats on the back and shouts of welcome. We passed room 421 and kept going.
    “I think I’m in there,” I called out.
    He shook his head. “We’re moving you down to the V end.”
    We passed two hallways that branched off the main one. I stopped at the junction. One side was neat and tidy, with nameplates on each of the doors. The other was vandalized and cluttered. The walls were scrawled with graffiti and the floor was littered with loose papers and dirty clothes. Strings of Christmas tree lights were hung haphazardly along the ceiling, and a dozen bras were draped over them. It looked like a cross between a homeless shelter and a frat house.
    “That’s Havoc’s row,” Curtis said. “Stay out of there.”
    “Right.”
    He pointed the other direction. “And that’s the Society’s place. Don’t let it fool you, though. They’re worse. Anyway, come on.”
    We passed two more off-shooting hallways—they looked empty—before Curtis led me into a room just two doors down from the end of the main corridor. He stopped at the small sink and tossed me a washcloth. I pressed it against my nose.
    A younger kid sat at a desk. Someone closed the door behind us.
    “Glad to have you on board,” Curtis said, sitting on the lower bunk. Neither he nor the young kid seemed to have the same weird fashions I’d seen on the others. They were just wearing the uniform, nothing special. “Sorry about Oakland. The Society usually keeps him out of the way. There’s no way to stop Isaiah from jumping on all the new students—there are just too many Society guys—but they can usually fend Oakland off for a few hours.”
    I pulled the rag off my face to see if the bleeding was slowing. It wasn’t, so I reapplied the cloth.
    “Listen,” I said. “Thanks for coming in there, but I don’t think I’m going to be sticking around here very long.”
    “That’s why you’re perfect for the V’s,” Curtis answered. He pointed at the other kid in the room. “This is Mason, by the way. Your roommate.”
    I waved, and then stood and gingerly walked to the sink, my abdomen aching from Oakland’s punches. When I checked in the mirror, my face didn’t look too bad yet. My shirt was covered in blood, but I didn’t see any bruising.
    “You’re trying to get out?” I asked.
    “Some of us are,” Curtis said. “We don’t know how, but at least we’re not just accepting everything.”
    “What’s the V stand for?”
    “We’re the Variants,” he said. “The other two gangs are playing the game. Havoc—that’s Oakland’s deal—they just want to rule. Get as many points as they can, be in charge, party. The Society thinks that the only way we’re getting out of here is to play by the rules, roll over and do whatever Iceman tells us to. The V’s are everyone else. If you don’t want to be part