David turns back around for a final time. His eyes find mine. “Just don’t forget what I did.” His muffled voice echoes down the tunnel. “Don’t let anyone say that I was a traitor. Let them know that I was on the right side all along, no matter what it looked like.”
“Of course! David, I—”
“Keep me in your thoughts, Alenna,” he murmurs. “You’ve always been in mine.”
And then, stunning me, he turns his back on us and disappears into the darkness of the tunnel.
“No!” I scream out. I throw myself against the hatch.
It’s almost too much to bear. And I could have stopped him somehow. Any one of us could. If only we’d known what he was going to do.
“He’s gone,” Liam says, holding me from behind. I’m sobbing. I can’t help it. I don’t want David to die.
“We could have gone together!” I cry. “We could have found another way! All of us!” I kick at the hatch. “David!” I scream one final time. But there’s no response. David is gone.
I don’t hear my mom’s voice anymore either. I wonder if she’s continuing to give David instructions, farther along the tunnel. But possibly not. The radio signal most likely just cut out. I feel like I’m going to throw up. It wasn’t meant to end like this.
“What do we do now?” I ask.
Liam hugs me. Then he says softly, “We go back down and get out of the gray zone. And we hope that David succeeds.”
• • •
Three hours later, I sit on the rocks outside the barrier to the gray zone, next to Gadya. We’ve made it out of the zone, through a complex network of maintenance tunnels. Hundreds of travelers now surround us everywhere.
They were victorious on the highway, and now they have come to assist us. And to liberate the inhabitants of the archive as well.
When we came out of the tunnel an hour ago, I saw a surreal sight. Feelers were falling out of the sky, plummeting straight down to the earth. Their whistling, screaming noises sounded almost human to me. They crashed down into the jungle around us, splintering trees as they fell.
It was then I knew that David had succeeded—both in stopping the self-destruct sequence and in automatically releasing the captured kids from the pods. Everything mechanical was coming to a halt, including the feelers, which must have been controlled by computers in the gray zone as some kind of automatic defense system.
It was also when I knew that David was probably dead.
None of us said anything.
For me, it was too painful.
I just staggered out of the tunnel opening next to Liam and Gadya, and into a large cleared area of the forest outside the gray zone.
Now, Gadya and I sit here on rocks, resting and watching everyone. Liam is helping the travelers guide shivering kids from the archive out of the tunnel, despite his own injuries.
I stare at these dazed kids shambling out of the gray zone through the tunnel. The travelers are draping them in their spare hoofer skins. Most of these kids look so shell-shocked that they’re not causing any trouble. Only a few drones are violent, and they are easily restrained by the travelers.
I should feel victorious. But I just feel empty inside. David is dead. I cling to any shred of hope I have, but there’s no sign of him. By going alone, he made sure we weren’t in danger, but he sacrificed his own life to do it.
I glance over at Gadya. “I wish David were here,” I murmur. “He fought for this day as much as we did.”
“He escaped from the feelers once,” Gadya says, trying to make sense of it. “When it didn’t seem like there was any hope. Maybe he’ll manage to survive again.”
I nod. “This time feels different.”
“I know.”
We fall silent again.
I watch Liam. More than anything, I’m grateful that I still have him. Against the odds, we have both survived this terrible day.
The wheel is now ours. We are planning on heading back to the cathedral in the forest soon, to try to find Octavio and rescue the scientists—at least the ones who’ve survived. The travelers are also going to try to find Dr. Barrett and free him. With the specimen archive emptied, and the feelers defunct, we will soon be in total control.
From here we can build a new army and eventually mount an attack on the continental UNA. Just like we always planned.
Although the vessels that brought us here have been destroyed, I’ve heard the travelers talking among themselves. The plan is now to use the old, massive UNA airplanes in the gray zone—the kind that Liam and I once hijacked—to eventually transport us back to the continental UNA. According to the travelers, there are a lot of technological resources left on the wheel, both in the gray zone and hidden elsewhere on the island. If we can free the scientists from the cathedral, they will work to set up a defense system to protect the island from any bombs or missiles. I hope they can also somehow synthesize a new batch of antidote pills to help cure the drones and the Ones Who Suffer.
Most of the details of what happens next are being kept secret from us by the travelers. At least until the wheel is under control. But we’ve learned from the travelers that they believe the resistance cells inside the continental UNA are in communication with the scientists at Southern Arc already. Rebels living secretly inside the UNA will help us arrive, and we will attack the UNA from within simultaneously as we attack from without. Apparently, conditions in the UNA have worsened since I left it. The populace is rebelling against the endless wars with other nations, and against the increasingly harsh laws mandated by the government.
Hopefully, the UNA will crumble when we return, as its own citizens join us and fight back in an attempt to restore democracy. It’s a risky plan but at least we have a chance. Still, I know we have a long way to go before we succeed in conquering the UNA for good. And taking over Island Alpha is the first step.
“We did it,” I say to Gadya. “We won the battle, at least for now.”
She gazes at me with haunted eyes. “I know. I just hope it was worth it.”
I stare back at the streams of dazed kids flooding from the gray zone. “They don’t even know that they owe their lives to David’s sacrifice.”
I scan the crowds, watching the different faces emerge.
Then, suddenly, I see a familiar figure appear from the tunnel. A short, freckled girl with her hair in braids. She’s being led along by Liam. They’re headed in our direction. I’m so startled that I can barely say her name.
I just point.
“Rika!” Gadya gasps when she sees the girl.
We stand up and begin waving wildly at our friend. We rush over to her and Liam. She sees us, and her face lights up at once. She doesn’t have her glasses on, but I can tell that she has instantly recognized me and Gadya.
“Look who I found,” Liam says, smiling, as we reach them.
“Alenna! Gadya!” Rika says. “I never thought I’d see you two again!”
We hug her.
“I knew you’d come and rescue me,” she says.
“You did not,” Gadya retorts.
“I’m so glad you’re alive,” I tell Rika, shutting my eyes for a moment.
Then I lean back, searching for Cass and Emma in the crowd, and Markus as well, but I see no sign of them yet. If they survived, then we need to find them too. I’m hoping that Cass and Emma turn up soon with the travelers from the road.
“How long was I asleep for?” Rika asks us. “I’m starving!”
Gadya and I exchange a glance. “Not too long,” I say to Rika. I figure there’ll be plenty of time to tell her the truth later on.
I stare out at the line of kids. It’s growing with every moment. By never giving up, and being willing to sacrifice our own lives, we have succeeded in taking over the wheel. But I also know that this is the start of a larger battle. One in which we must defeat the UNA on its home turf.
I know that between us kids, the scientists, the rebels, and the travelers, we can find a way. But first, we must
return the drones to sanity—if we even can—and recover our strength before moving forward.
I lean against Liam. I feel his arms wrap around me. He kisses the top of my head. We don’t say any words. There is nothing to say right now. I watch Rika talking to Gadya excitedly.
I know that we will keep fighting until we overturn the government, or die in the process. Where there was once just a handful of us, now there are thousands.
The UNA should be more afraid of us than we are of it. They have more power and resources, but we have the passion and the desire for vengeance. I refuse to let David’s death be in vain. Not only have we conquered the UNA’s main prison colony, we’ve killed the leader of it—twice over. Nothing can stand in our way now.
I gaze out at the kids in front of me, wishing David could be here to share this moment. Soon, we will return to the UNA. Soon, we will take back the country that was stolen from us, and put it back into the hands of the people. Where it has always belonged.
“I’m ready for whatever happens next,” I murmur to Liam. Then I tilt my head back and glance up at him. Our eyes lock. “I’m ready for war.”
LISA M. STASSE is a digital librarian at UCLA. The Forsaken was her first novel. She lives in Santa Monica, California.
SIMON & SCHUSTER • NEW YORK
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The Forsaken
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 by Lisa M. Stasse
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Book design by Hilary Zarycky.
Jacket design by Lizzy Bromley
Jacket photograph by Dan Mountford
The text for this book is set in Perpetua.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Stasse, Lisa M.
The uprising / Lisa Stasse.
p. cm.
Summary: “Alenna Shawcross fights to stay alive after she discovers the secrets of the wheel where she has been exiled”— Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-4424-3268-0 (hardcover)
[1. Government, Resistance to—Fiction. 2. Fascism—Fiction. 3. Prisons—Fiction. 4. Survival—Fiction. 5. Science fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.S7987Upr 2013
[E]—dc23
2012025051
ISBN 978-1-4424-3270-3 (eBook)
Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Sunlight
Chapter 2: Cass
Chapter 3: Descent
Chapter 4: Escape
Chapter 5: Submerged
Chapter 6: City of Ice
Chapter 7: The Decision
Chapter 8: Departure
Chapter 9: Transmission
Chapter 10: The Airships
Chapter 11: The Return
Chapter 12: Betrayed
Chapter 13: Masks
Chapter 14: Maps
Chapter 15: Elevated
Chapter 16: Reunited
Chapter 17: The Travelers
Chapter 18: Down from The Sky
Chapter 19: David
Chapter 20: Abandoned
Chapter 21: The Feeler Hunt
Chapter 22: The Unmasking
Chapter 23: The Return of The Monk
Chapter 24: The Path to Freedom
Chapter 25: Underneath
Chapter 26: The Top
About Lisa M. Stasse
The Uprising: The Forsaken Trilogy Page 33