“Yes. We are laying the groundwork for a revolution. A civil revolt, where the people overthrow the government. The people outnumber the UNA guards a hundred to one. Most successful revolutions come from within. You know that.”
“And after the revolution?” another rebel in our group asks. “Tell us the plan again. I want to know that risking my neck is worth it!”
“Once the citizens rise up and bring down the government, more scientists will come over and help set up a new provisional government, in conjunction with the European Coalition. The goal is to ultimately create a new democracy, and hold fair elections. We have no plans to hold on to power like dictators. The people need to choose their own leaders. We will help guide them onto that path, until the UNA is a free country once again. We will also work to distribute food and medical supplies, and to keep the infrastructure running as best we can.” She pauses. We’re all staring at her. “I’m not saying that any of this is going to be easy. There will be spies to root out, and pockets of government resistance to combat. But I believe that once the citizens know the truth, and hear your stories, and learn about the existence of the rebel cells, they will no longer be satisfied to live under the UNA’s tyranny.”
“I hope she’s right,” Gadya mutters.
“Me too,” I reply. I feel a knot in my stomach. I reach for Liam’s hand, and I squeeze it. He squeezes it back.
“Now let’s go see everyone else,” Dr. Vargas-Ruiz says. “It’s time.” We all stand up and follow her out of the meeting hall and up a wide dirt pathway. I glance around. The other kids look nervous, but also determined. We keep walking.
Our path leads to a huge cleared area in the forest where many of the other inhabitants of Island Alpha are waiting for us, along with the airplanes that will take us back to the continental UNA.
We walk onto a raised wooden platform, a foot off the ground. I stand between Liam and Gadya. The other kids who are going back to the UNA follow. To our left is a homemade dirt runway.
Many of our friends didn’t pass the test, like Cass—mostly because they were hampered by old injuries. Alun was automatically disqualified because he only has one good eye. And Rika and Emma refused to take the test because they are avowed pacifists and don’t want to fight anyone. I respect that stance. I used to be just like them until I was forced to become someone different.
But I wish they were traveling with us. I grew to depend on their various skills, and I trust them with my life. From our group of friends, it will only be me, Liam, and Gadya moving forward and being sent back to the UNA.
Of course, that’s just in the first wave. There will be another wave after we have established ourselves within the rebel cells. Cass is going to train for the next round, and I hope that she makes the cut. She’s already learning how to compensate for her injuries.
Nearly everyone is gathered here today to wish us good luck. It’s a massive crowd.
My mother—who is one of the scientists running Island Alpha—will be staying here on the island. Not because she wants to stay, but because she is so recognizable to the UNA government. That makes her a high-value target for them. If she came back with us and got captured, the UNA soldiers would use any methods possible to extract information from her. She knows too much to take that risk.
The same is true of Dr. Vargas-Ruiz and the other head scientists. They must stay behind so they don’t jeopardize our entire mission. That is one of the reasons they are sending kids like me, Liam, and Gadya back to the UNA first. We are not as recognizable to the UNA’s facial recognition technologies, and we know far fewer secrets than the scientists do. All we know is the plan: work with the rebels and help them engineer a civil revolt from within the UNA. If we get caught and interrogated, we will have much less information to give away than some of these older scientists.
I know that many of the adults—such as the airplane pilots who will be flying us back to the UNA—have been given cyanide capsules to take, in case they are captured. When Liam and I asked Dr. Vargas-Ruiz a few days ago why they didn’t tell us more information, and then just give us cyanide capsules to carry as well, she said she was afraid that some kids would get scared and not take them.
“But some of the adults might get scared and not take them too,” I pointed out.
Dr. Vargas-Ruiz looked at me and said, “I agree. But there’s no way we could authorize giving cyanide capsules to teenagers. That would make us just as bad as the UNA.”
“But you’re asking us to risk our lives for the cause anyway,” Liam told her. “How is it any different?”
“It just is,” she said, without further explanation. “Besides, you know everything you need to know to complete your mission successfully.”
I’m still not fully satisfied. But I know that once I get integrated into a rebel cell, I will do my best to bring down the UNA.
The crowd in front of us suddenly starts quieting down. Dr. Vargas-Ruiz steps out from the throng. She adjusts her glasses and pushes back a wayward strand of frizzy gray hair. She’s about to give an official speech. I have already said my good-byes to my mom in private, and to Rika and Cass, and all my other friends who are staying behind. I can’t let myself think too much about what it means to leave them, or else I’m afraid I’ll break down. I have to keep moving forward or else I will fall apart.
The relationship between me and my mom is still evolving. For years I thought I was an orphan, so I am still adjusting to her presence in my life again. Being together like this on Island Alpha has given us a chance to reconnect.
When I told my mom it was thoughts of her and my dad that had kept me going when I was sent to the wheel, she said that I’d served the same purpose for her.
“One of the reasons I fought so hard for everyone’s freedom is so that you could know what it felt like to grow up in a free world, instead of in the UNA,” she told me one day. “You deserve that. Everyone does.”
I wish she were here right now. But she’s hard at work synthesizing DNA in a makeshift lab. Her absence would have upset me a few months ago, and made me feel like she didn’t care about me. But now I know that sometimes she hides behind her work for a reason.
Strong emotions tend to make her feel vulnerable, so she walls off her heart. It was like that when I was younger—my dad was the one I was closest to. So I know that the real reason she isn’t here to see me leave is because it would upset her too much. As one of the leaders of our rebel colony, she must keep her feelings in check.
Liam touches my arm. “Look.”
“What?” I ask.
“It’s about to start.”
I see Dr. Vargas-Ruiz adjust the microphone.
“Today is the day!” she calls out, wasting no time on opening remarks. Her voice is loud through amplified speakers. “The revolution to reclaim our country begins here and now!” The crowd murmurs with excited anticipation. Liam takes my hand.
“We’ve been waiting years for this day,” Dr. Vargas-Ruiz continues. She turns to look at us. “You are our only chance at establishing a new society in the UNA and stopping the government’s tyranny. We will fly you there. And drop you down in the heart of the UNA behind enemy lines.” She pauses, brushing away a drop of sweat. “But in the end, no matter what we do to help you, this journey is one that you must complete alone. Nobody else is going to help you. Your fate, and the fate of the UNA, is in your own hands. The rebel cells will take action. But they need your leadership and knowledge. You will give them strength. And after you, we will send a second wave, and a third and a fourth. Eventually this island will be abandoned and we will all be back home, setting up a new government.”
She turns back to look at the crowd. I see Cass and Emma standing there watching us. Dr. Vargas-Ruiz starts talking again.
“These kids are your hope too,” she tells the crowd. “While they are gone, we must keep order here, so that we’re prepared to return to the UNA, and help rebuild it. I know that these chosen ones will succeed
.”
Some kids in the crowd cheer and applaud. Others just watch us calmly. I can’t tell if they wish they were going too, or if they are glad that we’re leaving instead of them.
“We will win, no matter what the cost,” Dr. Vargas-Ruiz continues.
A few voices in the crowd rise up to support her, repeating her words: “No matter what the cost!” More voices pick up the cry. Some of the kids bang their spears and arrows against the rocks, creating a cacophony.
“If all goes well, we will ultimately liberate the UNA. Now is our time of victory!” she calls out. It’s the first time I’ve heard her so emotional and intense. Usually she is cold and remote. But not today.
People are clapping and cheering, but I know that these are just empty gestures. We could fail just as easily as we could succeed. I have heard such speeches before, and they often preceded times of terrible chaos and war. I hope Dr. Vargas-Ruiz is right, but there is no guarantee.
The noise of the crowd is interrupted by a loud wailing noise. It’s a keening, tortured sound. For a second I think it’s a hoofer—one of those genetically engineered animals that roam the island and provide a source of food for us, like a cross between a boar and a hyena.
When I see the source of the sound, I flinch.
The wailing is coming from a man, not an animal. He’s standing up high on a pile of jagged granite rocks, off to the side of our gathering. He’s shirtless, covered in filth and mud, his white beard and hair making him look like a deranged prophet. His hands grip a long piece of copper electrical wiring that he’s found somewhere.
This man is Dr. Barrett.
The crowd falls silent.
Dr. Barrett will not be coming back to the UNA with us. He may have recovered physically from the brutal injuries he sustained at the hands of Meira and the drones, but he has not recovered mentally. The scientists believe Meira gave him some kind of drug to permanently alter his mind. Most of what he says doesn’t make any sense. He is a sad and shambling broken man who is no longer in control of his own thoughts.
At first, after we liberated the wheel and rescued him, he was violent, and his own guards from Southern Arc kept him confined in a wooden shack. They took turns watching him. Eventually he calmed down, and they released him. But his sanity didn’t return. Now he roams the island freely, often talking to himself. His face bears the circular scars of the metal torture mask that Meira forced him to wear. He is like a ghost of himself.
At times I’ve caught glimpses of him through the trees, his sagging, scarred white flesh visible through the verdant foliage. I usually look away, not wanting his eyes to catch mine. He is proof of what the UNA can do to a person. He was once a charismatic leader, but now he has lost his mind.
Dr. Barrett wails again, tilting his head back to cry out at the blue sky. Flecks of foam hang on his beard at the corners of his mouth.
“Not him again,” Gadya mutters.
Two of Dr. Barrett’s former guards from Southern Arc start heading in his direction, to restrain him.
“Someone take care of Dr. Barrett, please,” Dr. Vargas-Ruiz says softly. We keep watching. “Help him.”
Usually Dr. Barrett is in his own world, and doesn’t respond to what people say or do. At least not in a normal way. But today is different. He has heard Dr. Vargas-Ruiz’s words, and he pivots his head in her direction.
“I don’t need your help!” he cries out, in a tortured wail.
“Sure you do,” Gadya says next to me. “Why can’t someone shut that freak up?”
“Shhh,” I tell her. “C’mon.”
Dr. Barrett sees his former guards approaching, and he scampers up higher on the rocks as we watch.
“You don’t know what’s going to happen to you!” Dr. Barrett calls out to us in his hoarse voice. He holds up the piece of stripped electrical cable in one hand, like a whip. “You don’t know what’s waiting for you!” His eyes gleam with total madness. The circular scars on his face look weird and plastic-like under the glare of the sun.
“Please,” Dr. Vargas-Ruiz cautions him.
The silent crowd parts so that his guards can reach him, and take him away. But as the guards get closer, he moves even farther up the rocks. His feet are bare, and his toenails are like crusted yellow talons.
Dr. Barrett raises the electrical cable high above his head. “You’re all going to die!” he cries out. “I’ve seen it! I know what’s going to happen to you next!” His hand is trembling.
“Stop it, Doctor—” one of his guards begins.
Dr. Barrett holds out his bony arm, swinging the cable around. I think he’s going to try to whip the guards to keep them away from him. But then he brings his arm up, and lashes the wire down hard against his own back.
I realize that he’s flagellating himself. He cries out in agony. But then he whips himself again. Bits of skin and blood spray off his back, where the wire has torn into his flesh.
“Someone needs to stop this,” Liam says, stepping forward.
I step forward with him. “He’s really hurting himself this time.” But we are too far away to intervene.
“Let his guards help him,” Gadya says. “They know him best. He won’t struggle as much.”
Dr. Barrett whips himself again, and follows it with yet another anguished cry.
“Stop! Stop!” a guard cries out. People nearby in the crowd are trying to reach Dr. Barrett, but he staggers away, up to another rock, kicking at them with his feet. I see Alun in the crowd, trying to help the guards reach him.
“The Monk showed the future to me! In a vision! In a dream! When I was in his camp!” Dr. Barrett screams.
Unable to stop myself, I yell out, “That wasn’t the Monk! That was just a girl from our village wearing his mask. A spy named Meira!”
“There is no Monk!” Liam seconds. “It’s a myth!”
Dr. Barrett hears us over the noise of the crowd, and his eyes meet mine. His eyes are no longer bluish gray, but now slightly white and clouded as though he is getting cataracts. He glares at me.
I glance away for a second, feeling sick to my stomach.
“Yeah, there is no Monk and there never has been!” Gadya yells out in support of me and Liam. “Stop trying to scare everyone!”
Other kids start calling out in agreement. Dr. Vargas-Ruiz tries to restore order but no one listens to her.
One of Dr. Barrett’s guards finally reaches him, but Dr. Barrett lashes at the guard’s face with his whip, making the guard quickly retreat.
“The Monk is real!” Dr. Barrett screams at all of us. “I saw him. I know him. You are the ones who don’t know the truth about what the government is creating. You will die back in the United Northern Alliance! Don’t get on those airplanes!” He whips his own back again, writhing in pain. “I cry for each of you! You are already dead. You just don’t know it!”
One of the guards appears from behind him on the rocks, and yanks him sideways. The two of them tumble off the rocks together. Dr. Barrett is screaming as he claws at the guard’s bare skin. The guard starts screaming too, as Dr. Barrett bites down on his wrist and blood sprays into the crowd.
“There’s more than one Monk!” Dr. Barrett wails. “More than one of them! They are infinite! And their offspring will decimate the entire earth!”
Other guards and scientists pile onto him, trying to stop the violence. All of us watch from the stage, somewhat shocked. Alun is in the fray, now joined by Cass. Alun is trying to use his bulk to keep Dr. Barrett pinned to the ground. But Dr. Barrett is struggling, like he has the energy of ten men.
“This is pretty messed-up,” Gadya remarks. But she can’t tear her eyes away from the scene. Neither can I.
“What does he mean by ‘their offspring’?” I ask.
Gadya shakes her head. “No clue.”
“I don’t think he has long to live,” I tell Gadya. “I mean, despite how strong he seems right now. It’s like his mind has melted. He’s just one step above those dro
nes we fought for the test.”
“Agreed.”
I watch as the guards wrestle the electric cable from Dr. Barrett’s thrashing hands and hustle him away from us, down a dirt trail and into the forest. He struggles hard against them, whipping his head back and forth. I see the tendons in his neck straining underneath his sagging, mottled skin.
He finally moves out of view, but we can still hear his deranged cries and screams. They quickly grow fainter.
“Now settle down, everyone,” Dr. Vargas-Ruiz says loudly, trying to restore order.
It’s obvious that Dr. Barrett is completely insane, and I should put him out of my mind. But despite myself, Dr. Barrett’s words have filled me with dread. Not at the thought of being killed when we get to the UNA. That doesn’t scare me at all. But at the thought of ending up like him.
I know that if the UNA could somehow turn Dr. Barrett into this shambling madman, then I have no doubt they can break absolutely anyone. The right drug. The right threats. The right torture . Everyone has something that they are afraid of, or susceptible to.
I wish I knew exactly what Meira and the drones did to him. Maybe some of the spikes on the metal mask damaged his brain when they forced it on him. Or maybe he was slightly crazy from the start, after being trapped in Southern Arc for so many years.
“Don’t think about him,” Liam says softly into my ear, sensing my distress. “Just ignore everything he says. He’s lost it. He’s broken.”
I nod. “But everyone has a breaking point, Liam.” I turn and look up at him. “Aren’t you afraid that could happen to one of us?”
“No.” Liam squeezes my hand again. “Not to you or me, because we have each other. Besides, we need to look forward, not backward. We need to focus on our mission.”
In the distance, I catch a final unexpected glimpse through the trees of the guards, half-dragging Dr. Barrett up the trail. He continues to struggle and rave.
I glance away.
“Who knows, maybe he’ll get better one day,” Liam says. “We don’t know how this stuff works.”
“Doubtful,” Gadya adds.
The Defiant Page 3