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

by P. S. Lurie

  The device turns to static and now the fate of the Middlelands is out of our hands but that doesn’t fit well with me. “What do we do? We can’t wait.” I’m not good at sitting on my hands, waiting patiently for something to happen.

  “We don’t have to,” Theia says. “We can start here.”

  Theia

  I step out of my house onto the porch, no Leda hidden in my suitcase and no Ronan masquerading as Henry next door. The sun hasn’t risen. We haven’t yet survived this cull.

  More soldiers than I can count train their guns on me but I don’t retreat. I pluck up the courage to begin speaking, not quite sure exactly what I’ll say and all I know is that it will have to be convincing.

  “President Callister commanded me to kill my friends. We were born in the Middlelands. These are our houses. We refuse to play her games any longer.

  “You were born here too. My brother, Ronan, was one of you. He was taken from us after the great cull, after our family gave up their lives for him. My mother died to protect us. My father was confused and scared. Whatever happened that night, no one in the Middlelands betrayed anyone else. Even in his harried state, my father said words that allow us all to forgive one another: We cannot judge the decisions people make with or against their loved ones.

  “He was correct. The betrayal came from the Upperlanders who already knew the sea was receding. They did this for their entertainment and to build up an army of children, young enough to be convinced that they should be loyal to President Callister. Grateful to her.

  “She lied to you all. Ronan didn’t believe me when I told him but then he returned to this house and remembered. This is what you all need to do with your own homes. President Callister has already lost because you’re all stronger than what she’s made you believe. You should decide for yourselves. Return to your houses. They may be close to here or far but take the time to see them. Remember that night and the memories from before.

  “We may not have lived comfortable lives but they were honest. We can rebuild. If you follow President Callister she will use you. She has no plans for you in her new world. Her utopia is a lie. We can build something authentic. It may not be perfect but it will be in honour of our families.

  “We can rebuild.”

  I stop, proud that I managed to say everything I wanted to, believing in every word and amazed that the guards allowed me to keep talking but I don’t know if they were humouring me and the Upperlanders’ grip was too strong.

  I scan the crowd of children, who one by one lower their guns. A few begin to walk away with purpose whilst others trail behind more apprehensively. “Good job,” someone says by my side.

  Ronan. I don’t know how long he’s been there but it might have been his presence standing defiantly alongside me that convinced his peers.

  We watch as the crowd disperses so that I don’t feel immediately threatened once we’re back inside. The few soldiers that remain have guns but there aren’t enough of them to overpower us if we keep our distance. We still have a few minutes.

  “Ready to say it all again?” Ronan asks me, knowing that there are many other soldiers not around this area that will need to be empowered. My worry is that without seeing Ronan by my side the words won’t mean anything to them; if actions speak louder than words then we might be on a losing battle with the rest of the army.

  “Yes,” I still say, willing to try.

  “Good, because it’s ready,” Selene says from the kitchen, holding up the communication device in my direction.

  Ruskin

  Jack and I stand by the window listening to Theia’s heartfelt speech to the soldiers through the glass, terrified that any of the children could shoot her on the spot and then watch on as Ronan joins her. It gives me goose-bumps to think that her plan may work. During Theia’s announcement Selene hears from Maddie that they have been able to connect all the devices, not that the terminology means much to me or that I can picture what any of it looks like, but I take Cal’s assurance as more than enough and trust in his conviction that it will work.

  Theia comes back inside after watching the soldiers disperse, mentally exhausted from her plea, seeming to be in disbelief that she was successful.

  Ronan takes her hand. “It’ll work. The moment you got me to look around at the room and really stop believing the lies that I was fed was when I was convinced.”

  “You still tried to kill me.”

  “They’ll be alone. They’ll have no one to attack. Besides, President Callister worked harder on me than any of the others.”

  Selene adds to the conversation. “Once they remember their past they’ll calm down.”

  “Cal and Maddie seem to be out of harm’s way but President Callister could cut the electronics any minute,” says Jack.

  Theia takes the device and repeats her address, much like the first but with more focus on remembering family anecdotes, details and furnishings in their homes.

  I step outside and watch on as a few stragglers are only just moving away. Theia’s voice blares out of all of their uniforms. “It’s working,” I mouth to her, not interrupting her flow. She nods with approval and continues to beseech the guards to return home. I hope it’s enough for those still up in the fortress to make the journey back here as well as for those down by the water to quit the attack on the Middlelanders out at sea and march back towards these neighbourhoods.

  We listen again, chilled to the bone as Theia attempts to end the Upperlands rule.

  “I’ll repeat it soon,” she says.

  “No need,” Cal says through the device. “I found a way to loop it. There’s a function the engineers used when giving the announcement to the homeless during the first cull and to some of you in the prison. You’re done, Theia.”

  “We’ll protect this room,” Maddie adds. “And then come and join you.”

  “There are three men,” I say. “They need to be punished regardless of what happens.”

  Jack glares at me.

  “Arrested,” I clarify.

  “I know who they are,” says Cal. “The Upperlanders we’ve met are realising what they’ve allowed to happen. They’re ashamed but I don’t think they’ll give us any grief. The leaders will find themselves backed up against a wall.”

  “What do we do now?” I ask.

  “You all need to leave,” Theia says. “Go next door or somewhere safe until the soldiers are calm. There’s one more person I need to talk to.” She pushes on the device. “Cal, can you open a link to one other connection in particular while the loop is playing?”

  “Think so. Give me the name and I’ll set it up.”

  “President Callister.”

  Selene

  We protest but Theia is unyielding. “I need to do this last part alone. Ronan, take Leda and go with the others.”

  “I should stay with you. She might be armed.”

  “She’ll want to talk to me.”

  “We’ll go to my house,” Ruskin says. “You know where that is and we won’t be disturbed by any soldiers returning to their homes.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I have to go to Melissa’s house first,” I say. “See if she’s dead or if there’s anything I can do. Plus, there’s no news from Claire, Tess or Travis.”

  “Be safe,” Theia says to me.

  “Aren’t I always?”

  I walk through the house and pass into the garden, jumping over the rear fence into Melissa’s house. As I am about to enter Melissa’s house I hear a buzz from the distance. I’ve heard it enough times to know it’s a helicopter but I don’t wait around to see it approach.

  Melissa is in her room on the floor with a single, fatal wound to her back.

  I drop down and cradle her body and then I cry floods of tears, for her, for my mother, and father. For Nathaniel. For everything and everyone. But mostly for relief that my story is over. If Theia is successful with taking down President Callister then once I leave this house I might have the chance
to live a life I have been deprived of for so long. I have lost nearly everyone I cared for along the way but I have also survived through torture and know that even though some nightmares will remain I have grown stronger than I ever imagined possible.

  I will look for Tess, Claire and Travis but not yet. I will also take my time reuniting with the others and wait here for a while. I don’t know what will be out there waiting for me so I will be stepping into the unknown but, for the first time, the unknown promises hope instead of dread.

  Theia

  Ronan carries Leda downstairs and I give her a kiss on her forehead, knowing that it will take time before she comes to see me as her sister and much longer before I can explain everything coherently to her. Jack pats me on the arm as he leaves the house followed by Ruskin who wishes me luck.

  “Sure you don’t want me to stay?” Ronan asks, the three of us reunited in our house. The last thing I should want is to separate but I know that this final encounter with President Callister will require focus and they can’t be around for her to use as leverage. I stare at my brother and sister and remember my mother’s words that have filled my nightmares, both asleep and awake.

  “They’re your responsibility now.”

  I hope that she’d be proud of me but I also hope even more that her voice will dampen in my mind.

  “I’ll be fine, Ro. I’ll see you soon.”

  “Theia,” Ronan adds, just before leaving. “Happy birthday.”

  I widen my eyes. “Is it?”

  “Your seventeenth. I only just remembered myself.”

  “Wow.” It doesn’t mean a lot but at the same time I revel in it because it’s a marker for surviving so long. The water should have been over our house before I turned sixteen but here we are, a year and a half later, with the opportunity to live once more in safety as a family. I don’t remember my sixteenth, in the Upperlands when I was living in the barracks and focusing on Leda’s health, walking the fine line between proving my loyalty and gratitude without being promoted. Birthdays didn’t have much importance then.

  “It’s all coming back to me. Mum and dad loved us.”

  I smile at Ronan. “They did.”

  He leaves and my ears only just pick up on the hum of the helicopter drawing near.

  “Cal?” I speak into the device.

  “Ready whenever you are,” he replies.

  I take a deep breath. “President Callister. If I’m correct, you’re on the way to see me. If I’m wrong then you’re escaping. I think you know that you no longer have an army. Don’t be a coward. Come and face me.”

  The helicopter is almost deafening as it draws near and I know that she has not fled. Her voice comes across the device, barely audible above the din. “I look forward to your hospitality, Theia.”

  “I’ll be waiting. This ends now.”

  I’m alone in my house, just as I was at the end of the great cull but everything is different.

  Ronan and the others have gone as I look down the street. Up above, the helicopter appears from in front of the house and then out of sight as it hovers nearby. I close the door and make my way through the downstairs rooms. I look through the double doors towards my garden. The helicopter moves away.

  In the centre of the grass, exactly where my mother was gunned down a hellish eighteen months ago, stands the woman who masterminded all of the evil.

  8 P.M. – 9 P.M.

  Theia

  I’ve been in her company many times before but now I’m face to face with President Callister for what I’m sure will be the last time. The helicopter has moved off and she doesn’t seem dishevelled through the descent, her hair still impeccable. In fact, she doesn’t seem ruffled at all considering I have turned an army against her.

  “They couldn’t land,” she says. “It’s just me.”

  She sounds defeated but I’m not willing to let down my guard just yet. “They’re still your army?”

  “They flew me here out of courtesy but you’d convinced them to land and then return to their homes. They’re not my army anymore.”

  I go to speak but she cuts me off. “You didn’t play by the rules.”

  “I won’t lose sleep over it.”

  I approach her but stop before I’m within reach, afraid that she could still lash out at me now that Ronan and Leda are no longer under her control and I’m not her prisoner. There is still the merest chance that all of today has been one big ruse and she will wake me up in the fortress, just one more drugged state, but too much has happened including conversations between Ruskin and Selene and me that the Upperlanders wouldn’t have known about so it’s safe to say that I’m free from her grasp. She knows this and has come to talk to me but I don’t know why. I want to hear her out because if she’s going to tell me the truth then it will be here, without an audience, with nothing left for her to lose.

  On television sets, in the arena from afar and up close in the fortress she is a threatening figure, powerful and astute, but in the dim light she appears smaller, with no army to back her. Not invincible.

  “Where are Ronan and Leda?”

  “Safe. Away from here.”

  “I never had the chance to say goodbye. With no children of my own it was an honour to spend six months with your sister. I will always cherish that.”

  “This was about having your own family? There was an easier way than that.”

  “You still don’t understand, do you? About the way of the world. Plenty of governments have been and gone, plenty of unrest and angry protests, of hatred between communities, and wastefulness of the world’s resources. Animals have become extinct. The flood offered us the opportunity many others didn’t have: a restart.”

  “You used it as an excuse to persecute and kill.”

  “We needed time. The flood was receding but the world wasn’t ready to be re-populated.”

  “You could have left us alone. Thousands, no, tens of thousands died because of you. Families were torn apart.”

  “You’re not so innocent. The Lowerlanders were wiped out in front of your very eyes. They froze and starved to death. I commanded the deaths of those at the Fence’s base during the Great Cull but only because we didn’t factor them in for Rehousing. You and your people ignored their plight. Responsibility goes farther than just my government.”

  I shirk at the blame rightfully directed at me. We did turn our backs on those desperate for salvation. It will be something I will have to come to terms with in time.

  “You killed your own people. You told me you’d explain. Here’s your chance. Tell me.”

  “You must have worked it out by now. We wanted to build a new world, full of intellectual and strong people. Those worthy of seeing my plan through to completion were offered a chance to come to the fortress whilst the lazy, wasteful people deserved nothing. They were the worst of all, cheering on your deaths, starving themselves for appearance, feeding themselves gluttonously until they were obese, burning through electricity, wasting their days on mindless entertainment. Where was there pity for you? Why did they not revolt?”

  “You would have imprisoned them.”

  “Perhaps so. But you were imprisoned and look at you now.”

  “Why me?” It’s the question I’ve wanted to ask above anything. It feels surreal that I’ll finally receive an answer, and I won’t leave here until it is satisfactory.

  “Determination. I’ve told you this many times, Theia. The Upperlanders in the fortress all showed remarkable talents. They were the top in their fields with enough brainpower to build Utopia. But they were sheep. None showed the perseverance to survive as you did, or the conviction to confront injustice. You and your friends became a beacon of hope in my eyes that there were some who would triumph despite all odds. I commanded the guards to kill anyone else except for a final few: you, Selene, Ruskin and Jack.

  “Melissa?”

  “My sincere apologies. I understand that she showed determination but I must admit that she was no
t on my radar. I may have underestimated her. I am sorry for her death.”

  “What did you want with us?”

  “Theia. Look at me. I may have kept order through bullying but I have paved the way for the new world and I am proud of that. I will never apologise for the difficult decisions I had to make to preserve humankind. And now it is time for me to hand over the reins. The world needs a new leader; one that understands how to face up to unthinkable decisions and has the determination to guide a community towards a utopic existence.”

  “I despise everything you stand for. Why would any of us continue your plans?”

  “It would have been your right to change them. You could have chosen how to rule. But do not dismiss what I have achieved. Animals have been given the chance to prosper. The world won’t be exhausted of its resources. People will be educated.”

  “There had to be a better way.”

  “Look at history. Every time a crisis hit the nations around the world they failed. They fought each other through pettiness, insecurity and betrayal. Walls weren’t enough. Plenty of the population was dead long before the water reached their shores. As I said, the world needed a reset.”

  “I wouldn’t kill my friends.”

  “I know. I didn’t expect you would. So a few of you now remain and it will be for you to decide with those still in the fortress and those out at sea what happens next. Those two societies coming together will be a fascinating scenario, along with all of my soldiers who can return to being children. If I may be so forward, although no clear leader emerged, I have faith that it will be you who will work out a path.”

  “What about you? You’re giving up?”

  “I’ve done my part. I may be remembered as a figure of hate, a creator of evil and genocide but the world can breathe once more.”

  “In my world, decisions will be considered and judged fairly,” I say, thinking of fairness over dictatorial rule. “A legal system to determine actions. You will face the correct punishment.”