Under Ground (35 page)

His eyes bore right through me.
He’s so angry and displeased with me that I let the issue go. We
keep on watching the news for ten minutes until I’ve had enough and
need some air. I pull on Chi’s hand lightly and he gets my meaning.
We walk out without saying goodbye to the others.

Chi and I go back to our
apartment, where I find my mother standing by the window. She turns
around when she sees us. She pulls Chi and me to her and holds us
both in a tight hug.

When we pull away, she asks, “What
do you think is going to happen now?”

“I don’t know.”

“How long are we going to be able
to stay here?”

“I don’t know.”

She glances at me and smiles a
little. “Yes, of course.”

Everyone's exhausted. It’s time to
go to bed. Despite what I had decided, my mother insists that she
should take the couch in the living room instead of the bedroom.
Even though nothing has happened between Chi and me, sharing a bed
with him is awkward when my mother is staying right next
door.

I lie down, but I can't sleep. I
look at Chi. His eyes are closed, but I can tell he’s not sleeping
either. The horrible things we saw on TV keep on rolling in front
of my eyes, preventing me from finding peace. After a few hours, my
lids finally get heavy and my eyes shut down, closing the door onto
this world where more terror is sure to come.

***

The next
day,
Chi and I head back to the fitness center. Mother
decides to remain behind. I'm still exhausted. I didn't sleep well
and nightmares plagued my night, waking me up at all hours. Though
we didn’t have dinner last night, Chi and I are not hungry. We
don’t feel like joining the others for breakfast either.

When we open the door to the
training room, Taylor is standing there, surrounded by many people,
most of whom are still wearing uniforms from the camps. They’re
watching the news. Taylor turns around when he hears us open the
door, but he doesn’t smile or greet us. He's still mad at
me.

“The news is slowly reaching the
whole state,” he tells the refugees. “The authorities are trying to
shut us down, but we're using an Underground transmission channel.
I’m afraid this place won’t remain safe for long. The authorities
will be looking for us. And we are just sitting ducks waiting to be
picked off one by one if we stay in this building. We can remain
here overnight and rest, but in a few days, we'll need to relocate.
They've already found the officers that we shot at the bridge, but
they're holding the riots accountable for now. It won't take them
long to figure it out and come for us.”

I tune him out and watch the news.
A lot of things happened while we were sleeping. The camps have
been exposed for what they are. Some riots started in Eboracum City
last night, and the outrage is spreading quickly through the slums,
including the ones in New York City, the ones right next to us. The
poor are emerging from their neighborhoods, and it seems that
nothing can stop them. They’re using whatever they can find as
weapons against the officers facing them. What they saw on TV is
beyond what they are willing to accept. On some channels, the
officers can be seen calling for the population to calm down,
reminding them that all resources will be cut if the riots don’t
cease. But this creates the opposite effect as it ignites more
anger and turbulence. The poor refuse to feed off of anything
coming from camps of forced labor.

Some members from the upper-class
are staying home, sheltering themselves from the violence outside,
but some others have woken up from their slumber and taken to the
streets, alongside the lower class. The journalists catch them in
interviews during which they express their indignation. None of
them knew where our state's resources came from. They didn't know
about the camps; they didn't know that our food was grown by humans
exploited against their will.

“
The war has now begun and we plan
on winning it," Taylor says. "We need to dig deeper and strike
harder. The poor were easy to convince since they’ve been suffering
for years. What we need is for every upper-class member to change
their ways. They're finally opening their eyes, but the news needs
to spread faster. We want a tsunami; we need this whole system
dismantled and broken apart. The Underground needs you! Can we
count on you?”

Almost everyone in the room cheers
and raises their fists in the air. I cast a glance at Chi. He looks
at me, frowns slightly, and shakes his head in such a way that no
one knows what he means except me. Chi no longer wants to be a part
of this rebellion. His parents' deaths have taken away his
resolutions, leaving nothing behind but a shell of who he used to
be. Though Stephen is still alive, he is dead to Chi now too, and I
know Chi is grieving the loss of his twin brother as
well.

Soothing him has become my primary
goal. But if he hasn't changed his mind, then neither have I. I
will stand my ground and fight among the rebels. No one can talk me
out of my decision. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but at
this very moment, a lot of people in this state are rising from
under ground—awakening to a reality more dire than they could have
ever imagined. The others in the room keep cheering, and Chi's hand
squeezes mine ever so slightly. The future is uncertain, but the
coffin that was my life is now wide open as the light of freedom
finally shines bright on my horizon.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my husband,
Christopher, for believing in me from the moment I said I wanted to
write a novel. Thank you for always trusting that I could do this,
even when I thought I couldn't. Thank you for pushing me to draw
each one of my characters too and for listening to my endless
babbles and the readings of my scenes. You are my very own Chi, and
I love you.

Merci à mes parents et à mon frère
d'avoir cru en moi dès que j'ai parlé de ce projet. Merci pour
votre soutien et votre amour. Je vous aime.

Thanks to each person who asked to
read my book as soon as it was finished: Jennifer London, Jessica
Meeker, Stephanie Rinehart, Evelyn Espada, and Kylie Kaemke. Thank
you so much for asking about it, for reading it, for encouraging
me, and for telling me that it was good even though the first
drafts were just plain awful.

Thanks to my parents-in-law, and
especially my mother-in-law, Nancy Dupré, for reading the book and
loving it from the start. Thank you for taking the time to correct
my mistakes and for asking many questions about the
story.

Claire Kann and Batool Al-Shaar,
thank you for your honest reviews and feedback. I would never have
known to rewrite certain scenes otherwise. Thank you for not
sugar-coating the truth. I think the book is better for
it.

To those who read my book online,
commented on it, and supported me at a time when I was losing faith
in my writing: Josh London, Sebastian K., Nadège Chrétien, Diya
Mohanna and Vera Burris—thank you for your kind
comments.

Special thanks to Chloe Berger and
Erica Inductivo for being such big fans of the series. Thank you
for supporting me and the characters. Your unconditional love for
Stephen is very special to me. Thank you for giving him a chance. I
know he makes it very difficult... Your endless encouragements just
make my day, every day.

Special thanks to Elizabeth Lee
for accepting to proofread the book. Thank you for your precious
time and effort.

Thank you so much to anyone who
bought this book or simply picked it up and spent time reading it.
I truly hope that you enjoyed it.

I would like to dedicate this
novel to those who see their rights trampled upon every single day.
To all the girls and boys in this world who have been denied access
to education or the right to freedom. Our thoughts and beliefs are
our own; no one can ever change that. Freedom of speech can always
be taken away, but our individuality and beliefs can never be
destroyed. You are in my thoughts, always.

ABOUT THE
AUTHOR

Alice
Rachel
grew up in France before moving to the Unites States
to live with her husband. When she doesn't write, Alice teaches
French to students of all ages.

She also spends hours reading
books of all kinds (Young Adult, New Adult, Mystery, Horror,
Romance, History, Graphic Novels...There probably isn't a genre
that she doesn't like). She also enjoys going to the movies,
visiting museums with her hubby, taking care of her guinea pigs,
and drawing.

Alice loves to interact with her
readers (and so do her characters). You can find her on Twitter
under @AliceRachelWrit. She also likes to chat through her website
at www.alicerachelwrites.com as well as on Instagram, GoodReads,
and Facebook. Her drawings can be found on
www.society6.com/alicerachel.