The Defiant (2 page)

Suddenly a shadow falls over me. Startled, I try to get up, but my body feels too weak. Then I realize the shadow belongs to one of the scientists.

“How are you feeling, Alenna?” the scientist asks briskly. He's holding a gray T-shirt, jeans, and a pair of combat boots.

“Pissed off,” I say. “Everything hurts!”

The scientist tosses the clothes and boots onto the ground in front of me. Then he checks my pupils with a small, piercing light. “Good,” he says approvingly. “You're ready for the next phase of your test. Take out your earpiece and give it to me. Then get dressed.”

“No,” I tell him, as I struggle into the jeans and T-shirt. The earpiece is the lifeline to my friends.

“It's okay,” Gadya says in my ear. She can hear our conversation. “Don't worry about it. You'll see us soon.”

“Are you sure?” I'm scanning the jungle for them. There's no sign of anyone but the scientists.

“I'm certain of it.”

“The next phase of the test involves physical combat,” the scientist says with a sigh. “The earpiece might get broken, and we don't have many of them to spare. Give it to me.”

Slowly, I raise a hand and pull out the earpiece. It's still glistening with fluid from the isolation tank. The scientist takes it from me. Then he closes the isolation tank and locks it.

I'm incredibly thirsty. My mouth and throat are burning and dry.

“How about some water?” I ask.

“Not yet.”

“Why not?” I ask. “Where are my friends? And what's going on? What is this next phase exactly?”

He frowns. “You don't remember yet?”

“No. . . .” But as I say the word, memories start coming back to me in a rush. “This is some kind of test to figure out which
ones of us can handle getting sent back to the UNA . . . which ones of us can handle being tortured. I'm right, aren't I?”

The scientist nods. “We put a tiny dose of a natural neurotoxin in the IV tubes. It's meant to blank out your mind for a while, and affect your short-term and long-term memory, like a strong sedative. Don't worry. You'll get your memories back.”

“Why did you do it?”

“To see how you handle the stress, mentally and physically. These isolation tanks were discovered on the island, and we reconditioned them. The UNA uses torture tactics like this to break any dissidents. They use drugs and isolation to get rebels to give up confidential information. Isolation can be a much more effective form of torture than pain.” The scientist glances at the tanks. “You were in one of them for seventy-two hours.”

“It felt longer.”

He kneels down to spray with iodine the cuts where the tubes came out of me, and he gives me small bandages to put on them. “Just imagine being in one of those things for a month or two. The tubes keep your body running, but without any stimuli, the human brain can go crazy. We had to know if you could deal with it. Most kids can't. Not even seventy-two hours. We pull them out early.” He stands up again.

I get to my feet too, legs shaking. I slowly put the boots on.

“You said that the next phase is physical. I have to fight someone, don't I?”

“In a sense.”  The scientist starts walking away from me. “I can't say too much, or it will interfere with the test results.”

Memories are flooding back now in a vivid rush. Only a few kids will be getting sent back to the UNA. Only the ones who are strongest, mentally and physically. My stomach lurches. Liam and I helped design this test, along with the scientists and the
travelers.
How could I forget such a thing?
We wanted to make sure the test was as harsh and brutal as possible. But I didn't think it would be this bad. I wipe residual slime out of my eyes.

“Hey!” I call out to the retreating scientist.

He pauses. “Yes?”

“How long is this going to take?”

“That part is up to you.” He starts walking again, disappearing into the jungle. The trees close around him. I realize the other scientists have left too.

I am alone.

I stand there, checking myself for weapons. But I have nothing. Just my clothes and boots. I look around for something to use as a weapon. I don't want to get caught off guard. I also don't want to fight with my fists unless I have to. I know that whoever attacks me will probably be armed in some way.

My memories aren't perfect yet, but I remember that for this phase of the test, I will be expected to fight and disarm an opponent within a limited period of time.

I scan the jungle in every direction around the clearing. Everything is completely silent and still. I wonder if I can use the crane as a weapon somehow, but it's too high up. Then I see a thick tree branch, like a baseball bat, lying nearby. I rush over and grab it, spinning around in case someone comes up from behind. But nobody does. I stand there, clutching the branch.

“Come on then!” I yell into the forest. “What are you waiting for?”

I don't feel too afraid anymore. I know this is just a test now. My opponent will probably be someone I know, or maybe some other kid from the archives, stepping out of the trees to frighten me.

After the battles that I've been through, I'm pretty sure I can
take whoever it is, or at least give them a good fight.
Besides, the worst that can happen is that I fail the test
.

But more memories keep coming back, including one of Liam and me talking about the test. I'm sure that he'll pass it, if he hasn't already, and will be headed back to the UNA. So if I fail, I might get separated from him again, and left behind on Island Alpha. I can't let that happen.

I look around more urgently. “Hurry up!” I yell. My voice is hoarse from my time in the isolation tank. “I'm ready for you now!”

The scientists must be watching me. I look for cameras in the trees, but I don't see them. I know that they are there. I have to do well and impress everyone, and show them that I'm capable of fighting hard, so that I can travel back to the UNA with Liam.

Initially, I had expected that everyone on the wheel would travel back to the UNA as a massive army and fight the government soldiers there. I thought that the scientists would create new weapons out of the feelers, or other materials on the island, and build ships to take us back to the UNA in an armada. But I was wrong about their plans.

The scientists only revealed their true strategy after the island was brought under control. According to them, sending everyone back at once would be too dangerous. We can't afford to lose any major battles. So instead, the scientists will only be sending back a select number of kids, a group at a time, who will be given safe haven by the rebel cells already existing in the UNA.

Our plan is to work with the rebel cells, and use our knowledge to help them bring down the UNA from the inside and jump-start a civil revolution. It turned out that the scientists have been in contact with the rebels inside the UNA for years. They
believe the most effective way to destroy the UNA is to slowly dismantle it from within.

The power structure of the UNA is decentralized. We know that Minister Harka is just a figurehead. There is no prime person or location that we can find and easily attack. We must simply get the citi­zens to rise up against the soldiers and use their sheer numbers to overcome the government in every city and every town. That is our first and only order of business. Many lives will be lost, but the sacrifice will be worth it. Or so all the scientists and rebels hope.

After the citizens have stormed all the UNA headquarters and defeated the soldiers, a plan is in place for the European Coalition to swiftly move in and help us rebels rebuild, before chaos takes hold. The planet cannot bear the UNA's tyranny any longer, so the European Coalition is eager to give us aid. The UNA is fighting eight different countries at the moment, and they will never stop. The rest of the world can't tolerate its madness any longer.

This plan makes me nervous, especially the first part. I don't know if I'm cut out to be an enemy spy in a rebel cell. I was never in a resistance cell before being sent to the wheel, unlike David and Cass. I am used to battles and fighting, but not hiding and plotting. Those are different skills. Will I be able to urge the citizens to rise up? I'm not sure.

I also don't know if we can trust the European Coalition, although from what I've heard, they are a fair and relatively peaceful alliance of nations that do not subject their citizens to the violence and atrocities that the UNA does. They will supposedly help us reconstruct the nation, and help us put a new democratic form of government in place. Then, once the UNA is self-­sufficient again, they will allow us to be a free and independent nation once
more. Perhaps we will even be able to split back up into Canada, the United States, and Mexico, if the citizens so choose.

My thoughts are interrupted when I hear a noise from the trees. It's the sound of footsteps crackling on twigs in the forest. I spin toward the source of the sound. My fingers clench on my tree branch. I crouch low into a fighting stance.

I remember the shy, timid girl I once was. Before I got sent to Island Alpha, and before I met Liam and Gadya. Now I am no longer scared and weak. I am a warrior, tested by many battles.

“Let's do this!” I yell, banging my tree branch on the ground.

I expect whoever it is to yell something back, but instead I just hear a weird growling noise. Maybe the person is trying to scare me, but it's not going to work.

I keep hearing the branches crackle and the leaves rustle.

And then a figure steps into view.

I take a step back.

It is not some villager or rehabilitated drone here to fight me. Instead, it's a huge lumbering boy, his eyes glazed and his body rippled with muscles and weeping sores. He has a shaved head and homemade tattoos all over his chest.

He must be one of the drones that the scientists couldn't save. One of the crazy ones who lived down in the tunnels near the control center. Poisoned by UNA drugs. Banished there by Meira—the onetime leader of the drone army.

I feel a chill. I can't believe this is part of the scientists' test. Those kids were violent semi-mutants. Almost like wild animals. This boy could kill me. I'm shocked the scientists would do this to anyone. I definitely don't remember this element being part of the test. I even wonder if I've been set up, and this is some kind of attempt to murder me.

I watch the deranged boy, and I try to stay calm. My branch is tight in my hands.

He pivots his crazed eyes in my direction. He opens his mouth and growls again. His fingernails are like jagged, serrated knives. His teeth are filed into points. In the sunlight, his flesh looks gray and rotting. He takes a step toward me.

At least he doesn't have any weapons
, I think. And although he's huge, he's clumsy and clearly demented. As long as I'm careful, I should be able to hit him on the head and knock him down and out. That should be enough to complete the test.

But then I hear another sound behind me. I turn around. A second mutant boy is stepping out from the trees. He's missing some fingers, and he has livid red scars on his face. But the edges of his mouth are turned up into a brutal sneer. His blue eyes, mottled with red around the edges, are fixed directly on me.

I hear more noises. I don't know how many of these crazed kids are out here with me, but I know that I'm going to get killed unless I do something. My heart starts pounding. I consider running away, but I imagine that then I would fail the test.

So I decide to fight.

I lunge forward at the first boy and strike him as hard as I can with my tree branch, right across the chest. He doesn't show any sign of pain.

He swings out one of his meaty fists. He's slow, and I duck.

Right then I hear the boy behind me approaching. I swing around with a yell, kicking outward, and catching him off guard. My right foot plows into his kneecap. He stumbles back, startled, nearly staggering to the ground. I rush forward and kick him in the knee again. He screams in agony.

My boot stamps down over and over, trying to dislocate his
kneecap. I have to disable him or he will kill me. I feel bone and cartilage crunching under my boot. Now he's sobbing and gripping his knee. I spin around.

Two more boys lumber out of the trees. They both have chiseled teeth and rabid looks in their eyes.
I can't believe the scientists are doing this to me
.
Is this what the test was like for everyone? How did Gadya pass it? Or anyone else?

The first boy approaches again. I lash out with my tree branch, whipping it across his face this time. He cries out in pain and his hands press against his eyes. I turn around, prepared to fight the other two boys.

I pick the smallest one and run toward him with my branch upraised. I swing it as he tries to claw at me with his ragged fingernails. Suddenly, he grabs hold of the branch and whips it out of my hands, tearing the skin of my palms.

I leap back, raising my hands into fists.

And then I feel strong hands gripping me around the waist. I cry out in surprise. I can feel the hot breath of one of these awful drones on the back of my neck. I kick back with my foot, trying to hit him in the crotch, but missing.

“Get off me!” I yell.

Teeth gouge my shoulder, and I realize that he's trying to bite me. These drones are primitive animals. They use teeth and claws to fight. I feel his teeth pierce my skin like a row of knives.

Scared and horrified, I kick back again, finally slamming my heel into his crotch. He releases his teeth as he cries out. I slip out of his grasp.

But the drone who grabbed my tree branch is fast approaching, holding it in one hand. His eyes are blank, as though his mind has been fried.

I want to run again. The odds are against me. But I know that I can't.

So instead, I race toward the boy with a savage yell. He raises the branch, but I plow into his chest with my shoulder. He tumbles backward with me on top of him.