Down and Out: A Young Adult Dystopian Adventure (The Undercity Series Book 1) (20 page)

“That’ll work,” Georges said, and she pushed them forward with more energy than Teddy suspected the woman of having.

“Let’s get going. They won’t stay up there forever.”

They tore through the crowd until they came to the bridge to their home. A line of people blocked their way as they filed into the warehouse. He didn’t know what his mother and Mrs. Fish told people, but whatever they said worked and the Underlings scrambled into action. The problem was, they didn’t have much time. Teddy and his father weaved their way home while Henri hauled old man Fudge to his shoulder and carried him off, the Underling squealing all the way with his sisters shouting behind them.

“We must hurry this up, Tisha,” Pa said, rushing up to their mother. “Time’s up.”

“H... how can we? There is no way we can get them all in. There’s too many of them.”

“Get them across the bridge. That’ll give us time,” Georges suggested as she rested against a crate, holding her side. “Ahhh, haven’t expended so much energy since... ever.”

“Henri, get a couple of Mrs. Fish’s boys and collect those who can’t walk well. Haul them in here on carts if you must. Teddy, you and Jolon get up on the balcony and scout for trouble. We’ve got to get as many as we can across,” ordered Pa.

They scooted out the exit and on the walkway, which made a platform overlooking the cavern dividing their home from the rest of the Undercity. The structure wasn’t too wide—maybe two feet—but they had a fence they had fashioned out of beams and pipes to keep anyone from falling off. Still, Teddy found himself getting dizzy as he inched along to get to the ladder to the lookout—a smaller balcony they could sit on with poles and ropes to hold to keep them from tumbling into an endless crevice. It took every fragment of concentration on a good day for him to make his way up the bits of wood his father’s father had nailed to the side of the building’s outer wall to make the ladder. He understood they were sturdy, but there was little else to hold on to. He inched his way over the edge and sat up, slipping a leg around one of the metal poles to give him something stable to secure to. He clutched the ropes strung between the pipes while Jolon crawled in beside him.

“I hate this place,” he gasped and locked himself to a pole. “Makes me want to throw up.”

Teddy made the mistake of leaning forward and looking down into the endless depth of blackness below him. He shut his eyes and swallowed, clenching the ropes tighter until his hands hurt. “I know,” he muttered. “But they’re disgusting. Contemptible.”

“Who are?”

“Those Upperlords.”

“I’m guessing things didn’t go well?”

“Nope. Plan fell apart when Belinda showed up.” “Hate her. So, she figured things out, or what?” Teddy clenched his teeth; he didn’t want to say.

“Well?” Jolon leaned in, flicking Teddy’s collar and poking his cheek. “Give up, Ted. What happened?”

He twisted away, catching himself as he sensed he was nearing the edge. “We gotta keep an eye out for Upperlords,” he reminded his brother as he scanned the crowd below. Nothing yet, but they still had so many people to bring over. Too many were confused as to what was going on, and they milled about, wandering back and forth. Someone started shouting Uppercity was collapsing, which sent a tear of panic through everyone. Henri jumped in, using his bulk to sort people out and keep the line moving.

“He was amazing,” Teddy said, watching the brute. “It was like he tapped into some giant centaur-like the stories and went berserk. He bowled through people like you bowl through food.”

His brother didn’t appreciate the cut. “What humor, what wit. Now tell me what happened.”

“They wanted Pa to sell me.”

Jolon choked. “What? You’re kidding.”

“Nope, and when he said no Belinda said he had no choice, so we bolted.”

“Son of a cretin. Son of a slimy, oozing fungus.” He swore with what few filthy words he had in his vocabulary. “That sucks.”

“Makes me want to trade my skin for something cleaner. They’re a sick bunch. I used to feel guilty about leaving them out of the move, but now I don’t give a crumb if they get locked in here.” He straightened a little as torches appeared in the distance. “They’re coming. They’re coming!” he shouted, pointing. “Hit the signal, Jol.”

His brother scrounged around and dug up one of the flares they left up there for emergencies. He flicked a match and lit it. The string sparked and jumped, throwing fragments of light everywhere. Jolon yelped and let go as the flare shot off fiery bits, which tumbled end over end into the black of the cavern. Those below them screeched and screamed, the remaining crowd pushing their way forward.

Henri grabbed two people at a time and threw them across. After, he stood at the base of the bridge with a shaft of pipe in hand while the rest got to safety. Most people didn’t even understand why they were trying to escape. They trailed along like mindless drones, babbling about impending doom. When the other side cleared, Henri shut the metal gate and locked it, sealing both sides with a fence of barbed wire and broken glass.

“Teddy, Jolon, come down,” their father called from below. He stood beside their brute near the entrance to the warehouse.

They scrambled down, relieved to be on more solid ground as they snuck in by Henri and Pa.

“Get in, boys,” his father said, and they skittered in, hiding right inside the doors to get a clear view. Georges stood with them, watching too.

“You seem well equipped for invasion,” she said, impressed.

“Our family learned in the beginning how important it was to guard themselves. The bridge is wired too. No idea if the explosives are any good, but we can try.” He tossed a lighter at Henri. “Here, this one still contains some fluid. I kept it for just a situation as this. You see the fragment of string dangling by the edge? It’s a fuse. If we must, light it.”

The brute caught the lighter and agreed.

“You flick the little wheel,” Georges told him as Henri contemplated the little tube, his eyes bugging with confusion.

“Don’t try to come any farther,” Pa warned while a contingent of Underlords and brutes rushed up the other side. The dogs charged teeth bared and their enemies halted on the other side of the gate.

Belinda stepped forward and touched the barbed wire, but jerked her hand back. “Interesting defenses, Truman. Should have realized you would keep the best for yourselves. We should have monitored you traitors years ago.”

“Too late, Lindy,” he said, and Georges laughed. “My father never trusted your father and his father never came close to trusting your grandfather, so you didn’t expect me to trust you, did you?”

“I suppose not, but what now? We still have some of your Underlings.” She motioned to the brutes behind her, and they hauled forth two ragged men Pa worked with before.

“We can’t leave them,” Teddy’s mother whispered as she came up behind them.

“We might not get a choice,” he whispered back. “At least for now. With no bridge, we buy some time. We don’t need to go to the tower until we figure out a way to get everyone.

“Can’t let she believe won,” Henri said.

Georges stepped up. “We can. If she thinks we’re trapped here. If she believes we possess nothing to live on, she will leave us alone until we surrender—until we come begging for forgiveness and food. We hold the edge, but she doesn’t realize this. When she relaxes, we can sneak in and get those people we left.

In the meantime, we can filter people through to the tower in a more orderly fashion and pretend we’re all still stored here in your warehouse.”

“Not a bad plan,” Ma said with an approving frown and Georges nodded in surprise.

“Thanks, Tisha. I never thought I’d hear you like me.”

She rolled her eyes at the Upperlord. “I didn’t say I liked you; I like your plan.”

“Close enough.”

“Sorry, Belinda,” Pa yelled across the divide. “I’m afraid you must do better than threaten. Consider this a strike and we’re holding out until some improvements are made. You and your kind have gone too far, and we’re done with being your slaves. You have no right.”

She hooted. “No right? Let’s see how you all do with no water, no air, and no food. That’s your reality, Truman, if you blow this bridge, first the food then the water, and then the air. You get a day to decide before we start shutting things off.”

“If they give us a couple of days, we won’t need to destroy the bridge,” Jolon said.

“I doubt that is their intention,” Georges muttered.

“Someone doesn’t want to wait.” Henri gestured to a band of brutes lugging a thick support beam over to the gate. Belinda and her subjects moved aside and signalled for them to go ahead.

They pulled back a ways and charged, hollering as they went, their voices bouncing around the chamber. Teddy covered his ears as they struck the gate and the sound of the impact reverberated through his skull. Still, the barrier held, so they hit it again and again. On the third pass, the metal creaked and groaned, the hinges bending. Pa ushered everyone back.

“Okay, Henri, before they get through, light the fuse, and we’re off... with luck.” This last part he said under his breath.

They all scrambled somewhere safe while their brute tried to get the lighter to work. He flicked and flicked, but got nowhere, so Georges snatched it out of his hand and ignited the flame.

“This takes a little finesse,” she said and put the light to the fuse. It spurted and burst and raced away.

“Oh dear, let’s adjourn,” the Upperlord said, running back to safety with Henri behind her.

The others dragged down a bar of metal as thick as Henri’s fist to secure the hefty doors and piled furniture in front for extra protection.

“How long?” Teddy asked, pushing a crate.

“Any moment now,” Pa said, standing back with his hands on his hips, his full attention on the entrance. “Any moment.”

“They must be through the gate by now,” Georges said. “They’ll be knocking soon.”

A percussive wave split the air and shook the building, sending people to their knees. People screamed and curled on the floor with the rumbling boom of the explosion.

Still shaking from the impact, Teddy accepted Jolon’s assistance and got off the ground. They clung to each other not out of fear, but out of shock. He stared at the doors, which were half bent off their hinges.

“Oh, wow.”

Teddy agreed with his brother, his ears ringing. “Guess the explosives were still good.”

They all cleared the way to the entryway and Henri put his strength into removing the metal bar, now twisted and deformed. Pa and Georges gave him a hand and with much grunting and cursing, the three of them managed to pull it free. As soon as they did, one of the doors fell down with a resounding wham. Ma arched a pale eyebrow as the heavy slab nearly landed on her.

“Sorry, dear,” he said with a sheepish grin.

“Hmmm.”  She strode over to the door to peer outside. Teddy joined her with the others close behind.

Smoke and dust whirled around tainting the air with an acidic tang. Far on the other side, one gate swung with a limp wave until its remaining hinge gave way and tumbled into the cavern too, clanging and thumping its way down. The rest of the structure was gone. They were cut off with no way to build again even if they wanted to. On Belinda’s side, the crowd of Uppers and their loyal followers gathered from the places they hid.

“You are a fool, Truman! You condemned yourselves to certain death!”

“And you are an ass, Lindy,” Georges replied, coughing from the smoke.

Belinda started to pace, watching the edge as earth and cement still crumbled away. “Always humorous, Georges, always ready to mock. Well, I’m not rescuing you this time. This is your destiny, and when the rest come crawling back for food, water, and air, you needn’t bother joining them because you are done.”

Georges peered over the edge and grinned. “I don’t think there will be any crawling, Lindy. I think you all are on your own now. Luck with getting your hands messy and careful with your suit; it’s much too fine to dig through the refuse with. Bye, Lindy.” She waved and turned around, stuffing her hands in her pockets and whistling.

Pa laughed and clapped Henri on the back as the two of them went into the warehouse.

Ma hugged Teddy. “Is this place as good as they say?” she whispered in his ear though his head was still ringing, so her voice sounded wobbly. Her fears slipping through her collected countenance.

“Yes, Ma, it’s beautiful.”

She sighed as she pondered the damage done and the crowd of people staring at them, lost and confused. “It better be.”

They went inside, and Henri blocked off the entrance with the old door and a dilapidated cabinet.

“To be extra safe,” he said though Teddy couldn’t imagine what he expected. Did he think they would cross the expanse with a sudden growth of wings?

“What have you done?” It was Dorkas. How he ended up with them, Teddy didn’t know, but it wasn’t a good thing.

“Oh, perfect,” Caden muttered, coming up behind them. “Out of all the people we left, why couldn’t he be one of them?”

Pa climbed high on a counter so he could see everyone.  “Easy, everyone, this will all be fine....”

“Fine? Fine! How is this going to be fine? We have nothing!” Dorkas shouted with several others muttering agreement. “I know you, Truman. You never could accept your place. Always had to be better than your superiors, and now you destroyed everything. We have nothing.”

“Oh, what’ll we do?”

“We’ll never survive!”

“We have no food.”

“And air, what about air? We’ll die!”

The shrieking and shouting climbed in decibels until everyone was close to terror.

“That’s not true,” Georges answered, getting on the counter with Pa.

It did not surprise Teddy the entire crowd fell silent; they were accustomed to listening to an Upperlord and even one expelled from Upper circles had authority. So they stopped, even Dorkas.

“Okay, we didn’t start this without a plan. Yes, we hoped to take a little more time and doing this with more stealth. Things got a little out of our control.”

“What plan?” Dorkas demanded. A few of his friends muttered along with him.