by P. S. Lurie
“The big guy’s right,” says the girl in army gear. “We should move.” I like her manner: abrupt and forceful. It reminds me of how I looked eighteen months ago, the night I put on the uniform, although she seems much less terrified than I was.
“Any advice about what to expect?” Maddie asks Theia. I had a quick update from her about what she’s been doing in the six months living in the Upperlands but there’s no time to answer any more questions before noise comes from the building leading into the fortress, sounding the dawn of a war.
We turn to face the building, cautious of the numbers that will appear.
“There aren’t that many,” Theia says, inspecting our numbers and weaponry, about one gun for every two people, although Maddie and I have improved on that.
“We fight or hide?” Melissa asks.
“Fight,” Jack says. “That’s what we’re here to do.”
“Fight,” Theia also says.
Maddie hands her one of her two guns. “Found this one in the barracks. Got a feeling you might have left it there.”
We’re so focused on the entrance to the fortress that we don’t consider that we could be ambushed and it’s only when an explosion permeates the air that we realise danger is all around. Tess screams as Samuel drops to the floor and, without any hesitation, we disperse in a haze of panic.
Melissa
There’s neither rhyme nor reason for the direction I take flight other than to get out of the open and I end up behind a car with Tess, having to hold her down from returning to Samuel. “He’s dead,” I say, knowing that the bullet wound to his head was not intended just to slow him down.
Tess still isn’t convinced by that. “I have to go back.”
“You’ll be dead before you’ve even reached his body,” Selene says, who avoids a torrent of bullets to reach us.
I throw her a look that tells her to be kinder, that this is Tess’s first foray into the Upperlanders’ violence, having escaped the night of the great cull. The shooting continues and I look to each side but I can’t see anyone else, either on our team or against us. Whoever shot Samuel must have been waiting for us to congregate.
“You think we should move?” I ask Selene.
She puts her head around the car and a bullet flies past before she sweeps back, giving us our answer.
“How are you doing anyway?” I ask above the noise, not really the place for it but I want to know what happened with her during the last few hours.
“You mean my hip or the fact I just killed my father because Dr Penn, the person drugging me, turned out to be my dad? Or how I’m feeling right now?”
Her father? Selene throws a lot of information at me. “I’m sorry,” is all I can manage. I focus my attention on getting Tess to calm down as she’s still scrambling to get a look on Samuel and see if there’s anything she can do for him or if he’s dead already, which I can’t seem to convince her about. “We’ll go back for him as soon as we can but he’d want us to not do anything foolish.”
“Our baby,” she murmurs.
“Sounds like I’ve missed plenty,” Selene adds, only hearing about the pregnancy for the first time.
The gunshots halt but there’re no other sounds and I can’t see anyone from behind the car but it’s only a matter of time before someone advances. I think through our options but there’s only two: wait for someone to find us and hope it’s an ally or try to move to safety. One of the car’s windows shatters above us as a bullet shoots through and a shower of glass shards falls over our heads. The car alarm sounds, piercing my ears. I take the chance in the chaos to pull at the door handle and it easily gives way. Strewn on the floor inside are bags, probably leftovers from when a family moved to the Utopia and decided they didn’t want them anymore. I grab at them to find a collection of clothes and books.
“We’re going that way,” I say, as I point towards a building nearby. I throw the bags in the opposite direction and start up, pulling Tess with me. Selene is by our side too and we manage to make it into the building unharmed as the gunman is distracted by the movement in the opposite direction.
“Hey,” Claire says, already in here as we arrive. “Tess. I’m sorry.”
“We need to get to him,” Tess says, more defiant, in a quick turnaround. “First, let’s kill these bastards.”
Claire raises the gun at us and shoots but the bullet passes between us. I turn around to see a young boy on the pavement just outside the building but he’s already getting up and I remember Selene telling me about Nathaniel’s updated kit. Claire fires off three more bullets to attempt to take the boy out but his uniform is seemingly impenetrable and none of them stops him advancing. Even with a helmet on, I can tell that he is much younger than me and he’s about to kill us. I think back to Theia’s speech in the prison, which seems like forever ago, recalling snippets of her impassioned words that we have to decide whether to kill or be killed even if that means some of our enemies may be innocent themselves. This boy, like the rest of them, is indoctrinated and there’s no reasoning with him because he’s here with the sole aim of gunning us down.
Two more soldiers join him and we turn on our heels to retreat but I know that we won’t get far and I brace for the end but then Dante appears from the side and tackles them. He stabs one of the guards and manages to pierce the neck between the uniform and the helmet. The other two are too close to shoot properly and miss him. Dante pushes his gun into the second guard’s body and the bullet works its way through the fabric. Then the third soldier is taken out but what happens is a blur because Dante has managed to protect us but he’s badly injured. Blood spreads at several spots around his body and he can barely walk towards us without limping.
He staggers, blood lining his shirt and joining up between the wounds. Claire and Selene help him inside and he collapses in their arms, fatally wounded but still alive.
“We need to get you to the hospital.” I know it’s impossible to make it there in time to help him and, even if we were close by with no danger on the route, it’s unlikely that I’d be able to do anything for him. I know my limitations.
“I wanted them to be proud,” he says.
Maddie appears from the opposite direction of the street and races into the building. She bends down by Dante. “Hey Mitch.” She doesn’t even need a moment to catch up or for him to repeat the words for her benefit, knowing what consolation he needs to hear as he’s consumed by death. “They loved you so much. You’ll see them soon.”
I can only guess who she’s referring to but it causes him to smile and tear up, the first time I’ve seen him look like the vulnerable, soft person Maddie seems to remember him to be. If Dante lost people in the cull then everything he’s done since is likely to have been about making amends for surviving over them. He’s never told anyone about that night and now it’s a conversation he’ll avoid having. I think of my parents’ deaths and the part I played in it. Selma, the only person I told part of the truth to, took my secret to the grave and if I am to die here then I’ll be grateful for the little mercy of not having to live with it any longer.
Maddie strokes his face and it’s refreshing to see her tenderness, something she hid away in the prison. I can only start to guess at what she’s experienced on her own in the last six months but, with the two people in the hospital and Patrick, there may have been a decent number of people she has come into contact with. I don’t know how lonely she’s been but there must have been a reason for her to not want to travel beyond the Fence to find us.
Dante turns his head and looks to the heap of bodies outside. “I killed children.”
“You saved us,” Maddie says.
“They would have been similar ages. It could have been them.”
They’re the last words he says before he falls still. Maddie closes his eyes and dusts off her clothes as she stands.
There’s no time for mourning Dante’s death before Claire ushers us towards the stairwell. “Ruskin and Jack are u
pstairs, trying to get a good vantage point.”
“The others?” Selene asks.
Claire shrugs. Samuel and Dante are dead. Travis, Theia, Ronan and his friends are unaccounted for but the gunfight carries on in the distance and I don’t know which side is prevailing. All I know is that our numbers have dwindled and it’s likely that they’ll drop even more before this is over.
Theia
I don’t like being split up from the others as there’s so much we need to catch up about. I hate that this delays the return to the fortress to help Zeke but as we were attacked I made sure to follow Ronan because he’s my priority, or rather, my feet carried me on autopilot in the direction he took. He fled to the safety behind a wall that turned into a passageway, at least that’s what the Upperlands would call it: the alley is wide and clean, more spacious in this narrow street than we ever had in the Middlelands and the walls tower above us, not as tall as the Fence but this close to them and it’s impossible to see sky. There are five of us: Ronan, me, one of the men that I don’t know who must have survived the great cull, and two soldiers, both of whom must have also survived the cull but in a very different method because they were Rehoused. I think back to that bleary, dreadful morning, driven into the arena and the children separated from the rest of us. Instead of being offered a chance at a contented life, Francine and Cal were conscripted into President Callister’s army unbeknownst to any of us at the time of the Surge, their families having sacrificed themselves to give their children the best chance at living.
I’m worried about the others but I’m convinced I’m in safe hands.
Ronan took my gun from me and crouched to the ground to steady his sight of the opening to the alley. In spite of the bullets ricocheting off the uniforms, Francine, Cal and my brother manage to take out anyone that runs into view, their aim at the gaps between the helmets and the uniforms impeccable. Travis, the adult, doesn’t get a look in.
I’m in awe of my brother, both impressed and horrified at what he’s able to do.
“Glad they’re wearing helmets,” Francine shouts above the blasts.
Cal coolly turns to us, as the onslaught winds down. “They were our friends this morning,” he explains.
“You reckon many turned back from the Middlelands?” Francine asks.
“Nah, there’s only a handful of us. They can’t have been too bothered. This lot were waiting or still in the fortress.”
I watch as they expertly take out some stragglers, only just now noticing that Ronan has moved to block me as the attack grinds to a halt. I haven’t had a chance to ask my brother about Leda and how easily she can be retrieved. I don’t know if he’s seen her these last few months and I don’t know why but I’m reluctant to tell him about her bond with President Callister. Maybe it was because I was devastated when I found out and felt helpless to rescue her but now that we’re armed there’s no reason to hold back. He’s on his feet and smashes his elbow into a door halfway along the passage.
“This way,” he says, as I take in the stitches on his forehead; he’s been redesigned as if he’s indestructible and I shudder at whatever the people in the fortress have done to him and what that means about the legions of soldiers who must have caught up with Zeke. My brother, eight years old, along with an army of diehard children, stronger beyond what should be possible.
The others follow and Cal secures the door. We check that there’s no one about to launch a strike from inside the building before we have a moment to collect our thoughts.
“We need to get into the fortress. Zeke is there,” I say. “He took out the elevator shafts.”
“What do you think?” Cal asks Francine and Ronan.
“Can’t get there any other way,” Ronan says.
“How did you get out?” I ask my brother.
“Pretended I killed myself. These two helped me pass through the exit after I smashed my watch into pieces.”
“There are no other tunnels?” Travis asks.
Francine shakes her head. “Couldn’t risk anyone forcing their way up. Just the one route in and out.”
“Long story,” I add, “but there are a lot of animals roaming the fortress. Should keep the soldiers busy but it could be dangerous up there even if there only are a few guards.”
“You released them?” Cal asks.
I nod.
“I like her Ronan,” says Francine, and I admire the bond. I think about Melissa, Harriet, Selma and my shared experience in the barracks, supporting one another with stowing away Leda and keeping one another sane. I can’t even begin to imagine how much more difficult and dangerous it must have been for these three up in the fortress right under President Callister’s nose.
“We need to get Leda and Zeke,” I say, desperate to push ahead. And President Callister, I think to myself but don’t say out loud.
“Let’s circle round,” Cal decides. “We’ll meet up with whoever is still alive back at the meeting point you arranged and take our chances.”
“They won’t be there,” Ronan says. “I know where the others are headed.”
Jack
Ruskin and I look out from the window of the hallway up on the third floor. There’s no one in sight on the street below apart from Samuel’s lifeless body. I scan the windows in the adjacent buildings but don’t see any snipers or any of our group either. Claire’s downstairs but hers is the only whereabouts I know. Ruskin being alongside me is the most important thing and I know that he was angry I dragged him with me once the fighting broke out but I know he would have tried something foolish. I had to get him to safety. I may have prevented Ruskin from being in trouble but the others are still out there.
“Just as we found her,” I say.
“It’s a bit coincidental, her showing up like that.”
I’m surprised at his cynicism. “I know you’ve doubted Ronan but it’s Theia. You saw her reaction with the photograph of Henry.”
Ruskin has always been the more hopeful of the two of us, especially at the lowest points like when we were held in the prison but he’s never been cynical until the last few months and never more than today. “Maybe they let her go and it was a trap.”
“I don’t know. Just promise me we won’t get separated.”
He turns to me. “I’m by your side until the end.”
“Good. Me too.” I’m by your side too, I say to myself. Whichever way this ends. I’m starting to think I can’t do this, to take on an army, but I don’t let him know.
Claire returns with Tess, Selene, Maddie and Melissa in tow.
“Anyone else?” I ask, as Tess slinks into the corner and begins to sob.
“Mitch didn’t make it,” Maddie says. “Not sure about the others.”
“They could be trapped,” Ruskin says. “We should go find them. Jack? By my side?”
“Ronan and his two friends will be fine,” Selene counters. “I’m not worried about them.”
“Travis will take care of himself too,” Claire says.
“As will Theia,” I say to Ruskin to reassure him. “She’s survived much worse.”
I leave the group and go over to Tess, who has been joined by Melissa. I spent the most time with Tess in the operations room back in the Middlelands, debating how we should attack the Upperlanders but not planning for this scenario and I wonder if all the time I bought to calm Ruskin down and heal Selene was a waste and really we should have struck back months ago. I didn’t know Tess well outside of our strategy meetings but I could see how important Samuel was to her. I know what state I’d be in if it was Ruskin that was outside; in truth, I think she’s restrained compared to what I’d be doing right now.
“I’m sorry Tess.”
“They all deserve to die,” she says, in between tears.
“We’ll beat them but you need to look after the baby first. Nothing rash.”
“Give me a gun,” she says through gritted teeth, ignoring sense.
“It’s not what Samuel would have wante
d,” I say, aware that I’d be exactly the same and anyone saying these words would have only riled me up.
Tess gets her wish as the others come over. “We’re sitting ducks here,” Claire says. “Our best bet is to try and find the others. We still have to kill any soldiers that come our way but we’ve got more chance strengthened together. If enough of the army carried on towards the sea then there shouldn’t be too many in our way. More of the problem is how hard they are to kill and even a few of us attacking a stray soldier will prove difficult.”
“I don’t know this area,” Ruskin says, “but I have an idea where Ronan might go.”
“If he’s alive,” Claire says.
“And if the others are with him,” adds Selene.
Ruskin continues, having already told me the plan that he and Ronan must have discussed on the way to the Fence or even earlier when they first met outside Theia’s house. “There’s a shopping mall that Jack and I found when scouting during those few days when Selene was in the hospital. It’s not that far from the tunnel to the Middlelands so we said we’d regroup there if anything happened.”
“How do we find it?” Claire asks.
“I know where it is,” Melissa says. “I went there frequently when I was living here.”
“Me too,” Maddie says. “I’ve spent the last few months exploring and watching the soldiers monitor the area.”
“You didn’t want to come to the Middlelands?” I ask.
“There are a few of us living here. I was busy protecting them.”
“The kids in the hospital,” Melissa says.
Maddie gives out a little laugh. “They think they’re subtle but I’ve been keeping an eye on them, checking they’re ok and putting off any soldiers that were on their scent. It’s a miracle they’re alive. I couldn’t have left them.”
“Let’s go,” Claire says, reaching down to help Tess up but the girl pushes herself off the floor and walks to the door, wanting to lead the way.