Free The Last Girl by Joe Hart Page B

me again.”
    Meeka waves a dismissive hand. “They won’t have the chance. Simon won’t let you out of his sight now. He’ll send them to the box for a week if they try it again.”
    “He doesn’t have the power to do that,” Zoey says, trying to eat her food.
    “What do you mean? He just did it yesterday.”
    “I know he sent them there, but Assistant Carter is the one that decides the length of punishment. Lee told me,” she adds.
    “I didn’t know that,” Meeka says after a time. “Why have you never told me that?”
    “No one has gone to the box since Halie and Grace. It didn’t seem very important.”
    Meeka stirs the remainder of her food around before dropping her spoon. “He creeps me out almost as much as Dellert.”
    “Who? Carter?” Zoey asks.
    Meeka nods. “It’s like he’s not really a person, just something wearing human skin as a disguise.”
    The image gives Zoey pause. She imagines Carter unzipping a hidden seam in his flesh to reveal a hideous sublayer of scales and glistening skin. She shivers.
    The chime comes from the speakers and they rise, filing through to deposit their trays. Zoey follows Meeka through the hallways to the lecture hall. Miss Gwen is there, waiting beside her desk. Her eyes glide over them as they take their seats, her face tight, hands clamped together. When they’ve settled she steps forward, head tilted to the side.
    “Good morning.”
    “Good morning, Miss Gwen.”
    “I’m sorry to see so few of you here today. Punishment is an ugly, but necessary, aspect of our lives. If the balance of the world were not so precarious, there might only be warnings for such transgressions. But alas, it is.”
    The speech sounds scripted. Zoey wonders who gave her the orders to write it.
    “To renew humanity; what a purpose,” Miss Gwen says, looking at each of them, a glaze of awe on her face. “To give birth to a new generation and drive away the shadows of extinction—what better cause do we have? We must coexist and work together for the greater good. Our differences must be put aside, our conflicts cast away.” She stares solely at Zoey as she says this. “There is no one person more important than the fate of our species. We would all do well to remember that.” Zoey holds her gaze until the instructor finally gives her a cold smile and turns away, saying over her shoulder, “Rise and recite the creed.”
    The women do as they are told. “We are of the greater good. We live for the chance to rebuild the world that is no longer. We are one in our knowledge and stand steady before the challenges that face us. We give thanks for our shelter and for the guidance of the Director. We will not stray from the path.”
    Zoey can barely finish the words with the dry, sour taste in her mouth. They continue to stand and chant the rules together and when they are done, Miss Gwen nods approvingly.
    “Take out your texts and turn to page three hundred forty-four, please.”
    Zoey knows what part of the book this is before she even opens the cover. She finds the correct page and stares at the chapter title. The Fall.
    “Zoey, will you read please?” Miss Gwen says.
    Lily claps her hands and laughs. “Ya Zee, ree!”
    “Quiet, Lily!” Miss Gwen nearly yells. Zoey jumps in her seat, shocked at the volume of the instructor’s voice. Lily’s smile vanishes and she cowers, flapping her fingers before her eyes. Zoey grits her teeth until they feel as if they’ll shatter. Blood pounds in her ears. Her hands shake.
    “Zoey? You may begin,” Miss Gwen intones.
    Zoey takes a breath and starts to read.
    “In late two thousand eighteen, the patches of rebel factions that had skirmished with U.S. forces several times over the year unified and declared open war on the United States Government. Due to mass panic and the spread of propaganda concerning NOA’s research, the factions grew until they numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Despite their advanced weaponry, the