The Chemical Garden 2
Lauren DeStefano
1. Rhine and Gabriel stole a boat to get away and abandoned ship before they hit the coast to evade pursuit. Gabriel is fixated on Rhine’s bleeding hand, but she is excited about finally having her freedom back. She knows she has to find her brother, Rowan. Fear starts to sink in and she realizes they are alone in the world and Gabriel has never been outside the mansion. Suddenly, hands grab her and despite their best efforts, they are pulled away by a group of people. A first generation woman appears and laughs
2. The old woman, Madame Soleski, thinks they are spies. As Rhine struggles to get free, she breaks the nose of Jennifer the boys that holds her. Gabriel tried to get to her, but is beaten by his captures. Rhine tells them they are not spies and Madame takes her aside, nicknaming her Goldenrod. She explains the girls come to her for help and protection and she takes care of them. She leads Rhine to a Ferris wheel and they get on. Madame tried to guess Rhine’s backstory and Rhine decides to give her the lie she wants to hear: Rhine cheated on her impotent husband with Gabriel. Madame is delighted with the story and thinks they will get along.
3. Gabriel is sick and Madam has Lilac keep him drugged with Angel’s blood because she thinks he is a spy after her girls. Rhine pretends to sleep and listens to the girls’ conversations for as long as she can before she really does fall asleep. Lilac tried to keep Rhine’s extremities warm and keep her daughter, Maddie (deformed leg), away from Madam. Gabriel wakes up for a bit and tells Rhine about his nightmares, but loses consciousness soon after. Madam comes for Rhine and has her change into a clean dress. They start walking around in the daylight while the girls are sleeping. Madam continually talks about how Jared’s inventions have helped them. Rhine realizes she will have to play along with Madam’s plan to be able to escape with Gabriel. Madam thinks Rhine’s beauty was wasted as a bride, but doesn’t want her to play the same role as her other girls. She thinks Rhine might be able dance to draw the men in for the other girls. Madam admits she has had lovers, but only one love. She sees love as a weakness and sees that Gabriel loves Rhine. Rhine’s tried to act indifferent about Gabriel, but asks that Madam also find a place for him in her operation. Rhine goes back to the tent and one. Of the twin girls is watching over Gabriel, who appears to have an infection. Lilac comes around to check on Gabriel. Rhine is not happy they are keeping him comatose. Lilac tells her some men do try to be inappropriate with the girls sometimes and they are killed and turned to ash in the incinerator Jared rugged to work. Rhine remembers that most bodies are cremated to prevent the virus from contaminating the ground. Lilac says she will apply Rhine’s makeup to present to Madam for approval and then Rhine will be taught the art of seduction.
4. Rhine is taken to the red tent. She is starting to learn Madam’s color system: reds are her favorites, blues are for the desperate. Her own color is gold and calls her Goldenrod. Lilac does her makeup and leaves her in the tent. Gabriel comes in dresses like one of Madam’s guards. She had told Lilac to stop stuffing him and he recovered quickly with a few side effects. They are reunited and start getting closer. Gabriel starts to take off her gold dress. Rhine quickly realizes the smoke around them is making her feel different. Madam comes clean and admits she had Lilac use aphrodisiac incense. She was charging men to watch them through a slit in the tent
5. Now that Madam knows how she wants to use Rhine and Gabriel, she puts them to work building their own cage where they are expected to have sex while people watch. Madam says they have to pretend like no one is watching them. A peach colored tent is constructed over the cage. Madam takes Rhine up in the Ferris wheel and explains she has homemade birth control pills from a reliable source (since they are outlawed). She forces One down Rhine’s throat. When Rhine and Gabriel are together again, he suggests they run. Rhine points out the fence has a buzzing sound (electricity) and says they need to make sure no one is watching when they run. She isn’t sure how much Jared overhears. Rhine knows Madame will kill Gabriel if they are caught. Rhine plans to use the fact that she looks like Madame’s daughter to get enough freedom for their escape. Until then, they need to play along.
6. Gabriel is not comfortable with a whole bunch of men staring at her. After a few days, Rhine is so exhausted that Gabriel compares her to the other girls. He wants to leave right away, but Rhine is looking for a way to get them out without getting caught. Lilac comes to fetch Rhine for Madame one day and dresses her in a sari. Madame drags her out the gate with Jared and Lilac while Maddie tries to tell her to run. A Gatherer meets them and Madame tries to negotiate a price for Rhine. When the Gatherer decides he is either going to take her or kill her with his gun, Jared points his own gun at the man. When the Gatherer threatens Jared, Maddie attacks. Jared is shot in the arm and then kills the Gatherer. Madame is furious and delights herself in beating Maddie nearly to death. Jared holds back Madame while Lilac takes her daughter to hide behind the incinerator with Rhine following. Jared appears with what first aid he could grab. Rhine realizes she needs to get Gabriel out if there. Jared tries to stop her because he knows Madame will kill them, but she can’t keep waiting. When she gets to Gabriel, he is drugged and barely staying conscious. She tries to drag him out when the girls start screaming.
7. Madame charges at Rhine with a syringe and injects her with something. When Rhine wakes up, Jared tells Madame that Lilac is distraught over the death of her daughter, Maddie. Rhine goes in and out of consciousness. She tries to stay awake when she finds herself in a tent laying next to Gabriel. He tells her to close her eyes when someone comes along. The next time she wakes up, Jared is carrying her out by the incinerator. Vaughn has come looking for her and Madame wants a fair price for her return. Rhine knows she can’t go back. She refuses to leave Gabriel behind. Jared is against it, but Lilac starts leading Rhine away.
8. Lilac takes Rhine to where she has been hiding Maddie in the outskirts of the camp. The blond twin that was watching over Gabriel says the gurl has a broken arm and possibly pneumonia. Gabriel is already there. Lilac warns the reunited lovebirds to keep out of site. Jared rejoins the searching Madame and Vaughn. Rhine is tempted to go back to the mansion, but she knows Vaughn would kill and do experiments on her. Jared drops something off to Lilac as he leads the search party away. Lilac leads them to the fence and when the power goes out, they start to climb. Gabriel takes Maddie to allow Lilac to get over, but Maddie starts screaming in pain.
9. The power comes back on and Lilac is thrown from the fence. She tosses her bag to Gabriel and tells them to go. They hide in the grass and Rhine keeps her hand over Maddie’s mouth. When the others come over to Lilac, she tells them Rhine and Gabriel got away. When Madame and Vaughn are fat enough away, they take off as fast as they can. They eventually come to a place where everything has been stripped. Rhine takes this as a sign of people being around. They find a shelter that has been made from the side of a house with a chimney and scrap metal. There is a sign offering fortunes told for a dollar. Rhine is too tired to keep wandering. She knocks on the door and Annabelle answers and lets them in. After convincing Maddie to eat two strawberries, they trade the rest for some aspirin to reduce Maddie’s fever. Annabelle allows the them to stay and sleep and Rhine hands over Madame’s beaded necklace. Gabriel says they should take turns sleeping and offers to take first watch. Rhine calls him Linden as she falls asleep.
10. When Rhine wakes up for her watch, Annabelle is outside. When Gabriel falls asleep, the supposed clairvoyant returns. Annabelle is able to make a few guesses about Rhine and infers more from her astrological sign, Aquarius. Rhine knows it isn’t really her fortune, but she still trades Madame’s necklace for a reading. Rhine draws the Empress, Emperor, and the World from the tarot deck in the respective order of Life Death, and Rebirth. While Annabelle isn’t able to tell her where to find Rowan, she does say that something has changed between them. The world will supposedly come together for Rhine, but things will get worse before they get better. (Foreshadowing that Rowan sold Rhine?)
11. Rhine is able to get a little more sleep before they need to leave. Annabelle has them bring buckets of water from the river and heats them up for them to clean themselves up a bit. Rhine trades her sari for jeans and a sweater and they take off on foot. Gabriel is angry with Rhine. She feels guilty for pulling him from the relative safety of the mansion. She realizes he took some of their store of angel’s blood and tells him they will have to ration it until he can get more rest and get over his body’s need for it. The follow the coast north until Maddie finds a truck idling near a big blue building. Rhine says the destination should be in the side of the truck. Gabriel sees “PA” on the side and Rhine knows it is going the direction they want. She is nervous about getting into the back of the truck, but she cannot deny Gabriel and Maddie having a ride instead of walking the whole way.
12. The stowaways drift in and out of sleep as they ride in the truck. Gabriel realizes that Rhine is shaking because the truck reminds her of the Gatherer’s van that took her away. Gabriel starts going through withdrawal, but there is nothing Rhine can do to help him without risking his life. He tells her that Jenna said Rhine always had to take care of people and it distracted her from seeing that she is important and when she is in danger.
13. When the truck makes a stop, Maddie stuffs their bag full of food and follows Rhine who helps Gabriel out. As they watch the men unload the boxes they were hiding behind, Rhine makes the decision they will try to get back inside before they leave. However, the truck pulls away to fast. They are outside a restaurant called the Flamingo Six. The owners Greg and Elsa invite them in and feed them. They had a son, Charlie, who died and left Elsa a little off. Rhine thinks she is similar to Maddie. They think Gabriel is dying of the virus and Rhine lies saying they are trying to get him home. Greg offers to let them stay in their spare room, but they will have to pay. Maddie is terrified of him and Rhine also has a bad feeling about him.
14. Elsa gives them some clothes that were previously Charlie’s. Maddie lets Elsa help clean her up. She shows Rhine a children’s book that was in Lilac’s bag and inside their is a New York City address. Gabriel and Rhine also get cleaned up. Rhine uses her wet hair to help sooth Gabriel through his withdrawal. She asks him about Jenna’s secret, but he tells her he won’t betray Jenna’s confidence unless she really needs to know. He promised her he would take care of Rhine. She goes to the kitchen to get him some water and Greg is sitting at the table drinking. He tells her their son died 30 years prior and his wife never really recovered from it. He comes after Rhine, holds her down, kisses and gropes her. Gabriel comes to her rescue and sends Rhine and Maddie out of the building ahead of him. Maddie sets off an alarm, but Rhine knows it is only so warn the owners of people trying g to break in, not sneak out. The three kids meet behind the dumpster and start walking. Gabriel shows Rhine that he stole money so they can take a bus to New York. They walk into town and find the bus station. Rhine tried to read the map, but she is too shaken up from everything that just happened. Gabriel comforts her. She is great full that Jenna made him promise to take care of her.
15. Once they are on a bus, Gabriel takes first watch. She dreams about how life was before, how it should be and she has “The World” tarot card in her hand. She hears her mom’s voice tell her she got there too late as she wakes up. Gabriel tells her she has been talking in her sleep a lot lately. When they stop at a station to wait for their next bus, they sit and eat some of their stolen food. On the next bus, Gabriel sleeps and mutters for Rhine to look out. Rhine pulls out Maddie’s book to distract her from annoying the other passengers. She traces the names Grace and Claire Lottner a few times. When Rhine asks who they are, Maddie isn’t able to answer. Gabriel has trouble getting up to get to the next bus that will take them to Manhattan. Gabriel closes his eyes and thinks about Linden’s atlas and Europe. He pretends they are sailing down the Rhine River. They let Maddie run wild on the bus. Rhine thinks about her mother. She knows she will have to convince Rowan to accept Maddie.
16. Rhine’s excitement grows as things become familiar the closer they get to her home. When they arrive, they find the house has been burnt down and Rhine blacks out for a few minutes. She goes inside and finds a pile of burnt papers and searches through them. She finds a sort of poem written by Rowen, but nothing else. She knows this is where he started the fire, but can’t figure out why. Maddie takes her flashlight to go into the basement and Rhine follows. She is surprised at how sturdy the basement seems to be compared to the rest of the house. She takes the flashlight from Maddie to search the room and finds a pile of dead rats and wilted flowers. She remembers the seeds she put between the pages of one of her parents’ journals and goes to the backyard to dig up the trunk of their parents’ things they hurried. Rhine knows Rowan has already dug it up.
17. Rowen left some things in the trunk, but the journals, seeds, and jewelry are all gone. Rhine takes the atlas and Gabriel helps her bury the rest again. They decide to go to the address in Maddie’s book. On the way, they see a gathering where the president is going to make a speech from a protective bubble. He announces they are going to create new labs. Rhine is hopeful that means they will eventually find an antidote, but the crowd is furious especially the first generations who have already lost their children. A few small bombs go off in the trees. The president’s entire platform is moved away with his nine wives. Gabriel pulls Rhine and carries Maddie away. Rhine explains that her parents were killed by the anti-science bombings that blew up the lab her parents worked in to prevent further experimentation on children. They eventually find where they are going and the address is for Grace’s Orphanage. A young man, Silas, answers the door and calls out for Claire. They sit down to talk with them and Rhine realizes Lilac’s real name is Grace. Claire tells them her daughter was a huge help around the orphanage and wanted to be a teacher. She left for school one day and never came back. Rhine tells them about their narrow escape and long journey. Silas isn’t happy they left Grace behind. Rhine yells at him that they did the best they could. Claire offers to keep her granddaughter. Rhine points out none of them have anywhere else to go.
18. Claire shows them around the three story house and lets them stay in a mattress on the floor in Silas’ room. Rhine apologizes to Gabriel for dragging him out of the mansion. She thinks it was stupid of her to think they could be happy, but he doesn’t. Silas goes to bed after Gabriel is asleep. He asks Rhine if Grace mentioned him and she tells him the truth. In the morning, Rhine forces herself to eat breakfast. Claire has the TV turned to the news where they are talking about he President’s speech. Silas makes an comment about the bombshell being good because the labs have people too much hope for a cure that wasn’t ever coming. Rhine storms off to his room and Gabriel follows to calm her down. She decides she will go to the factories to ask about her brother. Gabriel offers to go with her, but Maddie has made friends with another little deformed girl, so they leave without her. They go to several factories before a supervisor tells her that Rowen was always mumbling under his breath and eventually took off with a stolen truck of canned goods. They return to the orphanage and Rhine falls into a routine helping out around the house for a few days. She almost falls while carrying laundry, but Silas catches her. He doesn’t think Gabriel is her husband and she admits he isn’t. She watches Silas from a window going behind the shed with a girl and he points under his nose before disappearing. She touches there on herself and finds blood.
19. Rhine steps out to get away from the noise of the orphanage and Silas follows her. She asks him if he feels responsible for Grace being captured. He says they were walking to school and got into a silly fight. She ran off ahead and around the corner and he never saw her again. He didn’t even see the van that took her. He doesn’t believe it is a good idea to find Grace and bring her home because Claire would just have to loose her again in another year. He doesn’t even know who she is now. She tells him she was kidnapped, sold as a bride, and escaped to find her family that is now gone. She’s not ready to give up though. Rhine goes to a creek to try to clear her mind, but there is the body of a girl that was captured and killed by Gatherers. Silas takes her back to the orphanage and she gets a fever. Gabriel thinks it is a normal sickness from being around so many kids. Rhine isn’t able to keep down any food. Claire has Silas bring down the spare mattress for her and Gabriel sleeps on the floor next to her. She tells him she is going to find her brother when she feels better. He plans to go with her. He tells her he left with her because he wanted to, not because of a promise he made to Jenna.
20. Rhine dreams about her brother emotionlessly searching through piles of dead girls to look for her. Her sleep is so fretful that Silas sleeps on the couch. When she finally wakes up, Claire has her eat some oatmeal and one of the orphans brings her a jar of ladybugs for company. While Claire is bathing her, Rhine says that she thinks she is dying and asks the old woman to find her brother if she dies. Clair says she isn’t dying. Gabriel takes care of Rhine. She tells him she thinks Vaughn killed Kenna and he agrees. She allows herself to dream about her parents and thinks about the globe necklace her mother used to wear.
21. Trying to convince herself and the others that she is going to be fine, Rhine starts doing chores around the orphanage. Everyone can see that she is overdoing it, but no one says anything because they know she needs to feel like she has a purpose. Silas and Gabriel bring in stacks of medical journals from Claire’s days as a nurse to go through. They are hoping they will find information on what is wring with Rhine, but all her symptoms point to the flu. Silas stays on the couch and so Gabriel and Rhine have the room and bed to themselves. They start kissing and Gabriel realizes she is burning up. She ends up admitting she feels terrible. Gabriel makes a comment about Jenna being right about Rhine. He thinks Vaughn wants Rhine alive because she is his last hope for something. He wants to go back and find out what the Housemaster did to her, but Rhine is convinced Vaughn would kill them both. She would rather die free. Gabriel ascents her decision not to go back. He lays down with her and they start kissing again.
22. Tue music Maddie’s new friend,Nina, plays in the piano draws Rhine away from her chores. While she is talking to Maddie, Rhine has an episode that Claire said was almost like a seizure. When she wakes up, Rhine tells Gabriel she wants to find Rowen because he might be able to help her. Gabriel points out they don’t have the time to search for him. Rhine wakes up in the middle of the night and is careful not to wake up Gabriel. She makes herself some tea and sits outside close to the house. A limousine pulls up and Vaughn gets out with a lit candle In his hand. Rhine asks how he found her, but he doesn’t answer the question. He lists off her symptoms and tells her she is going through withdraw to the drug he has been feeding her in the June beans. Gradually, she would have been fine, but this extreme withdrawal looks like the virus. She gets in the limo knowing if she doesn’t, he will kill everyone inside. He injects her with something from a syringe.
23. Vaughn claims Rhine now and tells her Linden doesn’t want her anymore. It is a month before Rhine is really able to realize where she is and what is going on. Deirdre (formerly her domestic) comes to visit when the attendants are away. She tells Rhine that Lydia (Rose’s domestic) has been used in Vaughn’s experiments to start artificial insemination early and speed up gestation in the girls. She thinks he will start on her soon. She shows Rhine how to loosen her restraints, but Rhine has so many tubes going into her she can barely move anyway. While alone, Rhine has a hallucination of Linden saying he doesn’t love her anymore before it vanishes. When Deirdre thinks Rhine is asleep, she tells her that Lydia has bled out and died. Lydia has seen Rose’s baby and it was malformed.
24. Cecily comes to visit Rhine, and at first Rhine thinks she dreams it. Cecily is looking older than the last time Rhine saw her. Cecily plans to get Rhine out of the mansion again. Deirdre continues to visit and gets sick in a corner. Eventually, she is more comfortable with Rhine again. She unhooks Rhine from my the drug while she is there and Rhine tells her the stories about the twins she used to tell to Cecily. Rhine apologizes for not taking Deirdre with her, but Deirdre knows she would have been caught when Vaughn found Rhine anyway. She shows Rhine where the tracker is in her leg that allowed Vaughn to find her so easily. Vaughn comes in to check on Rhine and start her in new medication. Rhine has trouble telling dreams for reality for some time. When Vaughn returns, he tells her she has two “populations of cell” and that is why she has two different colored eyes. He thinks this might help his experiments since the average person only has one. She will never tell him about Rowen.
25. Cecily continues to visit Rhine and unhooks the medication. She tells Rhine aloe she has been trying to make a kite like the one in Rhine’s story about the twins. Rhine is numbed and then she has a needle stuck into one eye and then the next. Vaughn comes around after saying he thinks he has what he needs from her eyes. She asks if he dissected his son before Linden that had died. He admits that he did and could find nothing wrong with him. He was perfectly healthy. He changes her medication to something that doesn’t give her dreams or hallucinations. He says she is helping him save lives and she shouldn’t think about the cost. Cecily keeps unhooking the medication hoping Rhine will get healthy enough to escape. Rhine hooks the IV back up after she leaves.
26. Rhine doesn’t want to be Vaughn’s experiment anymore. She breaks a pitcher of water and uses the sharpest piece of glass she can find to try to cut the tracker out of her thigh. Cecily runs and brings Linden back with her. Vaughn arrives to try to help. Linden is furious he wasn’t told that Rhine was back in the mansion. He is upset that Cecily knew and didn’t tell him. Linden insists on taking Rhine to a hospital and the attendants help get her into a limo. She fights the hospital workers as long as she can knowing Vaughn owns the hospitals. Eventually she gives up. She doesn’t want to die, but death seems to be coming quickly.
27. Rhine drifts in and out of consciousness. Linden is there with her the whole time. She tries to tell him everything, but he says he can’t trust her. Rhine tells him to get back to the mansion because Cecily will not be safe alone with Vaughn. He doesn’t want to believe his father is as bad as Rhine says. She tells him about his dead daughter even though she promised Deirdre she wouldn’t tell anyone. He tells her the tracker is out of her leg and he won’t let his father come after her again. After he leaves, Rhine watches the TV. She sees her brother, Rowan, in a news cast about a pro-naturalist movement disagreeing with antidote efforts.