Reached (Matched, #3)

by Ally Condie

And soon I’ll be finished with my practice flight and they’ll send me out on my real assignment for the night. When they handed out the assignments last week, I couldn’t believe my luck. Central.

Usually, the Rising has us work in groups of three: a pilot, a copilot, and a runner who rides in the hold and takes care of the errands—the forays into the Society that

I’d swoop down first in Central, for Cassia, and then I’d get everyone else, wherever they might be. I’d find my aunt and uncle, Patrick and Aida. I’d find Cassia’s parents and her brother, Bram, and Xander and Em

I wouldn’t care how small the world became as long as I had Cassia at the center of mine.

If I die, I’m no good to Cassia. And I want to find Patrick and Aida. I don’t want them to think that they’ve lost another son. One is enough.

I don’t know much about Matthew. We never met. But I know that his parents loved him very much, and that his father thought Matthew would be a sorter someday.

Patrick survived. Matthew did not. He was just a kid. Not old enough to be Matched. Not old enough to have his final work assignment yet.

“Ky,” someone says as they pass by me. I nod in return but keep my eyes on the mountains.

The two friends I had in the decoy camps are both gone. Vick’s dead and Eli’s in those mountains somewhere.

There’s only one person here who I’d call a friend, and I knew her from the Carving.

“Indie,” I say, walking up to her. I’m always relieved to see her alive. Even though she’s an errand pilot like me, not a fighter pilot,

“Ky,” she says without preamble. “We’ve been talking. How do you think the Pilot’s going to come?”

used to believe that the Pilot would come on the water,” Indie says. “That’s what my mother always told me. But I don’t think that anymore. It’s got to be the sky.

“Central,” I say. I waited until now to break the rules and tell her because I didn’t want her to try to talk me out of going.

Indie doesn’t blink. “You’ve been waiting a long time for an assignment there,” she says. She pushes her chair away from the table and stands up to leave. “Make sure you come back,” she says.

I’ve just started eating when the siren sounds. Not a drill. Not tonight. This can’t happen.

“To your ships!” commanders call out. The sirens keep on shrilling.

“I’m the copilot,” I say. “Are you the pilot?” “Yes,” she says. “Did you know they were putting us together?” “No,” she says.

She looks angry. “Why waste two of us on the same ship? We’re both good.” The group commander’s voice comes in from the speaker in the cockpit. “Begin final checks in preparation for departure.”

It’s a full drill. We’re actually going to take flight. I can feel my trip to Central slipping away.

But Vick is dead and Eli is gone. “You’re the runner?” Indie asks. “Yes,” he says. He looks to be about our age, maybe a year or two older.

“You were in the decoy villages,” I say. There are a good number of us here who were decoys at one time or another.

His voice is flat. “Yes,” he says. “My name is Caleb.” “I don’t think I knew you there,” I say.

“Maybe they put him with us to equal things out,” she says. “Two smart, one stupid.”

“Medical supplies,” Indie says. “What kind?” I ask. “Is it real?” “I don’t know,” she says. “The cases are all locked.”

“Grandia City,” I say. Not Central. But Grandia’s in the same general direction.

A circle of white loops around them. “How long has that been there?” I ask. I haven’t flown directly over the City in almost a week. “I don’t know,”

Is this how Cassia or Xander felt when they found out they were Matched? This can’t be right. All the odds are against it. So how is it happening?

“The Rising matched us up,” she says. And then, as Camas City disappears beneath us, she leans closer to whisper to me. “This isn’t a drill,”

“Your son is stable,” he tells the parents. “We’ve seen this illness before. People become lethargic and drift into a sleep-like state.”

“You’ll need to come with us,” the medic says to the boy’s parents. He gestures at the three of us Officials, too. “You’ll all need to be quarantined as a precaution.”

looking out the window now, in the direction of the mountains. People who are from this Province do that, I’ve noticed.

The Society has managed to keep the illness contained, but one day it will break—and the Society will no longer be able to keep up with the spread of the disease.

When the Plague breaks, that is our beginning. I’m part of the second phase of the Rising, which means that I’m supposed to wait until I hear the Pilot’s voice before I take action.

my contact within the Rising assured me that I’ll recognize the Pilot’s voice when the time comes.

The Society’s about to take me in for quarantine. I’ll be ready and waiting when the Pilot finally speaks. The medics hand us all masks and gloves before we climb into the air car.

That’s the other thing the Rising’s tablets do. Not only do they make you immune to the red tablet, they also make you immune to the Plague.

all encircled by a high white wall. “When did that go up?” the father asks, but the medics don’t answer. The wall is new. The Society has built it to keep the Plague contained.

“We’ve told you what we can,” Official Brewer says. “Your family is under enough distress. I’d prefer not to add a citation to your difficulties.”

It promises more than we can deliver, and it represents something I haven’t believed in for a while now. Even Cassia’s face changed when she saw me wearing it for the first time.

“I thought I’d be there when it happened,” she said, her eyes wide. I could tell from the tight sound of her voice that she was holding something back. Surprise? Anger? Sadness?

“They’ve changed the ceremony. They didn’t bring my parents out either.” “Oh, Xander,” Cassia said. “I’m sorry.” “Don’t be,” I said, teasing her. “We’ll be together when we celebrate our Contract.”

“Your shift must have ended hours ago,” she said. “Does this mean you left your uniform on all day to show off?”

“The rules have changed. We have to wear our uniforms all the time now. Not just at work.”

She nodded and blushed a little. I wondered what she was thinking about. I wished we were together: face to face in the same room.

Are you really all right? What happened in the Outer Provinces? Did the blue tablets help you? Did you read my messages? Have you figured out my secret? Do you know that I’m part of the Rising? Did Ky tell you? Are you part of the Rising now, too?

don’t hate Ky. I respect him. But that doesn’t mean I think he should be with Cassia.

“It’s nice, isn’t it,” she said, her face serious and committed, “to be part of something greater than yourself.”

She didn’t mean the Society. She meant the Rising. We’re both in the Rising.

“I like the red insignia,” she said, changing the subject. “Your favorite color.” I grinned.