The Dissenters: Second Book in The Amplified Series

by Lauren M. Flauding

  "That's Sabrina Plenaris!" One of the Restrainers yells. "Get her!"

  Sabrina takes off toward the sleeping pod cars with the Restrainers in pursuit while I grab Jacqueline, Brexlynn, and the rest of the Dissenter recruits and head back in the direction of the arena. I glance behind me and see that a third Restrainer has emerged from the bar and is chasing us. I'm at the back of the group, urging everyone to go faster. The Restrainer is gaining on us.

  We pass the arena, I catch a glimpse of Madge looking indignant, and now we're heading into the passenger cars. We run down the narrow aisles, startling more than a few people who are watching Adhesives. About the third car, I hear a commotion behind me. I look back and see that the Restrainer is tangled up with an old man who was crossing the aisle. It seems the old man is having trouble moving out of the way. He looks up and winks at me just as we escape into the next car. He has large, honey-brown eyes.

  We run through the rest of the passenger cars until we reach the back end of the Mall-cruiser.

  "What do we do now?" Jacqueline asks.

  I turn around and see that the Restrainer is out of sight. For now, anyway.

  "Open the back door and jump out," I instruct. They all look at me like I'm crazy, but there's really no other choice, so they all jump out. Once we're off, I lead them to the side of the cruiser which is crawling along so slowly that we only need to walk in order to keep up with it and stay hidden from the back door. After a few moments the door opens. We hear the Restrainer curse and then go back inside.

  I exhale. We're safe right now, but sooner or later someone's going to notice a bunch of kids walking alongside the Mall-cruiser and get suspicious. Plus, I don't know what happened to Sabrina.

  Suddenly, the back door opens again and the old man from before leaps out. He appears around the side and comes toward us. Some of the recruits start to run.

  "Stop!" I yell. "It's okay, it's just Miles!"

  The recruits turn around and look curiously at the disguised old man approaching.

  "How'd you know it was me?" Miles asks, studying his reflection in one of the cruiser's windows.

  "I'd know those eyes anywhere," I respond and immediately blush at the stupidness of my answer. Miles stares at me for a long moment, then addresses the rest of the group.

  "There's a truck coming to pick us up and take us back to the base," he announces.

  "Whoa, what about Sabrina?" I ask, surprised that I even care about her at all. "She's been arrested," Miles replies solemnly.

  Chapter 20

  I finally get to see the actual entrance to the base. On the way to the mall-cruiser they had blindfolded me - I guess because they still don't trust me — but now, in all the chaos, it seems like they've forgotten that I'm not actually a Dissenter yet.

  We drove out past the boundary line between Compound Q and Compound U, and now we're stopping in front of a small, unassuming shrub. I look out the windows of the truck, searching for a clue as to where the entrance might be hidden, but everything looks completely normal. The next moment, we're sinking. I watch as the ground slowly swallows the truck and the desert vanishes. We're in total darkness for a few seconds, and then the light from the Dissenter base starts to appear from below. We emerge in a room filled with a considerable amount of dirt. We drive a few feet forward, then pile out of the truck. I watch as the platform that brought us down ascends back to the surface.

  How do they cover up the hole? I wonder absently. As if to answer my thoughts, several pipes suddenly whir to life, sucking up dirt and shooting it, I assume, onto the platform above. Miles leads us out of the chamber and bolts the door behind us. Blaine and Roxy are waiting for us just outside of the room.

  "I think you look better as an old man," Blaine jokes.

  "You think so?" Miles responds, smirking and hastily wiping make-up off of his face.

  "What happened?" Roxy shouts, making everyone stand a little straighter. Miles steps forward.

  "Mari won her arena challenge ..."

  "Oh, she did?" Roxy says, looking impressed for a moment. "The only other person who's been able to do that is you."

  "Yes, well ... "

  "The girl won her challenge so you all had to leave, right?"

  "Yes, but there were three Restrainers on board."

  "That's unusual."

  "Yes. They attempted to capture us, but everyone escaped. Except Sabrina."

  Roxy closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. We all stand in silence, wondering what to do.

  "Who's that?" Roxy snaps, pointing at Brexlynn with her eyes still closed.

  "That's Brexlynn Fiora," Miles answers.

  "Ah, the sister," Roxy says, finally opening her eyes to inspect Brexlynn. "I suppose it's all right that she's here. We were going to recruit her soon anyway, right?"

  "Correct," Miles replies.

  I'm glad that Brexlynn is here, but I can't help feeling slightly annoyed. How is it that they've deemed her trustworthy enough to become a Dissenter and not me? As far as I remember, she was still enamored with the idea of Amplification.

  "Well," Roxy announces, "let's see if we can't find out what happened to Sabrina." Roxy turns and walks away briskly, with Miles and Blaine following closely behind her. Brexlynn rushes over to me.

  "Mari, I'm so glad you're here! I thought you were dead!"

  "You did?"

  "Yeah, because of your house."

  "What about my house?"

  Brexlynn hesitates. "It was completely destroyed in the bombing."

  ____________

  I find my mom standing with a group outside of the surveillance room. "Honey! I'm so glad you're safe! I was watching-"

  "Our house was blown up?" I interject loudly, causing everyone nearby to stare uncomfortably at us. My mom takes my arm and leads me a little ways down the hall.

  "Mari, this was the plan," she explains. "I've been meaning to tell you, but it's just been so hectic these past few weeks."

  "Weeks?" I ask indignantly. "This happened weeks ago?"

  "Yes. Two days after we all came to the base."

  I'm too angry to reply, so my mom continues.

  "Several days prior to us coming here, we found out the North was going to attack the farm again. The house was pretty close to the farm, so we just had Blaine plant a bomb and detonate it the night of the attack. And don't worry," she adds, "we would have made sure you were out of the house if you had still been there."

  Don't worry? Our house is gone! The place I grew up! Everything that reminds me of my father: his furniture, his carvings, all destroyed! I start to cry.

  "This wasn't an easy decision," my mother states, "but they were starting to suspect me. This was just the best way to keep us all safe."

  I shake my head in bewilderment. "You were just going to let me believe the two of you had been killed?"

  "We would have found you and cleared things up eventually, when things calmed down," she assures me.

  "Where would I have lived?"

  "I figured you'd go live with Adrian."

  "Mom, you know Adrian and I don't get along."

  "I know. I thought a situation like this would bring you together."

  I close my eyes. A situation like this. A circumstance in which my older brother and I would bond over the loss of our house and family members. I suddenly feel a stab of pain for Adrian, realizing that he probably does believe his entire family has been killed.

  "Actually, Mari," my mom adds, her voice quiet, "I was hoping you would be able to straighten him out."

  "Me?" I ask incredulously.

  "The two of you were always so close."

  Now I'm really agitated.

  "So you were going to destroy the house, pretend you and Daniel had died, and then leave me to deal with it while also somehow saving Adrian from himself? That's kind of a lot to expect from someone, mom."

  "It's too much to expect from someone," she admits, her vacant eyes filling with tears. "But you're strong, M
ari, you're so strong. You would have been all right."

  I don't know what to say to that. Luckily, I don't have to say anything because suddenly Miles comes running out of the surveillance room.

  "We found Sabrina," he says, smiling. Then he looks directly at me. "You want to go on a mission?"

  Chapter 21

  "Where are we going?" I ask Miles, peering out of the windows of the truck at the unusual treed landscape fading into the evening light.

  "To one of the air barge maintenance stations," Miles answers. "According to the footage, Sabrina should be on the supply barge, and they'll be having their turbines repaired tonight."

  I nod and continue looking out the window. I'm happy to finally be spending some time alone with Miles, but bothered that it's to go rescue Sabrina. I don't get why it's so important to bring her back anyway. Except, of course, that Miles obviously cares about her.

  It's almost completely dark when we reach the edge of the maintenance station. Miles parks the truck behind a cluster of trees that I now realize are fake. They surround the area and provide a sort of visual barrier to the station. We start walking, but are almost immediately knocked back by a huge gust of air as the barge starts to take off. I've never seen an air barge lift off from the ground. Usually they only hover several hundred feet up to bring people on or let them off. Watching the massive structure slowly ascend into the sky is almost awe-inspiring.

  "Dang, we missed it," Miles grumbles. "We'll have to climb on."

  "Climb?"

  "Yeah. But we've got to hurry. Follow me."

  We run as stealthily as we can to the departing vessel, which is no small feat considering the force of the wind we're running into. We have to stop and hide behind the fake trees a few times when we see Restrainers and soldiers, but finally we reach the spot where the barge used to be docked. The long cables attached to the barge are still coiled on the ground and slowly unwinding as the barge lifts them into the air. I groan when I realize what we're going to do.

  Miles grabs a cable, I take the one next to it, and we start to climb up to the barge. I look up and guess that we're going to have to climb about 70 feet.

  "You know," I yell out to Miles, trying to make my voice heard over the air rushing past us, "we could just hold on and wait for these cables to retract into the barge."

  "I don't want to take that risk," Miles shouts back. "It could take hours before they start reeling these cables back in."

  I sigh and resign myself to focusing on putting one hand over the other. I wrap my legs around the cable to help push myself up, almost like an inchworm. Miles just uses his powerful arms to climb, and I have to stop myself more than once from staring at his biceps. I try to distract myself with conversation instead.

  "Hey," I call out. "How do you know we can trust Sabrina? What if she turns out to be a traitor?"

  "It's possible," Miles answers, "but Sabrina doesn't really stand much to gain from leaking information about the Dissenters. Plus, there's no way to transmit information out of the base, and I've been with her every time she's been off base."

  "Except for right now."

  "True," Miles responds, but he doesn't really seem bothered by it.

  My hands are raw from gripping the slick cables, and my arms are starting to give out. There's probably at least another 30 feet to go. Miles is pulling ahead of me; clearly he has more stamina. I probably wouldn't be falling behind if I were still Amplified. I hate the way by body aches, but I will myself to keep going.

  I'm so numb by the time I reach the deck that I barely even feel Miles reach out and pull me over the side. I want to lay down and not move for hours, but Miles urges me forward.

  "I think she's in one of the central buildings," he whispers. "Let's go."

  The supply barge looks a lot like the training barge, except there are more buildings and less people. We move quickly along the open deck to the center of the huge, floating structure. I was burning up before, but now the night air makes my sweat cold and I have to keep myself from shivering. The stars are so bright I can easily see everything on the barge, which means we're also completely visible to anyone who might step out on the deck.

  We slip into a large, grayish building and are confronted with row after row of crates filled with nutrition capsules. There are a few narrow aisles to maneuver between the stacked up crates, but otherwise the building is completely full of the precious capsules.

  "This would be enough to feed the Community for years!" I marvel. "Why are these being stored here when so many people are starving?"

  "Who knows," Miles answers. "Maybe the Governor expects the war to last a really long time."

  I shake my head. With the meager rations they're doling out, most of the Community would be dead before they got through this amount of capsules. Regardless, it's clear that Sabrina is not in this building, so we move on.

  We creep over to the adjacent building. This one looks more promising; a dull light is shining out of the windows. We pull open the door and step into a long hallway that has several doors on either side. One of the doors at the end of the corridor is slightly ajar, so we decide to investigate. We peek in and see various sorts of machinery, some that look almost ancient.

  "Hey!"

  I almost scream from the sudden noise, but Miles claps his hand on my mouth and points to the back corner of the room where Sabrina is sitting.

  At first it seems Sabrina is just sitting in an empty corner, but as we move closer, I can see she's surrounded by faint, glowing lines running horizontally about six inches apart and 5 feet up. I can just make out a low, buzzing sound. She's imprisoned in a cell of lasers. We're almost close enough to be able to quietly talk to her when we hear footsteps coming from behind a door at the back of the room. Sabrina's eyes widen. I grab Miles' arm and pull him into some sort of large cabinet with me. We're hidden from view, but there are a few cracks in the cabinet's paneling that we can see through.

  The door opens. Governor Plenaris walks in. His immaculate clothes look far too formal for a storage area full of old equipment.

  "I heard a voice, was that you?" He snarls.

  "Yes," Sabrina says haughtily. "I was yelling because I'm hungry. You haven't given me anything to eat."

  "I hardly think it's necessary to feed a prisoner when the citizens of the Community are nearly starving."

  "Well, you can give me some from your stores, then," she retorts. "I know you have more than enough."

  The Governor's eyes flash and he runs his hand through his graying hair. That's odd, I think. His hair is much more gray than when he made his announcement to the Community a few months ago.

  "I would be more willing to feed you if you were more cooperative," he replies. "I'll make you a deal. I'll give you one nutrition capsule for every Dissenter name you give me."

  Sabrina spits at the Governor. Unfortunately, it hits one of the lasers and burns up before it reaches him. Regardless, he's still outraged.

  "When we captured you, your father begged me to send you back to him," he growls. "He told me you'd come around, maybe even be helpful. But clearly, you're hopeless. It's going to be painful for me to kill you."

  "You've killed some of your closest friends and most loyal associates," Sabrina hisses, "why would it be any harder for you to kill your family?"

  "I wonder if you'll be so quick to make those accusations when you're dying."

  "Who says I'm not dying already?" She exclaims. "Your stupid threats are enough to make anybody want to bash their head through a wall! I wish more people had the guts to tell you how truly lame you are, Uncle Clarence!"

  Governor Plenaris lunges at her, but she doesn't flinch. She knows he's not going to cross those lasers.

  "You won't be so brazen when you have the 12-Hours Virus," he whispers, then storms out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

  We wait a full minute before we come out of the cabinet.

  "Hurry!" Sabrina calls out. "I made him really mad
this time, I wouldn't be surprised if he comes back in a few minutes to inject the virus."

  I have so many questions, but there's no time to ask them.

  "Here," Miles says, grabbing a metal container and pushing it toward Sabrina, "you can use this to jump over — " He stops short as the container hits the lasers and immediately melts into a puddle.

  "Yeah, I learned that the hard way," Sabrina comments, showing us the remains of her half-demolished boot.

  Now that we're closer, I can see that the lasers are emanating from small, silver panels mounted on the wall.

  "Did you try removing these?" I ask, gesturing to the panels.

  "Yep," Sabrina responds, holding up a burned and blistered hand. "They're not as deadly as the lasers themselves, but they sure aren't pleasant to touch."

  "What about using a tool to pry them off?"

  "You'll get electrocuted," she states, suddenly looking nauseous. I decide not to ask her to elaborate.

  Miles studies the dangerous enclosure for a moment. He cautiously puts his hand in the empty space between the lasers. Then he grabs another metal container and places it right next to the laser lines.

  "Mari, stand on this," he instructs.

  "Why?"

  "Because you're going to hold Sabrina's hands while she steps on my feet," he explains. "Once she gets high enough, she'll be able to jump over the top laser. Hopefully."

  Sabrina considers the highest beam and shrugs.

  "I guess the alternative is a lot worse than a few broken bones."

  I step up on the container while Miles crouches down, putting his hands in between the lasers about a foot apart, creating stair steps for Sabrina. I arc my arms over the uppermost beam and grab her outstretched hands, trying not to think of my body liquefying if I fall on the lasers. Sabrina steps onto Miles' hands one at a time as he continues to put his hands farther up between the lasers while I help steady her. Finally, she's leaning over the top, her knees about even with the highest beam.