Modified- The Complete Manipulated Series

by Harper North

  Another low rumble makes a battery-powered lantern shake and fall off a chair. It rolls away. Cia stops it with her foot and raises it.

  My pulse leaps into my throat. I’ve lived underground most of my life, but the thought of being truly trapped, doomed to a slow death, sends icy terror through my veins. Anything could collapse next.

  Talen continues to press his fingertips against his temples as I lead the way back into a tunnel. As Lacy promised, a cart sits off to the side. Nearby lay some broken tracks and, of course, about a dozen bodies. All gape at the ceiling as if hoping something could save them. The lack of blood only makes the scene eerier.

  No sickness fills me as I pass this cart, unlike the other. Sky walks beside me, gaze begging me to say something, anything. But since leaving the main chamber, I’ve shifted to autopilot. My body’s moving on its own, and I’m just along for the ride.

  “Everyone maintain your guard. There are surviving Naturals down here,” Cal warns from halfway down the line. Around him, people shuffle their feet. Exhaustion’s weighing down on us all.

  “May I hold this light for you?” Cia asks, lifting the lantern as she walks right behind us.

  “Thanks, sis,” Sky says.

  I can see the map better, and I trace my finger down a long, convoluted line. Our tunnel. It forks ahead, and—

  Sky grips my arm.

  I lower the map pages and tense, hand automatically going for my pistol that’s no longer there.

  Footfalls echo down the tunnel ahead, and it’s impossible to tell which direction of the split they’re coming from.

  “Naturals,” I hiss. “I need a gun. Now.”

  People shuffle, and seconds later, Cia hands me another pistol, probably someone’s spare. I click off the safety and ready myself, lifting the weapon to the tunnel ahead. People click their lights off, leaving us in the dark.

  “Talen, Lacy, we’re going to need you,” I hiss.

  Lacy spins to face the footsteps. “Hell yeah, we’ve got this.”

  As if matching my mood, another quake, this one louder than the rest, ripples the concrete. I stumble, maintaining my weapon, trying to hold back a choke. Men and women shout up ahead. They’re coming from the split on the left, probably trying to regroup with Cho.

  And then the world cracks.

  The sound is everywhere at once, going up and down the tunnel. Our own fighters jostle against each other. Suddenly the Naturals are the least of our problems.

  Loud thuds and scrapes follow. The old tunnel’s collapsing. I put my hands over my head, crashing into Sky, and he wraps his arm around me as we bang into the wall. His breath blows into my ear. People curse everywhere.

  At least I won’t have to live to see Elias die.

  “Fin, it’s over,” Sky says.

  I blink, even though it’s still completely black in the tunnel. The rumbling has stopped, leaving the smell of dust in the air.

  The silence gets me.

  I stand, leaving Sky crouching at the wall, and point my gun in the direction the Naturals are coming. Or were coming. I can no longer hear them, no matter how much I strain my ears.

  “Hello?” Talen calls down the tunnel.

  “Shh. And you call me reckless,” Lacy hisses.

  I listen as Sky stands beside me. “I think they’re dead.”

  The dust. The crumbling. The lack of shouts. Except for the settling of rubble, everything’s gone silent.

  “Someone turn on a lantern,” Cal says.

  Cia pulls the battery one open and steps forward.

  I gulp, backing into a Dweller woman named Steph. “We’re not going this way.”

  Collapsed concrete, twisted pipes, and wires eviscerated from the ceiling fill the tunnel about a hundred feet down. Worse yet, a single hand sticks out from beneath the rubble, blood beginning to leak out into a pool around it. Cho’s own fighters are now falling to his plan.

  “He’s insane,” Sky says, echoing my thoughts. “We can’t stay here, in case there are more cave-ins.”

  “There’s no clearing this rubble,” Steven says. “We have to go back. Fin, what are the chances of another cave-in?”

  I take a breath, trying to make my mind work. “I have no way to calculate that. We don’t know exactly what the weapon did. If we knew, I could give you a number.”

  “Ballpark figure?” Steven asks.

  I hate to tell everyone this. “It’s not good, but the longer we stand here, the worse our chances get.” Sheer luck saved us this time.

  No one needs to wait for Cal’s orders to move. Forming two lines, this time with Sky and me in the back, we all run back down the tunnel and back to the primary storage room. No one meets us again. It seems Cho has left the area. When no one else offers ideas on where to go, I study the map with a gulp. Another possible escape appears to loop back in the direction of the monorail system, but that’s the tunnel Cho took.

  “This way,” I say, waving everyone along.

  Lacy and Talen take the lead. We’re so used to this that we don’t have to tell each other what to do anymore. Talen continues to rub his head and mutter about the magnetic fields being messed up. A couple aftershocks make the tunnels rumble and the tracks squeal, but no more cave-ins happen near us. I do see a collapsed tunnel at an intersection, though.

  Thankfully, it’s not the one we need to take.

  “I need a break,” Charles says.

  “My hand is throbbing,” Wendy adds, clutching a bit of cloth around her fingers. “If it’s not treated soon, it’ll get infected, or I’ll bleed out.”

  I try to tune them out. “Keep going. The faster we’re out, the faster we can treat injuries.” An invisible pressure settles on my shoulders and steadily turns crushing. The builders of these weapon tunnels wouldn’t have left only one exit.

  But they might have sealed them.

  I drink the last of the water from my canteen. Sky and I exchange another glance. He eyes his sister. I can’t imagine what he’s thinking right now. I up my pace, mouth already getting dry, or is it my imagination? Time has no meaning down here, and I can no longer tell if we’ve been wandering these tunnels for minutes, hours, or days.

  Cal calls for a break at some point. It’s clear he wants to check on the injured people. After another distant rumble, we all sit. So far, this section of the tunnels doesn’t seem too unstable—probably because no one ever positioned a Destabilizer down here. Cans of food open and I devour some kidney beans. Sky scoots up to me, letting his hip press against mine. I wish I could feel some happy tingles from his body, but this time, they don’t come. I’m going numb inside.

  Sky looks to me like he wants to ask me something. Like he’s worried. But Cia tugs on his sleeve and asks, “Do you think Mom’s okay?”

  “She must be. Maybe it’s just the tunnels that are collapsing because they’re so old.” Sky ruffles Cia’s hair, drawing a glare from her. Despite all this, he’s still Sky. He’s holding on. Then he turns to me. “Fin, I can tell this is getting to you, and—”

  “Up!” Cal orders. “Move on!”

  Cans fall to the floor. They’re our last rations. I can see that fact on everyone’s faces.

  Taking out the map, I ignore my growing thirst. Finally, after what feels like forever, the tunnel slants upward, something it hasn’t done before. The tracks stop, and we come to a dead-end full of collapsed concrete.

  My knees quiver.

  Even without many quakes in this area, it’s still collapsed.

  “We’re done,” I mutter.

  “Hold on,” Sky says. “Blast marks.”

  I blink as Cia approaches the blockage with her lantern. “He’s right.”

  Huh?

  Then I sniff. The faint reek of something burnt hangs in the air. No quake did this. Cho left this way and blasted the hole shut. That meant he used one of those small explosive devices. As Cia tilts her lantern upward, I spot a small opening near the ceiling, one barely large enough to let her th
rough.

  I dare to let some warmth creep back into my chest. “Cia, you have a job. Climb to the other side and see what’s over there, and how much of this we need to move.”

  “Fin,” Sky growls.

  But Cia nods. She gets to work climbing the blockage, which is only eight feet high, and vanishes through the small opening. People pile up behind me, trying to see, and Cia pokes her head back through a second later. “We’re at the monorail.”

  Mutters float through the gathered fighters.

  “Any sign of Cho?”

  “He’s long gone,” she says. “There are people walking down the monorail, but they’re not Naturals. I’ll ask for help moving this.”

  “No,” Sky says as she vanishes again.

  I slap him on the arm. “Let Cia help. If she doesn’t, we all die.” The numbness has gone—for now.

  Cia’s muffled shouts follow, and then even more muffled shouts of men and a few women join in. Footfalls approach.

  “You’re trapped down there? I can’t believe all this. There’s a tunnel system below us?”

  I can’t see the man, but his voice is the best thing I’ve heard in a while. “Can you help us move this?”

  “We’ll try. The whole world’s falling apart.”

  His words send a new chill through me. I step forward, climbing the rubble, and grip the first piece of concrete with my hands. Even with my strength, it’s difficult to keep my grasp, and Sky has to help me push the first piece through, which keeps getting stuck on something. Men on the other side grunt as they try to help, and Cia warns them to back off. Men shout as we finally get the slab to slide through, opening a big enough space for the rest of us to climb out.

  The fighters behind us cheer.

  Sky grabs my hand, and we slide through, tumbling to the other side of the cave-in together. Cia, several ragged men, and a few women wait for us.

  They’re not Naturals, but more people like Betty. More homeless. One of the men has a scabby gash down the side of his face.

  “Thank you,” I say, rising.

  “That was some impressive work you two did,” the guy with the gash says. “I don’t know how you managed to move that slab. It must have weighed a thousand pounds.”

  We’ll explain later. I watch as the others climb out of the opening. Lacy, then Talen, pushing her by the hips. Cal and Steven. Dwellers and Originals. When everyone’s out, we follow the injured guy up the rest of the tunnel and then through a hole to the monorail.

  Once out, I collapse on the ground between two tracks. Mutters surround me as I take a breath, begging my sore muscles to heal. I’m not sure how long I lie there.

  “Fin, I know you’re taking some much-needed rest, but get up. These people have food and water,” Sky says. “They said they came from one of the settlements that just partially collapsed.”

  “What?” I snap my gaze open and look up at Sky. He extends his hand. Here I am, lying on the ground like some helpless damsel, but I take his hand and get up.

  There’s an old cart on the tracks—a flat, manual crank one that has crates loaded onto it. People gather around, waiting for supplies, which the injured guy is happy to pass out. He’s one tough man, being in charge of half a dozen others while his head has to be pounding.

  “Cho’s nowhere, and these people haven’t seen anyone else, either. They’re just a small group of refugees. Harmless,” Sky says. “Let’s sit down before they decide to move on. Fin, I’m really worried about you.”

  His tone sinks to the center of the world.

  And so does my stomach.

  We have to talk.

  CHAPTER 9

  ALL NOTIONS OF finding Emma and worrying about Elias fly out the window when Sky implies those four words. I face him. He’s serious—again—and now that we’ve escaped the tunnels, I appreciate the terror.

  “About what?” Here I am, a skilled fighter who helped take down a dozen soldiers, and I’m terrified of whatever Sky’s going to say.

  But he shakes his head. We’re not going to talk here. Sky instead walks over to the manual cart, where people are lining up. The ragged guy who helped to get us out of the collapsed tunnel stands on top, still bleeding, and he’s opening crates. These half dozen men and women must have just barely escaped where they were before coming here. The containers are full of everything from canned goods to potted plants to blankets, like these people crammed everything there in a hurry.

  The quakes.

  How long were we down in the tunnels?

  Palms tingling with nerves, I stand behind Sky. I wish he’d just tell me what he wants to discuss, but I sense I know what that is.

  I watch as Lacy and Talen take a couple of cans and fill their canteens from a big plastic water bottle perched on the cart. Lacy tilts her head back and lets the water pour over her face. Talen rests a hand on the small of her back.

  Not many other people talk, either. Cal collapses against the wall, sucking down water, and Steven sits down beside him, putting his arms on his knees. Cal should be demanding we get back to Elysian Beach to check on the place, but he’s not. That’s bad. Dwellers and Originals sit along the tunnel. None of them make the suggestion, either.

  Another small quake makes the tunnel rumble.

  My muscles shake so much, and my throat’s so dry, it doesn’t faze me.

  The guy with the bleeding face sits as Sky and I, at the back of the line, approach the cart, but it’s the water I want. I fill my canteen while Sky picks out two unmarked cans. Wordless, he hands one to me and nods down the dark tunnel.

  Two people, probably Lacy and Talen, walk down it, flashlight dancing side to side. Sky wants privacy.

  No one speaks as we walk past. The air’s heavy with exhaustion. We must have been in the tunnels for a long time if Cho’s long gone from this area and these people haven’t seen him. But I don’t stop.

  The silence drags out as we walk, so I break it. “What do you want to talk about?”

  Sky keeps torturing me by saying nothing at first. Lacy and Talen vanish around the curve ahead, and we slowly follow their footsteps.

  Then, at last: “You gave up back there.”

  Oh.

  His words punch me in the gut because they’re true.

  “You mean at the cave-in.”

  “Yeah.” He looks at me. “I saw something I didn’t like in your eyes. Your fight was gone. You’ve got to hold on. All of this has to be almost over.” The desperation in his words pulls an ache into my chest.

  For a moment, I let Sky down.

  But then a flash of anger fills that pain, traveling down my arms and to my fists, which I ball. “You gave up when the rubble fell on you at the turnstile.”

  Sky flinches. We stare at each other for what feels like an eternity.

  “Well, you did,” I add, knowing I’m angry because I’ve been left alone when it comes to Elias, but I can’t form the words.

  Sky sighs. “You’re right. For a moment I thought I was going to die, and I was just trying to make it as easy on you as I could.”

  Of course I know that, but this isn’t really what I want to talk about. “I’m just tired of people dying, and us dying, and the world trying to kill us, and everyone else trying to kill us, too. It’s not going to stop. There’s no happy little utopia waiting for us. These quakes are going to destroy all the underground settlements if what’s left of Cho’s people don’t find us first.” I can’t bear to say Elias and Reinhart.

  “We don’t know that,” Sky says. “I’m sure most of Cho’s people are dead now, and we only have Reinhart and the traitors to worry about. There aren’t as many of them as there were Naturals. And with the earthquakes, they’ll be distracted. The quakes can’t last forever. Then we’ll be able to carve out a place for ourselves.”

  Sky’s grasping. I scoff. “What about that settlement with the quakes that are still going from when the Destabilizer was used a hundred years ago? These aren’t going to stop for a long tim
e. If anything, they’ll keep getting worse.”

  I watch Sky take a step back. The air thickens between us. He opens his mouth, but nothing comes out.

  “Eventually we’re going to run out of places to hide,” I press on. “So you’re right that this is almost over.”

  “You’re saying we’re just all going to die down here?” Sky asks, paling. He lowers the flashlight as if to hide his fear.

  I hate that I’m doing this to him. “Maybe.”

  “Why are you being like this? You’re not the same Fin I met down in the Slack.”

  Something about his tone makes a wall inside me crack, spilling all the raging water behind it. “Because you’ve ditched me when I need you the most. Because when Reinhart tricked Elias into joining him, you want to kill him with everyone else. I’m alone now, and that sucks more than anything else.” My voice raises with each word until the tunnel walls echo them back at me.

  “Shh,” Sky says. “They’ll hear you.”

  I take a breath. Now that it’s out, I drop my shoulders. Now I wait.

  “I never wanted you to feel like that,” he says at last. “I keep forgetting Elias was your friend.”

  “Was?” I echo. I’m not sure about that now. The look of regret on his face when he threw that bomb refuses to leave my mind.

  “Well, he did blow up the entryway to Elysian Beach,” Sky pushes out. The flashlight beam stays on the floor, as if he’s ashamed of making that point.

  I clear my throat, careful to keep my voice down. “Elias is caught between two worlds. Cal did a number on him, talking about Destroyers and stuff. And we know about his past. He wasn’t the same after losing his uncle. If anyone needs to die for this, it’s Reinhart.”

  Sky steps closer, carrying the small circle of light with him. I let out a breath, but he stops just a couple of feet from me. “And I joined the mob mentality against Elias. Awesome job, Sky.”

  He’s coming around.