The Stranded by Sarah Daniels
Esther is at The Lookout Cafe on the ship Arcadia, enjoying some recycled coffee, staring at the city across the ocean. Hopefully she and her sister May will be there soon, studying at University. Esther's got exams coming up and all she wants to do is get off this ship. She's learned more than doctors about infectious disease, so surely she'll pass and be able to go to land. As she leaves, getting a message on her comglove from her mother to which she responds with a lie that she's with her boyfriend, Alex, someone from the deck above drops printed propaganda, which is illegal to have, read or even be seen next to. The paper says that there are hundreds dead on the ship Oceania, and then Coalies, the ship’s patrol, come and everyone scrambles to leave. Esther could help a fallen girl, but she chooses not to. You have to put your own lifejacket on first. Everyone knows that.
Nik is at the railing where he dropped the leaflets when his friend May shows up. They see two Coalies coming toward them and know they'll have to escape. As the Coalies get close, they run to the stairwell and down several flights to the service floor. This is where the Neaths are, but it used to be where all the ship’s workers were, doing things out of sight of ticket holders. Now there are people everywhere with shops and carts and all sorts of stuff. Nik and May run to the elevator shaft. May grabs the cable and slides down, but Nik is shot at by the Coalies. As he grabs the cable, he turns and is face to helmeted face with them.
Esther has made her way up to Deck 13 and is working her way home, trying to avoid the Coalies, when she gets a call from Alex. He asks about her whereabouts and reveals that his mother has acquired paperwork for them to get married so they can be stationed together and be sent to work at the same hospital after graduation. Um… they're only 16! Esther feels uncomfortable about this, but she can't think about it too much because she realizes a drone is following her.
Hadley is manning the drone from the stairwell that Esther is about to enter. He shouldn't have the drone out right now and be away from his post, but he's the security commander, and he's got to get down to the Neaths so he can get some medication, or maybe drugs. He's been on the Arcadia for 1836 days and he desperately wants off the ship and he desperately doesn't want to be spotted by anyone. He sneaks up half a flight of stairs, and if she comes up, he's going to have to arrest her, but luckily she goes down instead. Hadley makes his way down to the disgusting interiors of the ship to a grizzled man who sells him drugs that make him forget, but what, we don't yet know. Unfortunately the man has only given him half his regular supply and no amount of threats will make that change.
Esther goes back to her family's cabin on Deck 7. Forty years ago, this cabin was her grandparents’ honeymoon suite, but shortly after boarding, a war broke out and biological weapons carrying a virus killed millions of people in a week. Those lucky enough to be aboard survived. Now, Esther wants more than anything to be off the ship and on land, studying to be a medic while her sister May becomes a cadet. May has just gotten home and asks her sister how to help someone who was shot or stabbed… not for any specific reason… just to know. Uh huh, sure. Esther is distracted and May realizes that she was at the Lookout earlier when the leaflets were dropped. Esther tries to lie about it and then leaves the cabin where she runs off, trips over something, and is kidnapped!
Esther has been taken to tend to who is presumably Nik who has been shot in the chest. She's stressed, obviously, because kidnapped, but also because of the amount of blood all over the place and the fact that it looks like this guy is going to die at any moment. She calms herself and gets to work. Nik comes to, kind of, thinking May is helping him, but that's not May, and oh no, his chest hurts and he's drowning. Oh no, Not-May is hurting him and he's going to die. They're all going to die on this ship. Well… that's not good.
Hadley's desperate to get off this ship. He knows this one will be docking soon, in six months? maybe ten? and then it will be destroyed just like all the other ships. The Federated States will quarantine all the passengers in a prison camp, of course, instead of letting them live freely like they all think. Hadley looks through the mugshots of those captured from the leaflet drop and learns that a couple of Coalies might've shot one that got away with a poisoned bullet. He wants to stop anyone anywhere in the ship that might be able to help the kid who got shot. He also wants to make an example of a young girl who was caught, and starts by breaking her fingers…
Esther manages to remove the bullet from Nik, still not knowing exactly who he is, but she's not safe yet. The surgery may be complete, but he's still poisoned from the bullet and will still die soon unless these captors let Esther go. She's smart enough not to tell them how to help unless they take her out of the Neaths where there are people around. Nik kind of wakes up and says Esther's name before blacking out again. One of the kidnappers takes Esther out of the Neaths, and along the way, she trips, faceplants, and breaks a tooth. Alex sees her being held by a stranger and comes over, posturing. The kidnapper quietly tells Esther that things are going to be bad for her and her family if she doesn't help, so she tells him what he'll need to save Nik, antivenom. Esther lies about being kidnapped and she and Alex go off for breakfast.
Hadley has a meeting with the ship's Captain and it's not pretty. Hadley is clearly twisted and threatens the captain, wanting to make it illegal to read in public, hoping to stop the leaflet drops. Hadley demands the captain find out who is responsible and mentions an old family by the name of Lall. He did something to the father before and threatens his son, who is at least sixteen, now. The captain tells Hadley to get out, and he does, but not before forcing the captain to accept a surveillance bot and then threatening his life. The next day, there's an announcement that it is now illegal to read in public. Hadley is clearly in control and is most definitely a monster.
Nik is in his room, arguing with his mother. She's chastising him for the leaflet drop, but he's upset with her for dragging May’s little sister in to doctor him. If something happens to her, May might leave the rebellion, and everything depends on her. There's a whole lot going on that we, the readers, don't really know about, but May is involved and so are secret codes, so she must be very important. Nik tries to sneak out to leave her a message to meet up later, but she catches him and helps him back to his cabin because he definitely shouldn't be up and around having just been shot. They talk about just running away and having a farm somewhere completely landlocked, but they both know that'll never ever work.
Esther is held back after class the next day for a mandatory medical exam. She's just learned that her next test will count for 65% of her grade, but then Alex sends her a note about a surprise and she gets a demerit for it. Esther, Alex, and another girl in class, Kara, are the top three students and are so close to getting off the ship and going to a university to become doctors, so she can't mess up. Helping the enemies of the Federated States by treating a strange boy with a gunshot wound who somehow knows her name is just the thing to ruin her plans. And now her Corporal, known only as Corp, can tell something is up.
Nik is working on the engine when he's approached by the captain who is also the leader of the rebels. Nik knows he's going to get reprimanded for the leaflet drop, and he is, but later. First the captain shows Nik the damaged bot that Hadley set on him. The captain can keep Hadley distracted for a little bit longer, hopefully long enough for the rebellion to be ready. Nik's dad, presumably the guy from Hadley’s threats, was the one getting the engine working again and now it's left to Nik. He and May are very important, but also very impatient for things to change.
Alex's surprise for Esther begins with showing her he has a lifeboat of rations saved on Deck 10, then takes Esther down to the Neaths where they encounter Coalies that luckily let them pass without trouble. In the Neaths, Alex takes Esther to a dentist who offers to replace her broken tooth with a pre-loved one or a synthetic one. The synthetic one is more expensive but… you know… didn't come from someone else's mouth. Esther thinks she'll just keep her broken tooth because of the price, but Alex says he'll pay for a synthetic one because they're in this together. Time to yank out a tooth and shove in another!
Nik and May are in a corridor near where he got shot, keeping watch at the daily supply delivery that happens every single day at 4:00. They've been watching this drop for a while but the time is coming where May is going to have to sneak aboard the vessel that brings the deliveries. They talk casually while they wait but then Nik lets slip that it was Esther that acted as his medic and that he thinks that they should tell her what's going on. May doesn't think her sister can handle not being a part of the perfect Federated States or doing anything wrong for the greater good. May asks why they didn't get help from Corp, but she's only to be asked for help in extreme emergencies so there's no chance of her blowing her cover. They watch the supply drop and decide the perfect time to move is four minutes after four.
Hadley, reeling from taking medication to suppress his memories of Celeste, his former love who was interrogated for being on the wrong side and taken off to the gallows, is watching on as the Captain has a meeting with representatives from each deck, asking about the leaflet drop. No one will say anything, making Hadley realize that someone has coached them, someone is directly opposing him. The Captain. He demands that people be arrested from all over the ship to teach all these representatives, to teach everyone, a lesson.
Esther and May are at home and soon their mother and father arrive too. Esther is feeling weird about her tooth and May quietly tells her she knows about the other night and that she'll fix everything. Huh? Their mother seems oblivious and/or maybe she's just a staunch rule-follower, but when their father comes in, he bolts the chain on the door and says the Coalies took one of his co-workers and that there was blood everywhere. He worries that they are being watched by bots and asks if his girls have done anything that would result in a search. Uh… yeah. Both of them have, but neither really knows what the other is up to.
Nik and May are about to be punished by the representatives for their leaflet drop. They are interrogated by Nik’s mother and take responsibility for the drop, but rather than a slap on the wrist, Nik’s mom says she's taking his place in watching over May and that they are no longer permitted to speak to each other. May only has four more days until she graduates, four more days to spend with Nik, and now they're gone. May yells at the representatives for getting Esther involved but assures them she hasn't spoken about healing Nik to anyone. The captain makes another announcement, this time that he's going to work with Hadley to find whoever was responsible for the leaflet drop and that everyone should remain vigilant.
Hadley and Grimson, his assistant, go down into the Neaths, searching for anyone who can give him any information on anyone smuggling antivenom. He finds an old couple that smuggle drugs, but nothing so serious as antivenom. Hadley finds some memory suppression pills and pockets them, then questions the drug smugglers. They say that their boss, Silas, one of the two gang leaders of the Neaths, has instructed everyone to make it look like everything is business as usual. Oh, but Hadley knows it's not.
Esther goes to class for their exam that's going to count for most of their grade and realizes that she and Kara have swapped places. Esther is in spot three instead of two, and then things get worse when Corp tells them that now, only the top two students will be getting the opportunity to go to medical school on land instead of the entire class. Esther's got to beat out Kara but she didn't study for the test at all. Alex gives her a contact lens that will help her with the answers but she doesn't want to use it… but she does anyway. It's cheat or get left on the boat!
Hadley has a meeting with all six admirals from the Federated States, hoping for the Arcadia to be cleared, which he can handle in less than a week, and then he can live on dry land while everyone else is sent to prison camps. Except… they decide to skip over the Arcadia because it's not really been having any trouble except for the leaflet drop. Maybe in a couple more years they'll clear the Arcadia. For now, they'll clear another ship, the Jorgensen. Hadley nearly explodes with anger and decides he's just going to burn the ship down himself.
Esther feels horrible for cheating and can't think of anything else, other than the fact that May has stopped speaking to her. It's time for May’s graduation and that's it, they probably won't see each other again, unless Esther manages to get to med school. Before their family can go to the graduation ceremony, there is an announcement from Hadley that they all must listen to. He announces that the ceremony is canceled so cadets must head to their exit point with no fanfare. Hadley also says that, because of the unrest of the leaflet drop, everyone must remain in their homes from sunset to sunrise or be terminated. Before May leaves, she presses something into Esther's hand in case she ever needs help: a charge ring that will apparently help her in a fight. Before May leaves, she sees Nik for maybe the last time. Nik knows she has to come back so they can complete their mission, but what if she doesn't?
Nik meets with Enid, the other of two Neath gang leaders, and asks her for help keeping Esther safe now that May is gone. Enid knows that Silas wants Esther dead since he kidnapped her because in that scuffle, she broke his nose, and he's offering a hefty reward for her, dead or alive. Meanwhile, Grimson suggests to Hadley that maybe the Arcadia could get its place back in line for clearance if they did what has been reported to have happened on the Jorgensen. Give the Coalies a vacation and let the people run wild. Hadley thinks this could work.
Esther gets caught almost immediately. She was just sitting in the arboretum with Alex, talking about being married and not really wanting to be and missing her sister when he has to leave to pick up something for the dinner that they're having with his family to discuss their future. She stays behind and is cornered by three of Silas's scumbags. She uses her charge ring on one but is tackled by the other two and pinned down with a knife in her face. Nik arrives and helps Esther get away but she runs from him, busting him in the balls when he catches up.
Esther runs back home but Nik catches up and follows her inside. He starts dumping stuff all over the place and making a mess, then asks where May would've kept something secret. Esther tells him and he continues with the mess-making until he finds May’s hidden box that has a gun inside. Alex arrives just then and is very mad that Esther has stood up his mother. He's very angry and possessive and doesn't question why Esther is a mess, just why she's with another boy. Nik lies and says that his mom is sick and he needs Esther's help, and she goes along with it rather than tell him about the kidnapping attempt.
Alex goes to see Hadley with information that he's willing to give him if Hadley will provide him with pardons for himself and his girlfriend no matter what. Alex says a girl, meaning Esther, has been in trouble at least twice in the past few weeks and he thinks she's up to something. Hadley puts a tracking lens in Alex's eye to, well, keep an eye on everywhere he goes and everything he does.
Alex, Esther and Kara plus a few other students are giving vaccines to keep the virus from the war 40 years ago in check. Esther asks Alex if they're still fighting and he says no, but he's still kinda weird with her and wants to know what she's been doing since he's found her with strangers more than once. She lies about Nik again, and then Corp comes in, tells the three top students that they've passed their exam, and that it's time to start giving the vaccines. Coalies show up too and make things worse, and then it gets even worse when May sits down at Esther's table for her vaccine. She's supposed to be on land as a cadet. Did she go AWOL?! She cuts into her arm and pulls out a worm (what?!), then forces Esther to let the worm crawl into her own arm (what?!!!?!). Corp comes over to see what's going on and Esther knows they're done for, but she just walks away. May tells Esther that the only person she should trust with her gone is Nik. Then she leaves.
Nik is looking for May but his mother is demanding that he get to the engine room. He tries to figure out where she will go and knows that she'll be where there are a lot of people. The Market. Esther meanwhile needs a break after May worms her arm so she leaves the tent and tries to find her sister. Alex follows and then Corp and the Coalies. Esther realizes that Corp is not and has never been on her side because she works for the Federated States and Esther is clearly an accidental rebel now. And then there's a massive explosion. Nik sees the explosion, but can't catch up to May. He desperately wants to find her but he also needs the codes that she's probably passed on to her sister now. He finds one of Enid’s guys, injured, and learns that this isn't the ship being cleared and it isn't a rebel attack. What is it then?
Nik meets up with Esther and Alex and tries to get them to flee with him. Esther wants to know what's going on and to get the worm out of her arm but there are Coalies everywhere and they don't seem to be helping anyone. Alex and Nik fight a little bit and then they see a lot of drones coming, so they have to run. Nik knows a way down to the Neaths that requires jumping off the side of the boat with a zip line and into the flotilla surrounding the ship below, and when they notice the drones are machine gunning anyone still alive, they jump. They make it down below and are greeted by Enid who says that May is still alive.
Hadley is in the infirmary and has finally decided that it's one of the officers, maybe Corp, that gave away antivenom that stopped Nik from dying, so to punish her, he kills the stranger that she's trying to save after the bombing. He also takes credit for that, you know, killing tons of people in a terrifying explosion, so she knows he's a monster.
Enid gets Esther, Nik and Alex where they need to be in Silas's territory and she puts Nik in charge of Alex since she doesn't know anything about him and can't be sure he's not going to run off to the Coalies at any moment. Esther is taken away by herself to see Silas, but he walks away from her because he was supposed to be meeting with May. Esther threatens to scream for the Coalies if he doesn't get this worm out of her arm, so he cuts it out and leaves. Esther wakes up with May and Alex and Nik and about a hundred others in a barge that Enid uses as a safe space. Nik and May talk about her getting off the ship and then back on with codes and the bombings and then Enid comes and gives May another rebel assignment.
May’s assignment is to retrieve something that she and Nik call “the pastrami” from a place outside of the ship. She was going to sneak away on the human waste barge but the Coalies are being more vigilant now, so she will just have to take a motorboat instead. Esther and Nik and eventually Alex all decide to go with her. All the while this conversation is happening, Alex is rubbing his eye, and Esther notices, thinking something happened to him in the explosion and not knowing that he's got a lens in that is directly connected to Hadley. He gives her a tracking device to wear under her comglove so he can always find her, then while Esther, May and Nik rest for the mission, Alex disappears.
Nik wakes Esther and May and tells them they need to leave because Alex left and has probably gone to Hadley. Why else would he have left? Esther doesn't want to leave without Alex and doesn't believe he would tell on them. May doesn't want to leave without Esther. Just as they are about to get on a little boat outside the flotilla, Esther sees Alex, but he pins her in place. Then the drones and the Coalies come. Alex tells Esther that he is going to keep them safe, that he did everything for them, but they have to let May and Nik go. Esther kicks him in the shins and runs toward her sister, but the drones and their bullets get to May first. Nik pulls Esther on board the little boat and they flee. They make it away from the Arcadia, closer to land, but then their boat is hit and explodes. Nik and Esther jump into the water and make it to land, but honestly, neither one of them wants to be there without May.
Hadley has gotten the orders from the admirals to clear the Arcadia and he's very pleased. Seems his explosion worked! He has a meeting with the Captain and tells him about the rebels, no, the criminals who escaped after the rebel attack, but that he can track one of them. When the Captain leaves their meeting, Hadley assigns even more surveillance bots to follow him to find just what he knows about the rebellion. As much as Hadley wants to kill the Captain, he declares that Alex will be the first person executed.
Nik and Esther head toward a safehouse that Nik has mapped on his comglove, but soon enough, they are found by Coalies again. Before they can get to them, Esther remembers that Alex gave her a tracker and that's how they’ve been found again so soon. Nik takes the glove and ties it to an old milk jug floating beside them in a river of garbage. He tosses the jug and then they hide long enough for the Coalies to track the glove and follow it. Nik yells at Esther for getting May killed and then they trudge to the safehouse. Not long after arriving, Corp and another person, Mit, arrive. They were, of course, expecting May to be there. Nik explains that Alex betrayed them, which Corp struggles to believe, but she finally does, and then she comforts Esther.
Hadley and Grimson interrogate Alex but don't really get much information out of him that they didn't already know, but Grimson has to tell Hadley that they lost track of Esther and Nik. He asks Alex what they're up to and he says that they're bringing something back. Hadley tries to get Alex on his side by commiserating with him about having a girl you'd do anything for turn traitor on you. He makes Alex choose a random Neath prisoner to execute then gives him a taser and tells him to find Esther and Nik. Grimson wonders what the big deal is with these kids, but questioning Hadley isn't a good idea.
Mit and Nik are arguing about scrubbing Esther's mind of everything rebellion related, but that could completely damage her brain. It's either that or kill her, which Mit seems to prefer. Nik might hate her guts, but he still feels like he needs to keep her safe. Mit tells Nik that he'll put it to a vote if he has to then stomps away. Corp tells Nik a story about Hadley before he went mad and it involved Celeste, his love, who also happens to be Nik's mother. (!!!) Celeste and Nik’s father had a plan to get Hadley, a Coalie, on board with the rebellion on the ship Oceania to help with sneaking supplies, but when the Federation found out, they sent Hadley to the Arcadia to punish him, because they knew that he loved Celeste more than his country. Now Hadley pretty much hates everyone and everything having to do with the Arcadia, which is kind of how Nik is feeling about Esther…
Esther is alone in a room, sad without her sister. Nik rages into the room, telling her to get out of bed and do something! Fight back! That's what May would've done. He asks where Alex would be and she refuses to answer. Nik paces and is angry and cries and it's all horrible. Finally, he pretty much tells Esther that she's pathetic and leaves the room. Esther then notices an envelope from May and opens it to reveal four forged passports and train tickets out of the Federated States. An entirely new life for their family. With new determination, Esther decides she wants to take on her sister's role in the rebellion.
All the rebels are having a meeting to go over their plan. Nik has fuel rods from an old Japanese ship that he's going to install in the engine of the Arcadia. The Captain is going to use codes he got from May to disable all the drones. The gangs are going to fight all the Coalies. They're going to drive the ship, that has been unable to move for years and years, hundreds of miles to international waters outside of Maine and disembark there. No one there will help fight, but they also won't actively try to murder anyone. Esther thinks this is a terrible plan but Mit just wants to scrub her memories and be done with her. Nik doesn't want to scrub her because it will turn her brain to scrambled eggs and he needs to know where he might be able to find Alex. Esther storms outside and sees helicopters and drones filling the sky. It seems they are too late.
Bots scuttle across the ground toward the safe house while everyone escapes. Nik, Mit, Corp and finally Esther, after Nik yells at her, begin destroying any evidence that they've been at the safe house and set it on fire, then jump in a truck. Unfortunately Mit isn't fast enough and the bots overtake him, but Esther goes to his rescue. Nik joins her and they pull off the bots attacking Mit and drag him to the truck bed, then speed off. Esther helps stop Mit from bleeding to death by cutting up Nik’s jacket with a pocket knife he gives her and soon they arrive at a little cave holding a little boat. Esther is ready to go back to the Arcadia to finish the mission her sister started but Mit points a gun at her and tries to make her take the brain scrambling pills. Nik tackles the gun out of his hand and Esther throws the pills into the ocean. Together, with Corp helping them depart, Nik and Esther ride back to the ship.
Before their little boat makes it to the ship, they see drones and helicopters all over the place, and then the drones spot them and begin shooting. Esther fights one off with Nik's fuel rod case and then Enid and her gang start shooting from the flotilla. Esther and Nik make it back on board and to relative safety. Enid tells Esther May would be proud and she'd be even prouder to learn that Esther is about to head off to see the Captain to get his part of the plan in motion since they lost communication with their comgloves. Enid gives her a sphere to lead her to the Captain and Esther leaves.
Nik and Enid make their way to the engine room and, working together, they insert the fuel rods and Nik begins warming the engine. Enid asks how long it will take, knowing that there are drones and helicopters all over the place that are about to open fire and kill everyone. Nik says it'll be an hour and if they rush it, the engine could explode, but Enid knows that they don't have that much time. She asks the next steps and Nik tells her everything she'll need to know to get the ship going. Armed with this information, Enid calls for two goons to take Nik away. WHAT!
Hadley is clearly enjoying himself, singing and directing drones all over the place to prepare to murder everyone on board the Arcadia and/or send them off to prison camps. He sends some of his Coalies to tie up hanging ropes because they'll work just as well as bullets. He's going to kill Alex and the Captain and he's super excited about it. Grimson comes to alert him about what happened on land, the fire to the safe house and Nik and company getting away in a truck, and then mentions the ruckus at the flotilla. It seems Alex was telling the truth when he told Hadley that Nik would be bringing something back to the ship. Looks like he needs to stop dilly-dally killing everyone and take things up a notch.
Enid locks Nik out of the engine room, but not so she can double cross him or anything dreadful like that. She's doing it to keep him alive. They're worried about the engine exploding since it's been so long since it's worked and she wants to keep him safe so he can keep Esther safe. Enid's goons won't let Nik come back because apparently being prepared to explode is what family does for each other and even though they're not actually related, they are as good as in Enid's eyes. One of the goons tells Nik that Alex apparently has a lifeboat of supplies on Deck 10 if he was curious about his whereabouts.
Esther follows the sphere through the ship and to the Captain’s office. He and another man are burning pretty much everything in there. Esther tells him that it's time for him to do his part and they begin the work to shut down the drones and even their playing field. Esther asks the Captain why he's gone along with Hadley the whole time, and he says it's to keep the people on board as safe as he can. Her job done, the Captain sends Esther back to her family, but once she's outside, she hears Coalies approaching. They go into the office and shoot the Captain and his man and report to Hadley that the Captain is dead. They laugh at Esther when she vomits at this news, but they turn and leave her alone. Esther goes back inside and the Captain, barely alive, says she's got to finish turning off the drones, which requires her to point his now dead eyeball at a retina scanner. Esther decides that since the Captain is dead and the engines are running, she's going to go steer the ship. Before she leaves, she makes an announcement telling everyone to run.
Hadley gets a call from Grimson requesting drone backup to fight some rebels and he sends them, but then they start disappearing from his digital mapping screen. He goes outside and realizes that the ship’s engine has rumbled to life and that all his drones are dying.
Esther sees the drones falling from the sky, but she's not watching them. She's watching Alex preparing to lower himself down in his lifeboat full of hoarded supplies, but then he sees her. He comes for her, telling her that he's done everything for her and that she's coming with him. She says no and that she hates him but then he says it's her fault that May died because everything that he did was for her. Then he tries to tase her and force her to leave with him. Thankfully the taser doesn't work and Esther fights back. Alex beats her up and strangles her, but luckily she still has Nik's little pocket knife and she uses it to stab Alex.
Nik gets to Deck 10 and hears Alex scream after Esther stabs him. She tells him about the Captain's death and that no one is steering, so they need to get to the bridge, but first, Nik wants to kill Alex. Unfortunately, Esther talks him out of it even though he's pathetic and terrible and definitely deserves worse than a stab. When they get near the bridge, they see a barricade, but it was set up by the rebels so they let them through. Enid and Celeste, Nik’s mom, are there and are slightly discouraged when they learn of the Captain's death, but Nik's mom takes control and is now the leader of the rebels. They need to get to a stairwell leading to the bridge but there is a line of Coalies there with some sort of shield. Nik decides instead of going to the stairs, he's going to scale the side of the ship using the zip line they used earlier when getting down to Enid. He grabs Esther and they shoot upwards through a shower of bullets.
Esther and Nik get inside the bridge and barricade it as best as they can, but it's not going to hold for long. Nik has been shot in the leg and is losing blood quickly. Esther makes a tourniquet from his pants and he tells her how to set up a device with wires and putty and a trigger. As she looks to steer the ship, she only sees bots crashing through the windows and a line of ships and helicopters barring their way out to the open ocean. She points toward land instead and detonates the trigger, disabling all the controls as the bots crash in and the door slams open.
Hadley arrives at the bridge, furious at Esther for still being alive and for being the person to completely ruin his career and surely extend his punishment that will see him on another ship instead of on dry land. She was hit by the explosion that destroyed the controls but she's stirring now. Hadley drags Esther outside and fashions a knot in the zip line and ties it around her neck. He sentences her to death for crimes against the Federated States just like he wished he could've done to Celeste. Just as he's about to hang her, the ship strikes land.
Shortly after the crash, Enid and Silas arrive on the bridge and shoot and finally kill Hadley. Esther could've easily been shot, too, though Silas doesn't much care about that. He's still mad about Esther busting him in the face when he kidnapped her. Some of the rebels grab Nik, who is still alive, and carry him off. Celeste has secured them a helicopter to take them to safety, but unfortunately as the helicopter arrives, so do the Coalies. Luckily they are able to take off without anyone else being shot, but as they fly off, Esther sees lots of bodies in the ocean. She caused the crash and ultimately caused their deaths. This is all her fault. She wants to go back and help, she wants to try to find her family, but Enid convinces her that there will be more people who need help later and she can use the rebels’ resources to find her parents. Yes, pretty much all of this is her fault, but at the same time, she's freed everyone on board. Many people died, but many were saved, too. Finally, the Arcadia has fallen.
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