“Look!” a voice screams.
“A helicopter!” someone else yells.
Gadya curses. “How did it survive the EMP?” she asks. “If David screwed up, I’m going to kill him!”
The helicopter approaches rapidly. We stand there with the crowd, trying to blend in. Some people start running for the trees, but most remain on the road, looking up. Without any guns, there is no way to take this helicopter out of the sky. And if it has guns, it’s going to be able to kill a lot of people.
The sound of the helicopter gets louder. As it nears, I see why it probably survived the EMP. The entire thing, except for the glass windshield, is coated with thick metal plates. Probably made out of lead, to block the radiation. Was the UNA prepared for this? Did they know about our plan? My heart sinks. If they were prepared, then we did all of this for nothing.
But then a voice blares out from loudspeakers mounted on the bottom of the helicopter. “Alenna!” the voice calls out, sounding inexplicably elated. “Gadya! And Liam too! We found you!”
The crowd looks confused, but I feel a surge of joy. This is not some random UNA helicopter. This craft belongs to the rebels. I know this, because I recognize the voice, even through the noise of the rotors and the distortion of the speakers.
“It’s Cass,” I say.
“What? For real?” Gadya asks. “Are you sure?”
“It’s her all right,” Liam says. “I’d know that voice anywhere.”
“But she failed the test to come here!”
“So did Rika,” I point out. “There must have been a second wave of rebels sent over here or something. Or maybe she stowed away on a plane. With Cass, anything is possible, right?”
The helicopter turns in the sky as it buzzes the crowd.
“I see you guys!” Cass’s voice calls out. “I’m here to give you a ride into the city! It’s time to start fighting!”
The crowd is starting to scream happily and surge all around us. They can tell this isn’t a UNA helicopter. They are not going to be shot at. But the crowd still poses a problem for us. Everyone wants to get on board the helicopter.
Liam voices my concern: “If that helicopter lands, then it’s going to be mobbed by the crowd. They’ll never let it take off again, even if they mean well.”
“So what do we do?” I ask.
Liam stares up at the sky. “It’s not up to us. It’s up to Cass and whoever’s piloting the helicopter.”
The helicopter has gone overhead and is preparing to turn back around and fly over our heads again. It’s then that I see a tangle of ropes and wooden beams get shoved out the open doorway.
For a second, I’m afraid they’ll fly up and get caught in the blades of the helicopter, but then I see that there’s a weight on the bottom of them. The ropes and beams fall down beneath the helicopter, swaying. It’s a rope ladder.
“Well, I guess Cass solved the problem for us,” I say with a sigh. “I don’t think she has any plans of landing the helicopter.”
At the same time, like she’s reading my thoughts, I hear Cass blare over the loudspeakers, “You can do this, guys! C’mon!”
The helicopter gets lower. Other members of the crowd start to realize what’s going on, and they want to get on board too.
I put down my bicycle and hold out my knife. “Keep your distance!” I scream. People start backing away from me. “We’re rebels from Island Alpha! This is part of a plan. We need to get on this helicopter.”
“You’re from Island Alpha?” a voice calls out, sounding startled. “But nobody comes back from there.”
“She’s telling the truth,” Liam bellows. “We need to get to New Chicago as fast as possible. Don’t get in our way. We’re all on the same side.”
“How do we know you don’t work for the government?” a man asks Liam, sounding angry.
“Do I look like I work for the government?” Gadya sneers, showing off her prominent tattoos. “Get real!”
“You can have our bikes,” Liam tells the people. Both he and Gadya have dropped theirs as well. “But if you come near us, we will kill you.”
Cass helps guide the helicopter above us and it hovers there. “Climb on board!” she says. “Hurry!”
I don’t need much encouraging. The ladder is closest to me, so I grab at it. But I’m not tall enough to reach it. Liam manages to leap and get it. All around us, the wary crowd is watching. I’m not sure if they want to hurt us, or if they’re just surprised at what’s happening.
The helicopter lowers itself a bit more and Liam hands me the ladder. “You first!” he yells at me over the noise.
I grab the ladder and feel the rope in my hands. I start scrambling up, using the wooden beams to support my feet. Gadya grabs the ladder too and starts coming up after me. Liam brings up the rear, flashing a glare at anyone who looks like they might want to hitch a ride with us.
The wind lashes at me as I keep climbing up the swaying ladder. I glance up and see Cass looking down at me from inside the helicopter. She’s smiling broadly. She looks just like I remember her. “C’mon, girl!” she calls out jubilantly.
I don’t know how she found us. But then I remember that Cass is an expert at technology. She learned it from her rebel cell before she got sent to the wheel. So maybe she had some way of tracking us. Or maybe she just knew we would be on this road because it’s the fastest route to New Chicago.
I keep climbing, hand over hand, relieved and excited to see her and the other rebels. I know that Cass is a fierce warrior—just like me, Gadya, and Liam. With her on our side, there is even more of a chance that we will succeed.
I reach the top of the ladder. It’s swaying a lot now in the wind. I glance down and see that Gadya is struggling to hang on. Liam is trying to help her.
Cass sticks her hands out. “Grab on to me,” she says. Leather bracelets cover the scars on her wrists.
“I’m trying,” I tell her.
With one hand I cling to the rope, but with my other, I take her hand in mine. I clutch on to her as hard as I can, and she does the same. She starts pulling me into the helicopter using all of her strength. Within seconds, I’m inside, sprawled on the metal floor.
I lie there for a moment, catching my breath. Then I clamber onto my knees to help the others.
I turn around, and with Cass’s help, bring Gadya inside as well. She holds on to me to keep her balance.
Liam is the last one to get into the helicopter. People try to get on the ladder, but Liam kicks them off. Unlike me and Gadya, he then gracefully manages to climb inside without losing his balance. He automatically pivots and starts bringing up the ladder behind him.
I see people down below jumping for it again, trying to grab it and get pulled up after us. But we can’t let them do that, because we can’t risk letting a spy or government worker on board.
A man finally manages to take hold of the lowest rung of the ladder before Liam can swing it out of his grasp.
The man is swearing and yelling incoherently. I grab on to the top of the ladder with Liam and we both pull at it. For a second, the man hangs there, zooming across the landscape, about twenty feet off the ground.
Then Liam yanks the ladder hard, and the man gets startled. He loses his grip and plummets down to the ground below.
“Let’s go,” Cass says to the pilot. I can’t see his face. He’s wearing a helmet with a visor. He nods and we begin flying away.
Out the open door I can see the throngs of people below still watching us. The man who fell off the ladder is already back on his feet, shaking his hands at us and cursing.
Soon we are moving away from the road and over the trees, headed toward the heart of the battleground.
19 FLIGHT
CASS AND I HUG as the helicopter keeps moving. She pulls back from me and looks at all of us. “You guys are in better shape than I expected.”
“Thanks,” I tell her.
“How’d you make it back to the UNA?” Gadya asks.
“So the helicopter wasn’t affected by the EMP?” Liam asks.
“The rebels in the UNA and the scientists managed to protect some technology from the pulse. The government didn’t. That means we now have the upper hand.”
Out the window, the ground is rushing past. The helicopter tilts sideways. I grab on to a metal railing near the door. Liam puts his arm around me.
“Rika’s dead,” I tell Cass.
She looks surprised. “I thought maybe she’d be okay,” Cass says. Her eyes look sad. “Alun is dead too.”
“Alun?” I ask, startled. “Are you sure?”
She nods somberly.
I feel sick to my stomach.
“They never should have sent Alun back here,” Liam says. “He was missing an eye. That means he has no depth perception. It wasn’t safe for him to fight anyone.”
“He wanted to come. We couldn’t stop him.” Cass pauses. “I wish I could have. But he passed the test too. I don’t know how.”
“What about Emma?” I ask Cass, suddenly worried about her too.
“She’s fine. Still back on Island Alpha.”
All of us are silent for a moment. The noise of the helicopter is overwhelming.
I shut my eyes. I can picture Alun’s wide face, with his black eye patch, and I can hear his jubilant voice. I can see his shaved head and the caps he always wore to keep it warm. He was instrumental in helping us survive on the wheel, and bring it under control. It’s so hard to believe that he’s no longer alive.
And David lives now in some strange in-between—part human and part machine. He is never far from my thoughts. I wish I could talk to him right now. I only hope that I will see him again soon.
I find my voice. “We need to let their deaths give us motivation to keep fighting,” I say. “They would never want us to stop.”
“I second that,” Cass says, nodding.
“So we’re heading to New Chicago to fight, right?” Liam asks, as our helicopter continues heading north.
Cass nods. “We’re landing where some of the other protected machinery is located. There are several ground convoys and more helicopters that were shielded from the blast. A few trusted rebels were told about David’s secret plan in advance, so they were able to shield the equipment. We’re going to use the equipment to take control of the air and the streets. We’re going to get the people to rise up—if it isn’t happening already.”
“How do you have more information than any of us, when we’re supposed to be the heart of this rebellion?” Gadya asks her.
Cass smiles. “I just eavesdrop and spy on everyone. It’s the easiest way to figure out what’s really going on.”
“Why didn’t the scientists just tell us the real plan from the start?”
“They thought total secrecy would ensure its success. Looks like it worked.”
“What about the rest of the UNA?” I ask her. “New Chicago is only one city.”
Cass nods. “The same revolutions are apparently taking place simultaneously in four other major urban areas across the country—New Los Angeles, New Manhattan, New Dallas, and New Washington, DC. These are the power bases of the UNA. Rebel cells are orchestrating everything.” Cass glances behind her. “And we have more guns. Bullets, too.”
“Yeah, bullets are pretty helpful,” Gadya says.
“Why those cities?” Liam asks Cass.
“The UNA has multiple headquarters, like a snake with many heads. They all work together. We have to take them all out at once.” She pauses. “New Chicago is the most fortified. It’s where the main leader is.”
“The main leader?” I ask.
“Yes,” Cass replies. “No one knows who he is.”
“I met one of the UNA leaders, in New Dallas,” I suddenly say. “He called himself Minister Hiram. He was one of Minister Harka’s former body doubles. He seemed nearly insane. He was keeping a mutant locked up in his office.”
“Yeah, what’s up with these mutants we keep seeing?” Gadya asks.
Cass shakes her head. “We don’t know their purpose, but we assume military. We’re going to have to fight them.”
I stare out the window again. We’re moving fast. At this rate, we’ll be in Chicago within an hour.
“The sky looks so weird,” I say, suddenly realizing that I haven’t seen the sun unobstructed by clouds since the nuclear blasts. Liam puts his arm around me.
I remember Dr. Urbancic’s words. That there’s a potential we doomed the planet by taking action.
“The sun will come back out,” Cass says. “Might take a few weeks. Obviously the nuclear blasts disrupted the typical weather patterns.” Cass sounds unconcerned. But of course she didn’t hear the warnings that we did from Dr. Urbancic.
Liam rubs my back. “Don’t worry,” he says.
I suddenly smile. “I guess I shouldn’t even think about the sun coming out yet. It won’t matter if we’re not around to see it.”
“Exactly,” Cass says. “First we fight and conquer the UNA, then we figure out what to do after that.”
“You make it sound so easy,” Gadya says. But she doesn’t sound annoyed. In fact, she’s grinning. “Let’s hope it goes down that way.”
“That part is up to us,” I say in the ensuing silence.
Everyone nods.
“So how did you find us, anyway?” I ask Cass.
“Easy. Remember those pills we had to take to get on board the airships back at Southern Arc?”
“Sure,” I say. “The antidote to the chemicals on the wheel. Meant to prevent the Suffering.”
“Those are the ones. It turns out some of them had microscopic tracking devices inside them. Tiny microchips that attached themselves to the intestines of anyone who took one of the pills. The guards were instructed to only give those special tracking pills to certain people. Dr. Barrett told them which ones, before he went insane.”
I feel ill. “There’s a tracking device inside me?”
“Inside you, and me, and Liam. Anyone who had been singled out for some reason as potentially important or crucial in the battle ahead. Apparently your mom made sure that you and Liam got them, probably so she could keep an eye on you.”
“So I’ve been tracked all this time? You always knew where I was?” I’m incredulous.
“The signal comes and goes. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty accurate.”
“Unbelievable,” I say.
“How did it survive the nuclear blast?” Liam asks Cass.
“The scientists designed it to withstand the EMP. They knew what they were doing this whole time.”
“They should never have bothered lying to us,” Liam says. “Not to me, Alenna, and Gadya.”
“Can I get the device out of me?” I ask.
“They biodegrade naturally,” Cass says. “At least that’s what I heard. Even if they don’t, who cares?”
“So the pills were another secret.”
“Sort of,” Cass says. “I mean, they really do protect against the UNA drugs. But ours just had a little something extra in them.”
“So you located us using the pills?”
“The pilot did,” Cass says, gesturing at the man flying our helicopter. “He knew the general vicinity that you were in, and then homed in on your signals. Each pill broadcasts a specific sixteen-digit code, so they knew who you were.”
“I’m glad I don’t have one in me,” Gadya says proudly.
“You’re lucky you stuck with Alenna and Liam, or you would have gotten lost,” Cass points out.
“Can anyone else trace th
em?” Liam asks.
Cass shakes her head. “No. It’s encrypted. And they don’t emit a signal. They have to be scanned by radio waves to get picked up. You’re totally safe.”
“I still feel weird about it,” I tell Cass.
She grins. “I felt the same way too. But now it makes me feel kind of safe. Even protected in a strange way.”
It still makes me feel uneasy. I am now a number in a database. It makes me think of the metal creatures implanted into Rika and the other girl back at the laboratory. Or the tubes that the UNA implanted in my neck.
The pills also remind me of David and his transformation into some kind of cyborg. I don’t want to end up the same way. But what if I don’t have a choice? What if defeating the UNA demands such a transformation?
“We should have been told the truth about the pills,” I say, sharing a glance with Liam.
“Does it matter now?” Cass asks. “You still would have taken it. I would have too. They wouldn’t have let us come back to the wheel otherwise. We would have been stuck at Southern Arc.”
I nod. What she’s saying is true. I never would have refused the pill, because that would have meant not seeing Liam again. But that doesn’t really make me feel any better about what is inside my body. I just stare out the window again, anticipating our arrival in New Chicago.
• • •
Within an hour, I see the New Chicago skyline emerging on the horizon. We’re flying over rolling hills and trees right now, dotted with suburban houses. Some of the houses have burned down, but most are still standing.
I see people on the ground, watching us in stupefaction. They have no idea how this helicopter can still be in the air. Some of them wave at us.
We move over them rapidly. The countryside is giving way to more roads and more houses. There are no other aircraft of any kind in the air with us yet—no airplanes, no helicopters, and no feelers.
I finally see a group of trucks on the road. I think they’re UNA vehicles for a moment, until I realize that it’s a contingent of rebels. A large one, of at least ten trucks. There’s probably a hundred people on board them. I’m relieved to see some sign of rebel activity.
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