Liam keeps grinning. “No. But it’s pretty much been impossible to predict anything since we left the wheel.”
“True.”
Gadya overhears us. “I didn’t expect this either,” she says. “It’s not what I hoped for! Where are all the other rebels? I thought we’d run into more of them.”
“Me too,” I tell her. “They must already be on their way to New Chicago, and to other cities.”
“We just have to keep biking,” Liam says. “The faster we get there, the better.”
“I’m guessing David still has some tricks up his sleeve,” I say. I look up at the sky. “We didn’t die yet. So David was right and Dr. Urbancic was wrong, at least in the short term. That’s a good sign.”
“David was right, but he could have helped us more already,” Liam says. “He likes to play games. I know that he’s smart, but I’m guessing he’s not as smart as he thinks he is. People rarely are.”
“He risked his life,” I point out, annoyed that Liam is still questioning his motives. “We all thought he was dead. I don’t think he was playing any games then. And you saw what happened to him. He lost an eye. And some fingers. He’s made way more sacrifices than any of us have.”
“Not more than Rika,” Liam says, after a moment’s thought. “I just don’t want any more surprises. Not for any of us. I just want to win the battle that we came here to fight.”
“Same here,” I tell him. Our eyes lock. We are equally resolute.
“Winning is our only option,” Gadya seconds. “After everything we’ve done, there’s no way I’m going to let the UNA get the better of us. And for once, we might actually have the upper hand.”
• • •
For the next several hours we ride on the bikes up a network of roads. We start to pass more people. At one point we see another man on a bike, and we pull off onto a side road so that he doesn’t spot us. We can’t risk being seen by anyone who can catch up to us.
The sun is setting. None of the bikes have lights on them, and even if they did, the lights probably wouldn’t work. Night is going to be pitch dark, except for the stars and moon. Just like it was on the wheel.
I estimate that we only have about another half hour of light. Then we will have to pull over for the night. It’s too risky to ride in the dark. We will sleep in the trees by the road, or try to find an abandoned building to take refuge in. Then, in the morning, we will continue our journey.
My legs are tired and my hands ache from gripping the handlebars. The bicycle seat is also digging into me uncomfortably.
I’m already looking forward to a rest, when I hear Gadya ask, “Do you see that?” There’s a note of caution in her voice that instantly makes me worried.
“What?” I call back. She’s riding nearby, to my left.
Liam cycles closer to me. We draw inward, trying to protect ourselves from whatever’s out there.
“In the trees,” Gadya says, pointing to the forest at the side of the road. “I saw something move.”
I look, but I don’t see anything. At least not yet. Neither does Liam.
“Let’s keep riding,” he says.
But right then I see a flash of light in the forest. In the dusk, I can see men with torches moving around. They’re stepping out of the woods and onto the road, about a hundred yards ahead of us.
I slowly come to a stop, hoping that we haven’t been spotted. Liam and Gadya bring their bikes to a halt too. We race to the side of the road and hide. I peer out through the underbrush.
What I’m looking at doesn’t make sense at first. It’s a large group of UNA soldiers—about forty of them—many holding lit torches. At the center of the group, some of the men are carrying a huge object, like a box. I try to get a glimpse of it. It’s large, and made of glass.
Then I see that there is a mutant inside the glass box. The creature is humanoid, but large, with scaly silver skin.
“What the hell is that?” Gadya breathes.
Liam squints, trying to get a better view.
The soldiers are carrying and escorting this strange, trapped creature across the road. There’s too many men to risk attacking. I see that most of them are carrying knives and truncheons.
“It’s a mutant,” Liam says.
I nod. “Like the kind Minister Hiram had locked up in his office. He said they don’t breathe. That they’re some advanced form of life.”
“ ‘Some sick and twisted form of life’ is more like it,” Gadya says.
“They must be creating these mutants for some purpose,” Liam adds. He turns to Gadya. “Give me your gun. I want to look through the scope.”
She gives it to him. He puts his eye up to the viewfinder.
“What do you see?” I ask.
He’s silent for a moment, scanning the glass container. “I’m not sure. It looks part human, and part . . . something else. The result of genetic experiments.”
“Why are they doing things like this?” Gadya asks.
“For war. It’s always about war,” I tell her. “They’re fighting the Europeans and Asians. Maybe they plan on unleashing these mutants on them.” I’m already thinking that the perfect soldier is probably one who doesn’t need to breathe, or eat, or even think—just like Minister Hiram said. “It’s another form of drone. One that’s worse than what we encountered on the wheel.”
Liam nods and hands the gun back to Gadya. “I’m glad it’s locked up. If it’s designed for fighting purposes, then we don’t want it on the loose with us.”
I watch as the large group of soldiers makes it across the road and back into the forest. Their noises subside into the darkening gloom. We wait in the underbrush for several minutes, until we can’t hear them anymore. Finally, we decide it’s safe to start moving again.
We only travel another twenty minutes or so up the road until dusk starts to give way to night.
Then we pull off the road and into the forest. I find myself thinking of David. I remember my first day on the wheel, when he suggested that we climb up into a tree for shelter.
I had no idea back then that David knew so much about what was going on. I thought he was innocent and naïve, just like me. I didn’t know he was already a hardened rebel. He fooled me. But I am not naïve anymore. The wheel has changed both of us. It made me grow up faster than I thought possible. I would be a totally different person if I’d never gotten sent to Island Alpha. And so would David.
I look around me. There are no trees large enough to bear our weight. The trees here are tall, but thin and leafy. So we decide to make a small encampment around the base of the largest tree we can find. We gather underbrush to hide behind.
Here, we are cloaked from view in case other UNA soldiers pass through this area.
“In eight hours it will be light again,” Liam says. “We start moving again as soon as the sun comes up.”
Liam sits down against the tree and I nestle against him. He puts his arm around me. I lean back into him. It feels so good to be with him. There has been no time recently for us to be together.
Gadya looks vaguely annoyed at me and Liam cuddling. I don’t think she has feelings for Liam any longer, but I can tell that right now she’s feeling left out.
“There’s room for you too,” I tell her, holding out my arm. “C’mon. Group hug.”
She frowns. “I need to keep watch. I’m not going to start slacking off.” She surveys the landscape around us.
“Fine,” I tell her. “We’ll trade off like usual tonight. You want first watch? I’ll take second.”
“I’ll take third,” Liam adds.
“Deal,” Gadya says.
So we spend the night that way, shifting roles so that one of us is always awake.
The noises of the forest at nighttime are loud around us. I’m not bothered by them anymore. I used to be afraid of the dark, and the forest, and of insects and animals. But after the wheel, this forest in the UNA seems tame.
I curl up against Liam’s
body, as Gadya keeps watch nearby. But my eyes remain open.
“It’s okay to sleep,” he tells me.
“I know,” I reply, looking up at him. “It’s okay for you to sleep too.”
He grins. “I’ll sleep if you do.”
“I don’t feel tired. I mean, I do. But I don’t think I can sleep.”
“I know what you mean.”
He leans down and kisses me. I kiss him back. I wish so much that we could be together, and not in a war zone. One day soon this will all be over, and we will either be dead or the UNA will be vanquished.
I pull back from Liam. I’m aware that we have to gather our strength now, before the real battle begins. In New Chicago, the showdown between the rebel forces and the UNA will take place tomorrow. And similar battles will be waged in cities all across the nation. We will find out then if everything has been worth it.
I shut my eyes. I think of the battles that we’ve fought. Of the ones we have won, and the ones we have lost.
Memories of Rika come flooding back. I can picture her face so well. Her kind eyes and her smile. I can hear the sound of her voice too. And even taste the food that she cooked for us. I can’t believe that she is gone. Along with so many other close friends.
I open my eyes again.
“Do you ever wonder if we wouldn’t have been better off just staying on the island?” I ask.
Liam shakes his head. “No. We would have died there.”
“Eventually, sure,” I say. “But right now we’d probably be back in our village. You and I would just be hanging out together. Rika would be alive. We’d be eating stew around the fire pit.”
“Maybe,” Liam says. “But everything looks better in hindsight. Don’t forget how the drones used to attack us all the time.”
I nod. “True. But sometimes it’s nice to pretend that things might have been okay.”
Liam kisses me on the top of my head. “I know. But this is where our fate has taken us. We were meant to fight. That’s our purpose.”
“So you realize that I’m a warrior too? You’re not going to keep trying to protect me, or anyone else? I just want you to look out for yourself when the fighting starts. I almost lost you back at that research lab in the Hellgrounds.”
He nods. “Sure, I’ll look out for myself. But no promises. You know how I feel about you. I’m always going to be looking out for you first.”
I’m not sure whether to feel annoyed at him, or relieved. Maybe both. I lean back against him again.
I vow that we will conquer the fascists controlling the UNA and win. Our friends will not have died in vain, and we will not have suffered so much for nothing. I want our pain to be worth the sacrifice.
18 THE CITY AT NIGHT
BY THE LATE AFTERNOON of the next day, we reach the suburban outskirts of New Chicago. We’ve successfully navigated the roads leading into the city with our bikes. We were spotted and chased multiple times, but each time, we managed to avoid our pursuers. Without guns, or any obvious way to communicate with one another, the UNA soldiers seem like they don’t know what to do.
Luckily, no one has recognized me as Alenna, or Liam or Gadya either. In this blighted landscape, we are just random kids riding around on bikes. The people who see us have no idea that we have returned here from Island Alpha, or done so much to attack the UNA.
The roads are more congested as we get closer to the city. Some people have camped out on the side of the highways, or have slept in their cars, which are stuck on the road. For the first time on our journey, we’re forced to slow down and walk our bikes among civilians. Our dirty, angry faces keep most of them from talking to us.
“I’ll give you ten thousand dollars for that bike,” a woman calls out to me loudly.
I flash her the blade of my knife and glare at her. “It’s not for sale!”
She falls silent.
Liam walks in the lead. His large figure discourages people from trying to steal our bikes. Gadya and I also carry knives, and her gun is slung around her back.
I know that we look half-crazed, grubby, and fierce. These random citizens of the UNA look scared and soft compared to us. But of course, I understand why. They never experienced the trial by fire of the wheel.
We walk through a group of people. I feel their wary eyes on us. Their whole lives have been ripped away from them unexpectedly. Children are crying. Some people are praying. Other people are cursing the government.
The sky is a strange hue of greenish yellow. It has been that way since the atomic bomb blast. There’s no way to know if we’re being dosed with radiation or not. I wonder if the change to the sky’s color is permanent.
I hear a sudden commotion to our left. The three of us pause. A man’s voice cries out in agony, like he’s being tortured. It’s a primal wail.
I don’t want to stop and help him—or anyone—but at the same time it’s hard to ignore such a cry of suffering.
“Let’s check it out,” Gadya says, voicing my thoughts.
“Be careful,” Liam murmurs to me, as we follow Gadya toward the source of the noise.
When we get there, we see that a crowd has gathered around two men. One is wearing the black uniform of a UNA soldier. He is missing an eye. The wound is fresh. Blood and gore are running down his face. This must be the man who was screaming.
The other man is just dressed in jeans and a red flannel shirt, with his sleeves rolled up. He’s rugged and muscular. They are circling each other, like two fighters in a ring.
“Get him!” a voice yells out.
“Make him pay!”
I realize that the crowd is shouting to the man in the flannel shirt. They are on his side, egging him on against the soldier.
The UNA soldier lunges forward with a fist, but the other man dodges the blow easily.
“Not so tough without your gun, are you?” he says, with a grin. “Next, I’ll take your other eye. Leave you for dead in the ditch.”
“You will have to answer for your insubordination!” the soldier says to him angrily, holding up his fists to his face like a boxer. “Assaulting an officer of the United Northern Alliance is punishable by death—”
As he says the final word, the other man strikes out with a fist and catches the soldier in the jaw. The soldier is knocked backward, and stumbles to the ground, dazed.
“Insulting me is punishable by getting your ass whipped,” the man says. “Without your guns and technology, you don’t have any power.”
Gadya turns to me. “I like where this is headed,” she says cheerfully.
But I don’t. It just makes me feel queasy.
Gadya turns back to the fight. “Give him hell!” she calls out. Other voices in the crowd encourage the man as he advances on the soldier.
“I’ll make sure you get arrested,” the soldier says, spitting out blood. “I’ll make sure your family gets arrested too!” He’s looking around for someone to come and rescue him. A UNA convoy truck, or a helicopter. But all of those things are gone now.
The crowd is laughing and jeering at him. I wonder how many lives this soldier is responsible for ruining. How many parents he killed. How many children he orphaned. How many normal citizens he got locked up. I think about all my friends who died fighting men like this one. I also think about my dad, who would still be alive were it not for the UNA.
So I do nothing to intervene. I just watch. This man made his own decision to join the UNA. Now he must pay the price. He has already lost an eye. I’m sure much more is next.
The man in the flannel shirt advances on him again. The soldier gets up, ready to fight. But he’s no match for the other man.
The man runs straight at him and slams the soldier’s bloody face with a barrage of fists. The soldier is knocked to the ground again. The man stands over him and begins stomping his chest with his feet. I hear the crack of ribs breaking. The crowd rushes to join in. Soon, I can’t see the soldier anymore because of the torrent of violent blows. They keep kicki
ng him.
“This revolution is going to be easier than I thought,” Gadya says.
I hear the soldier scream in agony as the crowd continues to brutalize him. They keep punching and kicking him in a bloodthirsty frenzy.
“We should keep moving,” Liam says softly.
“Why?” Gadya asks. “These are my kind of people.”
“They’re getting out of control,” I say. “Things could turn bad for us.”
Liam nods. “They might come after our bikes next—and we won’t be able to stop them. There’s too many of them. We need to get past them while they’re occupied.”
So we keep walking our bikes as fast as we can, putting distance between ourselves and the group of people attacking the soldier.
We’re stuck in the crowd, which seems to be endless. It’s just a massive exodus of people from the suburbs heading into the city. There’s no way to escape from them. I’m not even sure why they’re traveling in this direction. Probably to help join the revolt against the government. Or maybe they think the city still has electricity.
These are the very people we need to enlist to help us in taking apart the UNA. Still, I’m uneasy. I don’t even know how many of these people are normal, and how many work for the UNA and are just hiding that fact out of self-preservation. There’s no way to know.
It’s then that a rumbling sound comes from the distance. For a moment, I think it’s some kind of blast wave. I stop my bike. So do Liam and Gadya.
I get jostled by the crowd. Some people keep moving, pushing roughly past us. They have all heard the sound, and they are talking and murmuring among themselves.
The sound gets louder.
“What the hell is that?” Gadya asks.
“I don’t know,” I tell her.
Liam cocks his head to listen. “Something’s headed our way. Some kind of vehicle.”
“But everything should be disabled by now,” Gadya says. “Our entire plan is based on that!”
“Shhh,” I tell her, trying to listen.
The sound increases in volume again. It almost sounds like a feeler, but larger. Then I see something come into view above the trees to our right.
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