The Restrainers: Third Book in The Amplified Series

by Lauren M. Flauding

  "Mari, figure out what this thing wants," I mumble. It comes to me as I notice a small microphone attached to the side of the screen.

  "Marianna Quillen, Restrainer," I announce. The screen starts shifting through thousands of pictures and I feel an electrical current sting me behind my ear where my Amplifier is embedded. Finally, I hear the door unlock and slide to the side, revealing Miles sitting on his small cot and staring at the floor.

  My heart aches a little to see him so vulnerable. His dark hair is a little unkempt and his broad shoulders are sagging with fatigue. When he finally glances up at me, his honey eyes burn brightly for a moment, but then go dim.

  "What do you want?" He says flatly, straightening up a little.

  "I'm breaking you out," I respond, trying not to show how much his tone hurts.

  "Is that right?" He asks doubtfully. "How do I know this isn't part of your plan to kill me?"

  "Miles, I would never kill you," I say softly.

  "That's not what you told your friend Governor Plenaris," Miles retorts. "I guess you'll do anything for a little extra ability and position in the Community."

  I exhale. I can understand why he's upset with me, but I think he's being a little childish.

  "It's not what you think, Miles. I can explain once I get you out of here."

  Suddenly, Miles leaps up from his bed and faces me.

  "Why do you even care?" He shouts, his voice trembling slightly. "You've clearly never had feelings for me. Why does it matter to you if I'm free or not?"

  I stare at him as I realize that of everything he overheard from my conversation with the Governor, my agreeing to kill him wasn't what hurt him the most. I step closer to him and look straight into his eyes. A lump forms in my throat.

  "Don't you know me at all?" I ask, reaching out to take his hand. He tries to pull it away, but I hold on to it until he relaxes. "I need you to trust me." I whisper.

  "It's hard to trust someone who keeps switching sides," Miles responds harshly, but I can tell he wants to believe me.

  "We can talk later, but right now, we need to go," I affirm, trying to lead Miles out the door. To my surprise, he steps back and again sits on his cot.

  "I can't," he admits, looking defeated. "If I set foot outside the prison, my Amplifier will explode and I'll die."

  "What?" I exclaim. How did I not know about this feature of his modified Amplifier? I look down at the bundle of keys in my hand. I guess we'll have to do this the hard way.

  "Okay, hold still," I instruct Miles as I approach him from behind. I begin to jab one of the keys into the skin below his ear, but in the next moment, Miles whips around and smacks my face with the back of his hand, sending me toppling to the floor. I groan as I get to my feet.

  "My Amplifier is also programmed to make me attack whenever someone tries to remove it," Miles explains, wincing as he inspects my face. "You should have seen what happened to me when I tried to take it out myself," he adds, smiling weakly.

  "Why didn't you tell me that before?"

  "I figured that information would have been in your enhanced Amplifier," he answers bitterly.

  Suddenly, an alarm starts blaring. They must have noticed the keys to Miles' cell are missing. I groan and take one last look at Miles, then bolt out the door. I rip off and smash the screen just outside of the cell, hoping they won't be able to recover the evidence of my voice from it for a while. I race through the rest of the doors, but when I get back out into the hallway I can hear someone coming. I have the keys in my hand and nowhere to go. I can only think of one way to get out of this.

  I collapse to the floor just as two guards come around the corner. I clutch my head in the place Miles just hit me as they run up to me.

  "What happened?" One of them asks.

  "I ran over here when I heard the alarms, and some guy blasted out of the door and attacked me," I tell them shakily. "I was able to get the keys from him, but he hit me pretty hard in the head."

  "Who? What guy?" The guard asks.

  "The Dissenter," I lie. "He went that way," I add, pointing down the hallway. The two guards take off in that direction. I exhale. It looks like I've gotten away with it this time, but sooner or later they'll find out it was me who unsuccessfully tried to release prisoner 568.

  Chapter 20

  The next few days are agonizing. Everyone is baffled by the mysterious Dissenter who managed to sneak in and out of the prison's most secure cell and only be seen by one person. I've been interrogated several times, but the bruise on my face is enough to make people believe my story. In the meantime they've doubled the security on Miles' cell. So that, along with the fact that his Amplifier will kill him the minute he leaves the prison, makes rescuing Miles pretty much impossible.

  On top of all this, Miles is becoming more susceptible to the Override. I no longer need to be in the arena with him for him to succumb to the violent commands. He'll only hesitate for a moment before he starts to fight someone. He's breaking down quickly and I'm afraid that soon he'll be ready for whatever the Governor has planned for him.

  I'm sitting on my bed in the guard's quarters, racking my brain for some way to safely remove Miles' Amplifier. A bulky guard walks in.

  "Hey Quillen, we need your help with a prisoner on the west side," he states. "I'll be right there," I reply.

  I walk through the prison, glancing occasionally into the cells of those who were never Amplified. They look restless, pacing back and forth in their cells or doing various exercises, perhaps to pass the time more quickly. It's a stark difference when I enter the area of the prisoners who used to be Amplified. They're all laying on their beds, staring blankly at the ceiling. The only prisoner who isn't catatonic is surrounded by guards. I'm assuming this is the prisoner I was called here to help with. As I get closer I see that he's thrashing around and wailing about something.

  "Please don't take them away! They make me feel so good!" He howls.

  I rush forward to help restrain the anguished prisoner and see that one of the guards is holding up a large bag of Euphorics.

  "Where did you get these?" The guard demands, shaking the bag in front of the prisoner.

  "I can’t tell you! She'll kill me!" The prisoner responds in agony.

  One of the guards next to me twists the prisoner's leg.

  "Ah! Okay, okay I'll tell you!" The prisoner yelps. "It's Lucy Jilkson! She brought them in for me! But please don't punish her! She's so nice!"

  The guard with the Euphorics sighs. "We'll have to confiscate these,” he states.

  "I'll take care of them," I volunteer quickly. All of the other guards glare at me. They were probably hoping to keep them for themselves, but nobody dares to say anything. The guard holding the bag reluctantly hands them over to me, and I start heading in the direction of the trash receptacles. I hear the prisoner voicing his pathetic protests as I leave the area.

  My mind is racing. I glance behind me to make sure no one is watching, then I change my course and head toward the Nutrition dispensers. It's 5:30 right now, and 6:00 is usually when everyone breaks for evening Nutrition. The Euphorics look pretty much like the regular Nutrition capsules, except that they're a bit larger. You really can't tell the difference unless you see them next to each other. If I can switch them in the dispensers, I could create another opportunity to get Miles out. I'm still not sure what to do about his Amplifier, but I've got to take this chance.

  I reach the dispensers and luckily, there's only one other guard in the vicinity. I pretend I'm getting a capsule from the Nutrition dispenser, but instead, I reach in the bag and grab out a Euphorics pill. I turn to the guard in the room.

  "Hey, do these Nutrition capsules taste weird to you?" I ask her, holding out the Euphorics pill.

  "They seem fine to me, but let me see," she says, taking the capsule from my hand. A moment later, she's smiling idiotically and singing to herself. I quickly empty out the Nutrition dispenser and fill it with the Euphorics. Now I just have to
wait and see if it works.

  I go back to the guard's quarters, too nervous to watch things play out by the dispensers. About 40 minutes later guards start wandering in, happily flinging pillows around and jumping on the beds. I run over to the arena, trying to contain my excitement. When I get to the huge enclosure, I can hardly believe what I see.

  The arena is full of guards running around, doing cartwheels, rolling on the floor, hugging each other, and just generally acting absurd. I step into the observation room and find Rosheta there, gleefully pushing every button she can find.

  "Mari!" She calls out, grinning goofily, "Your hair looks amazing today!"

  "Wow, thanks!" I respond, trying to match her level of silliness. "Your hair looks great too!"

  "It does, it does," she replies with a giggle.

  "Do you know what would be so much fun?" I ask her.

  "No. What?"

  "Let's bring Prisoner 568 into the arena!" I announce, clapping my hands stupidly.

  Rosheta's face becomes grave and I'm worried that I said the wrong thing. But then her eyes grow wide and she smiles.

  "That would be... amazing!" She yells and promptly runs out of the room. I watch her get through all of the added security measures to Miles' cell on the surveillance. Miles looks confused when she blissfully pulls him out of his cell, and even more bewildered when she brings him into the arena. She runs off to join some people holding hands and spinning around in a circle, leaving Miles alone to try to make sense of the circus happening around him.

  I'm thinking the best course of action now might be to turn off all the power when I notice the Override machines on the floor. Of course! How did I not think of this before?

  I place one of the machines in front of me and turn the knobs until I've isolated Miles. I unwind the microphone and bring it to my mouth.

  "Come to the observation room."

  Miles snaps his head up to look at the two way mirror. Despite his stubborn expression, he walks out of the arena and seconds later comes through the door.

  "Mari, what's going on?"

  "It's Euphorics."

  "What are Euphorics?"

  I'd forgotten Miles has been cut off from the Community for the past several months.

  "It's a long story," I reply. "Basically, all the guards are useless right now." I grab a pen from the desk, hoping it's clean. "Here," I say, handing Miles the pen, "sorry there's nothing more sophisticated to use."

  "What are you talking about?"

  I don't explain. We don't have time. I raise the microphone of the Override Machine to my mouth again.

  "Remove your Amplifier," I command.

  Miles' eyes light up as his hand automatically reaches up and stabs behind his ear with the pen. He looks relieved even though I know it's really painful to be digging into his own skin. When he's completely opened up the site, I give another command through the Override.

  "Break the chip before pulling out the Amplifier."

  I wince as I watch his bloody fingers crush the small plate, remembering how I did the same thing to myself two years ago. He yanks the rest of the implant out and tosses it aside, then tears off a piece of his sleeve to bandage up his open wound.

  I exhale slowly. I feel like a huge burden has been lifted off of my shoulders. Miles turns to me and smiles. Then he quickly reaches behind my neck. I feel some pressure and then I black out.

  Chapter 21

  I'm brought back to consciousness by the sensation of being rocked back and forth. I slowly open my eyes and find myself on the floor of an empty van. My hands are tied behind my back and I have thick tape covering my mouth. I look up and see Miles in the driver’s seat in front of me.

  It looks like I've been kidnapped. It's just as well, I needed to get out of the prison anyway. Once everyone gets back to normal they'll realize what really happened, and there's no way I'd be able to talk my way out of all the evidence pointing to me. However, I don't appreciate being abducted like this. I understand that maybe Miles wants to get his revenge, but it's frustrating just how many times he's rendered me unconscious.

  I scoot to the front of the van and wriggle up into the passenger's seat, which is difficult since I can't use my arms.

  "I didn't give you permission to sit there," Miles remarks coldly. I just shrug my shoulders in reply.

  "I still don't trust you, in case you were wondering why you're tied up and gagged," Miles explains. I tilt my head to the side. Fair enough.

  "I'm taking you to the Dissenter base," he continues. "I figure they probably have a lot of questions they'll want to ask you."

  That's good, I think. At least he's not planning to throw me off a cliff somewhere.

  I stare out the window into the dusk. After a few moments I realize there are several vehicles behind us. I look over at Miles in alarm.

  "They're with me," he assures me. "I released some of the prisoners who were Dissenters, including the Fioras."

  I raise my eyebrows.

  "Yes, Jacqueline and Brexlynn's parents," he confirms.

  I look around at the van.

  “We found these vehicles just outside the prison" he says, guessing my thoughts.

  I let out a small laugh, which sounds muffled through the tape.

  "Yeah, I guess it is funny that I know what you're thinking even though you can't talk."

  I nod in agreement. He smiles at me, but then his face gets serious again. I can imagine what’s going through his mind. He can't be friendly with me, I'm his captive. I'm the reason he spent months in jail being experimented on and conditioned with the Override.

  We ride along in silence for a while. The sun is disappearing, but it's still fairly easy to see the vast desert landscape we're driving through. After some time Miles speaks again.

  "I understand now how hard it must have been for you to resist killing me when we met on the air barge two years ago," he says softly. "I get how powerful the Override is now, so I can forgive you for that, at least."

  I shift uncomfortably in the chair. Embedded in that statement are all the things he still holds against me. Like getting Amplified. Twice.

  Suddenly Miles stops the van and gets out. The other vehicles pull up next to us. Miles opens my door and lifts me out. My body stiffens. In different circumstances it might be a nice gesture, but considering I'm being dragged around against my will I don't much appreciate the courtesy.

  The other former prisoners have gotten out of their vehicles as well. There are seven of them. We appear to be in the middle of nowhere, and everyone just stands around. I guess we're waiting for something.

  Minutes later I see headlights coming toward us. I look quizzically at Miles.

  "Rescue protocol," he states. "We sent them a message through surveillance just outside of Compound U."

  Two trucks approach. Blaine emerges from the first one and Felix jumps out of the second. Felix can drive? I think, wondering how the 10-year-old’s short legs can even reach the pedals. I guess when you're a Dissenter spy you learn to do all sorts of things early. When Felix sees Miles he runs up and hugs him.

  "I'm so glad you got out!" He exclaims. "Everyone's been so worried about you!" Felix glances over at me. "Oh hi, Mari!" He says casually, seemingly not caring that I'm tied up. I nod my head at him. Blaine comes over and slaps Miles on the back, then goes to greet the others. They pile into the beds of the two trucks, but Miles puts me in the passenger’s seat of the truck Felix is driving. I don't know if he's doing it to be nice or because he's afraid I might try to jump out of the back, but either way I'm grateful.

  We begin heading toward the Dissenter base and Felix starts chatting away.

  "It must have been miserable at the prison, Mari. I was only there for a few hours to check it out, and it gave me the creeps,” he remarks. “We're trying to ease the Community off of the Amplifiers, just like you suggested a few months ago at the meeting, but Roxy would never admit that it was your idea."

  I smile. It's clear Ro
xy doesn't like me, and I don't agree with everything she does, but I'm glad she's implementing ideas that make sense.

  "Blaine figured out a way to alter the Euphorics so that they break down the Amplifiers," he explains excitedly. "Then we released all the animals from the Preserve..."

  "What?" I exclaim through the tape, so it sounds more like, "Mwaph?"

  "Yeah," Felix responds, smiling. "This way, the Community will have to figure out how to make their own food instead of using the capsules."

  So that's what the buffalo stampede through the East was about, I think. I'm all for the Community switching to eating real food, but I'm not sure setting all the animals free was a good idea.

  Before I know it we're lowering down on the platform into the Dissenter base. All of Felix's talking must have made the time pass more quickly. I swallow hard. Felix has treated me the same as always, but I don't know how everyone else is going to feel about me showing up here. I did, after all, directly betray their leader and cause one of their own to be brutally imprisoned for the last several months. I guess I'll find out soon.

  Even before everyone is out of the trucks the door to the entry chamber bursts open and a small crowd rushes forward to welcome Miles and the other rescued prisoners. I hang back as I watch Brexlynn and Jacqueline embrace their parents and a dozen others reach out to smother Miles. I wish my mom and Daniel were here, but I'm not sure if they'd actually be happy to see me.

  Sabrina pushes through the group surrounding Miles and nearly attacks him with a hug.

  "I missed you so much!" She sobs with so much emotion that even I blush. "How did you all escape?" She asks.

  "It was all thanks to Mari, actually," Miles replies, glancing back at me. The room goes silent as all eyes turn to me. Sabrina looks like she wishes she could melt me with her stare, and several others are giving me less than friendly looks. Brexlynn gives me a small wave and a few appear to be sympathetic, but otherwise the reception is frigid.