The Uprising: The Forsaken Trilogy

by Lisa M. Stasse

  I stare up at the staircase. I can see the stairs continuing on forever, past the feet of the travelers. I don’t see a ceiling to the tube, although I know there must be one.

  We start hiking, climbing faster and faster. The constant turning is making me feel dizzy. I stare out the glass, which so far, just shows a dim, gray blankness.

  Then we rise above the level of the earth, and a harsh landscape comes into view. Even though it’s cloudy outside, the brightness is overwhelming. I blink fiercely, desperate to see where we are.

  “The gray zone!” Liam says. “We made it.”

  I stare out as we keep moving. Beyond the thick glass of the cylinder is the grim landscape that I remember all too well. I see sprawling industrial buildings and huge white pipes connecting everything.

  There are no trees anywhere or signs of wildlife, only concrete and steel. The buildings look in even more disrepair than the last time I was here. There are gaping holes in the sides of some of them. Cracks in the concrete. And just as before, everything is clearly abandoned.

  “I don’t see the specimen archive!” I blurt out. There’s no sign of that huge white and silver building that houses the frozen occupants.

  “We might be inside part of it already,” Liam replies.

  “But this doesn’t look like the archive,” Gadya says, now a pace behind us with David. “Not like I remember.”

  “Could be a different section of the zone,” I say. “We don’t know what part the control tower is in.”

  “Let’s just hope the travelers know where they’re going,” Liam says. Then softer, he whispers back as we climb, “If things go wrong, let’s meet back here. On these stairs. We can even hide out in the tunnels for a while if we have to. Keep going forward, wherever they lead.”

  I nod. “What about the drones?” I can hear their howls beneath us. I wonder if they’ll follow us right up the stairs.

  “We avoid them if we can. Fight them if we can’t.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Gadya says.

  The higher we go, the more I can see of the gray zone. I see the ocean now, stretching out beyond the buildings and the rocky shore. And then the jungle, and beyond that, the sixty-foot barrier marking one side of the zone’s perimeter. But there’s still no sign of the specimen archive. Maybe we really are already inside some strange wing of it.

  We continue moving upward. I feel scared and nervous about what we’re going to discover up here. The last time I was inside a building in this zone, miniature feelers attacked me and Liam, right after I rescued him. For all I know, they might be waiting at the top of the stairs for us now.

  Below us, the drones are clamoring. I wonder if they’ve entered the hatch and the stairwell. It sounds like they have.

  I think about Clara—that strange computer program that controlled everything last time I was in the gray zone. Clara tried to block me from rescuing Liam. I can only hope that somehow she’s been shut down, but I fear that she hasn’t.

  “Faster! Faster!” Gadya yells from behind me. There’s real panic in her voice now.

  For a moment, I wonder if our journey back to the gray zone was worth it. Every single thing we planned along the way has gone wrong. It’s like we were doomed from the beginning.

  But then I think about Rika, Markus, and everyone else frozen in the archive. If Liam or I were in there, we would want someone to come and rescue us. Those kids’ lives depend on us. And we also need them to join us in our mission to take back the wheel and fight the UNA.

  I hear travelers above calling out to us:

  “Move it!”

  “C’mon!”

  “Go!”

  I take a deep breath and tell myself that even if we fail, we’ve done more to affect the UNA than any other group of exiles in history. I grab Liam’s hand, and we keep moving upward.

  26THE TOP

  LIAM AND I EVENTUALLY reach the top of the spiral stairs. I’m freezing now. My teeth are chattering, and my skin feels numb. I can hear the drones howling and screaming below us. They’re in the stairway. Soon, they will reach us.

  Gadya steps out behind us. Her knife is covered with blood. David steps out next to her. I gaze around and see that the spiral stairs have led us into a large, circular domed structure, with a ceiling made from sheets of foot-thick glass. Above us are clouds and gray skies. This must be the control tower.

  On the walls, I see computer screens flashing with blue streams of data. Cracked leather seats sit in front of them, long abandoned. Unlike the observation deck that Gadya and I discovered the last time we were in the gray zone, this place has none of the harsh utilitarianism of the archive. Everything here looks like it was once plush. The kind of place that the UNA’s elite might have once come to visit.

  I look more closely at the numbers and letters on the screens. They are all the same. It’s like a countdown, repeated over and over. But it’s in some kind of code, so I can’t figure out what it means. The travelers rush over to the computer keypads beneath the screens.

  “How do we know this is the right place?” I ask Liam.

  “We don’t,” David says. Gadya has helped him farther into the control room. “But it’s the most obvious one.”

  “Why?” I ask.

  “It’s the highest point. From here, complete destruction of the specimen archive could be orchestrated. It could even be observed if someone wanted to watch, although I think the place is abandoned except for us.”

  “Wait—I thought we might be in the specimen archive.”

  David shakes his head. “No. Look.” He points. Far from us, way down below, I finally see the massive roof of the archive. “The archive is probably filled with hidden explosives—maybe even placed there when it was first constructed, in case of an emergency. But the controls that detonate it will be someplace distant. Like in this tower. That’s why the travelers have led us here instead of directly to the archive.”

  Out the windows, I see dots in the sky. Distant feelers. Perhaps they’re part of the contingent attacking the highway. Or maybe they know that we’re up here, and they’re circling around to get us.

  I glance over and see the travelers still at the computer terminals. There are only six travelers in the room with us now. The others are on the stairs, defending us.

  The travelers at the computers punch numbers into keypads, but nothing happens.

  “It’s not working!” one of them yells to another.

  The screens continue streaming with data.

  I hear a clattering sound, as well as deranged howls. The crazed drones are getting closer. I rush over to the stairway with Liam to help guard it. Gadya is right there with us.

  I glance back and see that the countdown, or whatever it is, hasn’t slowed.

  The travelers keep calling back and forth to one another. They sound desperate.

  “The controls are locked!” one of them calls out.

  Then there’s a loud electrical crackling sound, like a clap of thunder inside the room. A flare of white light bursts from the computer consoles, and their screens go black.

  I stagger back, almost falling down the stairs. Gadya grabs my arm, and I hold on to her.

  “What was that?” she yells.

  I smell smoke. “I don’t know!”

  Liam is at my side. “You okay?”

  I cough. “Yeah. What happened?”

  I glance over at the travelers. To my horror, they are no longer on the seats. Their bodies are lying on the floor. One of them is twitching.

  David stands there, like he’s afraid to move. “I think it was a booby trap,” he says. “An electric charge. Designed to electrocute anyone trying to tamper with the computers.”

  We look around at one another. None of the travelers is moving. I’m not sure whether they’re dead or just unconscious. Either way, it’s just us now. We yell down at the travelers on the stairs, telling them we need help, but they’re too busy fighting the drones to hear us.

  The
n the computer screens flare to life again. Now I’m expecting the worst. I’m terrified that somehow we’ll see a masked figure on them—a new Monk laughing at us. For a moment, I see only static. But then, a second later, a familiar face appears, gazing out at us with eyes that look so much like my own.

  “Mom!” I cry out, shocked and confused.

  “Can you hear me?” my mother asks as her image flickers and bends. Behind her, I see the shadowy figures of other scientists, ones I recognize from Destiny Station. And I also see the distinct tiled walls of Southern Arc. She made it to the base.

  “Yes! Help us!” I can’t believe this is happening.

  “Are you safe?”

  “Barely—there’s just a few of us left! And drones are chasing us!”

  “How are you talking to us?” Liam asks her.

  “Our radios picked up the self-destruct sequence going into motion and we were able to cut into the video and audio feed. We can talk to each other, but we can’t stop the sequence. You don’t have much longer.”

  “Are there any more booby traps?” David calls out.

  “No,” my mother says. “We couldn’t stop the electric discharge from the computers. That was manually set years ago, when the gray zone was evacuated.”

  I watch her, torn between the desire to know what she’s going to say, and my fear of the drones coming up the stairs.

  “Speak fast!” Gadya adds. “Please! The drones will be here soon!”

  “Tell us what to do,” I say to my mom. “How do we save everyone, or make the archive stop from self-destructing?”

  The pounding on the stairs grows even louder. I can clearly hear the footsteps of the drones overrunning the travelers. And out the windows, I see that the black dots in the sky have grown larger. The feelers are heading our way as well.

  “Mom, what do we do?” I call out again. “We’re out of time!”

  I hear the first of the drones reach the landing. I turn. He’s standing there, hands stretched out with nails like claws. He’s growling. It’s an awful, subhuman sound. The sound of complete madness.

  Liam is at my side, ready to strike down the drone.

  “The drones are here!” I yell out to my mom. The signal on the screen is weakening for a moment. I don’t know if she can hear me.

  David is crouching down by the computer consoles now. They are completely fried, leaking wisps of smoke.

  “Help us!” Gadya yells at the flickering computer screens.

  More drones appear on the stairs. We’re trapped up here. I glance back at the monitors on the walls. My mother’s face has reappeared. I can see the fear in her eyes. And I see the scientists behind her moving around more urgently.

  “There’s an emergency exit that leads into the computer cooling and maintenance tunnels,” she says to us quickly. “Go! I’ll be able to talk to you inside. There’s another monitor in there.”

  “I don’t see an exit!” I yell back at her. Gadya and I start looking around desperately as Liam fends off the drones.

  “Press the wall between the two center screens,” my mom says.

  Gadya and I do what she tells us. A section of the wall between the screens slides open with a hiss.

  None of us needs a second to think about it.

  We plow through the narrow opening, sliding into the maintenance tunnel. It’s cool and dry in here, and the tunnel is small and round. The walls are made of metal. Liam hits a red button on the wall, and the door slides shut. Then he hammers the button with his knife, disabling it and knocking the button sideways. This means we might be trapped in here. But it also means the door is closed off to the drones.

  We crouch there for a moment, breathing heavily.

  The tunnel isn’t tall enough to stand up in. In fact, where we are right now is just some sort of vestibule for the maintenance tunnels. Three of them sprawl off in different directions heading down and away from here, behind half-open hatches. They look small and dark, like burrows. They are lit only by green emergency lights.

  I feel terrified—but at least we are still alive. I faintly hear the drones clamoring outside. More of them are in the control room now.

  I look around for a computer monitor and see a small one bolted onto the wall. It’s dead.

  “Mom?” I call out.

  Only silence answers.

  “Hello?” David asks.

  There’s no reply.

  “What do we do?” Gadya asks.

  “We stay calm,” Liam says.

  I slam my hand against the monitor, willing it to come to life. Faint crackling static emanates from it, although its screen is dark.

  “Alenna . . . Liam . . .” my mom’s faint voice says. “Are you there? Are you all right?”

  “Yes!” I yell back at her, as we gather around the monitor. “We’re in the maintenance tunnel. The drones are blocked off from us, at least for now.”

  My mom starts talking rapidly again. “The way to stop the self-destruct sequence is to journey down one of these tunnels and disable the entire archive, by destroying its cooling mechanisms. That’s the only thing that will stop the archive from being destroyed, and it will also automatically trigger a controlled release of the pods—freeing everyone who has been captured and frozen.”

  I eye the long, sinister maintenance tunnels.

  “It will be a very dangerous journey,” my mom’s voice continues. “If you want to change your mind, the tunnel farthest to your left leads down and out, into maintenance tunnels beneath the observation tower that go underneath the barrier and out of the gray zone. But if you want to continue, then the tunnel in the center is the one that you need.” My mom pauses. “I’ll be proud of you all, no matter what choice you make.”

  Liam and I look at each other. A sudden banging on the door startles us. The drones know where we are and they still want to get us.

  “Tell us more,” I say.

  David is staring into the tunnels, past their half-open hatches.

  “I don’t know if you have weapons, but you don’t need them,” my mom continues. “Just continue down the center tunnel, without stopping. You’ll eventually reach the cooling center. You will see the neutron-chemical generator for the gray zone. It’s a series of metal and glass pipes around a silver sphere. You must smash and disrupt this core. You must destroy it with anything you can.” She pauses again, her voice breaking with emotion. “The core is filled with dangerous chemicals. You’re going to have to smash it and then run back into the tunnel and close the hatch. You won’t have long. One mistake, and you’ll be overwhelmed by fumes.” She pauses. “But if you succeed, everything will instantly cease working. The core is the Achilles heel of the specimen archive and the wheel.”

  “Are you asking us to sacrifice our lives?” Gadya says. She isn’t angry. Her voice just sounds flat.

  “No,” my mom says. “You know that I could never do that, especially with my own daughter involved. But whichever one of you smashes the core is in the most direct danger. And there’s a chance that even if you move fast, things will go wrong.”

  I’m about to speak. About to say that we’ll do it—that we’ve come this far and would never give up now. That we can move fast and avoid the chemicals.

  But suddenly, David ducks his head and starts racing forward on his hands and knees toward the center tunnel. I instantly realize what he’s doing.

  “No!” I yell. “David! Wait!”

  Liam sees David too, and grabs at him, trying to get his ankle. But David has caught us by surprise. I didn’t think he could move so fast.

  “Stop!” Gadya screams, lunging after him.

  We try to reach him, but he slips through our fingers, his momentum carrying him forward.

  It’s too late to stop him.

  David grabs on to the center hatch and flings it all the way open. And then he dives into the center tunnel, slamming the hatch shut behind him as quickly as he can, and locking it.

  “No!” I scream, kicking
at the metal when I reach the hatch.

  Liam races forward and tries to open the hatch, pulling on it with all his strength. But the handle won’t budge.

  “David, what are you doing?” I yell, horrified.

  Through a thin glass slit in the metal hatch, I can see his eyes looking back at us. They look frightened but determined.

  “What’s happening in there?” my mother’s voice cries out in a blast of static. But there’s no time to answer her.

  “David, stop this!” I call out to him.

  “I took an oath . . .” His voice drifts back to us, as we cluster around the closed hatch. “In the resistance cell. To give my life when and if the right time came. For me, this is the time. But none of you needs to die or get hurt.”

  “David, no!” I cry out, tears flooding my eyes. “This isn’t the right way! What are you doing? We can work together!”

  “We need to talk about this,” Liam calls out. “Think it through!”

  “Please—” Gadya says.

  “No,” David answers firmly. He stares out at us, his eyes looking back and forth. I see the certainty in them. “This is what I have to do. There’s no time for debate. If I do this and destroy the cooling core, my mission will be complete. . . .” He turns and glances behind him, as though he’s preparing to leave. “I will have sacrificed everything I have to give. I will have proven where I stand.”

  “You don’t need to prove anything!” I yell.

  “Maybe I do, to myself.”

  “Mom!” I yell out. “David has gone into the tunnel and locked the hatch! He’s going to do it on his own!”

  I don’t hear a response. Only static. The connection has been lost.

  I bang my fist against the metal hatch door, feeling total disbelief. David is going to sacrifice himself to save us all. Did we drive him to do this? By always questioning his motives? I know that none of the others ever trusted him as much as I did, but even I lost faith in him for a while. But it doesn’t have to be this way. “David! Come back!”

  Gadya starts yelling too. This is happening too fast. We hammer on the metal until our hands are raw. Liam is right there too, yanking at the handle again.