The Uprising: The Forsaken Trilogy

by Lisa M. Stasse

  I see that we’re headed toward the left-hand wall of the cathedral, where a group of kids cower under the remnants of a partially collapsed brick staircase.

  “Can we trust him?” Cass whispers into my ear as we walk.

  “Yes,” I reply. Then I add, “I think.” After what happened with David, I’m far from certain. I’m not even sure this man is Octavio. I only have his word and his resemblance to Liam. For now, that will have to be enough.

  We keep walking until we reach the ruined staircase, forcing our way through kids and adults, and past drones. Everyone is clamoring.

  Octavio stops. He turns to face us. “We don’t have long,” he whispers. “They were holding me in a torture cell underneath this building. Someone threw weapons and keys into our cell to help us get out. I killed a guard, and took his cloak and spear. I left the guard’s corpse in my clothes, but soon they’ll figure out I’ve escaped.”

  “Is Liam down there too?” I ask urgently.

  “No. He also killed a guard and took his robes. We overpowered the guards together and escaped up into this cathedral. Some of my other men were able to do the same thing.” Octavio stares at me. “We’ve been looking for you. Liam said you could fight. Is that true?”

  “Yes, he helped train me.”

  Octavio nods. “Good.”

  “I can fight too,” Cass adds.

  Alun nods. “Same here.”

  “Me too, if I really have to,” Emma whispers.

  “So Liam’s in the crowd somewhere?” I ask Octavio. I’m staring around desperately at the drones in robes, trying to find Liam. But there are hundreds of drones in here. How am I ever going to find him?

  Suddenly, a voice cuts through the noise. “You!”

  I turn and see three drones standing there, watching me and Octavio with their dead eyes. Octavio has his back to them. If they see his face, they’ll know he’s an interloper.

  “Yeah?” I say, trying to hide my fear.

  At the same moment, Cass snarls at them, “What do you want?”

  But none of these drones have eyes for us. They are now only staring at Octavio. They must already suspect that something is wrong. “Turn around,” one of them instructs him. Another raises a bow and slots an arrow into it.

  Octavio just stands there with his back to them. He doesn’t respond to their words. Cass and I try to edge our way between him and the drones, but one of the drones shoves us aside.

  “Show yourself,” the third drone commands Octavio.

  Around us, the crowd surges as people cry out for help. The drones move around, beating the refugees. I look up at the balcony. The Monk is watching everything with approval.

  “Turn around right now!” the drone with the bow insists. He aims the arrow directly at the back of Octavio’s neck. “Or face our wrath!”

  Slowly, Octavio begins to turn his body. He moves deliberately, so as not to startle the three drones. Cass and I step out of the way. If Octavio is anything like Liam, then I have a feeling I know what’s coming next.

  I hear one of the drones gasp when he sees Octavio’s face.

  He’s about to call out in warning, when the spear flies from Octavio’s hand straight into the drone’s chest. It flies faster than I’ve ever seen a spear fly before. The tip plows directly into the drone’s heart, toppling him to the ground.

  At the same instant, the drone with the bow unleashes his arrow directly at Octavio’s face. There is no room for Octavio to duck. I scream, expecting the worst. But Octavio throws up an arm, his robes swirling, and the arrow gets caught in the fabric, tumbling harmlessly off to one side. The drone looks startled.

  Octavio leaps three steps forward and grabs the drone by the throat, crushing his larynx with his strong fingers. The third drone tries to run. Octavio whips a knife off the belt of the strangled drone and throws it at him. The knife hits directly in the center of the drone’s back, and he goes straight down to the ground as the crowd parts.

  I’m stunned.

  Within two seconds, Octavio has defeated—and killed—all three of the drones. I’ve never seen anyone move that fast, except maybe Liam. But our troubles have just begun, because everyone has noticed the commotion. Drones are heading in our direction.

  “Run!” Octavio calls out, yanking his spear from the drone’s body, and using the bloody weapon to clear a path through the crowd. Arrows fly straight at him, but he bats them away with the spear and his robes.

  Cass, Emma, Alun, and I follow after him, barely missing getting hit by arrows ourselves.

  Octavio’s actions have started a violent revolt. I see other scientists and villagers begin fighting back. Arrows rain down, along with spears.

  A drone appears in our path, baring his sharp teeth. He grins at us. A moment later, my fist plows into the side of his head, knocking him out of the way.

  I leap up onto his body, feeling my boot crunch down on his ribs as he howls in pain. Arrows fly down from the catwalk. One barely nicks my shoulder, but I keep going.

  I glance up as I hear screaming high on the balcony. The drones are amassing around the Monk, protecting him. This is because an intruder has appeared on the balcony with them.

  To my surprise, I see that it’s a tall figure dressed in robes. He’s standing on the balcony with long knives in both hands, advancing on the Monk. I can’t see his face, but I recognize the way he moves.

  It’s Liam!

  He’s alive.

  And he has gone straight after the Monk without any hesitation. Somehow he’s managed to get onto the balcony. A hailstorm of arrows comes his way from the drones on the ground. He leaps up onto a nearby balustrade to avoid them.

  “Liam!” I call out over the screams of the crowd, unable to stop myself. “It’s me!”

  Then I feel something crash into my back. I stagger forward. For a moment, I think I’ve been hit by a spear. But then I realize it’s just the body of a drone falling off one of the catwalks.

  I shake off the blow and keep moving. For a moment, I allow myself to think that maybe we can somehow overcome the drones and take control of the cathedral. But as arrows rain down, I see the main doors burst open. More drones flood inside the cathedral—hundreds of them. And there are thousands outside. The numbers are just too great. We can’t fight them here. We need to find a way to escape into the jungle and regroup.

  More of Octavio’s men have appeared, throwing off their robes to reveal themselves. They are skilled and brutal fighters. They cut a path of carnage through the startled drones that surround us.

  “Liam!” I scream again, as loudly as I can.

  This time Liam hears me and glances down.

  “Alenna!” he yells back, dodging arrows. The onslaught has become too much. He’s going to get hit soon. The Monk and his drones are backing away into a small, dark corridor behind the balcony. It’s some kind of escape route.

  Liam grabs hold of one of the old, rotting curtains near the balcony’s edge. I duck blows as I watch him swing out onto the curtain. It starts to tear. He slides down it, crashing toward the ground. He lashes out at drones with his feet, scattering them.

  The entire cathedral has turned into complete, terrifying chaos. Arrows and spears fly through the air nonstop. Some of Octavio’s men have gotten up on the catwalks and are tossing more drones over the edge.

  I try to fight my way over to Liam, but there are too many people in the way. Then Liam sees me again. He starts using his knives to forge a path straight in my direction. The blades are long and sharp, like swords.

  A few seconds later, Liam reaches me.

  “Thank god you’re alive!” he yells. He grabs me and hugs me tight.

  I never thought this moment would come.

  I grab him right back. I was terrified that I would never see him again. Now I never want to let him go. And I never will.

  “Where are we going?” I yell. “What’s the plan?”

  “My dad knows a way out,” he says, leading me fo
rward as the battle rages on. Liam lashes out with a knife, slashing at a drone, making him retreat. Now that we’re fighting back, the drones seem flustered and confused. But there are so many of them, they will win any fight, simply because of their overwhelming numbers.

  Liam and I keep moving, following after Octavio. Cass, Emma, and Alun are doing the same thing, as are Octavio’s men. They’re a few paces ahead of us now, barging their way through the rioting crowd. I see blood on the back of Alun’s neck. He must have been sliced by an arrow. I’m surprised that none of us has been killed or badly wounded.

  Octavio is heading straight for one of the red brick cathedral walls. I don’t understand what he’s aiming for. There’s no sign of an exit here. Just solid bricks.

  “Liam?” I ask as we run.

  “It’s okay! Keep going.”

  I glance up at the balcony. The Monk is gone. There’s no sign he was even up there. Who is this new Monk? And how did he take power so rapidly?

  I turn back to stare at where Octavio was, but now there’s no sign of him either. I’m confused. Then I see Cass reach the same place at the wall.

  She disappears, her head slipping down beneath the crowd. It takes me a second to realize that there must be some kind of opening here. Perhaps one that goes underneath the wall of the building and leads into the jungle. Of course there are thousands of drones out there. But outside, we’ll have a better chance of survival than if we’re trapped in here.

  Liam and I race toward the brick wall. I see Emma and Alun disappear from view too. More drones step into our path. We savagely disarm them in a few simple movements.

  We reach the wall. I slam against it with Liam. I glance down and see a round hole in the dirt floor near my feet. It’s the opening to a concrete sewer pipe. A metal manhole cover has been pushed aside. This is obviously where the others went.

  The hole doesn’t appear to lead outside. It just plunges deeper into the earth, perhaps down to the torture cells beneath us.

  Right then, a wave of arrows flies over our heads, plowing into the brick wall. Liam and I duck.

  The arrowheads clatter against the bricks and drop down harmlessly. But I know that more will follow. The screams of injured drones, kids, refugees, and scientists intermingle into one giant, deafening roar.

  “Go!” Liam says. “I’ve got your back!”

  “Okay!”

  I stagger to my feet. More arrows whisk through the air around me. I feel them brush my hair.

  Without thinking too much, I leap straight into the hole—ready to face whatever awaits us down there in the dark.

  14MAPS

  I CRASH DOWN ONTO concrete. Liam jumps right after me, and we tumble into each other. I stand up, dazed, looking around in every direction. Liam stands up too. We’re inside a large, horizontal tunnel. One that appears to run in either direction, both under the cathedral and also out into the jungle.

  Octavio and his men are standing there in the dark a few feet away, waiting for us. Cass, Emma, and Alun are already racing off down the length of the tunnel in the direction of the jungle. Their feet splash in a stream of oily water.

  “You need to run,” Octavio says, his voice echoing against the curved concrete walls. “Now, while you have the chance.”

  “Dad, I’m not leaving you here,” Liam says. He’s stripping off his robes, revealing jeans and a T-shirt beneath. He slips his knives into leather sheaths strapped to his back.

  “Some of my men are still in danger, and I’ve sworn to protect their lives. You know that. And I want to see if I can rescue Dr. Barrett. Now go!” He gestures down the tunnel. “Take Alenna to safety. And save yourself as well. I’ll be fine. When the time is right, I’ll find you again.”

  Liam nods. “How?”

  “I have my ways,” Octavio says.

  “C’mon,” I say to Liam.

  “Stay safe,” he tells his dad, hesitating for a second.

  Octavio nods in return. “You too.” They clutch each other’s hands tightly for a moment, and then they let go.

  Liam and I begin racing after the other kids. The sound of the battle is audible overhead. Scattered gunshots now punctuate the howling and the screaming.

  “I thought you might be dead!” I confess as we run. I’m panting out the words through ragged breaths. “I was so scared! What happened out there?”

  His hand finds mine, and I clutch it. It’s amazing to feel his touch again.

  “My dad’s boat didn’t have enough fuel,” he explains. “They were adrift. When Dr. Barrett and the rest of us got there, we had fuel, but we’d had to fight several battles. We didn’t have much else.”

  Liam and I continue running. I glance back. More of Octavio’s men have found the tunnel, and he’s helping them into it.

  “Eventually, we made it back to the wheel,” Liam continues, “but we were ambushed by thousands of drones as soon as our helicopter and the hydrofoil landed here on a beach. It was like they knew we were coming.”

  “They did,” I say. “David told them.”

  “I knew not to trust that kid!”

  “You were right. He’s been working both sides. When we landed here in airships from Southern Arc, he led us straight into a trap. Drones came right out of the trees, took us hostage, and destroyed the airships.”

  “That figures.” We turn a bend in the tunnel and keep running. “They firebombed the helicopter and sunk the hydrofoil. So, we’re stuck here. Again.” His hand tightens on mine. “But at least we’re together. I never should have left you alone at Southern Arc. I regretted it the instant the helicopter took off!”

  “Me too! I never should have told you to go!”

  There’s so much to talk about, but hopefully there will be time later. For now, we just have to survive.

  I stare down the tunnel as we run. “Where does this thing go?”

  “It should lead outside the cathedral. Whoever threw weapons into our cells also put a map of this sector in mine. It’s in my pocket. I haven’t had time to study it yet.”

  We run faster, moving in earnest. My boots are soaked from the cold water beneath our feet.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you about David,” I say, gasping for air. The tunnel seems to go on forever. “I don’t know if he was always a spy, or if they tortured and brainwashed him until he betrayed us. Either way, I shouldn’t have trusted him.”

  “It’s okay. What matters is that you’re safe, and we’re together. At least the drones didn’t attack the airships while they were still in the air.”

  “The new Monk must want us alive for some reason.”

  “Probably for the same reason we want the drones alive—to convert them to our way of thinking and to increase our numbers.”

  I’m breathing so hard from exertion, it’s hard to talk anymore. I just put my head down and try to run faster. In the distance, I finally see a circle of white light, and the silhouettes of our friends rushing toward it.

  Behind me, gunshots suddenly explode down the length of the tunnel. Liam and I both duck. I glance back.

  I hear more shots and see the flash of a muzzle. I can’t tell if someone is shooting at us, or if Octavio and his men have gotten guns somehow and are shooting at the drones.

  Liam and I just keep running toward the light. I hope that there aren’t any drones wherever this tunnel ends. If there are, we could get trapped down here.

  Eventually, we catch up to Cass, Emma, and Alun. They can barely breathe, and they’re going much slower now. Alun has lost a lot of blood from the wound on his neck. Blood is covering his long-sleeve shirt.

  “Hey, Liam,” Cass says. Emma is holding on to her for support.

  Liam nods. “Hey.”

  Emma and Alun both look terrified. Alun reaches up a hand to probe the laceration on his neck.

  “You okay?” I ask him.

  He nods. “Yeah.”

  Together, we race the final distance until we reach the very end of the tunnel. It o
pens directly outside, into the forest. I can see green jungle and daylight beyond it.

  But our path is blocked by an iron grating. It’s wide enough to stick an arm or leg through, but not wide enough to fit an entire body. The iron is embedded into the concrete, so there’s no way to pull it loose. For a moment I feel sick. We’re trapped down here after all.

  We stand there for a moment in front of the grating, crouching and trying to recover our breath. The stale air in the tunnel is putrid.

  I hear more gunshots behind us.

  Liam grabs the iron grating, trying to feel for a weak spot. I start doing the same thing, and the others follow. The iron feels pretty solid. Then Liam steps back and takes both of his knives out, raising them up.

  “This might not work,” he says. “Depends how strong the iron is.”

  “Try it,” I say, encouraging him.

  He pauses and then holds out one of his long knives. “Try it with me?”

  I smile and take the blade. “Thanks.”

  Liam swings his blade outward as he lunges at the grating. His blade flashes against the iron, metal sparking against metal. For a second, I’m afraid that his knife is going to break. I move forward and swing my blade, too. The blow makes my arm throb as the blade clashes against the thick iron bars.

  At first, it seems like this is not going to work. But the iron grate is old, and as we keep hitting it, one of the iron beams snaps in two and clatters to the ground. I shield my eyes as Liam and I strike at the grating again and again. We manage to shatter another piece of it. Bits of iron skitter through the air and across the tunnel floor.

  With a few more strokes, enough iron is gone that there’s a hole large enough for us to sneak through. Liam and I are breathing hard from the exertion. He sheaths his blade. “Let’s go,” he says. I keep hold of my knife, relieved to have a weapon back in my hands.

  We start climbing through the hole, one after another. Liam and I are at the end, together. I climb outside right before he does, the jagged iron railings slicing at my clothes and skin. But within a second, I’m through. I stand there in the jungle heat with everyone else. Liam comes out of the opening a moment later.