Under Ground (27 page)

He turns to me and gives me a
look. He's studying me. I can’t quite read his expression, but I
don't like it. What he says next hits me like a hurricane. The
whole world starts spinning around me, a tornado destroying
everything in its way. “They found out about your
mother.”

“What do you mean?” Fear wraps
itself around my heart and squeezes it hard.

“They said on TV that your mother
helped you run away and that she’s tied to Chi's escape. They know
she helped you, so now she’s an accomplice to the Underground. It’s
all over the news. They’re using her as an example, a scapegoat, to
call for witnesses. Anyone who sees you is to call the authorities.
Anyone who’s helping you will be apprehended. I don’t know where
they took her, but she’s under arrest.”

I feel faint. The room is still
spinning. Chi takes my hand, but I hardly register his
touch.

“The officers are probably going
to interrogate your mom for a while. Then they may take her to the
camps. If we’re lucky, it’ll be the same camp Chi’s parents are
in.”

This feels like a kitchen knife
stabbing my heart. My mother locked in a camp. I feel numb. I
freeze, stunned into silence.

Taylor grabs my shoulders and
shakes me. “Hey, wake up. I know it’s tough, okay, but stay with
us. Your mother needs you, and you can’t help her if you’re
useless.”

I do want to help my mother. I try
to surface, but I’m in shock. “It’s all my fault!”

Chi pulls me to him and holds my
head against his chest. He presses his lips against my ear. “She
made the choice to help you. It was her decision, Thia. She didn’t
have to, but she did. She knew it was dangerous, but she was
willing to take that risk. You can’t let guilt take over and
destroy you. You need to be strong so we can find her and save
her.” He pulls me back and looks me deep in the eyes. “Thia, do you
understand me? Your mother needs you to be strong. You are useless
to her if you give up.”

I know he’s right. I nod, but the
guilt inside me won't let go.

“How did the authorities find
out?” I ask, but before Taylor answers, the truth hits me. There is
no doubt as to what happened. Someone exposed my mother, and I know
exactly who could have done such a despicable thing. I speak the
name at the same time Taylor does, “William!”

“But how?” I ask.

“I don’t know how he found out,
but the news said he was the one who let them know about your
escape and your mother’s participation in it. They’re rewarding him
too, treating him like a freaking hero. They're using him as an
example of what to do if anyone spots us.”

Anger rushes inside me. It’s fast,
strong, and intense. It replaces the guilt, crushing it to pieces
in its iron fist. The rage that had been rampant, locked inside me
for so long, is waiting for an outlet. My mind gives up on me as if
I’m going crazy for good. I can’t control the wrath building up
anymore. Deep hatred consumes my heart. It fuels my energy all the
while clouding my judgment.

I push Chi away and lose all
control. I scream and let all the rage loose. I want to hurt
someone or break something. I need to, or I’ll lose my grip and
insanity will win. I grab different objects, different
things—anything, really—and throw them across the room. I fall to
my knees and let the anger out as a panic attack seizes my core. I
scream and scream until my voice gets raw and my body shakes and I
can't breathe and I'm hyperventilating. I'm losing my
mind.

Chi takes a hesitant step toward
me and then he stops. He doesn’t approach me any further. I'm glad.
I want to hurt someone badly, and I don’t want it to be him. Hot
tears of fury pour down my face, accompanied by more wails of rage.
Chi takes another step and crouches down by my side. A hiss of pain
passes his lips as he bends his knees, and I look at him. He
strokes my hair away from my face.

Then he takes me in his arms and
scoops me up while wincing deeply from his own physical pain. I
wrap my arms around his neck, trying my best not to fight him back,
and he carries me to the bed. He sits on the edge and holds me
against him while rocking me.

"Shhh, you need to breathe, Thia.
Please, breathe for me." His sweet words soothe my wrath as he runs
his fingers though my hair. "Breathe like this."

I follow the rhythm of his chest
rising and falling in deep inhales and exhales. I calm down slowly,
but my body won't stop shaking. Chi kisses my cheek, my temple, my
eyelids, comforting me the best way he knows how. I’m shocked at my
own behavior and so ashamed. But Taylor and Chi are looking at me
without judgment; they're just concerned for my well-being. I feel
slightly better, but the anger is still there. It’s giving me
focus; it’s giving me a sense of purpose.

“I want to find my mother,” I say,
“and when she’s finally safe, I will find William and make him
pay.”

The hatred and need for revenge
are devouring me, and I let them. I know those feelings are
blurring my judgment, but I don’t care. I don’t want to see
straight. I don’t want to think about the reasons behind William’s
actions or even try to forgive him. I want him to suffer. I feel
sick to my stomach and rush to the bathroom. I vomit in the toilet
and my anger dissipates a little. I rinse my mouth and walk back to
the bedroom.

Taylor tilts his head toward me.
“Are you better now?”

“Yes. Yes, I am.” I clench my
fists. My jaw tightens. William will pay for this.

“Okay then, let’s go. We need to
talk and plan. Then we have to practice. Chi, you can just watch
and give guidance during the training sessions. You can already
fire a gun anyway.”

“Sounds good to me.” Chi sends me
a worried glance and pulls me to his side.

We make our way out and head to
the apartment we first came through yesterday. Everyone is waiting
for us. They all stare at me the moment we walk in. Taylor has
already told them about my mother. I know they heard my crazy
reaction to the news, but I don’t care what they think.

“Chase, James, Akio, I need you to
go ahead and contact the others," Taylor says.

The three men nod and leave. The
rest of us have breakfast together. Jenna was right; the dining
room in this condo is gorgeous, with bay windows overlooking the
river. We still need to wait for the other Underground members to
arrive. It will take a few hours for Chase and the others to find a
secure land phone and call everyone. Despite the grief filling my
heart, I welcome the meal. Joviality fills the room despite the
dire circumstances.

Kayla comes to sit by my side. She
squeezes my hand. "We will find her and get her out,
Thia."

"William is going to regret this,"
I reply through gritted teeth. Chi casts me a look while Kayla pats
my hand.

A few hours later, some people
finally show up, little by little, brought here by James through a
different route than the one we took, to avoid raising suspicion. I
recognize some of them from before, when I met them at Taylor's
house. Not all of the Underground is coming though—only those who
will go to Camp 19. The other members need to stay put and go to
work as usual. Their infiltration is too important to risk and
compromise.

Some of the rebels who just
arrived have trained for years, practicing combat and doing sports
to remain fit. I'm not ready for what’s coming. My joining the
group might be a liability to them, but I’m not going to let anyone
rescue my mother without my help. Taylor knows that, and I didn’t
even have to explain why.

Even though this apartment is huge
by New York City standards, it’s completely crowded now. When
everyone is here—eighty of us total—Taylor asks us to follow him up
to a higher floor. We exit the condo, walk down the hall in line,
and take the emergency staircase to climb five flights of stairs
until Taylor finds the door he’s been looking for. Jenna has
replaced the batteries in the emergency exit lights; we don’t need
our flashlights to see our way through. Taylor opens the door and
strides through a long corridor before letting himself into what
used to be the fitness center. We follow him inside. The walls are
covered with targets. There's a large table on one side, covered
with guns, bullets, and silencers.

Taylor goes to stand in front of
it. He raises a hand and whistles to catch our
attention.

“Hey guys, thanks for coming
today. This is it. The moment we’ve all been waiting for is almost
upon us. A lot of you have been training for years for this, and I
believe you’re ready. Some of you have joined us more recently." He
shoots me a quick glance as he says it. "You’re the ones who will
need to practice today. I've already assigned specific partners to
teach you. I have a lot of tasks for all the others too. I don't
want eighty people in this room while there's shooting going
on."

Everyone nods at once, and Taylor
continues, "We have very little time, so I’m going to be honest;
you’re not going to master all the skills. But you need to know the
minimum so you can defend yourselves in the camp. By the time we
go, I want you to be able to shoot straight and at the right
people. If I feel like you’re not ready or serious enough about
holding a weapon in your hands, you’ll have to remain behind.
There’s always lots of things to do, even if you don’t join in
combat.”

Akio raises his hand.

“Yes, Akio?”

“Will we be enough people? For the
attack, I mean. How many prisoners are we supposed to
rescue?”

“Well, remember that Liam has
already freed a few prisoners. But he can’t keep on doing that
forever. And there are too many camps and not enough of us. As you
know, those camps are all over New York State. There's just no way
we can get to all of them. We don't even know all the locations.
We'll free one specific camp, the one located closest to us: Camp
19. There'll be sixty of us going. The rest will stay behind to
prepare for our return.

"The other Underground leaders are
working on hitting some camps closer to where they live; around the
same time we'll do it here. For our own security, I can't tell you
which camps they're targeting. We are hoping that when the
civilians learn about those camps, the news will shock them enough
that they'll react."

He stops and looks us all in the
eyes, sweeping the room briefly. “Two things might happen. One: The
civilians might not care; they might just fall back asleep the way
they’ve always done. That's the worst case scenario. Two: Our
attack could lead to chaos. There could be another civil war, this
one confined to New York State. The poor are already restless. All
they need is an excuse to riot again. The camp we're targeting
shelters over two thousand inmates. We're hoping to save as many of
them as we possibly can.

“As you know, the camps are owned
by corporations. Camp 19 is one of the camps owned by Agric Inc.
The camp is divided into different agricultural zones: sowing and
harvesting, animal farming and apiculture, packaging the goods, and
loading the trucks. We'll divide into groups and go to the
different areas of the camp.”

“Why did you say 'as many people
as we can?' What about the rest?” Akio asks. “Isn’t the goal to
save everyone?”

“The goal is to save as many
people as we can, yes! But it's already clear we cannot save
everyone, and we'll probably compromise the mission if we try. Our
goal is to shake up the authorities, wake up the civilians, and
rally as many people to our side as possible. The citizens need to
see our system for what it is and help us stop all this crazy shit
once and for all. Any more questions?”

No one replies.

"Okay then, let's assign your
teaching partn—"

"I want Chase!" exclaims a young
woman with short chestnut hair.

Seventy-nine pairs of eyes turn to
her, and her cheeks flush with embarrassment. A small engaging
smile rises on one side of Chase's mouth. He winks at her, and her
blush spreads all over her face as she returns his playful grin
with a tiny shy smile of her own. Taylor rolls his eyes and shakes
his head.

"I am
so
sorry, Courtney,"
he says, sarcastically and slightly annoyed, "but our dear Chase
here is going to teach Thia. You already know how to shoot, and I
have another task for you."

The young woman's face falls into
a pout as her hopes deflate, and Taylor narrows his eyes at Chase.
Chase shrugs innocently and Taylor just goes on as if nothing has
happened. He assigns each person a teaching partner or two. By the
time he's done, there are about fifteen of us grouped together for
practice. He tells all the others to follow Kayla out the door and
wait for her instructions.

I am to train with Chase and Chi.
When the others are gone, Chase picks up a small gun and a
silencer. Then he stands in front of the target, legs apart, with
both hands on his weapon.

“Observe closely," he starts,
pinning his electric blue eyes on me. "See how I'm using both hands
to hold the gun. It’s steadier this way and safer, especially when
you have no experience. Place it in front of you and keep your eye
on the sight, like this.”

Chase does exactly that and
shoots. The bullet makes it straight through the middle of the
target. He puts the safety on and holds the weapon out to me. He
shows me how to take the protection off and then put it back
on.