The Defiant Read online

  “You can’t be sure of anything on Island Alpha,” I point out, although secretly I don’t think Dr. Barrett has any chance of getting better.

  “Come back to order!” Dr. Vargas-Ruiz calls out.

  The crowd starts quieting down.

  “The planes leave today in roughly two hours, as you already know,” Dr. Vargas-Ruiz continues loudly. “You should say any final good-byes while you have the time.”

  “And while we’re still alive,” Gadya adds.

  She means it as a joke, but a few people shoot her dirty looks and hiss at her to be quiet.

  I look out at the crowd. So many lives depend on us.

  “You are dismissed until launch time,” Dr. Vargas-Ruiz intones. “We will reassemble then.”

  I look from Liam to Gadya and back again. My boyfriend and my best friend. “I’m ready to leave the wheel behind forever, and go back home,” I say to them. “How about you guys?”

  “Definitely,” Liam replies.

  Gadya nods. “Sounds like a plan I can get behind.”

  I feel nervous. The pressure and stress is hitting me, but I work hard to hide it. I take a deep breath. Soon we will be in the air, and heading back into the dark heart of the UNA.

  3 FROM THE SKY

  TEN HOURS LATER, I’M leaning back against the rattling hull of an airplane. We are gliding high in the night sky above the continental UNA. Somewhere above New Texas. I gaze out the window at the earth beneath me. I can see the lighted dots of cities and towns. They look so small. Spectral and multicolored. I should feel tired, but nervous energy and adrenaline keep me awake.

  The airplane is one of the old UNA aircraft that transported pods off the island. The scientists have reconfigured it and coated it with radar-resistant material. There are no seats inside. It’s just a large, loud canister.

  The journey across the ocean has been uneventful, just as the scientists predicted that it would be. We took off from the bumpy dirt runway on Island Alpha and were soon cutting a path through the cloudless sky. Compared to the journey on the submarine to Southern Arc, and then the voyage on the airships back to the island, this is oddly peaceful.

  It’s hard to conceive that by airplane, we were only half a day away from the UNA. Island Alpha felt much farther away—like an entirely separate world. I glance out the window again and see nothing but stars in the darkness.

  Soon the peacefulness will come to an end. I wish we were landing on a runway at a real airport, but of course we aren’t.

  We will be jumping out of this airplane, and skydiving straight down into the UNA. Our landing site will be a field on the outskirts of New Dallas. It’s one of the few safe places to land, according to the rebels and the scientists. The planes will be returning to Island Alpha—assuming they don’t get shot down.

  I remember how afraid I was of heights when I had to climb up and down those ropes back at the travelers’ camp with Gadya. I thought I’d gotten over that particular fear, until now.

  “How high up are we?” I hear Gadya ask.

  “Too high?” I murmur, gazing down.

  “Three thousand feet!” someone else shouts back.

  “I need to double-check your pack,” Liam says to me.

  “I’m fine,” I tell him. “I already checked three times.” But secretly I don’t mind. “I’ll check yours.”

  “Deal.”

  I turn so he can inspect my parachute.

  My heart is in my throat. I felt eager to get into the air, but now I almost wish I could go back to the island for a little longer. I try not to think about Dr. Barrett’s words—that we’re doomed for returning to the UNA. Does he know something that we don’t? I wish we were taking guns with us, but it’s too dangerous. If we get spotted with guns, the UNA police will instantly know that we’re rebels and will kill us—or torture us for information. So instead, we must make do with knives, hidden in our belts.

  “We’re almost above our destination,” a scientist says, consulting a digital display screen. We will be landing in a deserted field. From there, we will travel north to meet up with a rebel convoy that will take us in and give us shelter temporarily. We will then be split up, and sent to different rebel cells.

  The scientist unexpectedly throws open the door of the aircraft. A blast of freezing air gushes into the airplane. I shudder against the cold. “Who wants to go first?” he yells over the noise.

  “Me!” Gadya says, stepping toward the doorway and then pausing. “I think.”

  Liam and I stand there next to her, the wind whipping through our hair. The noise is deafening up here. My skin feels like ice. I hold on to Liam for stability. The wind is stronger than I imagined, and there’s nothing else to hold on to. I’m afraid I’ll get sucked out of the plane before I’m ready.

  “You scared?” Liam asks me, yelling over the noise.

  I shake my head. “No.”

  “Good. We’ll be fine.”

  I nod. “I know. We’ll find each other as soon as we get to the ground.”

  “Definitely.”

  A surge of fear courses through my veins as I look down, out of the plane. I just see blackness. At any moment, the UNA might spot us somehow and send an airship to gun us down.

  I keep staring down at the ground, out the open door. It’s so dark, but I can faintly make out a huge field surrounded by forests. This is our landing site.

  “Better get moving,” the scientist says impatiently. “Someone’s gotta go first!”

  To our left I see another airplane in the distance, with seven people already tumbling out of it in a row. Heading down toward a field in the UNA to help begin the rebellion.

  “I’ll go first,” I say loudly. Gadya looks surprised.

  “You sure?” Liam asks. “I was going to wait for you on the ground and—”

  “No. It’s my turn. I’ll wait for you guys.”

  The scientist puts a hand on my pack. “You ready?”

  I nod.

  I lean back to kiss Liam quickly. His lips are warm against mine. I hug him one last time.

  Then I turn back around, shut my eyes, and step out of the plane.

  The wind instantly slams into me and knocks me sideways. I scream, despite myself, out of shock and fear.

  And then I’m falling through the freezing night air, tumbling head over heels. The wind whips at me so fiercely, it feels like it’s going to tear off my clothes, and skin me alive.

  The wind is so loud now that it sounds like a hurricane. I can’t hear anything else. I didn’t know that skydiving would feel like this. My body is getting battered by currents of air. I’m in danger of losing my bearings. My eyes keep clouding over and watering from the cold and the wind. I try to wipe them clear with the back of my hand.

  “Liam!” I yell, but I know he can’t hear me anymore. I contort my body and get a glimpse of the plane above me. I keep tumbling over and over.

  I’m starting to panic. I trained for this, by jumping off rocks on the wheel, but reality is completely different from any kind of simulation.

  I keep plunging downward. I finally get into a steady position and hold out my arms and legs. This slows me down, but I’m still moving faster than I thought possible. Below me is darkness spotted with tiny dots of light.

  I hear an alarm start beeping next to my head. This means it’s time to open my parachute. I pull the cord, expecting to have the parachute explode out, and snap me back up into the sky.

  But nothing happens.

  I yank on the cord again.

  Still nothing.

  My mind goes numb.

  This cannot be happening to me .

  The ground looks like it’s expanding and contracting beneath me in a vertiginous frenzy.

  My freezing fingers fumble for the cord that leads to the safety chute. I can’t find it.

  The alarm is beeping faster next to my ear. I flail as I try to find the emergency rip cord. If I can’t locate it soon, then I’m going to die. I will hit
the earth at approximately 120 miles per hour.

  I look down at the ground again. It’s getting even closer.

  A strange, almost peaceful feeling starts to come over me. It’s like a feeling of comfort and warmth. I’m probably not going to survive this free fall . Somehow my parachute has malfunctioned.

  I shut my eyes. Maybe it won’t be so bad. To hit the ground that fast will mean that everything is over quickly. No more stress. No more pain. No more fear. No more battles. Just an end to everything.

  But then I push the feeling away and lunge my hand behind my back again, desperately searching for the cord. Death is no answer. It’s the easy way out. And it would separate me from Liam. It would also mean that I’d play no role in bringing down the UNA. If I die in battle, then that’s different. That’s how I want to die if I have to. Fighting . But to die here would mean nothing.

  I yell out as the tips of my fingers feel something hard and plastic. It’s the orange ball at the end of the emergency cord. I struggle for it as I continue falling. The noise of the alarm and the wind keeps blaring in my ears.

  Then I finally manage to grab the cord. I have no idea if it will work, but I pull it with my full strength as I let out a savage yell.

  Instantly, I’m thrown upward as though by a giant, invisible hand. The force is so violent that it rattles my whole body, jarring my jaw and snapping my head back. The emergency chute has worked. I’m now drifting in the sky, peacefully.

  I exhale shakily. My body is cold. I look at the ground. I’m still going much faster than I thought I would be. But I’m high enough that I’m going to survive the impact. I gaze around. I see a shadow passing a few hundred feet away from me. Is it Liam? Gadya? I call out to them but get no reply.

  I can’t see anyone else in the freezing darkness around me, but I know that they must be in the sky somewhere. I stare down at the few lights beneath me. I can’t see the field too clearly. It’s just an area of blackness waiting to swallow me up.

  I keep drifting downward. The parachute straps are biting into my underarms. A gust of wind drifts me sideways.

  I continue moving lower. Now I can finally see the ground beneath me a little better. It’s a grassy field. But it’s so dark, I can’t see if anyone else has landed yet.

  Now I’m only a hundred feet above the ground. Now fifty. I’m drifting in silently. The noise of the wind has become just a peaceful whisper. It’s hard to imagine that a minute ago, I almost died.

  Now I’m just ten feet above the surface.

  Finally, my feet touch the ground and I start running, trying to keep my balance.

  But I trip over my feet and tumble onto the ground, landing with a bone-shaking crash in the grass. The emergency parachute falls down heavily behind me, making a rustling noise. I lie there for a moment, the wind knocked out of me, until I manage to stagger back up to my feet.

  I take off the parachute straps and immediately start gathering up the parachute. I can’t let any trace of it remain. Working quickly, my heart in my throat, I manage to get it stuffed into the backpack. I button it up and sling it over one arm.

  Later, I will inspect my pack and try to find out why my main chute didn’t deploy. I need to know whether it was an accident, or whether it was some sort of sabotage attempt. Although all of us are supposedly fighting for the same goal, I know that it’s possible there are spies among us.

  Around me is only silence. I don’t see anyone else. I feel alone, scared, and cold. I look up in the sky, searching for Gadya, Liam, or any of the other kids from my plane. I don’t see anyone. Clouds are passing across the moon, making it hard to see.

  Then I hear a nearby rustle. I freeze. My hand goes to the knife on my waistband.

  “It’s me,” I hear a voice hiss in the darkness. My eyes are adjusting to the dim light, and now I see Gadya approaching from about twenty feet away. “Back in the good ol’ UNA,” she whispers. I can hear excitement in her voice. But also some fear.

  “Did you see what happened?” I ask, moving toward her.

  “No. What?”

  “My parachute didn’t open! I had to use my emergency one.”

  “Really?” She sounds startled.

  “Was yours okay?” I ask.

  She nods. “Yeah. I’m glad you’re safe.”

  “Me too,” I say. “So where’s Liam?”

  “I don’t know. I was just looking for him. He went out right before I did.”

  “He’s probably landed by now.”

  “I’m sure he has. Maybe the wind drifted him away from us.”

  We both stare around in the darkness. “I’m worried that someone did something to our parachutes,” I say.

  Gadya thinks it over. “Sabotage? But who would do that?”

  “I know it’s doubtful, but maybe there’s someone who doesn’t want us to succeed. Like someone with old allegiances to the UNA.”

  “Anything’s possible on the wheel.” She stares around for Liam. “If he’s not here soon, we have to get going.”

  I nod. “Maybe he’s already headed for the rebel convoy. Maybe he’ll meet us there.” I look around at the trees.

  “Liam will be okay,” Gadya says, trying to comfort me. “He’s a hunter and tracker. He knows where to find us.”

  I nod. I have to accept her logic. If I don’t, I’ll give in to despair.

  I pull out a paper-thin digital screen. It’s a map of the area. The scientists gave them to us, along with fake government papers, forged back on Island Alpha. The screen glows dimly green in the darkness. I hold it close so that the light doesn’t give us away. “Look. We’re not far from where we’re supposed to meet the rebels. We just head north into the forest, find a large river and follow it, and then meet them on a dirt road on the other side. They’ll be waiting for us.”

  Gadya glances at the map. “Only two miles or so.”

  “We better start walking.”

  I take a final glance at the map, and then shut it off, putting the folding screen back into my pocket. I wish I could communicate with the scientists, or anyone else, but it’s too dangerous now to transmit any signals. They would be picked up by the government’s monitoring systems.

  Gadya and I start heading toward the trees at the edge of the field. I’m thinking about Liam and hoping that we’ll find him out here. If not, I plan to wait for him when we reach the convoy, even if Gadya doesn’t want to.

  The sudden snap of gunshots in the distance triggers my reflexes, and I instantly crouch down to the ground. The shots are too soft and far away to be aimed at us, but we need to be cautious. I can hear Gadya cursing.

  “They’re onto us!” she hisses. “They must have spotted someone.”

  “It could be a police drill,” I say. “It could have nothing to do with us. They could be doing target practice, for all we know—”

  More sharp cracks interrupt my words. I don’t hear any screaming in response. If they are shooting at something or someone, it sounds like they’re missing their target.

  “We have to go faster,” Gadya says. “If there are government soldiers or police out here, then we need to reach the rebels as soon as we can.”

  The two of us begin racing toward the edge of the trees. The trees are so tall in front of us that they blot out the moonlight. They stand like an impenetrable mountain of foliage, their branches and leaves forming a thick canopy. We make it into the forest just as more gunshots ring out.

  We quickly find the river, using our ears to locate it. It’s wide, and its rushing water sparkles in the few slivers of moonlight that penetrate the cover of trees. My mind churns. Our landing was supposed to be secret. If there are soldiers out here in the trees, already looking for us, then we’re in trouble.

  Gadya and I travel rapidly alongside the river. Tree branches lash our arms and faces, and I feel the underbrush crunch beneath my feet. The rushing sound of the river next to us is our sole companion, hiding the noise of our footsteps. We keep low to the ground, ru
nning in a half crouch. Trying to stay hidden from view in case anyone is watching.

  I can scarcely believe what we’re doing. It feels like we’re still back on Island Alpha instead of in the continental UNA, close to a big city. Soon we will be rescued by the rebel convoy and then taken right into the heart of New Dallas.

  As we continue racing forward, my folding screen nearly falls out of my pocket. I cram it back in and keep running. I can’t afford to lose it.

  A few more minutes pass. Our breath is ragged in our chests as we run. We’re making good progress. By now we are probably just a mile away from our destination, and I haven’t heard any more gunshots. But just as I start thinking that we’ve escaped, I hear a voice scream out.

  “Stop!”

  I freeze. So does Gadya. I sink down to the ground. She does the same. We crouch in the brush, trying to hide. The smell of dank earth is thick in my nose. I can feel my heart pounding against my ribs.

  Gadya’s eyes lock on to mine. There’s no need for us to say anything to each other. The slightest noise could give us away.

  I can’t believe we’ve been spotted. Are these the rebels that we’ve been expecting, or someone else? I’m going over a cover story in my mind, in case we’ve stumbled upon government soldiers. But there’s no good reason to explain why we’re out here in the forest, even with the fake government papers that we carry. Our presence is far too suspicious. We’re going to have to fight if we get cornered by anyone other than rebels.

  I also know that we’re going to have to cross the river soon in order to rendezvous with the rebel convoy. We don’t have any time to waste.

  I hear footsteps crunching through the underbrush. A figure appears in the darkness, stepping out into a shaft of moonlight.

  “You there! You girls!” it yells, seeing us instantly. But the voice is high-pitched and oddly unsteady.

  As the figure gets closer, I stare down the source of the voice. It’s a chubby boy, about twelve years old at the most. His face is dirty with mud, and his blond hair is long and ragged. He’s clutching an old bolt-action shotgun.

  “Who are you?” I call out.

  “Jonah. I’m a rebel.” He keeps the shotgun pointed at us, his cherubic face marred by the suspicious look in his blue eyes. “Names?” he asks us. “Real ones.”