“Tell us more,” I say, as we begin to walk down a flight of stairs.
She nods. “I’ll read whatever I see. Earlier there was a sign that said this submarine’s maximum capacity is three hundred people. Probably for his family members and rich friends.”
“I never knew you could read Japanese,” Cass mutters.
“You never asked. Besides, it’s not a very useful skill in Australia.”
The four of us exit the wide stairway and step out onto the lower level. Here it’s a bit more narrow, but mainly because there are lots of rooms off this hallway. I catch a glimpse of rows of stacked bunk beds inside one of them.
“How long do you think we’ll be on this thing?” I ask Liam. “Best guess?”
“Depends how fast we go. I’m guessing the sub’s nuclear-powered. But maybe the scientists found a way to harness some other power source. It could be a day or two at full speed. Or a week, if it’s slow.”
I look at him. “How do you even know all that?”
“I read about nuclear submarines when I was studying how to defeat the UNA last week. There was a whole digital file about them at Destiny Station.”
We pass a series of round portholes through which I can faintly see the gray hull of the other submarine. It sits about twenty feet away from us in the murky water.
“Find seats if you can,” the voice on the loudspeaker blares. “We’re preparing to move out.”
Liam and I sit down in leather seats in front of one of the portholes, across from Cass and Emma. Other kids and adults are flooding into the space, making it even more crowded. The massive engines come to life, and everything starts shaking.
I stare out the porthole, feeling like I’m in a state of shock. I’m still wearing my blue dress from the concert. I wonder if my mom is on this vessel or on the other submarine. She has to be on one or the other. I also wonder about David—and if Cass knows more than she’s saying about him. I need a chance to talk to her alone. Maybe she’ll open up in private.
The engine gets louder. The floor starts thrumming under my feet. I can’t believe this is happening so fast. I feel a jolt, as if we’re about to start moving forward. The other submarine is just sitting there.
Next to us, Emma is trying to calm Cass down. Cass is freaking out about the water, and worrying what will happen if the sub breaks down and we have to swim.
I reach out and take hold of Liam’s hand. “So, we’re on the run again,” I say.
“Could be worse.”
“I know. At least we’re together.”
He pauses for a moment. “I never said how great you were onstage tonight, did I?”
“Please. That’s the last thing I’m thinking about right now.”
“I just wanted you to know how amazing you were.” He gazes into my eyes, like he can see right inside me. “I’m sorry about what happened. And I know you’re worried about your mom. We’ll find her.”
I nod.
“I promise you that we’re going to be okay. In fact, we’ll end up getting back to the wheel faster than before, and—”
His words cut off.
I’m confused for a moment. Then I notice that he has shifted his gaze and he’s looking past me, straight out the porthole.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“I thought I saw something in the water.”
Cass and Emma overhear him. They instantly lean forward, looking out the porthole too. “Did someone fall in?” Cass asks. Liam doesn’t answer. He’s staring out the glass.
Then I see a flash of motion too. It’s something black and fast, churning through the water. For a moment, I think that maybe it’s a shark. One that has swum in from the ocean. Or some strange kind of underwater creature, just living down here in the subterranean lake.
But then it flashes past the porthole again, and I can tell exactly what it is.
It’s a killing machine.
One of them has found the submarines.
“No,” I breathe, watching in horror as it darts back across the porthole for a third time. Its blade-covered tentacles cut through the water, creating spiraling wakes around its central disc. I had no idea these things could operate underwater.
“Oh god,” Emma murmurs next to me in shock. She’s seen it too. So has Cass, who looks catatonic.
Piercing alarms instantly start sounding. And other people begin to notice what’s happening outside the glass. I hear a few startled screams.
“Keep away from the portholes!” a voice blares over the loudspeakers. But no one listens to it. Everyone is trying to get a good look at what’s going on.
“Is there more than one of them?” a voice asks.
“I can’t tell!” another voice calls out.
“Can they get inside here?” a girl cries.
Liam and I keep staring at the water. My heart is in my throat. How did this thing even find us down here? How did it get into the lake?
The noise of the engine increases to a roar. We start moving downward and forward, slowly pulling away from the dock. But there’s no way to outrun this machine, and I know that its blades can slice through our hull and cause serious damage. Maybe even sink us, or force us to evacuate.
I see the second submarine pulling out too, gliding down alongside us through the greenish water.
“If we can get to the open sea, we can navigate away from it—” Cass starts saying hopefully. Her fingers are clenching the armrests of her seat.
But her words are interrupted by a grinding jolt, like we’ve hit something. A few people cry out in surprise, and a few others nearly lose their balance.
Our submarine and its companion both start moving faster. But we’re not going fast enough to evade the machine. I see its tentacles whipping and darting around in the water. For some reason, it seems more interested in the other submarine than in ours.
It slams itself against the side of the other vessel without any warning. Its blades slice right into the metal shell, sending out a spew of air bubbles. The other submarine veers closer to ours.
I can now faintly see terrified faces behind its portholes. The machine is using its tentacles to slide sideways across the surface of the other submarine and onto the glass of a porthole. Air keeps leaking from the holes in the hull.
“We have to do something!” Liam calls out. We’re both already on our feet.
But there’s nothing we can do but watch, trapped behind our own porthole. I stand there transfixed, as the machine begins gnashing at the glass of the other submarine.
The faint figures are scrambling away from their portholes now. Trying to get back up top and off the submarine, if they can. I feel another flash of fear. My mom could be on that vessel. Both submarines are still moving side by side. Going faster. Our red navigation lights now illuminate the side of the other craft, casting an eerie glow in the water.
“They’re going to have to evacuate,” I say to Liam over the noise of the alarms.
But my words come too late. I watch as the machine continues assaulting the foot-thick glass of the other submarine, until a crack appears in the porthole. And then another.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Cass mutters.
At the same instant, I see the cracks on the submarine’s porthole grow and splinter. The glass starts to buckle inward.
It caves completely a second later, in a massive implosion of water that sucks the machine inside along with it. I see the vague shadows of people inside fleeing from the flood and the grinding blades on the tentacles.
Our submarine keeps moving faster. But the other one instantly slows down, as more water gushes into the gaping hole in its side.
“I hope my mom isn’t on there,” I say to Liam numbly. I know that more machines might be out here in the water somewhere. I’m afraid that we’re going to be next.
But we keep moving forward, picking up speed. I glance around. Everyone looks shocked—like they’re also expecting the worst. Yet it never comes.
“What about the people on that other sub?” I ask.
“Maybe they can get back to the surface of the lake, and climb onto the deck.”
“Then what?” Cass challenges him. “They’ll be stuck there with the machine.”
“As long as they stay alive, there’s hope,” I tell her. She looks unconvinced. “They have guns, remember? They can fight back.”
Our vessel keeps moving in silence, heading through the water.
With nothing else to do, Liam and I finally sit back down, staring out the porthole. A few moments later, the alarms cut off. I want to go look for my mom, but it’s so crowded. And I know she could even be in the cabin with the submarine pilots—impossible to get to.
The voice begins talking over the loudspeakers again. It makes no reference to the horror that we just witnessed. “We are now on course to Southern Arc, a journey of 2,962 miles. At our speed, it will only take nineteen hours before we arrive there. Our engine and reactor core have been modified and our hull has been reshaped for maximum hydrodynamics, allowing for rapid passage through the ocean at one hundred and sixty miles per hour.” The voice pauses. “We are not fully stocked with provisions, but there is enough water for everyone to comfortably make the journey.”
“You really think we’ll make it?” I whisper to Liam.
“We’ve made it out of worse situations than this one.”
I nod, but I know that he’s just trying to cheer me up.
Then three dark shadows fall across us. I look up. The boys with shaved heads, Cass’s friends, are standing there staring down at us.
“Hey guys,” Cass says to them. But for once, they completely ignore her.
“You made this happen,” the stockiest one of them snarls at me and Liam. “You brought the machines here. They followed your airplane.”
Liam stands up, eyes blazing, ready to fight. “No, they didn’t. Why would you say that? Besides, we got here the same way you did!”
“We had friends on that other sub,” a second boy says, the one with the holes in his face left over from too many piercings. “They might be dead now. Because of you.”
“Guess what? My mom might be on that submarine!” I snap back at him, standing up too. “We need to work together and stop fighting! We’re not on the wheel anymore. And Liam and I don’t control the machines. If they’d followed our airplane, they would have gotten here three weeks ago, right?”
“We don’t trust you, no matter what anyone says,” the first boy adds. “We know what you think of us.”
I make a huge effort to calm myself down. “Let’s not argue,” I say. “Not now. We just need to get to Southern Arc. The UNA is our enemy. Not each other.”
“Alenna’s right,” Cass says sharply to the boys. She stands up, staring at them fiercely. “Liam is too. For all we know, the UNA has been on to us since our plane landed. It might have nothing to do with them.”
The boys keep glaring at us. “All I know is that everything was fine until these two turned up,” the first one says to Cass. Only the boy with the eye patch stays silent.
The voice on the loudspeaker crackles to life again: “You will be assigned rooms and sleeping bunks for the duration of our journey. Please go down to the cafeteria on level three to receive your assignments and register for your food and water allotments.”
I look at Liam. We both already know it doesn’t matter what rooms we get assigned. We’re going to stick together no matter what.
I stare out the porthole again, ignoring Cass and the three boys, wondering what happened to the other submarine. I hope everyone made it out okay, as doubtful as that is. Of course, the survivors will be stuck at the ruined station. But maybe with enough weapons they can defeat the machines and reclaim it as their own.
Either way, it means our numbers have already been cut in half. We will be arriving at Southern Arc with only two hundred and fifty people.
“Let’s go get some water,” I say to Liam.
We quickly move away from the boys and Cass. The four of them are now arguing among themselves as Emma watches dejectedly. Liam and I head toward a staircase that goes farther down to the next level.
As we start moving down the steps, the thrumming of the engines becomes much louder. So does the noise of the crowd. There are more people down here, and we push through the mob, searching for some sign of organization.
I no longer feel the submarine moving. It’s like I’ve already become used to the sensation. I’m scanning around for my mom, desperately hoping she’s somewhere on board with us. But I’m starting to get the feeling that she’s not. I don’t know who to ask or where to go to find out. I try not to panic. I force myself to focus on other things.
“If Cass is telling the truth about David, I wonder if there’s a way for us to contact him ourselves,” I say. “I mean, from the submarine. They must have some kind of communication system so they can talk to Southern Arc.”
Liam nods reluctantly. “Look, you know how I feel about David. But if there is a way to contact him, then I’m in favor of finding it. At this point, we need any information we can get.”
We keep walking. I grip one of the smooth oak balustrades to keep from stumbling in the crowd. I still have no idea what David was doing talking to the scientists in the first place—but I know that we need to find out.
I feel like I’m at the center of some gigantic puzzle. One that I possess all the pieces to, but I can’t fit them together yet.
There’s got to be a way for us—the drones, the villagers, the scientists, and David—to work together and figure out how to defeat the UNA. And if there is, we need to find it very soon, while we still have a chance.
6CITY OF ICE
LIAM AND I SPEND that night in a room crammed with eight metal bunks that fold down from the walls. We’re in there with other former villagers, but I don’t know any of them.
I was hoping to get more information from Cass and Emma, but both of them have disappeared back into their group of friends. Clearly, the scientists were smart enough not to force any former drones and villagers to bunk together.
I’m increasingly worried about my mom. From Dr. Elliott, I learned that she isn’t on board this submarine. But according to him, she wasn’t on the other one either.
“I don’t know where she is, but I’m certain that she’s safe,” he told me brusquely, when I caught him for a second in the hall. Then he kept walking rapidly away from me.
It doesn’t make any sense. For some reason, my mom must have stayed behind at Destiny Station. I can only hope there was another vessel hidden somewhere. I tell myself that if she’s survived this long, then she must have had a good escape plan for herself. She has to be alive. I refuse to go back to being an orphan again.
The farther we get from Australia, the more my worries about another assault from one of the machines fade away. I know that it’s possible the UNA is tracking our submarine, but I’ve also overhead scientists talking about how they’re jamming as many sonar frequencies as possible. I’m hoping that we’ve made a clean getaway.
The night passes quickly, blending seamlessly into the next day. Here, deep under the surface of the ocean on level three, I can’t even tell which is which.
“Alenna,” Liam says gently, waking me up in the morning. I struggle to open my eyes. I’ve slept in my dress, and now the fabric is crumpled and marked with creases. Liam leans over my bunk and touches my arm. “Want to grab some breakfast?”
I reach up and hug him, pulling him in and holding him close. “Sure.”
Without Liam, I’d be lost. I wonder if he feels the same way about me. I look deep into his gentle, intelligent eyes. I don’t say anything. We just stare at each other for a long moment, until it becomes sort of awkward.
He finally laughs. “You feeling okay?”
I break into a smile and then let him go. “I’m just grateful for what I have.”
I slide off the bunk. Liam has found some regular clothes for me from a storage locker—jeans, a gray blouse, an army-green jacket, and a pair of boots. The jacket is a bit too large for me, but the other clothes fit fine.
“And I’ve got something else,” he says, holding up my charred copy of The Myth of Sisyphus.
“What? How do you have this?” I ask, taking it from him, confused but glad.
“I brought it with me to the concert, in my pocket. Thought I might flip through it if the show took a while to start. I was curious after you talked so much about the Greek myth.”
I nod, happy to have the book back.
After I get dressed, and slip the book into my jacket pocket, we head out of the room, walking down a narrow hallway. I see a group of scientists conferring with one another. We move past them, stopping only when we reach a wide chamber lined with portholes and Japanese symbols.
I glance out one of the portholes, and startle. Instead of water rushing by outside the glass, I see that we’re zooming past the base of a massive white iceberg. It looms only a hundred feet away from us.
“Wow,” I say, in both wonderment and fear.
Liam stares out the porthole too. “Polar ice fields. We must be getting closer to Southern Arc.”
Our submarine is gliding so fast that it quickly moves past the huge iceberg. But another mass of ice soon takes its place.
“We better eat breakfast before the food is gone,” Liam says. We walk over to a chrome table where silver packets of food are being handed out by a woman with gray hair. They’re stale Japanese military rations from years ago. Little tan-colored protein bars wrapped in tinfoil.
Liam takes one and holds it up. “Better than what we had on the wheel.” He takes a bite, and then makes a face as he chews. “On second thought, maybe not.”
I can tell he’s trying to make me laugh. He knows how worried I am about my mom—and everything else that’s going on. I take one of the protein bars and open it.
The Uprising: The Forsaken Trilogy Page 7