A loud splashing from behind brought me out of my thoughts and sharply back to the present. I stopped and spun around, flashing my light. All I could see was the tunnel leading on infinitely into darkness.
“Are we being followed?” Panic spiked through me.
“Don’t worry, it’s just the rats,” he said.
Great, just the rats. I swallowed uncomfortably and turned around. The tunnel went on seemingly forever ahead. I was used to tunnels, but the darkness and noises and foreign smells of this place were getting to me. At least I wasn’t alone. I thought of Adrien as a child huddled alone in the tunnels and shuddered again.
“This is crazy,” I said. “I’ve lived my whole life believing we were a new race of survivors, superior because we’d overcome all our destructive instincts. And you expect me to believe this horrible nightmare, just because you say so?” My voice cracked on the last word. The water was coming out of my eyes again.
“Zoe,” he said quietly, looking over at me as we walked. His green eyes seemed to glow in the dim luminescence of the flashlight. “You’ve known something was off for a while now. Ever since you started glitching. You know this is wrong. The officials and Uppers, they’re making you all slaves.”
“They tell you when and where you live, where you work, when you eat, when you sleep. They pair you with genetic partners and create your children in test tubes and when you’re no longer useful and productive for them, they deactivate you.” He waved the hand not holding the flashlight to emphasize his words. “You never have a choice. You never get to think. All you know is work. They work you ’til they wear you out and then you’re deactivated and tossed in the incinerator. You’re just tools to the Community, not human beings.”
His voice grew more and more impassioned as he talked. His face lit up with a warmth and fire I’d never seen before. Deep down, something new stirred inside me. The way he talked about it, it did make our lives seem horrible. It was unfair. I’d just never thought about it this way. The deep sadness gave way to anger. Cracks were forming, threatening to shatter everything I’d ever believed, everything I’d thought was absolute. I felt my body shaking.
Something again splashed loudly behind us. I looked backward in alarm. “That sounded closer than before.” I gripped Adrien’s arm.
Adrien flashed his light beam. “Probably just more rats. Don’t worry.” But in spite of his easy words, his voice sounded strained, and the arm I held was tense and taut.
“Don’t worry,” he said again, more relaxed this time, and he nudged my shoulder. “’Sides, they can’t bite through the thick rubber of your boots.” The flashlight glow bounced off his grin.
“That is not comforting!” I said, but I smiled back.
I realized I was still holding Adrien’s arm. I let go, surprised that I’d grabbed him so un-self-consciously. I never touched anybody in my normal world, but it had just felt natural with him. I wondered what other things would become natural the longer I was disconnected from the Link. There were entire worlds to be discovered. The thought momentarily awed me: Maybe it will be worth all this confusion.
A giant rat scurried past me, bumping into my leg as it went. Several more ran by. I looked up at Adrien, ready to hear his reassuring words about how this was all normal and there was nothing to worry about. But his face was tight with alarm. He flashed the beam behind us and I saw a small army of rats, big fat ones, some a foot long, all coming toward us.
“Cracking hell.” Adrien grabbed my arm and ran, pulling me awkwardly along after him until I matched my pace to his. We were both in shape and running fast, splashing water all over ourselves as we went, but the rats quickly caught up with us. The whole ground beneath me was suddenly moving, alive under my feet.
I tripped and went facedown into the water. Horrible rat bodies surrounded me, crawling all over me with their tiny claws catching on my clothes and hair. Putrid water splashed in my nose and mouth. I flailed in desperate panic, trying to get to my feet, anything to get away from the disgusting matted fur and hissing squeals of the rats. I shrieked, a terrified hum raging in my head.
Suddenly all the rats around me were gone. I looked up to see if Adrien had pulled them off but instead saw a wave of twisting rat bodies flying away from me on all sides like I was at the center of an explosion. Adrien had ducked just in time to keep from getting hit in the face. The rats hit the wall with so much force their squirming bodies were ripped apart. I screamed in shock at the bloody sight just as Adrien pulled me forward again. The look on his face told me he was as surprised. Did that mean somehow I had done it?
I didn’t have any time to think about it. I sputtered the rest of the disgusting liquid out of my mouth and barely managed to get my feet securely underneath me before we were running again.
“Almost there,” Adrien yelled. He was gripping my hand tightly now and when I tripped again, he steadied me before I went down. The rats were thick around us, and as much as I hated to look at them, I had to watch the ground to make sure my next step was clear of their squirming bodies.
And that was when I noticed the water level rising. It crept up to my shins and instead of being just stagnant water, now there was a tugging current to it.
“Adrien!” I screamed. “The water!”
Chapter 7
“I KNOW,” he yelled back over the cacophony of screeching rats and the flowing water that now approached our knees. “We’re almost there, I swear.”
But in another moment, running became impossible. We slogged through the water as quickly as we could. Adrien half-dragged me as I slipped and stumbled forward. I dropped my flashlight, plunging us into near darkness, but at least it meant I could hold on to Adrien with both hands. If he dropped his flashlight too, though, we’d be lost in the darkness with the rats.
A rumbling from behind us echoed down the tunnel. Adrien looked back, and in the dim light I could see his eyes widen in terror. I didn’t have to look behind us to guess what was coming our way: a wall of rushing water, sweeping through the tunnel to wash away everything in its path, including us if we didn’t get out of here now.
“Faster!” he yelled. “There!”
He pointed with the flashlight beam. I saw the off-shooting tunnel situated about five feet up the wall. It was clear of the water and too high up for the rats to get to—I knew we’d be safe if we could just manage to get up into it. If we could just make it there.
“Up, up, up!” Adrien shouted, making a foothold with his hands. I grabbed his shoulders, put my foot in his hands, and launched myself up into the tunnel, then reached back to pull Adrien up.
But I was too late. Just as I got ahold of both of his arms, the wave of water hit, knocking his feet out from under him and sweeping him sideways with the current.
I lost my grip on his left hand and screamed as the water yanked at him. I was on my stomach and quickly grabbed his other wrist with both hands, digging my nails to keep hold of him against the forceful current of the water.
I would not let him go. I would not lose him. His body was battered against the wall as the water crashed and frothed around him. His weight pulled me inch by inch forward off my perch.
“Let go!” he managed to yell before the water swallowed him up again.
“No!” I screamed back, but my grip was slipping. The rushing river had reached the height of the tunnel’s base. With a sinking feeling, I realized we were both going to be swept away.
The water started spilling over into my tunnel, and I pulled with all the strength I had left in my body. In my desperation, I unthinkingly yanked with my mind too. I pulled with every thought, every piece of myself that wanted to survive, every hope and dream and memory that had ever made life worth living.
“Please,” I pleaded through gritted teeth, though I didn’t know to what or whom I called out. “Please.” In the next heartbeat, my whole body became electric with urgency and a racing heat.
Adrien’s body suddenly emerged from the wa
ter, like a popping cork. He slammed into me, knocking us both backward farther into the tunnel. My arms and legs were weak from the exertion, I felt like I had no strength left, but somehow Adrien was alert enough to pull us both to our feet again and start splashing down the tunnel before the water could really rush in.
The tunnel led steeply upward and water was running down it, but the adrenaline rush from our narrow escape was enough to keep us fast and steady even on the slick surface. When one of us tripped, the other held on and kept them stable, until the tunnel lightened beyond the beam of Adrien’s flashlight. We paused and looked at each other, managing weak smiles, then hurried forward until we reached a small concrete platform with a ladder.
“You first,” Adrien said, breathing heavily. They were the first words either of us had spoken in a while. I nodded. I was too exhausted to argue. My limbs were numb from overuse. Water was pouring down on my head but I didn’t care about toxic rain or cancerous tumors—I would have braved anything to just break free from these death-trap tunnels. Even if it meant returning to the Surface. I climbed up the rungs, looking down every so often to make sure Adrien was coming up safely behind me.
At the top of the ladder, a half-clogged grate was lodged securely between us and freedom.
I pushed to open it, but it didn’t budge. I tried again and again, getting more frustrated and exhausted with each attempt.
“Move to one side of the ladder and hang on,” Adrien called from below. I did and he climbed up beside me, our feet barely managing to share the narrow rung space. I made the mistake of looking down at the deep abyss below us, then quickly forced my eyes back up.
“Can you get it open?” I asked.
Adrien’s face was full of concentration as he felt along the edges of the grate. He reached around to his back. “Cracking hell,” he swore. “I dropped my pack. It had the pry bar and wrench in it.”
“What are we going to do?” I tried to keep the panic out of my voice. I couldn’t imagine heading back down into the watery darkness and trying to find another way out.
“Zoe, do you think you could use your power to pull the grate away or to yank off the bolts?”
I felt my eyes widen. “I don’t know—I mean … I’ve never tried anything like that.” I stared at the grate. “I don’t know if I’m strong enough.”
He laughed. I stared at him incredulously. How could he laugh at a time like this?
“Zoe, you just lifted my entire shunting body out of a torrential current! You have power you don’t even know about yet.” His voice softened as he rested a hand on my shoulder. A fluttering warmth spread through my stomach. “Believe me. I’ve seen it in my visions.”
His face was close to mine and I studied the smooth, angular planes of his face, the arrowlike tip to his nose, his dark curly hair that was soaked and dripping down his cheeks.
I gulped hard, my heart racing. I didn’t know if it was the adrenaline, the idea of what he was suggesting I could do, or that his face was mere inches from mine. I shook my head. What was wrong with me? Some near-deactivation experiences and having my world turned upside down had to have made me half delirious.
“I’ll try,” I whispered, finally looking away from his gaze. I turned toward the hatch and closed my eyes, trying to concentrate and remember what it felt like when I’d used my power to pull Adrien into the tunnel just moments ago. But how had I done it? It had always just happened on its own. I tried to envision the grate and the bolts. I squeezed my eyes shut hard, reaching my hand out toward the grate. Pull.
I pictured the decrepit grate and each bolt, rust streaming over their surfaces.
Pull. Pull. PULL! I gritted my teeth, sweat dripping down the sides of my forehead.
Come on, MOVE! Please!
I opened one eye to peek. Nothing.
“I can’t,” I said, huffing in frustration. “I don’t know how.”
“I know you can do this.” He looked at me with such an open expression of genuine belief. “Just picture it in your mind.”
I clenched my jaw and stared at the rusted bolts holding the grate in place. They were so small. Adrien was right. If I could lift a toddler from the path of a speeding train, I should be able to do this. Come on, Zoe. I closed my eyes and tried again. But as soon as I closed my eyes, all I could see were the rats and the terror of all that water. I thought I might collapse from exhaustion. This was hopeless.
“I can’t do it!” I finally yelled. I grabbed the grate with my fingers and yanked on it angrily, shouting in frustration.
Adrien put a calming hand on my back. “It’s okay. My fault. I shouldn’t have pushed.”
“But how are we going to get out of here?” I was so upset, I felt like hitting something. The grate was looking like a good target.
“Well…” Adrien held up the heavy black flashlight. “Maybe some brute force will work. These bolts are gnangy rusted. Turn your head away—I don’t want to hurt you.”
I ducked and put an arm over my head. The bang of the metal flashlight on the ancient bolts was loud—its echo bounced down the cavernous tunnel. I hoped whatever was on the other side of the gate couldn’t hear all the commotion.
There was a loud pop and the sound of something small and metal hitting the ground and rolling away. Adrien let out a whoop. “Got one!”
“Let me try,” I said, eager to do something useful. I smashed the flashlight into the bolt with a satisfying thwack.
In the next few minutes, we’d broken all of the bolts off. He lifted the grate up and shifted it over. He climbed up, looked around, then reached a hand down to me with a wide grin on his face.
We were in a concrete culvert choked with leaves. It was the most colorful sight I had ever seen. I paused, my head just out of the grate, and stared. So much green. I realized with a numb, stunned sensation that we were surrounded by trees and bushes.
“Thank God we got to the west-end tunnel,” Adrien said. “We’re not too far from Mom’s house. We just gotta make it to the woods, then we’ll be safe from the satellite cams. Home free. Come on.”
He seemed to finally notice the frozen, shocked look on my face. “Zoe, are you okay?”
I just nodded, staring dumbly ahead at all the green. I climbed out into the culvert, but couldn’t stop staring. There was so much color, and the air itself moved as if it were alive. All the pictures I’d seen of trees seemed dull and faded compared to the real thing. We were still soaked through but I wasn’t cold; the air was strangely warm and moist—suffocating almost.
I tried to take a breath, but instead found myself wheezing.
“Zoe?” He sounded worried. I blinked hard, still looking around me and trying to get a full breath. He slanted his head to the side and looked at me hard.
“So much green. Can’t breathe,” I said in between gasping breaths. Why couldn’t I seem to get air in my lungs?
His eyes narrowed with alarm but he just grabbed my arm and pulled me forward. “’Kay, let’s get movin’. My mom’s place isn’t far from here. You’re probably just having another panic attack. Try to calm down and breathe.”
I blinked and swallowed. My throat felt gritty and my eyes began to water. I nodded, wiping my eyes clumsily with the back of my hand.
Adrien led us straight into the trees and thick brush. The rain was just a drizzle now but big fat drops of cold water still landed on our heads from the branches. I doubled over, my hands on my knees, trying to fill my lungs with just one good breath. Just one full breath, that was all I needed. It seemed so ludicrous—breathing was so easy. Why couldn’t I do it?
“Zo?” Adrien turned around and his face immediately dropped.
Realization dawned on me, and I pulled away from him, stumbling.
“You lied!” I backed away, pointing at him. I tried to swallow, my heart racing. After all this, I was going to die out here in the toxic air, all because I wanted so desperately to believe this boy with the pretty green eyes and his promise that I wouldn??
?t be alone.
Adrien raised his hands, defensive. “The Surface isn’t toxic! You just seem to be having some kind of reaction. Maybe it’s just panic at being up here. I mean, you always thought going outside meant certain death.… So maybe it’s just psychosymptomatic.” He didn’t sound like he really believed that.
“Or?” I tried to shout, but it came out a whisper.
“I don’t know,” he said quietly. “Asthma, maybe? Let’s just get you to Mom. She’ll know what to do.”
He grabbed my arm, pulling me to run. The plants and tree limbs smacked me in the face as we went. I could only think about the toxicity hiding beneath the plush greenery. It was as if the limbs of the trees were reaching out to claw at my throat, suffocating me with their soft leaves. My legs were starting to feel rubbery but Adrien didn’t slow his pace. I stumbled over a giant moss-covered tree root.
“Whoa, got ya.” Adrien caught me. His eyes flashed with alarm. “You’re doing great. Just listen to the sound of my voice okay? We’ll get there as quick as we can.” I nodded and he pulled me forward again, moving fast even though I could only stumble behind him.
“Almost there.” Adrien’s voice sounded odd, a little too high, too bright. “My mom’s place is like a little outpost in this part of the sector. It’s secluded, far enough away from the city that it’s out of the patrol zone.”
He was trying to distract me, I knew, but all I could think about was that I could no longer see the path. My chest felt like it had been put in a vise, twisting tighter with every step. My breathing became more and more labored. I wanted to stop but couldn’t bear the thought of spending any more time gasping in this air. I needed to get to shelter, away from the green.
Adrien led us around the base of a wide tree and changed directions, heading in a diagonal from the path we’d been on. He pulled a thick branch hurriedly out of our way so we could pass.