The Surge Trilogy (Book 3): We, The Final Few

by P. S. Lurie

  In this moment, for all the talk of killing children, our pact will be put to the test.

  Theia

  “Your father was an engineer, right?” I shout down to Zeke, cautiously balanced on two bars on top of a cage near the entrance, having dragged a stepladder in place and pulled myself up the rest of the height, careful to avoid the orange hairy monkey that swings around the tree in the centre of the hold and doesn’t give me a moment’s attention. I don’t know what it is, having never seen one before but it doesn’t look as vicious as some of the other choices I had.

  Zeke doesn’t reply before the doors into the makeshift zoo burst open and at least ten young soldiers pile in. Any of them could be Ronan but I have to hope he’s not here for what we’re planning. Zeke pushes more keys on a computer terminal and I hear some of the gates unlock. As soon as he’s done, he sprints towards me, rattling a stick along some of the cages to rile the animals up and then scrambles up the ladder to join me out of harm’s way.

  I want the animals to deter the soldiers but nothing happens because the animals are used to their trapped habitats and only watch the guards pile in rather than try the unlocked doors.

  “They’re up there!”

  The call raises some of the nearer animals’ curiosity and they push against the sides of the cages, a few happening to, unpredictably to them, fall against doors that swing open. Rhinoceroses and zebras burst out of their holdings and take the chance to roam. Something I don’t recognise with claws, more brave and hungry than other animals, hurries towards the group of children whilst other more timid species hold back or head in the other direction. I feel bad that animals could be shot and killed in this process but we need the chance to escape and I decide that any blame should be aimed in President Callister’s direction.

  “Give it a second,” Zeke says.

  I step in front of him. “They’re not going to shoot me.”

  The rhino races against the back walls and it doesn’t hold well so bursts under the strength of its horn and the animal takes one door off its hinges. Other beasts notice what’s going on and take their chance to flee, looking for the doors to their own cells. A herd of sheep hold back, cowering where they have been stationed.

  As a variety of animals become disoriented and feel threatened, they advance on the guards who manage to duck out of the way but one girl is trampled in the process. I shut my eyes to the violence but only for a moment because we can’t hesitate much longer.

  Screams emanate from the central concourse down the hallway as other animals cause havoc farther away.

  “Ready?” I ask, thinking enough of a diversion should be set up now, watching as the army avoid other animals headed their way.

  “Yeah, but watch out for that,” says Zeke, pointing towards an alligator slunk low to the ground, facing down one of the soldiers.

  I’m the first to climb down but am stopped by the monkey or ape or whatever it is that has come to the entrance of its cell to inspect us. “Hey there, orang-utan,” Zeke says calmly, as he joins me.

  The orang-utan stands in front of me and stares me in the face. I have no idea how much danger I’m in and am frozen to the spot. The animal inspects me, curious by how similar I am to it, maybe aware that I am part of the group that has locked him up. The orang-utan brushes my face with the back of his hand, feeling my skin. It tilts its head, bemused by my presence and then a gun blasts as someone battles another animal in the vicinity and the orang-utan spins and jumps towards its tree for safety, swinging to a high branch out of reach.

  “What have we done?” I ask Zeke, realising how many animals we’ve put in harm’s way to protect ourselves and deciding it’s unfair to swap our lives for theirs. I look around and it’s still only a minority of animals that have left their cells.

  “Follow me.” Zeke and I race around the outskirts of the cages on the edge of the warehouse until he reaches the monitor and starts typing in a series of instructions. The cages lock, preventing any more problems for the more timid of animals.

  “Stop, by the command of President Callister,” a young girl in full uniform says to us. Zeke and I are trapped, with her in the way.

  A goat bleats from the side and distracts her so Zeke charges at the girl and knocks her over. He grabs her gun and we carry on.

  It’s a clear run back to the centre of the concourse, with a few Upperlanders on different floors screaming as some birds of prey swoop around the balconies, causing people to dive for cover. A few guards battle with the rhino on the opposite side of where we are. We hurry towards a stairwell and sprint down to the ground level. There’s only one boy standing guard at the exit to the fortress as everyone has gone on the attack but he’s not focused on us, instead tracking something in the distance with his eyes.

  “Move out of the way,” Zeke says. “Or I’ll shoot.”

  The soldier raises his gun but Zeke pulls his trigger first, killing him. He was a child, convinced by the Upperlanders to protect them, taken from his family in the Middlelands. I will lament his death later, relieved that Zeke had to kill rather than me doing it.

  “You ok?”

  Zeke nods, trying to fathom what he’s just done. “Let’s go.”

  We carry on through the door and pull it shut behind us. There’s no one but I know they’ll follow. “There’s no panel. I can’t lock it.”

  “It’s only supposed to be opened from the inside. No one should be able to come in without being welcomed.”

  I turn around to take in the exit. In front of me are two elevator shafts and a stairwell around them. I look down, between the gaps in the elevators and I can’t make out the ground. The fortress aesthetics are lost here; instead it is just the inside of a mountain carved out, dark and dank, except for some low-lighting built into the sides at spaced-out heights.

  I push the button for the elevators but neither is at this level and one begins to kick into action. It whirrs as the pulley winds the cable round, lifting the compartment unhurried. Every second feels like a lifetime as we wait for it to arrive. Zeke shoots the cable to the other elevator and it snaps apart, spinning down to the ground, putting the second compartment out of action so that we can’t be followed. When the metal cage finally opens up to us I step in. “Come on.”

  “No.” Zeke waves the gun. “I’ll keep them back. Get as far as you can.”

  “Don’t be an idiot.”

  “Go,” he yells at me.

  I try to grab his arm but he shrugs it off and pushes the button inside to send me down. I’m in too much of a shock that this boy has allowed me a chance to escape by leaving himself in danger. There’s nothing I can do except be carried downwards. A gunshot roars through the descent and I can only imagine what that means for Zeke.

  The elevator keeps moving and it finally reaches its destination. I’m grateful for Zeke for giving me that much of a chance and I hope he’s somehow alright. “Zeke!” I shout, but I doubt my voice makes it to the top. I look up but I can’t see anything, only hearing the sound of more guns being fired.

  I run along the illuminated tunnel away from the shaft. There’s only one route and I assume it will open out to the Upperlands. I don’t know what will be waiting for me but the lack of the soldiers’ presence is more disturbing than reassuring; I know how many of the Middlelanders President Callister trained up and I wonder where they all are. I wonder what she thinks about my escape.

  It doesn’t take long before I reach the end and climb some stairs, which lead me into a room with a single exit that opens up into the bottom of a familiar-looking building but I remember that all of the Upperlands’ apartments were much the same. This could be the one I worked in or any other. All I know is that I’m back on solid ground, feeling an unexpected sense of relief to be in this city.

  I could climb up the building and find somewhere to hide but I need to get over the Fence and away from here so I sprint out of the building and am hit by a burst of icy air as I take in the incredible s
ight in front of me.

  3 P.M. – 4 P.M.

  Ruskin

  “Theia?”

  It’s not the army we expected but instead a solitary girl, the very person we’re braced to rescue, not needing our help to break out after all even if she is out of breath and appears terrified. Ronan is the first to approach her but she doesn’t move. I would have thought she’d be thrilled to be reunited but when he tries to hug her she backs away.

  She looks around anxiously, trying to look for something and ignoring the rest of us. “They’ll make me kill you,” she says, disoriented and suspicious. “This isn’t real.”

  “Is anyone following you?” Dante asks, but she doesn’t hear him.

  “We need to take cover,” says Travis. “Anyone could be behind her.”

  “Hey,” Melissa says, quelling him. “Can’t you see she’s distressed? Give her a moment.”

  Theia takes her time as she inspects Melissa, then me and the other people here. She knows some of us and seems to be trying to work out who she recognises and whether they’re friend or foe because the number of strangers far outweighs the few of us that are familiar. We hold back as Theia and Ronan face off against one another. “This isn’t real,” she repeats.

  “They brainwashed you. They got me too but I promise you this is real. We came to free you and kill President Callister.”

  She looks behind her. “They made me see people. I killed them. This is another ruse.” Theia looks pained, as if she’s not sure of herself and has been through similar experiences.

  Jack turns to me. “Prove she’s safe.”

  I think for a moment then retrieve a photograph. “Theia. It’s me, Ruskin. You’ve never seen this so President Callister can’t know about it.” I hold out the square printout and hand it over to Theia who starts to decipher it as we wait to see if it’s enough.

  Theia

  Henry. My heart leaps out of my stomach. It’s been so long since he died and his face has started to fade from my memory but he’s just as handsome in this photograph as I remember, with his arm around Ruskin’s, the two of them pulling faces into the lens. It’s the truest thing I’ve seen for so long and I know that this can’t be a ruse.

  I hurry into Ronan’s arms. He is nearly as tall as me and clutches me tight. I sigh, finally reunited. “I’m so sorry. I did everything I could to protect you.”

  “It’s ok,” he says. “None of this is your fault. Leda’s...”

  “I know. I saw her.” I break the embrace and look at the others, uncertain about the two other soldiers in the group but their presence seems to cause no suspicion amongst my friends. Next I take in the adults who are with them that must be some of the Middlelanders to survive the cull and then I embrace Melissa, the person who has been closest to me from the night of the first cull.

  “You came back for me.”

  “Team effort,” she says.

  “Hey Jack.” I’m pleased that he and Ruskin are still together and alive but I know that there is so much danger behind us. “Thanks Ruskin, for this.”

  “Keep it. In case you need it.”

  “We really should get going,” the lady with the auburn hair says. I count five adults with us.

  “What’s going on?” I ask, but I know the answer: they’re planning on going back into the fortress.

  “We have to stop President Callister,” the boy Ronan’s age says. “She’s sent an army to kill everyone. Cal. This is Francine. Nice to finally meet you.”

  “Are there many soldiers in the fortress?” Jack asks.

  “A few.” I think of Zeke, hoping that he’s still alive. “Leda’s there. And someone else. A boy who helped me.”

  “We’ve got a bit of an army,” Melissa says.

  I catch the eyes of the other woman who is standing next to a man and I can tell they are a couple just from their closeness. Another of the men looks gruff, displeased that we’re wasting time, and the other man has made some distance from the rest of us, eyeing up the exit.

  I have so many questions for them as I’m sure they have for me but we need to move – amazingly to what I expected – back into the fortress, which is the last thing that I thought I’d be doing. Suddenly something occurs to me. “Did Selene make it? And Maddie?” The last time I saw Selma’s daughter was from the helicopter away from the Fence bleeding out on the ground whilst Melissa, Ruskin and Jack tended to her wounds. Maddie ran away from the arena into the Upperlands to escape the flood that never arrived and I don’t know if she made it past the explosions.

  Sorry we’re late,” a girl calls from some distance away, answering my question. Perfect timing from Selene and one other by her side.

  “As if I’d miss the reunion,” Maddie says, as they catch up to us.

  Zeke

  I’ve already taken out the first elevator but it took too long for Theia to descend before I could destroy the one she was in before the guards reach me. The door into the fortress doesn’t hold and the soldiers burst through when she’s not even halfway so I retreat to the stairwell and watch a few angry child soldiers scout for me. It’s easy to find me even behind the metal railings so they take fire and I have to dive out of the way and push myself to the steps. Now that Theia’s gone there’s no value in holding off from bullets straying and missing me.

  I slink down a few more stairs but even to the first landing is so far and there’s no way I can avoid the soldiers if I try to run. I make it to the first corner behind the elevator shaft and shoot back a few times to scare them into retreating but it does nothing as a bullet whizzes past my head and lodges into the wall behind me.

  The elevator stops whirring and I take the chance to aim at the pulley above that keeps it moving, buying Theia as much time as possible seeing as I won’t be using it. I miss but the soldier who shoots at me doesn’t and the bullet bursts through my wrist. I scream in pain and drop the gun.

  I crouch on the ground and I know that it’s only a matter of time before they catch up to me and I’m dead, so with all of my courage I pick up the gun with my left hand and shoot three times at the roof of the cavern. The third bullet hits the cable, which slides out of its position and falls heavily through the air downwards.

  It may not be much but it could be all the difference for Theia; even if the soldiers take the stairs they’ll never catch up to her and all I can do is take comfort that I may have allowed her to reach the Middlelanders and come back with force, retaliating stronger than if they arrived blind to the layout.

  There’s a temporary halt but the guards will advance any second now. I clutch my wrist but it’s no good because an artery has been torn apart so I don’t bother trying to move but instead think of my father who died because I spoke out against the Upperlanders all the way to me ending up wounded on the stairwell of the fortress when instead I should have kept quiet and safe in my place in the new world. I should have been loyal and obedient to President Callister but I made a choice to defy her. I couldn’t live with myself for ignoring the plight of so many that suffered before me and I hope that somehow my most recent actions rectify that, admonishing me of some of the shared burden of what’s already passed.

  The soldiers wind down the stairs and my body takes flight with impulsive despair. I scarper but slowly, losing too much blood to make any headway. I know I’ll never make it out of here alive but I push on.

  Almost immediately, a guard who is one of the youngest I’ve seen stands over me and I realise I must be passing in and out of consciousness from my injury as one moment she’s not there and, in what I must think is the blink of an eye, she is. She aims a gun at my face and I know my time is up.

  My final thought is in wishing Theia luck as the bullet...

  Selene

  “That was easy,” I say, setting eyes on Theia.

  “Not quite,” she replies.

  “Two Silverdales down, one to go. That’s the plan right?”

  Theia hugs me. “Thanks for coming. And thanks fo
r being alive.”

  I rub my side. “This? It’s nothing.” I ignore both the pain and Melissa’s unimpressed glare at me. That final sprint back to the meeting point was gruelling but even worse would have been missing them, not that I let either of those points be known.

  “Theia,” Maddie says. They embrace, Theia more awkwardly with her but I don’t know why. “Thought you’d be more pleased to see me.”

  “I am. Sorry. It’s been a weird day. You’re ok?”

  “A story for another time.”

  “Did you find what you were looking for?” Melissa asks me.

  I was aiming to find out what happened to Nathaniel but instead I found answers to questions I never thought I’d receive: why my mother despised me, what happened to my father, why Nathaniel was on my tail for most of the great cull, and why I survived that night. Dr Penn, my father, told me Nathaniel was dead and I suppose that’s all I’ll get. Now I’m the last one alive.

  I nod, which is the best Melissa will receive for now.

  “Hey neighbour,” Maddie says to Dante.

  “You know each other?” Jack asks.

  “Me and Mitch? Used to.”

  It’s the first time any of us learn Dante’s first name. He grunts at Maddie and she doesn’t push it any further. We know nothing about him but the fact that he survived the cull means it’s likely that there are others he loved that didn’t make it. Maddie, like the rest of us, knows not to dredge up the past, especially if he’s not willing to rehash it himself. Still she adds a tease. “Mitch is a teddy bear at heart. Don’t fall for whatever this tough guy act is.” She playfully punches him on the arm.

  “Time to move,” he says, changing the subject.