The Defiant (29 page)

Then I pick it up and flick the top open. It's hard to imagine that this button controls something so powerful and devastating. The UNA must really trust Dr. Urbancic to give him access to such a device. Either he's fooling them, or he's fooling us.

“Be careful with that,” Gadya warns.

I flip the top back down, so that the piece of glass covers the button again.

There is something oddly alluring about the button. All this time, the UNA has used their technology to subjugate us and make us victims of their fascistic madness. The idea of shutting them down and getting revenge has great appeal.

I wonder if the other four teams will be able to detonate their devices at the same time. If even one team fails, then perhaps we won't get complete coverage of the electromagnetic pulse, and some UNA war machinery might be able to survive and conquer us. There's nothing we can do about the other rebels. We just have to make sure that we succeed.

We sit there waiting for four p.m., talking about what we'll do if our plan actually succeeds. The EMP should bring everything with electronic components to a halt. No more guns, planes, cars,
feelers, computers, tanks, or satellites. It will be like what happened on Island Alpha when David broke the cooling core and everything suddenly stopped working. But this will be on a far bigger scale.

When four o'clock approaches, we stand around the button. Dr. Urbancic is still passed out, which is probably for the best. I've checked his breathing, and it's slow but steady. He will live.

“Ready?” I ask the others, watching an old digital clock hanging on the wall of the basement. It displays the time down to the nearest second.

“Which one of us is going to push it?” Gadya asks. She flicks back the glass top with feigned nonchalance.

“I will,” I say. “I trust David.” I pause. “And I'm not afraid.”

“Me neither,” she replies.

“Liam?” I ask, turning to him. “Any reservations?”

“No, but David better be right,” he says. “Let's do this together. The three of us. That way, we can all take responsibility if something goes wrong. And if it goes right, we can share the victory.”

“Deal,” I say. I place my finger on one corner of the button. Liam puts a finger on the other corner, touching mine. I look at him and smile. Then Gadya puts a finger on top of ours. I know that this button either has the potential to help destroy the planet, or to bring down the government that has ruined so many lives.

Or maybe it will just do nothing.

There's no guarantee that Dr. Urbancic hasn't disabled it in some way as a fail-safe, so that no one could operate it except him.

We just keep watching the clock as it ticks inexorably toward four p.m. The seconds seem to speed up as we get closer.

“Are you sure this is the right decision?” Gadya suddenly says, startling me with her words.

“No, of course not,” I tell her. “But it's the one that we're making. Right?” I look over at Liam.

He nods. “It's going to take something massive to disrupt the UNA. We need to take the risk.”

“Are you having second thoughts?” I ask Gadya. Her question has unnerved me. Usually I can rely on her to be the most warlike and eager for action. I'm not sure what to make of her hesitation.

“I just want to be sure.”

“There's no way to be certain,” Liam tells her. “You know that.”

I'm watching the clock. We only have a minute left. “Almost time,” I say. “It has to be exactly four p.m., or we won't be synchronized with the other teams. Are we ready?”

“More than ready,” Liam says.

“I'm ready too,” Gadya agrees.

I nod. “Then here we go.”

The clock rushes toward four p.m.

“It's time,” Liam says, in the second before the clock hits four.

And then as one, we push the red button down with a loud click. The sound echoes off the walls of the basement. I can't believe that this is it. I expected it to be much more complicated. But I realize it's like pulling the trigger on a gun. One simple action can have massive consequences. I just hope we've made the right choice. I hold my breath, ready for whatever happens next.

I
REALIZE THAT
I'
M
expecting something major to happen right away. That we'll hear explosions high up in the sky, or some kind of massive blast wave will hit us. But nothing happens. There's just total silence.

“Did it work?” Gadya asks, sounding as puzzled as I feel. She pushes the button down again and again.

“I can't tell,” I reply. “Maybe not?”

“Listen,” Liam says.

“What?” Then I think I hear something faint. Very distant and quiet. Like the muffled sound of rolling thunder. Barely audible. I can't tell if it's related to the button or not.

But the lights flicker and dim.

“This must be it,” I hear Liam say. The noise is getting louder outside. He puts an arm around me. We hold on to each other tightly. Gadya grabs us too. I'm both terrified at what we've unleashed, and also relieved that the button worked.

The lights flicker and buzz again, suddenly flashing bright white, as though there has been a massive electrical surge. It's like a lightning strike. I see Gadya's startled face in the bright white light, and Liam's too.

The whole basement gets lit up for a millisecond. I hear the wires in the walls sizzling and hissing. The clock stops. And then I hear distant explosions rumbling away outside, making the earth shake.

Everything abruptly cuts out. All lights. All electricity. The house goes totally silent and dark. I smell smoke.

I steady myself in the darkness. I realize that we have deliberately plunged the entire country back into the dark ages—or at least back into the nineteenth century. And that's assuming it went as planned, and we're not going to die of radiation poisoning.

“I think we did it,” I say nervously. I don't know what comes next.

“I hope so,” Gadya replies.

It's so dark in the basement, I can barely see. “We should have set up candles or something.”

“Let's get out of here and start fighting,” Gadya responds.

“No,” Liam says. “David told us to stay. It might not be safe out there yet.”

“From what David said, the blast is so high up, it won't affect us like a regular nuclear bomb,” I reply.

“That's if everything worked,” Liam says. “We have to wait. Just to be careful.” His hand finds mine in the darkness. I know he wants to take care of me. Liam on his own would already be out that door and trying to figure out his next move.

I'm about to tell him he doesn't have to worry about me anymore. That I've proven myself. That I'm his equal. But then the smell of smoke gets stronger, and I see an orange curl of flames licking at the edge of a wooden cabinet. The orange flames also illuminate a gust of smoke puffing down the stairs to the basement, coming from underneath the steel door.

“I think the house is on fire,” I say, sounding surprisingly calm. “So I don't think staying is really an option.”

Gadya is already moving toward the stairs.

Liam grabs my hand harder and says, “Let's go.”

“Wait—” I say, suddenly remembering. “The doctor. We have to take him with us!”

We rush over to him. He's still unconscious from Liam's blow. And he's tied down with the electrical wiring.

“I'll carry him,” Liam says. We quickly untie him in the dim light, the wire lacerating our fingers. Liam picks him up and slings the old man over his shoulders with a grunt. Then we head to the stairs.

Gadya and I race up the stairs in the darkness. Liam is a few steps behind with Dr. Urbancic. Our only light comes from the flames that are trying to devour us. We reach the steel door and Gadya tries to turn the doorknob.

She yanks her hand away. “It's hot!”

Liam puts Dr. Urbancic down on the stairs. He grabs the knob and tries to turn it too. The knob is not only hot, but it also won't budge. The door is locked. Dr. Urbancic must have locked us inside.

“We're trapped in here!” Gadya yells. She kicks at the door furiously, but nothing happens.

There's an electronic keypad by the door, but of course now it no longer works. Maybe Dr. Urbancic didn't lock us in here. Maybe the circuitry controlling the door just got melted, and our own actions ended up trapping us. But I'm sure there's a way to circumvent it and get this door open. There has to be.

I lean down to Dr. Urbancic. “Wake up!” I scream at him. His eyes stay closed. “Wake up and tell us how to get out of here!” I
yell again, slapping him hard across the face. He remains completely unconscious.

“He won't wake up!” I yell to the others.

“Move back,” Liam tells me and Gadya.

Gadya and I step out of the way as Liam rears back and slams his body against the unforgiving metal door. The door rattles, but it doesn't open.

He hits the door again with his shoulder, nearly slipping and falling down the stairs. But he catches himself on the railing just in time. He's breathing hard. He rubs his shoulder from the blow.

“We can't get out, can we?” Gadya says flatly.

I feel a rising sensation of panic. The basement is filling with smoke faster than I thought possible. There are no windows and there's no other way to escape. It's just a large, solid concrete box under the earth. A box that could very well become our grave. We need to get through this door somehow, before we pass out and die from smoke inhalation.

“I need more room,” Liam says to us, gearing up to try again. He takes a deep breath.

Gadya and I move farther down the stairs, dragging Dr. Urbancic's body with us.

“Be careful,” I tell Liam between coughs, as he gets ready to assault the door one more time. Both Gadya and I are using our T-shirts to cover our mouths and noses as we try to keep Dr. Urbancic's body from slipping down the stairs.

Liam races up the stairs toward the door and slams against it with all his force.

This time, the door gives way.

The metal itself doesn't yield, but the hinges are torn out of the doorframe, sheared and broken. The door clatters open wildly
as a wave of heat and smoke explodes into the basement, making all of us nearly fall back down the stairs.

I feel the heat singeing my eyebrows and hair. The smoke fills my lungs. I'm coughing and gagging.

“Come on!” I try to yell, moving forward up the stairs. I know that we don't have long. We have to get out of this house.

Liam turns back and grabs at me and Gadya. Both of us grab Dr. Urbancic's body and we stagger out of the basement together.

I take a lungful of air when we get into the living room, but instantly start coughing even harder. The air here is filled with acrid smoke. Two of the walls are on fire, and so is the ceiling. The EMP must have sent such a large surge through the electrical system that it caused sparks, which set the home alight.

The decorative curtains on the windows are burning. So is a large bookcase filled with books.

“Run! C'mon!” Liam yells as he pulls all of us along.

We head down the hall and straight for the vestibule and the front door. I feel like I can't breathe. My vision is going fuzzy and my head feels heavy. We reach the vestibule and I'm afraid that I'm going to pass out.

Then we hit the front door, and Liam yanks it open. We burst out, coughing and choking. My lungs are burning for air. I feel like my chest is on fire. I fall down onto the grass, trying to get my breath back. I hear Gadya throwing up somewhere nearby, in between angry curses.

Liam goes back and grabs Dr. Urbancic. He hauls his limp body out into the daylight. Dr. Urbancic is now making choking sounds like he's finally going to wake up. Either that, or he's about to die from inhaling so much smoke.

We drag him onto the grass and head away from the burning house, toward the sidewalk.

Three other houses nearby are already on fire. I see a handful of confused people out in their yards, and in the street. A few of them are wearing UNA uniforms. They're so preoccupied with what's happening to their homes that they don't notice us. At least not yet.

“To the car,” I say. I know that the car won't start, not after the EMP, but at least it gives us a place to seek shelter for a moment.

We head toward it, Liam slinging Dr. Urbancic over his shoulder again. When we reach the car, Gadya opens the passenger door and gets inside. I get in the driver's seat. Liam takes Dr. Urbancic into the back.

“Try the engine,” Gadya says to me. “Just in case.”

I stick the key into the ignition and turn it. Nothing happens. The car is completely dead. Our plan seems to have worked.
But what do we do next?

“I think Dr. Urbancic has a bad concussion,” Liam says from the back. “Or worse. We can't take him with us. He's not going to be able to move fast enough to get out of here.”

“Maybe we can leave him in the car,” I say, thinking fast. “He'll be safe here. He can even claim he was the victim of a rebel attack if he wants to. Someone will find him and get him help. A neighbor or something. But we need to get that intel from him somehow.”

Gadya nods.

Out the windshield I see another house ablaze. Its owner is trying to hose it down with water, but nothing is coming out of the hose. The electrical pump that brings water to the house must have been destroyed by the EMP. These fires will consume this
entire neighborhood. No water, no fire trucks. Nothing. I wonder if it's like this across the entire UNA.

I realize that we have essentially turned the UNA into the wheel.

Gadya glances down at her rifle. “I bet the circuits are fried.” She holds it out the window and pulls the trigger. Nothing happens. “It won't work.”

“What about older guns?” I ask. “Like, really old ones.”