The Defiant (39 page)

I hear more explosions beneath my feet as we keep running. This is the end of New Chicago. The UNA would rather destroy the entire city than accept any form of defeat.

I should have expected something like this. But I really thought it was over, and that we had won.

“Watch out!” Gadya screams, as a huge chunk of stone lands nearby to our left. On our right, more of the street collapses. We run faster. I'm not even sure where we're headed. All around us is total chaos.

Buildings are beginning to disintegrate. I know that some of them are going to collapse and fall onto the streets. The bombs will tear this place apart.

Suddenly the noise of explosions gets louder. A large part of the cement road drops away in front of me. I stop just in time and crouch down to the ground. Liam and Gadya are next to me.

We're looking around, trying to find a safe path out of the devastation. The noise is almost unbearable.

“Which way do we go?” Gadya yells.

“I don't know!” I reply.

Liam stands up. “We just have to keep moving! Get away from the city center!”

Clouds of dust are roiling around us. My whole body is shaking as the street keeps moving. More explosions go off. We try to start running, but it's nearly impossible to dodge the falling parts of buildings, and the holes opening under our feet. I can hear the European Coalition aircraft thundering above us, but they can't help us down here.

We're heading up a side street when it finally happens. I step forward, just as a huge slab of concrete gives way.

I scream, and try to back up, but it's too late. The entire city is crumbling beneath us. I slam downward, gasping in pain, as I fall straight into the abyss.

“Liam!” I cry out.

And then I hit my head and everything goes black.

T
WO YEARS HAVE PASSED
since the day when the European Coalition took control of the former UNA—and the day when the ministers' hidden bombs destroyed New Chicago. Since then, so much has happened. We are trying to get our lives back. Things are progressing, but they are far from perfect.

I survived my fall into the hole that day. Gadya fell with me, and she survived as well. Liam was able to climb down and bring us up one by one. We were both unconscious. Other rebels came and helped Gadya. But Liam carried me out of there himself, and to safety.

When the bombs finally ceased detonating, the city was mostly ruins. Tens of thousands of people died that day. It was the final strike by the UNA before they were consigned to history forever.

I broke both of my ankles in the fall. Although they have healed, I now walk with a slight limp. It's barely noticeable. Only on damp days do my bones ache, making me feel like an old person.

Gadya was less lucky. She cut her foot open on some of the
debris and the wound became infected. Her foot had to be amputated. But in typical fashion, this has done little to slow her down. The scientists made her a prosthetic, and she is able to get around nearly as fast as I can. Both of us know that these wounds are a small price to pay for what we were able to achieve on that day.

The United Northern Alliance was officially disbanded. Canada, the United States, and Mexico were immediately reinstated as independent democratic nations under the provisional and temporary guidance of the European Coalition—the peaceful consortium of European countries that helped save us from the UNA's tyranny.

The European Coalition worked with the rebels to help quickly restore electricity by rebuilding power stations and the electrical grid, as well as the infrastructure of the nation.

The travelers and the scientists returned from Island Alpha to assist in the rebuilding effort. The travelers put their ingenuity and skills to work to remake the nation.

Even Dr. Barrett slowly found his way back to something close to sanity. He was brought back from Island Alpha and spent several months in the hospital. He will never be the same man that he once was, but he seems to be at peace with himself. Occasionally I see him in the news, being hailed as a war hero.

I was reunited with my mother three months after the UNA fell, as well as with other surviving friends, including Emma. I was still recovering from my injuries. My mom and I vowed never to be separated again. We both know how close we came to not seeing each other alive. Some of my friends disappeared, never to be seen again. I assume they are dead. Markus is one of them. We searched for him for a long time before finally giving up hope.

The power was restored to most of the country not long after
that. Electronic devices were imported from Europe to allow for communication and access to the Internet. Newspapers began printing again, and television stations slowly came back on the air, most of them running news twenty-four hours a day.

One of the cornerstones of the new United States is a complete freedom of information and transparency. A free press exists, and a multitude of voices are allowed to be heard, without fear of persecution.

Liam, Gadya, and I were appointed to a council of leaders, working to help oversee the reconstruction of several major cities, including New Chicago. My mom works for the government too, using her skills as a geneticist to try to help reverse what was done to the mutants. It turns out there were nearly a thousand of them. Many were hidden in labs in the Hellgrounds, awaiting battles that never came. We are trying to help them.

It took me a long time to get over what I did to David—and what he did to us. I had to learn to trust my instincts again. I hadn't recognized David for the sociopath that he was. I'd been distracted by his intelligence and all his plans and energy. I didn't see the truth until it was nearly too late.

The only thing David was right about was that the nuclear blasts did not completely destroy the planet. However, the blasts caused extensive damage to the upper atmosphere above the United States and also to the earth's ecosystems. Dr. Urbancic now works for the government too. He is trying to figure out ways to restore the atmosphere and minimize the damage.

The temperature seems to get warmer each month, and many species have been completely eradicated. Flooding has decimated certain regions of our continent.

Still, this is a much better fate than death and destruction at the
hands of the UNA. Everyone is happy to have their freedom back. Some people don't even seem to remember what is was like to be free. They are rediscovering how it feels to not live under the yoke of the UNA.

Families are being reunited, people are finding their relatives, and all of the UNA's political prisoners have been released. Every single prison colony has been shut down. Other people are mourning the dead, and learning about the deaths of their own family members. There is both a collective sense of grieving and a sense of hope.

Trials for the UNA leaders and soldiers are still being held, even though all five of the ministers—the real leaders—are dead. Many former UNA employees tried to flee to other countries, but no one would give them asylum. They were sent back here to face justice. There are no death sentences, only life sentences in prisons. Everyone is tired of murder and butchery.

Some of the UNA leaders and soldiers are being sent to prison forever, to live out their days behind bars. But many of the UNA soldiers were given lesser terms, especially those who claimed that they'd been forced into their actions because the government had threatened their families. Everyone is eager to shake their memories of the past and put it behind them. It is a time of new beginnings.

There were some pro-UNA holdouts at first. Mostly former soldiers who attacked the citizens in the name of Minister Harka. But those attacks dissolved over time into sporadic acts of terrorism that ultimately faded away.

Still, there is a lingering sense of not knowing who to trust. People tend to be guarded with one another, at least when they first meet. Police sent over from the European Coalition make
sure that people obey the laws. But these soldiers are fair and not like the nearly psychopathic UNA soldiers who once dragged me from my home as a little girl.

Liam and I continue on as a couple, working together each day and spending each night together. We made it through our odyssey together, and I love him more than ever. We plan to marry when I turn twenty-one. My mom has already given us her blessing. Gadya remains my best friend, and my closest confidante. I know how lucky I am to have both Liam and Gadya in my life.

I remain haunted by memories and bad dreams of everything that happened to us, but I know that with time, the bad dreams will fade. And if they don't, I am fine with that too. These traumas have become part of me and have made me who I am.

Sometimes at night I dream that I am back on the wheel. That I am in the village, sitting around the fire pit eating hoofer meat with Liam, Gadya, Rika, Markus, Sinxen, Veidman, Meira, and everyone else.

I don't mind dreams like these. The wheel is the place that forged me. I know that part of me will never really leave it. I know that Liam and Gadya feel the same way, although we rarely talk about it.

I usually just try to focus on the present. Even now, there is so much work to be done. It will probably take a decade before the nation is fully functional again. I imagine that I will spend my life working to make—and keep—our country free and safe. But I'm not sure what my own future holds beyond that. The possibilities are so different and huge compared to what I imagined only a few years ago, on the day when I took the GPPT.

I am in love, I have a best friend, I have my mother back, and
I live in a free country. I never thought I would have any of these things.

No matter what it takes, I will be there to do the work to keep us free. Out of the remains of the UNA, we will build a better nation. A fair one, where people are able to live their own lives. I can think of no greater purpose. The UNA is finished. And now, finally, it is time to look toward the future.

Also by Lisa M. Stasse

The Forsaken

The Uprising

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division

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www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2014 by Lisa M. Stasse

Jacket photograph copyright © 2014 by Dan Mountford