by Harper North
“How can you say that? He’s helped us. And after we screwed everything up!”
“Do you even hear yourself?” I ask in disbelief. “We’re—we’re just kids, Elias. Even you. We never had any business leading a rebellion. Of course, we screwed up. But what choice did people like him give us?”
“People can change, Fin.”
“You’re proof of that, I guess.”
He winces. “If this is about our kiss the other day—”
I glance at Sky. Elias is trying to make him falter, give Reinhart a chance to escape, but if anything, he’s made Sky tighten his grip. He glowers at Elias.
“Thank you for proving my point!” I shout. “We’re children. We’re still worrying about who’s kissing who while the world crumbles around us. We shouldn’t be soldiers. We shouldn’t be miners. We should be—” I don’t know. I don’t know what other kind of life to imagine actually. “Anything but this!”
“Beautiful speech,” Reinhart chokes out. “But you’re all about to be dead if Cho’s people get in. Let me go. Let me fight. We can… continue this some other time.”
“You can’t even see right now,” Sky mutters.
“Elias, you know he never meant for me and Sky and Emma to make it back from Sunlight Gardens,” I continue, ignoring Reinhart for the moment.
“That’s not true.” Even as he says it, doubt flickers in his eyes.
“Of course it’s not true,” Reinhart says. “Why would I send some of our best fighters on a suicide mission? We need them!”
Elias’ jaw flexes and his attention flits to me, eyes full of confusion as to who to believe.
Before I can say anything else, the glass door behind us shatters as a bullet whizzes past us and lodges itself in a tree not far from Elias’ head.
“That’ll be enough,” Cal drawls. “Take this man off their hands, boys.”
I turn to find him standing inside the cabin, shotgun leveled at Elias. Blasty and David come around him and snap their old-fashioned handcuffs onto Reinhart’s wrists.
“No!” Elias shouts. “You’ve got the wrong guy!”
“I know a Destroyer when I see one, son,” he says, eyes staying on Elias. “I’ll admit I wasn’t too sure about you at first, but I guess I know now.”
“No,” I stammer. “Not Elias. He’s with us. He’s always been with us.”
Cal smiles sadly. “Things change, Fin. Or sometimes they stay the same as they’ve always been. Destroyers destroy. Blasty, you think you can handle this pup?”
David takes Reinhart off Sky’s hands as Blasty advances on Elias.
Elias searches my eyes one last time, and then he bolts into the woods.
Cal lifts his shotgun.
“Please don’t!” Sky shouts. “He’s our friend and just confused. He’ll come around. Let’s just deal with Cho’s army. If you shoot Elias, I’m not sure we’ll be able to get our people under control.”
Cal considers this, and after a long, uncertain moment, he lowers the weapon. “Your point is fair. Come with me.”
Gunshots ring out from inside the train station, but Cal leads us back up the hill, toward the door in the wall.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
“To wake up your friends, of course. It looks like we might need them here in a minute.” When we reach the top of the hill, Cal lifts his radio and shouts, “Awaken! Canned beans! Sliced bread!”
I’m assuming that wasn’t his meal order.
Someone responds, but the static is too loud for me to understand what’s been said. David and Blasty push Reinhart through the door ahead of them. We follow them down the inclined tunnel, and when we reach the bottom of the stairs, a collective gasp rises from those hunkered down in the food storage room at the sight of Reinhart in the Originals’ custody. Several of the EHC ops jump to their feet.
“Attack these traitors!” Reinhart roars.
But David nails him with the butt of my stolen pistol, and Reinhart slumps to the floor. Cal places a foot on his shoulder and cocks his shotgun.
“This man is a Destroyer. Fin and Sky have proven their loyalty to my people by capturing him.” He steps over Reinhart and circles the room. “If you are not with them, you are against us, and you must be shot. Immediately.” His eyes sweep the room. “So, if you’re with us, kindly take a step forward so I can do a quick head count.”
Everyone in the room steps forward, even the EHC ops. They’re not stupid.
“Excellent!” Cal booms. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to wake up our secret weapons. Steve, please get these fine people armed.”
I spot Starla and Cia near the back of the room, faces lit by battery-powered lanterns. Cia races to get in line for a gun. Starla doesn’t stop her. She knows her daughter’s best chance at survival is finding a place to hide and shoot.
Cal leads us to the infirmary while David and Blasty drag Reinhart behind us.
“Toss him in the back,” Cal orders, motioning to the door marked Surgery, the door Cho was behind last time we were here.
“Wait, where’s Cho then?”
“He’s in my office, handcuffed to my desk. He’s not going anywhere.”
That’ll have to work. A woman in plaid brushes past me, holding a syringe in each hand—an empty syringe. To the tune of guns cocking in the other room and people running up the stairs to fight, Lacy groans and moves an arm. Cal had someone waiting to follow his orders at the drop of a hat. Maybe he is someone we can trust.
“Lacy!” I yell, slapping her on the cheek. “Get up. We have fighting to do. Ask questions later.”
“The medication will take some time to wear off,” the woman says.
“It needs to wear off faster,” I mutter.
Sky stands beside me. “How long will it take?”
“We might need them,” Cal says.
“Oh, we’ll need them, alright,” I say.
“Fin?” Lacy mutters. Her eyes flutter open.
“Come on. Wake up,” I order. Then, turning to Cal, “She needs water.”
Cal nods to the woman, who runs across the hall and returns with two glasses. I hand one to Sky for Talen and hold the other up to Lacy’s mouth as she pushes up onto her elbows.
“What happened?” she asks when her parched mouth is quenched.
I breathe a sigh of relief and take her by the shoulders. “Don’t kill anyone but the Naturals. Promise me that right now. We’ll explain everything later.”
That’s when Lacy notices Cal. Her eyes narrow and she starts trying to sit the rest of the way up. I push her back down, but she struggles up again. “You can’t trust that guy, Fin.”
“A lot has happened, and I’ll fill you in later. But right now, we all need your help.”
She settles back down, still eyeing him.
“Are you good to fight?”
She swipes the glass of water from my hand and downs it in one go. “Talen?”
I point behind her, and she whirls on the table, sliding off the other side. Talen is propped up, sipping from the glass Sky holds for him. She pushes Sky aside and takes over. We turn away to give them a moment of privacy.
David holds out my pistol. “A deal’s a deal.”
I eagerly snatch it from him, savoring its perfect heft in my hand. Talen and Lacy join us soon after, both of them glaring at Cal.
“The Naturals are invading the station. Kill as many as you can,” Cal says. “I know you don’t trust me, but—”
“It’s fine,” Lacy interrupts. “We’ll ask questions later.”
“Many questions,” Talen adds. “Where do you need us?”
Cal’s eyes sweep over the four of us. “Frontlines. Now.”
“Wait.” I grab Talen’s arm. “Your leg?”
He pulls up his bloody pant leg to reveal nothing but smooth skin. “Good as new.”
Cal grimaces at this unnatural ability, but he motions us all out of the room. He’s not above using our freakish powers as long as it’s t
o his advantage.
We burst out of the tunnel into the nightmare world that follows us everywhere we go. The sun has set on what’s left of the world above, and only a sickly blue-gray glow bounces down from the overhead mirrors. From our vantage point on the hill, we can see the black smoke roiling out of the station entrance, pierced with flickers of light as gunshots ring out, bullets flying both ways.
“What now?” Sky asks, and I realize all my friends are looking at me.
Suddenly, I’m having some regrets about alienating Reinhart and Elias. My mind spins with possibilities. All chances of success depend on getting Talen and Lacy close enough to take out multiple Naturals at a time, but they’re lined up just beyond the smoke, ready to pick off anyone who tries to get inside.
“They’ve got us like fish in a barrel,” Cal says, catching up with us.
Talen’s brow furrows. “Why would you shoot fish in a barrel?”
Lacy pats the solid muscle of his chest. “Don’t worry about it right now.”
“Fish in a barrel… fish out of water…” Thoughts race through my head, finally clicking into place. “They can’t breathe!”
Cal’s eyes light up with understanding. “They’re destructive, but they’re not Destroyers.”
“Right,” I say. “No mods to keep their lungs functioning in all that smoke. Cal, what would you have to do if you were stuck in there right now?”
He grins. “Go back the way I came or come on out.”
“You have to call a retreat. Desperation will drive the Naturals to rush in the moment they think it’s clear. Lacy and Talen can pick them off as soon as they do. The rest of us will be waiting to pick off anyone who makes it past them.”
“Oh!” Understanding dawns on Talen’s face. “Like fish! In a barrel!”
We make our way down to the beach and take up positions underneath the picnic tables, resting our weapons on the wooden benches. We’re counting on the smoke to be messing with the Naturals’ unenhanced vision—and it must be, because Cal and his men are already fighting to keep their eyes open as it billows out of the station and clouds the cavern’s previously pristine air.
“What are they even burning?” Sky asks, hunkering down next to me, a rifle aimed into the smoke.
“The train car. It has to be. So we can’t escape.”
“Didn’t they know they could use it for their escape?”
I shake my head. “You saw them. They can barely think without Cho to do it for them. They’re just winging it here.”
Cal takes a deep breath and doubles over, coughing. Even my enhanced lungs are starting to protest. He tries again and gets enough air to bellow, “Originals, retreat!”
I spot the bodies of one EHC op and one former EHC prisoner dead on the steps, their blood spilling down to stain the sand. Most of our fighters had already beaten their retreat when they realized it was a trap. Reinhart would have shot them himself for doing so, but I can’t blame them. I want as many people to survive this as possible.
“Retreat!” Cal shouts one more time, purely for theatrics.
Then we wait, but it doesn’t take long.
Naturals begin to pour into the settlement, coughing into the green jackets they’ve tugged from their waists to hold over their mouths and noses. Several trip over the bodies of our men, tumbling face first into the sand. Someone shouts something in a strange language and a mad dash for the lake begins, Naturals pushing each other down and stepping all over each other to cool their scorched throats.
“There’s dozens of them,” Talen mutters.
“Try not to kill anyone who’s thrown down their gun,” I say. “Hostages wouldn’t hurt.”
Lacy gives me a withering look. “In a crowd like this, we can’t be choosy. We get who we get.”
I sigh, reminding myself they’re all our enemies, whether they’re currently holding weapons or not. “Whenever you’re ready then.”
Lacy trembles with concentration. I fear she’s not strong enough yet, but almost instantly, Naturals begin to seize up, screaming in agony as their bodies hit the sand. One woman plunges into the lake, thrashing up foamy waves as her howls of agony bounce off the rock walls before cutting off in one last gurgling breath.
My stomach roils at the sight, but the reality is that these people are brainwashed I’m not sure we could save them anyway without risking everyone’s lives.
Pandemonium breaks out on the beach. Lacy slumps against the sand, while Talen gears up to take a turn. He has more precision than Lacy thanks to years of training and drops ten Naturals in an almost perfectly straight line.
“Show off,” Lacy mumbles. “Together now?”
As the Naturals realize what’s happening, they begin scrambling back toward the steps, but the rest of us are ready, unleashing a hailstorm of bullets into their retreating backs. With every squeeze of the trigger, I fight the urge to throw up. This is monstrous, but if we want to live, we have no choice.
Lacy and Talen clasp hands, and the energy rolling off them is so powerful and raw my head starts to twinge. “Watch it, guys!”
Their power crashes over the beach like a wave, taking down over a dozen Naturals simultaneously. The bodies are piling up, and hands start shooting into the air. Weapons are thrown into the lake. A chorus of voices in several different languages begin to cry out until, finally, I recognize the words: “We surrender.”
“Hold your fire!” Cal shouts.
* * * * *
Five fish survived the barrel. I’m sure a few others escaped into the tunnels, but Elysian Beach is covered in bodies. In the glow of our flashlights, as we search the bodies for usable supplies, I can see the lake is tinged pink. We turn bloody green jackets into sacks, filling them with guns and grenades. We sent our remaining EHC ops into the station to put out the fire. Smoke stills spills out, but it’s thinner now.
“How are we ever going to dispose of them all?” Sky asks, rocking back on his heels beside a tangle of three dead men.
“We got our ways,” Blasty drawls. “This is a sustainable community.”
Sky turns to me, eyes wide, and mouths, Do they eat them?
I shrug, and he makes a face. I laugh. I think Blasty’s just messing with him.
I hear footsteps pounding down the path, turning to see Cal racing down the hill so fast he can barely stay on his feet.
“Sky, look.” I stand up and start jogging toward him.
Sky and Blasty follow me. Lacy and Talen remain on either side of the prisoners, who are handcuffed together and fastened to a bullet-pocked picnic table. Cal skids to a stop in the sand, doubling over with his hands on his knees. When he looks up at me, his eyes are full of remorse.
“We’ve got a problem.”
My heart plummets into the depths of my stomach. “What?”
Cal shakes his head. “I don’t understand… impossible…”
“Cal, what happened?”
“He’s gone.”
I fight the urge to pummel him. “Who? Reinhart?”
“Cho. He’s gone.”
I lift my fist to take a swing at him just because it will feel good, but Sky catches my elbow. “Fin, that won’t help things.”
I lower my hand and Sky returns his attention to Cal. “How?”
“I don’t know,” Cal says. “All our exits were covered.” He lifts his arms helplessly. “It’s like he vanished into thin air.”
I dig my fingers into my hair and scream. Over and over and over until Sky’s arms come around me, pulling me into his solid chest. Lacy appears at my side, awkwardly patting my back, eyes wide with terror. Sky tells her what Cal just told us.
She whirls on Cal. “How do we know you didn’t let him go?”
Doubt swirls inside me. I think about their private meeting, about Cal and Cho’s shared hatred for anyone who has been modified—but Cal shakes his head.
“No.” He holds up his hands, backing away from Lacy. “No, I swear.”
Then someone laug
hs—a bright, chipper sound cutting through the hazy darkness.
The voice that follows speaks in sing-song.
“You’ll never catch him.”
Another Natural begins to laugh, and then another, until all five of our prisoners are laughing in unsettling unison, their heads thrown back, grinning blissfully at the ceiling. Sky and I exchange alarmed looks.
The first woman who spoke laughs harder than the rest. I loom over her, and a flash of recognition hits me.
She's Cho’s maid.
Her eyes are glassy in the dim light. “Foolish girl,” she hisses. “This was only a distraction.”
A suicide mission—while someone came in through a tunnel and whisked their beloved leader away.
The Naturals’ eerie laughter rises to a crescendo. And then Lacy hits the kill switch. All five scream in agony, then slump lifelessly onto the beach.
Just the way they had always planned.
CHAPTER 14
MY BOOTS THUNDER on the stairs to the storage room. Sky and Lacy are hot on my heels. We left Talen with the EHC ops and a handful of Dwellers to guard the entrance in case Cho himself decides to circle back and launch another attack.
Cia runs up to us, pistol tucked proudly into her belt. “Do I get to shoot yet?”
Sky brushes her off, but in the back of my mind, I realize we might need her sharpshooting skills if we catch Cho on the run. I wave for her to follow us down the hall toward Cal’s office, the room full of advertisements and maps.
I sling myself around the corner of the doorframe into the empty room. A pair of old-fashioned handcuffs are sitting on the desk beside a hastily scrawled note that reads:
Thank you for your hospitality. I must be on my way. Perhaps we can chat about our mutual interests again one day.
I crumple the note in my fist and throw it across the room. “Who put him in those handcuffs?”
Cal appears in the doorway, stammering sheepishly. “I… I thought since he was regular…”
I growl in frustration and push past him into the hallway, gesturing wildly at the double doors Cal sent us through when we set out to find Cho the first time. “He can’t have just walked out!”
