Modified- The Complete Manipulated Series

by Harper North

  “Pull yourselves together, or your bodies get left behind.”

  The Dweller takes a step back, and the op jumps into the shaft. I look down in time to see him scrambling into the darkness on his hands and knees. I jerk my head at the Dweller, and he goes next, followed by two female Dwellers.

  I motion to Lacy and Elias. “Get Talen in now.”

  “No way.” Talen shakes his head, pulling his arms off their shoulders and holding himself up on both legs. The injured one trembles with his weight. “I’ll slow everyone down.”

  Lacy sets her jaw. “We’ll hold back as many as we can.

  I calculate their odds. Though hurt, Talen can still do damage with his tech. Lacy is shaken, but she excels at channeling rage into destruction. They’re our only hope of getting the rest of these people out alive.

  “Fine,” I say to Lacy and turn my attention on Emma. “You’re next. Take the map. We’ll be lucky if we ever find those first few cowards.”

  Emma takes the map and drops into the tunnel. “Everyone else follow me.”

  She ducks into the crawl space and I push the next person in line toward the hole. “Watch your heads. Move quickly, but don’t panic.”

  The sound of a hundred footfalls thunders through the station. Reinhart, Sky, and Elias are piling anything that isn’t nailed down in front of the door. Lacy helps Talen hide behind a desk turned on its side. She then grabs his face and gives him a furious kiss before running to the other side of the door. I swallow the fear that tells me to burn their faces into my mind.

  “That’ll have to do,” Reinhart barks, shoving Elias and Sky toward me. “Let’s go.”

  I turn around to see the last Dweller vanish down the hole. A hand grabs my shoulder, and my heart flutters—stupidly, given our current situation—but when I look, it’s Elias. Not Sky.

  “Go, Fin.”

  I shake my head and grab Sky’s elbow. “You first, Sky. You’ve got family.”

  He looks at me like he wants to argue, but Reinhart shoves him over the edge. He lands with a thump and a grunt. Elias reaches for me again, but before he can say anything, he’s been pushed in just like Sky. Reinhart and I stare at each other.

  “After you.” I gesture at the hole as though it were the door to a fancy ballroom.

  “So you can pull some hero crap that endangers my team?” He scoffs. “Not likely.”

  And with that, I find myself falling briefly through the air. I land on my shoulder with a clang. My gun skitters out of my hand and into the tunnel ahead of me. There’s just enough light from above to see that the crawlspace is maybe three feet tall and barely two feet wide with all the thick wires crammed inside it. I grab one of the cables and drag myself inside just before Reinhart’s heavy boots come crashing down, much louder than they should be, making my ears ring.

  “Go, go, go!” Reinhart shouts, sounding strangely far away. It’s only then that I realize my ears are ringing from an explosion overhead. I hear a metallic scrape, and then the crawlspace goes pitch black.

  I feel around for my gun, and as soon as the cool metal is back in my hand, I take off on my hands and knees. The gun bangs against the sheet metal and I worry I’m leaving a sound trail for the enemy to follow, but there’s no time to holster it with Reinhart hot on my heels.

  Behind and above us, the screaming begins. Shots are fired. Another explosion rumbles, vibrating the metal under me. I silently will Lacy and Talen to join our retreat, but then I remember that metallic scrape and realize Reinhart pulled the panel back in place.

  “You shut them out!”

  “Better for Cho’s army to find two dead Auras and think they won this round than find two dead Auras and a tunnel full of trapped rats.”

  I jolt to a stop, ready to turn and shoot him in his tracks, but I hear his weapon click.

  “You know I’d have no problem crawling over your dead body,” he says very softly, and I realize he doesn’t want Elias, who can’t be that far ahead of us, to hear. “Keep moving.”

  I crawl forward, vowing to end him if Lacy and Talen don’t make it out. But as long as I can hear the sound of anguished death ringing through the station, I know they’re still alive, still fighting.

  And then the screaming stops.

  “Well, that’s that,” Reinhart says, loudly now. The tunnel makes him sound like he’s everywhere.

  “Do you think they got them all?”

  He laughs. “Of course not. Either our Auras are dead and we’re next, or Cho’s sending what’s left of his welcoming committee to meet us at the power station.”

  My heart sinks. I strain my ears for any sign that Lacy and Talen are safe and following us, but nothing comes. I keep crawling, on and on, finally catching up enough to follow the sound of Elias’ knees scuffing on metal.

  Finally, he breaks the eerie silence. “Watch it. There’s a grate up here. Kind of loose.”

  Moments later, I feel a rough grid under my hands. A moist breeze gusts up against my face, bringing the sound and smell of flowing water. We must be getting close. I scurry over the creaky grate, not giving Reinhart the courtesy of a warning. If he falls, he falls.

  Sadly, he does not.

  At last, a series of grunts travel down the line until Elias stops and my hands knock into the soles of his boots. Voices echo from up ahead, and I curl my finger around the trigger of my weapon. It’s an automatic response by now.

  But no shouting follows. The line lurches forward, and silence falls. Then, light filters through the tunnel, and I can see the shape of Elias’ head and broad back in front of me.

  He shifts and flashes me the outline of a thumbs-up. “We made it.”

  One by one, we drop through an opening, leaving the sheet metal and wires behind. I land in a narrow corridor with a linoleum floor and plain white walls, their paint bubbling and peeling from the moisture in the air. The sound of the river has risen to a roar; we’re near a big one, not some little creek.

  Elias tugs me out of the way just in time for Reinhart to drop down.

  “That’s the last of us,” he says, dusting off his knees.

  I scan the grating overhead, hoping to hear two more pairs of knees banging our way.

  Reinhart gives me a pitying look, like I’m too stupid to understand how the world works. “An Aura’s job is to secure the safety of their team. They did their jobs. You should be proud.”

  Elias steps between us, like he knows I’m about to make good on my silent vow. Reinhart shrugs and moves around us, breaking into a trot to catch up with Emma at the far end of the corridor. Sky and most of the others are gathered there, too.

  I head that way, and Elias falls in step beside me.

  “He’s right. You should be proud. They were heroes.”

  I glare at him. “They’re my friends.”

  I walk faster, leaving the new Reinhart Jr. behind. I push my way through the crowd until I’m standing with Emma, Reinhart, and Sky in front of the doors. A thin line of light shines through the crack between them. Reinhart lifts his weapon and instructs all of us to do the same. Then he pushes the door open with his foot.

  The burst of light feels like a bomb detonating before our eyes, but it’s just the sun, bouncing down on mirrors to illuminate a chamber big enough to house a small city. Instead of homes though, there’s a dam spreading out just below us, big enough to hold back an entire lake. A couple of small waterfalls flow through the dam near the bottom, pumping into a massive, churning river.

  “Look,” Sky says, and I tear my eyes from the water to follow his pointing finger to the walkway on top of the dam.

  The railing is draped with green flags every dozen or so feet. We’re too late. It looks empty right now, but Cho has already claimed this place.

  “We should assume Cho knows what we did and has forces headed this way,” Elias says, turning to face the rest of the team. “We need to figure out where they’ll be coming from and block that entrance. Whoever controls this station contr
ols everything.”

  Reinhart gives him an approving nod and steps onto the metal walkway leading out to the dam. It creaks under his feet. “Quickly now.”

  He jogs over the narrow metal grid, and our fighters fall in behind him, gripping the rails, but moving much too fast by my calculations. The bridge creaks under the weight of all of them. Patches of flaking rust tell me this thing hasn’t been maintained since forever, but I don’t say anything. My thoughts are consumed with images of Lacy and Talen, dead, or maybe just dying slowly and suffering.

  “Fin, come on,” Elias says, and when I shake the thoughts from my head, I realize he’s halfway across the bridge and I’m the last one on this side.

  I’ve gone two steps when something beneath me buckles with a terrible screech, throwing me into the railing.

  “Get onto the dam!” Elias shouts at Emma and Sky ahead of him. “Fin, hurry!”

  I scan the river far below—the jagged rocks along the shore with water rushing over the stone. There’s no safe landing. Everything starts to spin, and I grasp the railing only to have powdery rust come off in my hand. I hold my breath and force myself along, farther away from the double doors and safety.

  Elias seizes my arm and pulls.

  Ahead, Emma and Sky are waiting at the top of the metal steps leading down to the dam. Reinhart and most of the others are already at the bottom. Elias and I creep along as the catwalk continues to groan and sway.

  “Okay, run,” he says, and we launch forward. Emma and Sky scurry halfway down the steps to get out of our path. We’re almost there when the whole thing bucks, catapulting us into the air. We’re hurled forward onto the metal steps, and the section of catwalk behind us falls away. Our bodies crash into each other, and a deafening boom of metal striking rock follows.

  I whirl, though Elias still holds my arm. A twelve-foot wide gap now separates us from the way we came. And from Lacy and Talen.

  “How do we get back?” I blurt.

  “We don’t, Fin.” Elias guides me down the steps. “And if they did survive, do you think they’d follow us when they could follow Cho’s army?”

  He does have a point. I imagine them tending their wounds in the station office and then slipping out to tail the troops on their way here now. It renews my strength and resolve. I offer Elias a tight smile, and he claps me on the back.

  Sky glances my way as we join the rest of the team on the dam, but quickly looks away when I glance back. I roll my eyes. I could have died just now, and he still wants to play these childish games.

  Reinhart directs our attention to the other side of the dam, where a huge concrete wall stands blasted open, the edges of the resulting hole scorched with burn marks. The EHC must have blocked the dam off from the world when they shut the underground down, and Cho blew up the barrier. That was the explosion we heard. The hole’s big enough to let in eight people running side by side.

  “What do we do? Blow it up more?” I ask.

  “We don’t have that kind of firepower,” Reinhart growls.

  “And even if we did, it might be a trap,” Elias points out. “We don’t know if there’s another exit. Or if Cho will be waiting for us there.”

  Emma walks back toward the steps and lifts a hatch in the floor. “There may be exits within the dam itself. Let’s explore before we make any decisions.”

  Reinhart posts two of the EHC ops as lookouts. The rest of us file down into the dam. I force myself to breathe steadily, trying to cast my worry aside, but it’s useless. The spiral stairway is narrow, and something rumbles ominously as we near the bottom.

  “There has to be another way out. Maybe several.” Emma’s voice wafts up from below. “Perhaps the EHC assumed no one would try very hard to find alternatives once they saw the main entrance was blocked.”

  An uneasy feeling prickles at my core. I don’t like all this talk of being trapped. Going deeper into the dam suddenly doesn’t seem like such a good idea, but before I can say anything, the spiral stairway ends, opening into an oval control room. The thunder of water fills the air. The space is dark, lit only by a flashlight beam. The EHC op holding it shines it over large control panels and a window that looks out on the river, rushing away from us and deeper into the cave.

  “Power’s not on yet,” Emma says. “Cho hasn’t figured out how to do it.”

  I step into the room and eye a mug sitting near the controls. It has coffee stains around its rim. “He’s already tried.”

  “If we can secure this station, we can disable power to his camps and the railroad,” Reinhart says. “We might have a fighting chance again. Emma, can you access the grid?”

  It’s a demand.

  She takes a seat at the controls. Elias and I join her. Suddenly, I’m thinking about Lacy and Talen again. First their bodies, lying cold and broken at the station. Then their bodies lying cold and broken in some dark train tunnel after wandering for days without food or water. Drape’s still face joins them. I don’t want to endure any more loss.

  I gulp and fight to focus. My enhanced mind calculates which levers and buttons to pull, and in which sequence. Pumps need priming. Then circuits need closing—

  “This one,” I say, pointing to a lever.

  Emma grins at me and pulls it down. Something hums.

  “And then I think this button is next,” Elias adds.

  But Emma’s already working it out. She hits button after button, and each lights up one by one. “I’ve got it!”

  Shouts—and then shots—echo from far above. I can’t make out the words, but everyone looks at each other in the crowded room. I lock gazes with Sky.

  Emma cranks one final lever and machines hum all around us as the dam comes to life. Gears clank and the lights in the room flash on and off and on again, making me squint. A few more jets of water come to life above the picture window, spewing torrents into the river. We’ve done what Cho couldn’t figure out.

  But we should have done it after we’d located an exit.

  “Stand your ground!” Elias orders, tearing away from the control panel and rushing to the steps. “Only a few of them can come down here at a time. We have a bottleneck. Raise your weapons!”

  I lift my pistol toward the stairway. The shouts continue, but no one comes down. Cho’s not enhanced, but he also isn’t stupid.

  The shouting stops and silence drags out for a moment.

  Then Cho’s voice, amplified by a megaphone, floats down the stairwell.

  “We will not tolerate Impures in our utopia. However, I must thank you for turning on the power station.”

  Cho’s confidence sends shudders down my spine, like he’s allowed us to come down here. Elias and I exchange looks and he hangs his head.

  Something clacks on its way down the stairs. Instinct makes me jump back, bumping into Sky, who suddenly wraps a protective arm around my shoulders.

  “Shoot out the windows!” Elias roars. “Now!”

  A metal pipe grenade rolls down the stairs, settling on the final step. My body tenses, ready for an explosion. But why blow up the control room?

  The grenade pops. White vapor hisses out of it, lashing at the air, and I understand. Maybe I won’t have to endure another loss after all.

  Elias backpedals and aims his pistol at the glass. He fires multiple rounds, cracking the glass, but it won’t shatter. It’s sturdy, designed to take abuse.

  Shouts fill the control room. A cloud of death hangs over the stairwell, blocking it from view. Everyone backs away from the deadly gas as the grenade pumps out more and more. All Cho and his forces have to do now is wait.

  “Everyone back to the window,” Reinhart orders.

  “Fin!” Sky propels me to the control panel where Emma already stands, beating the glass with her hands.

  Tendrils of smoke curl at my feet. I rush to the control panel and ball my fists, calling on all my strength as I beat at the glass. It cracks, little by little.

  More gunshots go off.

  The
cracks begin to spiderweb.

  I climb on top of the panel and ball up my body, ramming against the glass with my shoulder. Pain erupts through my body, but it’s distant. The urge to live is all that matters.

  Someone coughs, and Sky jumps up beside me and rams at the glass, a sad, terrified look in his eyes.

  “Everyone up!” Reinhart shouts. The room fills with the clattering of feet and the thumping of flesh on glass.

  Somebody slips and hits the floor. Maria. There’s no time for her to scream. Gagging coughs fill the space, but only for a moment. Reinhart forbids us to stop. More coughing and gagging fill the air as the gas licks at the control panel.

  The world shatters with a loud boom, and I fall through the shattered window, toppling over the edge. The side of the dam sweeps past me, and then rushing water swallows me and pulls me under. Bubbles lash at my face as a body plunges into the water beside me. Cold presses against my chest. I can’t breathe. The impact’s knocked the air out of me. Even with my enhancements, the shock might be too much.

  A ribbon of blood floats past as a hand scrapes my back and vanishes. I kick, fighting my way up and breaching the river’s surface. Foaming water hugs rocks as the river shoves me away from the dam. I try to turn, but the force feels like a mountain at my back. Shouts fill the air as the current takes us away, leaving Cho and his troops with a brand-new, working power station.

  CHAPTER 5

  ALL I CAN do is float, keeping my legs up to avoid the rocks. I’m getting to be an old pro at waterfalls and underwater rapids. The shore is feet away, but the water rushes by so fast I have no chance of reaching it. At least lights hang overhead.

  How many of us made it out?

  Who died? I’ve fought long enough to know the chances are against all of us surviving. What if Cho’s people gassed Lacy and Talen, too?

  “Hello?” I shout, but the churning water eats my voice.

  At last, the water slows. My feet finally touch something solid, and I’m able to stand in the now-lazy current. Under a hanging light, I trudge to shore, shivering. The ground here is solid, jagged rock. I spot a few narrow caves breaking up the surface of the walls. I look in the direction of the dam, but after the twists and turns the river’s taken, I can’t see it.