Modified- The Complete Manipulated Series

by Harper North

  “There’s no one around,” Talen says, putting himself between Cal and Lacy. Probably more for Cal’s protection than Lacy’s because she’d make a mess of the un-enhanced man in a heartbeat.

  Cal must not see it that way because he whirls on Talen, jamming a finger into his chest. “Oh, just like there wasn’t anyone around in the tunnel?”

  Talen’s jaw twitches. “I sensed her, I was just too—”

  “Slow,” Cal hisses. “You were too slow.” He turns away, shaking his head. “What good are they?” he mutters to Steven.

  Steven takes Cal by the shoulders and they exchange some quiet, terse words. After a few moments, Cal brushes his hands away and looks at the rest of us, maybe a little calmer now.

  “We’ll have to try the doors,” Cal orders. “Everyone stay together. The last thing we need is for this group to fragment any more.”

  At last, we agree on something. We have enough enemies.

  Cal tries the first door we come to, one on the inside of the ring, and a breeze blows against our faces. It’s almost fresh, like maybe it leads to the outside, but the space within is dark except for the light of a few small fires. Cal freezes, waiting for something to happen, and then he waves us into the large area, motioning for us to stay quiet.

  We step into a vast chamber with a catwalk under our feet. Along the catwalk, more portable fire pits slowly die out with no people around to stoke them. I press against Sky, who clasps Cia to his other side. Flashlights click on, pointing in so many directions I don’t know where to look first.

  A ring of cables, all several inches thick, rise from the floor far below and stretch upward and out of sight. We’re standing in a massive stone cylinder that seems to rise to infinity. I crane my neck, but I can’t tell where the cables go.

  “What is this?” Cia asks, leaning over the railing and reaching for a cable, brushing her fingers against it. “It’s made out of some weird material.”

  Emma squints at it. “That’s odd. It must be some kind of super material. I’d be interested to know what it is.”

  “Cia, get away from the edge,” Sky says.

  She ignores him and looks down instead. “What’s down there?”

  “Just a big metal floor,” Sky tells her, peering over even as he yanks her back.

  “What’s the point of that?” I ask, following their gazes.

  The catwalk forms a ring, just like the hallway, and underneath is just a big, flat, metal circle big enough to cover several houses. The cables end there. It’s as if someone put a giant lid on something below. Maybe this used to be some big supply lift. A mine, maybe.

  “Weird,” Cal says. “This ain’t part of the settlements. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “Do you think it’s a power station of some sort?” I ask. “A supply drop for the underground, from back before the EHC stopped all this?”

  He shrugs, face blank. “I don’t know.”

  “Emma?” I ask.

  “We need more information,” she says, pocketing the now useless map. “Let’s keep opening doors.”

  It turns out that most of them lead to rooms filled with rows of fabric chairs. Each of these rooms contains a set of bathrooms with flushing toilets, but no working lights. They look like waiting rooms. Old vending machines stand smashed and empty, but the shards of glass have been cleaned away. Another room has shelves of cans and shrink-wrapped food. Cal picks up one of the cans and turns it over.

  “This is labeled Elysian Beach,” he mutters, looking at marker letters on the top of the can. “These rats have been stealing from us.”

  “Hey, they have to eat,” Sky says, glancing at his sister. “I’ve done stuff like this.”

  His words send a surge of relief through me. That’s the Sky I fell in love with. It’s good to know he’s still in there, even if the one who wants to kill Elias is, too.

  “There can’t be too many of them,” I say, “or you’d have noticed them.”

  Cal glowers at me, shoving the stolen can into his own pack. “Keep searching.”

  The next room, behind a set of metal double doors, looks a lot more interesting. Old computer screens line the walls, and though all of them are off, nothing in here is smashed. Emma pushes ahead, ignoring Cal’s orders to wait. She’s never met a computer she could keep her hands off of.

  When no one jumps out and grabs Emma, Cal motions for everyone else to enter and stand aside single file.

  “I’ve never seen these before,” one of the Dwellers says, tapping at a keyboard.

  Emma clicks a computer mouse, but nothing happens. She eyes a clunky-looking computer tower and frowns. “These are from a couple of generations ago. Old models. I remember my father using these before he helped me get away from my grandfather.” She frowns. “I hated to leave him.”

  “So we know this place has been here for a while,” I say. “But why?”

  “If we could just…” Emma sighs and slides the mouse away from her. “Without power, these terminals are useless.”

  Cal looms right behind her. “Well, I want to know what this place is doing so close to Elysian Beach, and what these rats are capable of doing to us.”

  “Apparently not much,” I blurt, realizing my mistake too late.

  Cal whirls on me, eyes shining. “You ever seen your best friend’s blood on the ground, little girl?”

  Fury roars to life, along with my last horrible moments with Drape. “As a matter of fact, I have, old man.”

  Sky steps between us, ready to defend me or stop me, I’m not sure which.

  Talen holds up a hand behind him. “I sense—”

  One of the double doors bursts open. People turn and shout just as a hand comes through, throwing a small metal cylinder to the floor.

  “Leave!” a woman shouts before her footfalls echo back down the catwalk.

  Instinct propels me to the back of the room. The cylinder hisses, ejecting white gas that rapidly fills the space between us and the exit.

  “Out!” Cal shouts, leaping over the escaping gas.

  People stampede to the doors. Already, my eyes water. I try to hold my breath as the air thickens with the mist, flailing for and grabbing Sky’s arm. He shouts for Cia. I cough and gag, loosening my grip on my weapon for one terrifying second. The gas is already invading, turning my eyes into waterfalls. Despite holding onto Sky, I bump into someone else and rub my sleeve over my helpless eyes. The gas is everywhere. Fighters bang into terminals as the hissing stops. Some stumble into the hallway, coughing and sucking in breaths.

  I can hold my breath better than Cal’s people thanks to my enhancements, but that doesn’t seem to matter. Shouts follow from the ring. Sky pulls me forward, and the two of us stumble into the others, who part in the hallway to let us hit the wall. The gas is thinner out here. Shouts surround us as Originals and Dwellers push to the sides. Sky’s holding Cia’s arm. Lacy and Talen stand there with tears running down their faces. Their eyes have turned bloodshot.

  Whatever gas we just ran through was meant to irritate, not kill. That’s the only reason we’re still alive.

  Cal wipes his eyes with his plaid sleeve and opens the door to the catwalk room, letting out the white gas. It flows upward, thinning in the air, and he peeks his head in after it, arms quaking.

  “We’re going to find you!” he shouts.

  “Cal,” Emma says once the gas clears enough for her to breathe. “These people are clearly just trying to make us leave. They don’t want trouble, whoever they are.”

  “But they do,” he argues, whirling on her.

  Some of the Dwellers mutter, and even Cal’s people shift with nerves. I look at the exhausted faces and the red eyes. Cal’s thirst for revenge could get us all in worse trouble if he continues.

  “We need to find these people and take them prisoner,” Cal presses on. “We’ll figure out what this place is soon enough. All they have are primitive gas canisters from the pre-Flip days and even older traps.”
>
  “But they could have guns,” I say. “We don’t know yet. And you heard that woman. They just want us out of here.”

  “I agree with Fin,” Sky says. “Cia and I have survived like these people before, and I used to be the same way. Didn’t want outsiders anywhere near us, even the Dwellers.”

  Cal advances on Sky. “But did you kill them?”

  “Well, no.” He still doesn’t back down. “Maybe I wanted to at one point. Well… it depends.”

  “We may have to kill these people before we can reach Reinhart and his pup,” Cal says, stepping away from Sky and looking at everyone. “Reaching those traitors depends on us getting around the blockage, and we’ve found the one way to do it. I say we shoot first and ask questions later.”

  A bad taste rises in my mouth as I think of Elias. I look to Sky, who looks to Cia, Lacy, and Talen. People mutter. The tension’s rising in our big group and we’re going to split yet again if we don’t do something. Forcing thoughts of Elias aside, I keep Lacy in my gaze and flick my eyes in Cal’s direction, hoping she gets it.

  Lacy lifts an eyebrow at me, and the corner of her mouth turns up into a grin.

  Okay. She gets it. We might have to take over this whole operation.

  We’re enhanced. Cal’s not.

  “Cal, listen.” I step forward with my pulse in my throat.

  “Yes?” he asks with a glare. His finger curls around the trigger of his automatic rifle, though he keeps it pointed at the floor. That’s a lot more dangerous than the shotguns the Originals had before we stole some of Cho’s weapons.

  “I agree we’ve got to do something about these people. I don’t think we should kill them, but we do need to contain them.”

  “They want to kill us!” Cal shrieks, whirling to face the fighters standing on either side of us. People wipe streams of tears from their eyes.

  I keep going. “Some of us have enhanced strength and can help with that. Then Emma can ask them questions about this place. Maybe there’s stuff here that can help us against our enemies, something they don’t have or know about. Let us capture these people and tie them up. Me, Sky, Lacy, Talen, and Cia can easily heal from any injuries they give us.”

  Cal’s features work, but he’s losing ground. “They are aggressive.” He frowns and faces Steven. The two men exchange silent stares.

  “That might be a good idea,” Steven tells him after a long pause. “Cal, we might have triggered old traps meant for someone else. We didn’t like outsiders, either. These people might know something about our enemies, or can at least tell us where they’re headed. If that woman wanted to kill us, she would have thrown in something besides tear gas.”

  “Unless she had nothing better,” Cal argues.

  “Then the fight isn’t fair, is it?” I ask.

  Cal shakes his head. “Losing David wasn’t fair.”

  We don’t have time for this. Cal’s outnumbered. Even the Originals behind him sway, getting impatient. The former EHC prisoners hang together, standing in the doorway and looking at each other. I poke Sky in the arm and nod at Lacy.

  Lacy grins and tugs on Talen’s sleeve, giving him a silent signal. After nodding to each other, they charge Cal, closing the few feet between him and them in less than a second. Cal goes to lift his weapon, but Lacy twists Cal’s hands behind his back, and Talen gently removes the automatic rifle from his grasp. With a smile, he dangles the weapon in front of Cal. I can see Lacy’s influence on him and can’t hold back a grin of my own.

  “What are you doing?” Cal demands, pulling against Lacy’s grasp.

  “Perhaps this is for your own safety?” Steven asks.

  Around us, people breathe sighs of relief. Emma clears her throat and holds up two hands, trying to draw attention.

  “Steven…” Cal’s eyes widen in shock. “You’re siding with these Destroyers?”

  Ah. Cal’s name for enhanced people. To be fair, it usually fits, but I thought we had gained some of his trust by now.

  I guess not.

  Steven nods. “They’ve done nothing but help us so far. Without them, Cho would have taken over Elysian Beach. Then Reinhart would have done the same. We’d be lucky if any of us survived.” Steven swallows hard, flicking his eyes toward me. “I think it’s best if we let them take the lead now.”

  CHAPTER 3

  CAL GLOWERS AT me, eyes shining with hate. Looks like he’s still the vengeful man who sent us surface people on a suicide mission after all. Now he just has a different target. But Lacy keeps his hands behind his back, and Talen moves to stand in front of him, blocking him from my view.

  The rest of the plaid-wearing Originals murmur their assent with Steven and cast their anxious eyes toward me. I’ve thrown a coup without even trying. While I don’t feel remotely qualified after my past mistakes, I know that Cal can’t be trusted right now, so I square my shoulders and clear my throat.

  “Right then. Let’s see if we can’t find one of these people and get them to talk. If we play our cards right, maybe we can get them on our side.”

  “But how?” someone asks. “We searched every room and there was no one up here.”

  “Sky?” I ask, because he’s got a knack for assessing underground structures.

  “Well, we know from that catwalk room that there are levels above us and below us. I say we search the lower ones first.”

  “I agree,” Emma says.

  I step forward. “I’ll lead the way with Sky. Lacy, keep Cal behaving.”

  “No problem,” she says.

  Steven opens his mouth to protest, but I shake my head and he backs off. Sky joins me as we push through the group and everyone forms two lines, one behind me and one behind Sky. We go around the ring again, searching the strange waiting rooms, and at last finding a spiral stairwell that leads downward hidden in one of the bathrooms.

  After listening to make sure it’s empty, I wave Sky down. Pistols out, we descend one quiet step at a time. The others do the same behind us. After a few minutes of slow progress, I reach an open doorway that leads to an area full of pipes, twisting wires, and wooden crates. Someone raises a flashlight behind me and provides more illumination.

  No portable fire pits. No chairs. Just a vast, open space with concrete pillars, support beams, and storage. Clearly, we’re far under the giant metal lid. Nothing’s lit. It’s all darkness and reeks of dust. Holding back a sneeze, I raise my gun and swing it right to left, searching for any movement.

  Someone darts right to left on the other side of the room, vanishing behind a concrete pillar.

  “Hey!” I shout. “We don’t want to hurt you. We just want to—”

  A small, dark shape flies toward us from the left. Instinct makes me bolt into the room, letting the others run in as more white tear gas erupts from the canister. I dodge to the side. There’s plenty of room to move down here. Someone else—a middle-aged, muscular woman in a ragged T-shirt and holey jeans—backpedals into the dark, eyes wide with terror. The gas obscures my vision.

  “It’s her!” Cal shouts. “Open fire!”

  “No! Don’t kill them!” I yell, pressing against the wall. The rest of our group does the same, avoiding the gas, but with weapons up and ready. Flashlight beams swing everywhere, blinding me for a moment.

  Where’s Sky?

  “Watch out!” he shouts from somewhere.

  My search reveals two men, one barely more than a boy, charging me from behind another pillar. Rags hang from limbs. The man-boy’s eyes are huge with fear. He holds a single busted board. The other carries a glass bottle—makeshift weapons.

  Lowering my pistol, I kick the board out of the young guy’s grasp. It flies over his head as his eyes bulge and he stops, holding up his hands in shock and surrender. The other guy tries to skid to a stop, but I grab his arm and knock the glass bottle from his hands with my pistol. It flies to the floor and shatters. Around me, everyone scuffles, but no one opens fire. Cal stays quiet.

  I lock eyes with t
he guy whose arm I hold. He makes no effort to fight back, but he tries pulling his arm away.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” I say. He doesn’t even have a knife.

  Beside me, Sky wrenches a woman’s arms behind her back. She’s the middle-aged one with the tear gas, and she’s holding another container.

  “Let go!” she shouts. “We’re minding our own business here!”

  “Everyone just back toward the wall,” I shout. “We don’t want to hurt any of you.”

  Emma walks into the middle of the scuffle, both arms raised and waving. “We have common enemies now.”

  My prisoner, trying to take advantage of the distraction, raises his free hand to hit me, but I block it with my other hand. “How are you so strong?” he gasps.

  “We’ve got them,” Lacy says, peeking out from behind a woman whose arms she has twisted in her grasp. A big smile grows across her face as she looks to Talen, who’s doing the same to a big, muscular guy in the same ragged clothes. Before the guy I’m holding can try to hit me again, I wrench his arms behind his back and keep him in front of me. Tall and gangly, he sighs and stops resisting.

  The other homeless people gather in a tight group. There must be two dozen of them, the youngest being the man-boy who dropped the board. In silence, they eye the surrounding fighters and the guns as if they’ve never seen real weapons before. A woman grasps at the torn sleeve of the man beside her.

  “What is the meaning of this?” Sky’s prisoner, who must be the leader, asks. Her voice is raspy, like she’s spent a lifetime in the mines I escaped. “Who are you? We have nothing you want. We’re only trying to survive down here.”

  I look at Emma. Cal’s still standing between Steve and a Dweller, arms restrained, eyes furious. Cia steps forward, gun pointing at the floor, but with confidence all the same. She snatches the tear gas container from the woman’s hand.

  “You should speak,” I tell her. She has a way of reaching people.

  “Some of us come from the surface, some from Elysian Beach, and some from prison mines,” Cia explains. “If you’re hiding from the EHC, they no longer exist except for one splinter group. We, too, have been doing the same, but now we have new enemies. And we need to cut through your area and reach them before they come for us all.”