by Harper North
I ball my fists. With her ditching us, all the mental work is on me. She could have warned me first.
We continue the march, slower this time, and in silence. I breathe, trying to calm down. Lacy grimaces as the tunnel curves and brightens. Cal snaps his fingers, and I know what it means. Everyone turns off their flashlights and my eyes adjust to the pale light. Soon, low chatter floats down the tunnel.
People. Lots of them. Lacy was right.
And as if to make that point, she pokes me in the ribs.
She peeks around the tunnel before ducking back again. “I don’t know what this is,” she hisses, “but it looks bad.”
She moves aside to let me peer around the curve.
Light fills a massive room that spreads out before us. Pipes, wires, and scaffolding take up the high ceiling, lit by hordes of battery-powered lanterns. More of the tracks crisscross on the floor, leading to dozens of tunnels, but I can barely see them due to all the Naturals gathered in the room.
I gulp.
Hundreds of men and women, seemingly from all walks of life, stand in a thick ring around the center of the room. All wear white shirts and have their green jackets tied around their waists, indicating they were once part of the SNA.
My mouth dries out. Cho stands on top of an uneven metal box with grating on the top. It’s just one of about a dozen metal boxes, and all of them are parked on the rails. But he’s not speaking. Instead, he’s flipping through what looks like an old book, complete with yellowed pages hanging out of it, and furrowing his brows. A man and a woman stand beside him, looking over his shoulders at the manual. The three speak in low voices amongst themselves while the rest of the Naturals mill around each other.
I explain to the others what I’ve seen. Cal’s frown deepens as I speak.
“Then they want us to know we’re helpless against them,” Cal says. “Cho wanted us to see these numbers.” He peeks around the curve before ducking back again. “Fin, shoot Cho from here. Lacy, Talen, kill as many of these rats as possible.”
I could. With my aim, I could end his life right now.
“Whoa.” Steven pulls Cal back. “There are hundreds of them. If we kill one, another will take over the leadership role.”
I agree with Steven. Lacy shakes her head at me. “Even if Talen and I take a few dozen down, that leaves the rest. We’ll still lose.”
I shift from leg to leg as my stomach turns. The weird metal boxes, the tracks that lead everywhere underground, and the fact that Cho’s got them all well-guarded all add up to a terrifying picture that matches what we found on those computer terminals. “Our chances of surviving this plan are almost nothing.”
“We can’t do nothing,” Cal says.
“You’re right.” I swallow, and it hurts. “Because I think the Naturals just found the destabilizer weapons that ruined the world so long ago. And they’re planning to use them against the rest of the underground.”
CHAPTER 6
WE NEED A new plan.
Rushing in there and attacking Cho’s people in our state won’t work. Cal looks to me and shifts leg to leg, impatient. Behind him, Lacy and Talen look at each other, ready to hop into action. Sky shakes his head at me.
With a few hundred Naturals in there, I calculate our chances of even surviving a direct attack on Cho’s people to be less than one percent. About a quarter of a percent. While we could run down this tunnel, I can tell from the curvature of the others that they all must interconnect at some point. We’re in a complex system, and the Naturals would cut us off at some point.
It’s up to me to figure it out. Everyone’s waiting, even Cal.
“Okay,” I hiss, waving everyone back down the tunnel. “Let me think.” I scan the others, but most of the enhanced—most of the former EHC people—have gone with Reinhart. Elias could have helped with the planning, being Noble class. A few former police remain, but they’re Century class—increased strength but average intelligence. The same goes for most of the Dwellers, too, as well as Lacy. And wasn’t Talen originally Tenant class, modified to Aura? I’m on my own.
We move a few hundred feet back down the tunnel. Cal works his jaw, but I ignore him, and, focusing on my breathing, I let my mind work. Now that we have some quiet, I can run some more calculations in my head. Turning away from everyone, I think.
Attacking hundreds of Naturals gives us virtually no chance. But if we split up into different tunnels, they would have to split up, too, which brings our chances of most of our group surviving up to one or two percent.
Still not good enough.
“Fighting them directly isn’t the answer.”
“Then what do we do?” Cal asks.
“Here’s what we do.” I buy a few seconds while I think. “To use those weapons, Cho will want to scatter them around the tunnels. Why else are there dozens of those boxes in that big room? He’ll want to position them under settlements and use them to threaten people.”
“How do you know this?” Steven asks, curious.
“If you were him, what would you do?” Though I’m not sure how it works, thoughts and probabilities flow through my mind, Cho’s past actions factoring in. “The chances of him doing this are about ninety percent. There’s a ten percent chance he’ll leave guards around these weapons as a just-in-case thing, but after what he did at the Monster’s Nest, I’m willing to bet he’ll want to hold the underground hostage.”
“There are people down here.” Steven nods curtly to Cal. “Other settlements. Elysian Beach has the most people, but I know there are others.”
Sky eyes me, his pupils widening. I hate seeing him scared. “My mother’s still back at Elysian Beach.”
“I know,” I say.
“He’ll attack there first,” Cia says.
I can’t bear to tell her the chances of that are also ninety percent. Cho could use these weapons to collapse the place. That’s my best guess, as I haven’t seen them up close. My throat’s dry, but I force myself to swallow. “Okay. We split into groups with one enhanced person in each. The enhanced person will rip up the tracks in each tunnel so Cho can’t wheel these weapons around. We have a fifty percent chance of most of us surviving.”
“Only fifty?” Lacy rubs her hands together. In typical form, she can’t wait to fight.
“Calm down.” Talen puts his hand on her shoulder. “Breathe, Lacy.”
Lacy glares at him, but it’s a playful glare.
“Well, those Naturals will have to split up into teams,” I say. “There won’t be any more than a dozen Naturals per team, and those of us who are enhanced can probably deal with that, too, especially if we can catch them by surprise.”
“That means we have to split up.” Sky’s eyes shine with fear. This could be the last time we see each other.
I sense our chances of survival dropping the longer we stand here. “Move, everyone.”
Sky eyes me the whole time we walk back to the last junction, but now’s not the time to talk. I have to think. Keeping my face screwed up and drawing a few glares from Cal, I stop at the last junction and study the direction of the tunnels. Turning away from Sky, I form a map of the system in my head. An amazing picture forms, and I know how to surround the big storage room.
“Okay. Lacy with Cal and Steven. Me with you two.” I point out two Originals in plaid. “Talen should go with the unenhanced people.”
When I get to Cia, she squares her shoulders.
“And you go with your brother,” I tell her.
“I’ve proved myself,” she says.
Sky thanks me with his eyes. “Sis, you’re staying with me.”
She doesn’t argue. I can do this for Sky. Fifty percent is too high of a chance when it comes to death.
We divide into ten groups, with at least one enhanced and two unenhanced people in each. Lacy grips Cal’s sleeve and takes him down one of the tunnels. We scatter, and as we do, Sky looks back at me.
Sadness fills his eyes and drops his shoulders. H
e knows I’m losing hope. I hate that.
“Come on,” I order my group—a pair of Originals named Wendy and Charles. They’re in their twenties, probably with kids back in Elysian Beach. “You two will cover me while I try to rip up the tracks.”
“Got it.” Wendy walks with her automatic rifle pointed at the ground. Has she ever used one before?
We walk back down a new tunnel, one I know will curve back to the storage area. Pipes and wires run over our heads, occasionally hooking into large metal panels. Whatever system this is must run under the whole underground. Just running the directions in my head tells me this tunnel eventually leads to Cho’s settlement.
When the breeze blows against my face again, I know we’re close to the storage room. Faint mutters float with it. The crowd’s still out there. I look at Wendy and Charles. They both have sweat running down the sides of their faces. I’m responsible for their lives, and I can give them no guarantees.
“I’ll start ripping the tracks up here,” I whisper, leaning down. “Cover me. Turn your flashlights off.”
They do, and near complete darkness falls. The only light comes from the storage room ahead, and it’s faint. My eyes adjust, and I grip the track, pulling with all my strength. Slowly, the section of track comes loose, and I fall back, holding a rusty, five-foot-long metal bar in my hands.
“That would make a good weapon,” Charles says.
“Here,” I tell him, handing him the section. He grunts as he places it against the wall. “We can’t leave them here, or Cho’s people will just put them back together. I have to rip out a lot of them.”
It’s tedious work, but over the next half hour, I manage to yank out eight sections of track and hand them to the others. My arms quiver by the time I’m done.
“Do you hear that?” Wendy hisses.
I freeze, holding one of the metal sections in my hands. I don’t dare breathe.
Cho’s loud voice echoes from far away. The tunnel distorts his words, but his tone tells me he’s giving an order.
A minute later, a light shines down the tunnel and gets brighter. My heart leaps into my throat and my senses sharpen. As soon as they round the tunnel, they’ll see us. We have no cover unless we—
Pipes and wires stretch out above.
Cho’s people won’t expect an ambush. Normal people like them can’t climb up there. But the enhanced can.
“I’ll get over them. You two get back. Let me strike from behind,” I order. “Leave me a pole.”
Wendy and Charles nod, backpedaling into the tunnel. Hugging several metal sections between them, they disappear into the dark.
The low rumble of a cart along the tracks follows the light. Once Wendy and Charles vanish around the curve, I grab the last metal pole and hoist it above me to rest on a large pipe. Then I leap, gripping the pipe and pulling my body off the tunnel floor and onto the pipe itself. It’s heavy, like it contains more than air, which means it can support me. Grabbing the pole, I wait.
Time stretches out and my muscles tense tighter the louder the rumble of the cart gets. I listen, but no one speaks, and the light soon illuminates the busted track.
“Looks like metal thieves got here before we did,” says a man’s voice.
“That doesn’t make sense,” a woman replies, exhaustion weighing down her tone. They must be twenty feet down the tunnel.
The man’s voice quavers. “Well, we have to get this under the stabilization port, or Cho will have our heads.”
Muttering floats down the tunnel, too. There must be ten Naturals behind the cart, with two in the lead, pushing it.
Stabilization port?
I think of the big metal ceiling panels we’ve passed and I shudder. Is the whole underground held up by a stabilization system? That means these devices are intended to interrupt it.
And that Edward Nejem built these tunnels in response to the miner revolts.
“This whole plan is messed up,” the woman says. “I hope we never have to use it.”
I don’t like the sounds of this.
No one speaks for a bit. I ready my pistol in one hand and the pole in another. This will take all my physical strength and agility.
“Forward!” the man orders. “We may have to lift the cart.”
More rumbling follows. Then the Naturals come into view, their heads two feet below where I perch. A man and woman lead the way, guns held to their chests, and behind them, the metal cart—one of those from the storage room—lurches as it comes off the track. The battery powered lantern on top of it falls onto its side. Cursing rises from the other ten Naturals as sparks fly off the floor.
“Careful!” the man in the lead shouts, turning away from me.
My pulse races in my ears.
I need to wait. Once they’re all fighting with the cart, that will be the time to strike.
“This thing weighs a million pounds,” another man complains.
“There are twelve of us. Lift,” the lead man orders.
“But the radiation!”
Radiation?
The machine must be full of heavy, radioactive metals. Emma would know. Too bad she abandoned us.
“Lift!” the man repeats.
The other Naturals get on either side of the Destabilizer box, throwing their rifles over their backs. The lead man and woman stand back, heads just under me, and watch. I have to kill them first and hope Wendy and Charles can ambush the others. My chances of going down in the gunfight are a little more than fifty-fifty.
The ten Naturals grunt as they struggle to lift, and the cart only rises an inch. Faces redden. It’s time to strike.
I slide down, legs first, and wrap my thighs around the man’s neck. With a twist, his neck snaps before the woman even turns her head.
The man falls and I jump down, whirling on the woman and swinging the metal pole at her face. Her eyes widen a half-second before impact. Blood droplets fly as her jaw makes a sickening crunch and her nose breaks. Stunned, she falls into another Natural, who loses her grip on the Destabilizer box.
More cursing rises. The box crashes to the floor as Naturals scramble for their weapons.
“Wendy! Charles!” I shout, crouching and jabbing my pole into another Natural’s stomach.
The man drops his gun and grasps at his stomach. I haven’t impaled him, but I must have crushed his liver. All the color drains from his face. He staggers to the side as I fire my pistol with my free hand into the face of the next man.
More gunfire rings out.
Instinct throws me to the ground. I wait for the impact of bullets, firing my pistol without daring to look up. Bullets ping off the metal box, hot sparks raining down on me. The cart’s blocking me from much of the Naturals’ gunfire since most stand behind it. Grunts and shouts of pain ring out everywhere. I lift my head to find a bloodied face, unrecognizable, staring back at me. Swallowing bile, I grab the cart and aim my pistol over it, firing at whoever’s there.
The shooting stops, leaving my ears ringing and the air reeking.
Wendy and Charles whoop in victory.
I take a breath.
Maybe we’re not about to die.
“Fin, we got them,” Charles says, appearing over me and lowering his rifle. “Surprise of their lives. The last surprise of their lives.”
Beside us, Wendy fires a fatal shot into a groaning Natural. I hoist myself up and shake my head, getting my bearings. Charles takes my arm to steady me, though I don’t need it. Though my heart races and I’m coughing on the fumes, I close my eyes and force my mind to work.
“We can’t stay here. Cho heard this for sure. He’ll send more men.”
The others should be fighting now, too. How many are dead?
I push the rising terror down. We can’t worry about that now.
I study the Destabilizer box. It looks rectangular and harmless at first glance, but inside the gratings, metal coils and pipes wrap around each other like the black insides of a monster. There’s a big metal
disc within and a port for a fuel cell on the side—a port that’s loaded. I back off. It looks like it weighs at least a thousand pounds. Even I won’t be able to move it. For now, the cart is stuck.
“You’re right,” Wendy says. “Back to the intersection. With luck, the others will be waiting for us.”
I loot one of the automatic rifles off a body, trying not to look at the woman’s empty eyes. Throwing it over my shoulder, I keep my pistol out and lead Wendy and Charles back down the tunnel, carrying the remaining metal sections under my other arm. They huff and puff, struggling to keep up, and I have to slow down for them. My thoughts turn to Sky. Did he and Cia use the same tactic?
Shouts ring out ahead.
I round the curve. Footfalls echo. More of our fighters are retreating from other tunnels.
Dark figures round the curve, all with white shirts and green jackets tied around their waists.
More Naturals.
None of them our own.
Ten of them charge us, bellowing out war cries as I slide to a stop, bringing up my weapon. Behind me, Charles and Wendy curse as empty guns click.
I have no time.
The first Natural, a woman with a scar running down her face, raises the butt of her gun and swings at the side of my face.
“Fin!” Wendy yells.
I try to duck, but the world explodes in yellow flashes and red supernovas before darkness crashes down like the entire world is crumbling on top of me.
CHAPTER 7
THE WORLD IS pain.
My eyelids feel like they weigh a thousand pounds. I try to bend my arm to rub my aching temple—my screaming and what feels like very bruised temple—but something holds it down to what feels like the arm of a wooden chair. A shudder races over me and nausea rips through my insides. I groan, begging the agony to stop.
“Awake!”
A horribly familiar voice tears through the darkness, something straight out of my nightmares.
Cho.
The sickness flees as if fearing him, and I open my eyes. Light from battery-powered lanterns stab into my eyes. Men and women stand around the large room, guns ready, just waiting for orders. I’m seated above them on a semi-dark platform alongside two other people.
