tail of the braid over my left shoulder and spins me around to face the mirror.
“Wow,” is all I can manage to say. I have never looked so made up yet so natural in all my life. My skin glows with a soft dewiness. I turn to look at Zoë. She looks even more beautiful than I do.
Her long black hair has been pulled tightly to the right side of her head and intricately woven into a knotted bun over her ear. Her eye shadow is various shades of purple, which make her deep brown eyes luminously sparkle. Her lips are a deep opaque shade of violet and look striking against her mocha skin.
“Zoë—you look like a rock star!”
She blushes and drops her head. “Seems a little silly to be all done up and in these clothes.”
“This clothing is only for your orientation tour,” Adelaide offers. “You will receive evening gowns to wear for the welcome gala after your tour.” The zippered jackets with no undershirts finally make sense.
“Welcome gala?” Zoë asks with disbelief in her voice. “I’m thinking we should have spent a little more time reading the itinerary for tonight. When exactly is sleep penciled in?”
“Ten forty five,” Helene answers unexpectedly.
“And what time is it now?”
“Four thirty.”
“Well, at least they’re going to feed us.”
“Yes, the feast will be delectable.”
Another shower stall door opens and Veronica emerges, freshly decontaminated in a perfectly pressed set of black scrubs, with every hair in place. “You ladies look absolutely stunning! I cannot wait to see you this evening. Come. It is time to take you into the pod room and introduce you to the staff.”
We thank Helene and Adelaide one more time before Veronica leads us out of the salon through a door marked ‘pod access’.
The corridor we are lead down is incredibly intimidating. Neither side has traditional walls, just large panes of glass separated by sturdy metal dividers. The rooms along the sides of the hall are filled with scientists working in laboratories, measuring and studying, wearing safety goggles and white lab coats, their hair covered in paper caps. I am so busy observing that I don’t even notice that Dr. Milton has returned. “Ladies, you look stunning. I see that our beauticians are very well trained.”
I half-heartedly smile at him before sharing a look with Zoë. “Shall we begin the tour of the most exciting part of our facility?”
“Let's get the show on the road,” Zoë jokes.
The expression on Dr. Milton’s face indicates that he is not amused. His words, however, do not falter. “Well, Miss Carver, I will teach you all I can about your extended stay here. Please ladies, follow me.”
We do as he asks. “These are our research facilities. Here you see some of the top minds in the world, hard at work on new methods, new technologies to keep our people healthy while they are here. It should be mentioned that each one of them, is one of us as well.”
“Dr. Milton,” I ask, “do you know how many people like us there are in the world?”
“While we do not have an exact figure, it is estimated that there is anywhere from seventy five thousand to one hundred and twenty five thousand. We have made attempts at tracing family trees, which of course begins with your family. What do you know of your history, Miss Owens?”
Unsure of whether or not anyone outside of my family knows about the existence of the journals, I decide to keep my response simple and safe. “Just the basics. I only learned yesterday that there was such a significant history.”
He stays silent for a moment, stewing over my words.
“Just ahead is the pod room. As you saw earlier, it looks somewhat like a hospital facility, and I suppose somewhat futuristic, as previous newcomers have told me. Please do not be intimidated by it. All you will need to do when you are an occupant of the pod is sleep.”
As we approach the double sliding glass doors at the end of the hall, the pods come in to view.
13. THE PODS
The pod room is enormous. It wraps around both sides of the corridor and extends a great distance back. The lighting is low except for a nurses’ station at the center of the room and a single lamp over each pod.
The pods themselves look like giant incubators. Each occupied pod has an extensive monitoring system attached to it and a medical professional standing watch. There are machines monitoring heart rate, respirations, blood