The Forsaken

woman calls out in my direction. I don’t respond. These strangers will have to earn our trust.
    “You’re safe now,” Dr. Elliott continues, running a hand through what’s left of his hair. “Look, I know you might not believe it, but you’ve been rescued.” He takes a hesitant half step forward. “I understand why you’re so angry. You’ve been on that bloody island too long and—”
    “You don’t know anything about us!” Liam snarls.
    The man nods slowly. “True. But we want to learn. That’s why we brought you here.”
    “ You brought us here?” I ask.
    “Yes. Me and the other rebel scientists at Destiny Station.”
    “What are you talking about?” Liam asks the man. “Alenna rescued me, then we hijacked a pod, and after that, the transport plane crashed here. You didn’t do crap.” Liam looks like he’s ready to lunge forward and attack.
    “Let me explain.” Dr. Elliott wipes sweat from his eyes. “We’ve been tracking radio signals emitted by the Island Alpha airplanes. I guess you could say we’ve been doing some hijacking of our own.” He glances at his silent companions, and then back at us. “For the past month, we’ve been intercepting guidance signals for each plane that leaves the island. The planes are remotely operated by computers, all automated, so we’ve been able to take over the controls and guide the planes here, and land them in this desert. The landings are rough, but if the occupants of the pods are frozen and preserved in fluid, they’re generally well protected. You two are complete anomalies.” He pauses. “Right now, the UNA just thinks there’s a temporary glitch in their system. They can afford the steep losses because they have plenty of planes from their wars, and a current backlog of thousands of bodies. They can’t even keep up with their own research.”
    “Keep talking,” Liam prompts the doctor warily.
    “We’ve managed to rescue more than three hundred of you inmates, and bring you all here to our settlement.”
    I fold my arms. “Settlement?”
    “Yes, on the northern ridge of Australia. Thousands of miles from where you should be right now.” He pushes down his glasses and scratches the bridge of his nose. “If it weren’t for us, you’d be in the processing center on a UNA naval base. From there, you’d be shipped to a medical facility, where—as you seem to already know—you’d eventually be dissected.”
    “Why?” I ask. “Why are we worth dissecting?”
    “Because the UNA wants to analyze your brains and your DNA. To determine why you’re immune to the sedating chemicals that your government puts in your thought-pills and pumps through the veins of its entire populace.”
    I digest this information slowly. Liam and I look at each other. Things are beginning to swim into focus. “Immune to chemicals?” I ask. That explains so much—the vague feeling of always being an outsider in the UNA. The feeling that so many of us shared on the wheel.
    “That’s the real reason you got sent to Prison Island Alpha. You and all the other kids like you. A genetic mutation protects your minds from being pacified by the chemicals in the thought-pills. The UNA also secretly infuses most of its food and water with chemicals, to keep the populace docile. Your government uses Island Alpha to test new drugs on those of you who are resistant to the drugs they already have. They go after kids who cross the zones because those are generally the most active and rebellious ones. They want to learn how to break the minds of teenagers like you. Kids who think for themselves, and might grow up to question their system.”
    I stare back at him, horrified.
    “We’re all dissidents ourselves from an earlier era, when the UNA exiled the scientists who didn’t agree with its policies and research,” Dr. Elliott continues. He gestures to the huge sandstone formation. “We’ve built tunnels and chambers inside that rock over there, like a honeycomb. We call the place Destiny Station. More than two thousand of us live inside it, trying to fight the UNA and countries like it.”
    I look at Liam. He still seems wary. But I believe this man. I’ve been watching the people who are with him. They’re more afraid of us than we are of them.
    “When we misdirect a plane here, we’re used to finding the occupants frozen, and then thawing them out in the temperature chambers in our lab,” Dr. Elliott continues. “I’m glad you two aren’t