The Uprising: The Forsaken Trilogy

by Lisa M. Stasse

  I stare after her retreating figure, perplexed. I wish I knew exactly what was going on. The travelers definitely don’t seem too pleased with Gadya right now.

  Slowly, Liam and I sit down again on the wooden slats. But I’m ready to leap up at any second if I have to. I keep watching until Gadya disappears from view into the shadows.

  “So, that was weird,” Cass says.

  “The travelers don’t like having us here,” David speaks up. “We’re causing too much commotion.”

  “How do you know that?” I ask.

  “Just a guess.” David falls silent as Cass glares at him.

  “We’re going to have to work hard to convince them tonight, if we even have a chance at all,” Liam says finally.

  I lean forward. “They haven’t seen the new army of drones. If we explain it to them, maybe they’ll understand.” I pause. “We’ll make them understand.”

  Everyone nods. I know that our survival might depend on enlisting the travelers. If we can get them on our side, we have a chance of defeating the Monk and his army. But without them, our last chance at saving the wheel might just slip away.

  • • •

  At dinner that night, the travelers gather in the trees and on the platforms under the highway. The travelers easily number six or seven hundred—more than I thought. But they are silent and still. They are constantly cautious, aware of every noise. The sun has set, but the moon is full and it illuminates the trees by the side of the road.

  The silence makes me edgy. The only noises are the sounds of the forest at night, and the creaking of the wooden beams supporting us.

  Some travelers move nimbly across the platforms, passing around buckets of fruits and vegetables. There is no cooking fire. Only handheld lanterns that cast a constant shifting glow around the space. Sentries remain hidden on the ground, watching for trouble.

  All of us sit there, not sure what to do or say. Emma is helping take care of Alun on a nearby platform, trying to nurse him back to health. I can hear him moaning. I eat some bites of langsat, glancing over at Liam. I’m looking around for Gadya, but there’s still no sign of her.

  “Where’s Gadya?” I whisper to Liam. “I thought she’d be back by now.”

  “I was wondering the same thing,” he says. “We’ll ask the travelers if she doesn’t turn up soon.”

  “You think she’s okay?”

  “I hope so.”

  A female traveler steps over to us, ladling water from a canteen into wooden cups. Liam and I fall silent so that she doesn’t overhear us. All of us are thirsty. I grab a cup and let the traveler fill it for me. I suck down the cool liquid, feeling it trace a path from my throat into my stomach.

  Finally, a voice rings out in the dim light.

  “New friends!” the voice says. It has the trace of a Spanish accent. I glance in its direction.

  The voice is coming from an older traveler, maybe twenty-one, standing in the center of the nearby octagonal platform. He’s average height, but muscular, with the sunburned skin that so many of the travelers have. He’s dressed in hoofer skins, with his long dreadlocks tied back with black twine. He’s looking right at us. “Your arrival today has caused a stir.” He pauses. “You are the first people to find us in a long time.”

  Everyone’s eyes are on him.

  “As you know, our tribe has no official leader—and no use for one,” he continues. “Today, I have been elected to talk to you and share our feelings. My name is Ramiro Gutierrez.”

  We nod. I don’t know if he expects us to introduce ourselves. I just take another bite of langsat.

  “So, please understand that while I speak for the members of this tribe, I am just their voice, not their leader.” He smiles.

  I smile back, but I’m still wondering where Gadya is.

  “We already understand what you want from us,” Ramiro continues. “We know that one of you has the means to control the UNA selection units. And we also know that you want us to go with you and locate some of the selection units. To find them in order to kidnap the Monk.”

  “Gadya must have talked!” Cass hisses. “I knew it! That snitch!”

  “Maybe she just asked the travelers for help,” I whisper back. “Come on!”

  “That wasn’t the plan,” Cass retorts.

  I keep listening to Ramiro. There’s no way the travelers could have guessed our plan. Either Gadya talked to them or they overheard us somehow.

  “We understand the rationale behind your actions,” Ramiro continues. “However, you must understand that we do not wish to become entangled with your warring tribes. We stand outside those battles and we always will. Transcending conflict is the only key to long-term survival on the wheel.”

  “You’re wrong!” Cass cries out.

  “Let him talk!” I hiss at her.

  Silence falls. I’m aware of hundreds of eyes watching us. For everything positive that Gadya said about the travelers, I’m not so sure these people are as peaceful as they claim. And now there’s no sign of Gadya at all.

  Ramiro smiles gently at us. “If you seek trouble on the wheel, you will always be able to find it. That is what we have learned.” He pauses again, holding out his hands in a beseeching gesture. “I am sorry, but our decision has been reached. We cannot and will not help you. Your determination to save your friends is admirable, but your warlike passion does not belong here among us.”

  I turn to Liam. This is our time to talk. To try to make the travelers see things our way.

  I’m about to stand up, but for some reason, I feel a wave of dizziness pass over me. “Should I talk or should you?” I ask Liam, trying to shake it off.

  He looks back at me. “You.” His speech sounds slightly slurred. “I’m not feeling . . . too good.” He grips one of the wooden beams to support himself.

  “Me neither.” The dizzy sensation is getting worse. It feels like seasickness. Ramiro and the travelers are watching us closely.

  Startled, I look over at David and Cass. David’s eyes are half closed. He’s struggling to get up. Cass has managed to make it all the way to her feet, where she sways unsteadily, like she’s drunk.

  What is happening to us?

  “Listen, Ramiro,” she begins. Then she staggers a bit. “You have to—” She nearly falls, and catches herself, sinking to the floor, her words becoming an incoherent murmur.

  I get to my feet feeling terrified, using some hanging chains to support my weight. The world feels like it’s spinning around me. I’m exhausted too, like I’m about to fall asleep for no reason.

  I peer down at the cups of water and at the uneaten bits of langsat sitting on the platform. Then I look back up at Ramiro.

  “Ramiro?” I ask. My tongue feels two sizes too large for my mouth.

  “Yes?”

  “You put something . . . in our food . . . ,” I manage to say. Liam is trying to get up next to me, but his legs are giving way, like they’ve just turned to rubber.

  “You are not wrong, Alenna,” Ramiro replies. “In both your food and your water. Our way of doing things is not to argue. We have made our will known, and there is no need for further discussion.”

  “Gadya . . . ,” I murmur, still struggling to believe that she would play any role in this.

  “It was not your friend’s decision. It was ours, as a group.” Ramiro pauses. “She wishes you to know that.”

  I sink to the wooden floor again, dragged down by whatever drug the travelers have poisoned us with. My body is going numb.

  Am I going to die?

  Have we made it this far only to be poisoned by people we thought would help us?

  I want to scream at the travelers and curse at them, but the world is quickly slipping away from me. My arms and legs feel like they have weights attached to them. My ears are ringing.

  No one moves to help us. The travelers sit there, silently watching as we collapse and writhe on the platforms.

  Ramiro is still gazing at me. “You nev
er should have come back to the wheel.”

  I crawl toward Liam, desperately reaching out for him. He’s barely conscious now. His eyes are shut, and he’s taking shallow breaths.

  Liam—I try to gasp, but my lips can barely form his name.

  My hand grabs his arm. There’s almost no sign of life. The world is swirling and spinning with increasing velocity.

  I cling to Liam as I start to lose consciousness myself, sinking into the abyss. The whooshing sound of blood gets louder in my ears until it blocks out everything else. My vision goes gray and constricts to a narrow circle. I struggle to take a breath, my chest shuddering.

  And then everything goes black.

  20ABANDONED

  I HEAR A VOICE calling my name from the darkness. It sounds like it’s reaching me from a long tunnel. My head is pounding, my mouth is dry, and my muscles are burning like I’ve run a marathon. I feel like I want to go back to sleep and never wake up again.

  “Alenna!” the voice says sharply. I want the voice to stop bothering me. I curl up into a ball with my eyes tightly shut. But the person won’t leave me alone.

  I feel strong hands moving me onto my back. Brushing hair out of my face.

  Then I realize, even in my stupor, that the voice belongs to Liam.

  I use every ounce of energy that I possess to force my eyes open.

  “Liam!” I gasp, struggling upward when I see him, choking and coughing.

  I find myself in his arms. He wraps them around me tightly. I press myself hard against his chest. I can barely breathe. My hands and feet are still numb, and my lips are tingling. “I thought . . .”

  “I know,” he says. His voice is rough. “Me too. But it wasn’t fatal. Probably just some kind of toxic herb. Enough to knock us out for the night.” He pauses. “It’s already morning now.”

  I cling to him for a few more seconds. Then I turn my head.

  We’re no longer up on the platforms. In fact, we’re out in the jungle somewhere. I’m lying on dirt and pebbles in a small clearing surrounded by giant mangrove trees and underbrush. Gentle morning sunlight filters through the branches down toward us.

  I can’t see the highway from here, let alone the travelers or their camp. They’ve just taken us out to the middle of nowhere and abandoned us.

  I look up into Liam’s eyes. “I can’t believe we let this happen to us.”

  “Same here.”

  “We’re lucky to be alive.” I gaze around. “Where is everyone?”

  “Out cold.” He leans farther back so that I can get a good view. David, Cass, and Emma are sprawled on the forest floor behind us.

  And Gadya too.

  “So they left her as well,” I say. “She’s got some explaining to do.”

  “No kidding.”

  Liam helps me to my feet. I stand there swaying for a moment next to him. The feeling is slowly coming back into my hands and feet, and they tingle wildly, just like my lips. I shake them to get the blood flowing again.

  “Where’s Alun?” I ask.

  Liam gazes around. “Maybe they took him with them. At least that’s what I hope. He was too badly hurt to leave out here.”

  I nod. I know it’s possible that he’s dead.

  “You okay?” Liam asks me.

  “I’m getting there.” I rub my hands together.

  Liam smiles a bit.

  “What?”

  “We’re back to where we started. All alone in the jungle.”

  It’s not funny at all, but I can’t help smiling either. Then I look down at the ground. My smile fades. The others are so motionless, it looks like they’re dead. “They’re okay, right?”

  Liam nods. “I checked them when I woke up. They’re fine. Just sleeping it off.”

  I lean up and kiss Liam quickly. But there’s no time for romance.

  “So what do we do now?” I ask. My head is still fuzzy from the poison. “We need a new plan—and we’re starting from scratch. Yet again.”

  Liam slowly takes something out of his pocket. It’s David’s black box. The one that controls the feelers. “The travelers left this with us. I found it next to me on some leaves. The travelers didn’t want it. I’m guessing they thought that someone could track it, and use it to find them.”

  “Or else they’re just crazy,” I say.

  Liam nods. “That too.”

  He holds out the box. I take it and stare down at the many tiny switches. It’s amazing to me that this small object could control something as large and terrifying as the feelers.

  “I wish we’d had this back in the village,” I say, turning the box over in my hand. “Why couldn’t the scientists have helped us sooner? Right at the start. Things would have been so different then.”

  “I know.” He looks at me. “But we have the box now. David finally turned out to be useful for something.”

  “Now we just need to find some feelers,” I say. “I mean, if we continue with our plan to kidnap the Monk.”

  Liam looks up. I see the spark in his eyes. “It won’t be easy without the travelers’ help, but it’s possible.”

  “Then let’s get started.” I brush dirt and leaves out of my hair, and off my jeans. I look around at the others, who are still asleep. “I almost don’t want to wake them up,” I joke.

  “Yeah. I know what you mean.”

  For a second, a look passes between us. A glimpse of what it would be like if Liam and I could just be together, without this madness surrounding us. If the UNA had never descended into fascism, maybe that could have been the case.

  I suddenly check my back pocket. “I’ve lost my book,” I say. “The Myth of Sisyphus.” I feel oddly sad. The book was a connection to my dad, and it was also something that Liam gave me. I look around but I don’t see it anywhere. It must have fallen out at some point.

  “C’mon,” Liam says. “Let’s wake everyone up and let them know they’re alive.”

  We move over to the others, side by side, starting with Emma because she’s the most peaceful. One by one, we wake each of them. Until all of us are sitting there in the jungle.

  I can feel the lingering effects of the poison. My head feels heavy. I try to ignore the feeling. I know that the others are doing the same thing. We are exhausted and bedraggled-looking.

  “I don’t know what to say, guys,” Gadya finally mutters, staring around at everyone. She’s resting against a fallen tree. Her blue-streaked hair is a tangled, spiky mess.

  “Did you know they’d leave you too?” I ask her.

  “Sure, I thought there was a chance.” She rubs her eyes, trying to wake herself up. “I told them how I honestly felt—that we should fight the drones and snatch the Monk. I guess they thought I’d become a liability.” She gazes at Cass, looking annoyed. “This is actually all your fault for agitating them and asking too many questions.” She looks over at David. “And your fault too!”

  David doesn’t respond, but Cass looks angry. “My fault? What are you talking about?” She sounds dazed, but also ready to fight. “We’re the ones who just got tricked. Your friends left us out here with nothing! And they took Alun, too.”

  “For peaceful types, they don’t seem very concerned about our safety,” Emma points out softly, blinking behind her glasses. “Is Alun even okay? I’m really worried about him.”

  “They took Alun to help him,” Gadya says with a sigh. “Just like they did for me. They never leave injured kids behind. It’s part of their philosophy.”

  “Well, their philosophy sucks,” Cass retorts.

  I lean forward. “Come on. No arguing. At least we’re not dead.”

  Liam raises the black box so that everyone can see it. “And they left us with this.”

  David perks up. He’s been quiet so far. Either he’s brooding, or he got harder hit by the poison than we did. Or he’s plotting more secret treachery. “Let me see that.”

  Liam hesitates. “Why?”

  “It’s okay,” I tell him. My head is clearin
g, and it’s getting easier to talk. “David, you won’t do anything weird with it, right? Remember, we outnumber you. If you try to stab any of us in the back, then you’ll have to answer to all of us.”

  David slowly nods. “I know.”

  Liam reaches out and reluctantly hands him the black box.

  We all keep our eyes on David in case he makes any sudden moves.

  “Alenna and I think we should continue with our plan,” Liam says to the group, standing up. “Find a feeler that we can use to capture the Monk.”

  “But how do we find the Monk?” Emma asks after a moment’s silence. “We don’t know that he’s back at the cathedral. He could be anywhere on the wheel by now.”

  Silence falls again.

  “Can’t your magic box locate the Monk for us?” Gadya asks David sarcastically. He’s checking the box to make sure it’s not broken.

  “No,” he admits.

  I stand up next to Liam. “Then there’s only one way to find the Monk. If we don’t know who he is or where he is.”

  “What’s that?” Cass asks.

  “We bring him to us.”

  “Seriously?” Emma asks.

  I nod. “If we want to find him, what other option do we have?”

  “Alenna’s right,” Liam says in the ensuing silence. “We’re going to have to lure him out somehow.”

  “That’s a pretty scary plan,” Emma says.

  “No, it’s actually a great plan,” Gadya declares, standing up too. “I’m game. If we can think of a way to do it, then we should try. If we get the Monk to show himself, we can use feelers to come in and grab him.” A look of fire and determination drifts into her eyes. “We went one-on-one with the previous Monk—and we won! We can do it again.”

  “So how do we lure him to us?” I ask.

  David speaks up. “It might not be as hard as you think.” He brushes down his matted black hair. “The Monk is already looking for us, actually.”

  “What? Why?” Gadya asks.

  “Because of me,” David answers slowly.

  “Figures,” Cass mutters.

  “You should have mentioned that earlier!” Liam says to David. “I thought you care about Alenna so much. But you keep putting her life in danger.”