Chapter 1
Gregor awoke with a start. Nightmares again. It seemed like every time he closed his eyes, he was back in the Underland, watching the Bane bite through Ares' throat. Or watching his mom, covered in purple spots from the plague, slowly wasting away in the hospital. Always watching. And then there were the falling dreams. He had those almost every night. Falling, falling, with no one to catch him, no one to stop the pain that was sure to come at the bottom. Then he would hit bottom and wake up in a daze. The phrase "Sweet dreams," was a distant memory.
It had been four months since he had last been down under the earth. He had left Regalia in a state of relative peace between the rats and humans. He had killed the Bane. He had fulfilled the prophecies. But he had also left behind all that he knew and trusted. Scars covered his body from the many wounds that riddled his skin. But what hurt more were the emotions inside, the memories, the longing to see those companions that he would never see again. Ever. Unless…, No! Don't start thinking about that again, you'll just make yourself crazy, thought Gregor. He was trying very hard to be content with the life that awaited him. In Virginia. They had moved out of their apartment in New York and now were living in Virginia.
Why Virginia? thought Gregor, Why not Long Island or New Jersey or something like that? Then at least I might have a chance to get…Ugh! He couldn't help it. Those thoughts just kept coming. He would find himself mapping out a plan to get back to New York, to Central Park, to the tunnel, to the place where he would drop and Ares would… and that is where the plan crumbled and he went to his room and sat and finally embraced the memories that kept coming back.
He remembered the time when he had first fallen, finding Temp and the giant cockroaches, who took them to the arena. He remembered 'The Prophecy of Gray' and his first quest to find his dad. He remembered meeting Ripred the witty, sarcastic, yet uncannily wise rat. He remembered how Ares had saved his life, choosing him over his bond. He remembered bonding with Ares, thus saving the bat's life. He remembered his second time down, when the crawlers 'stole' Boots and he had to go after her. He remembered Twitchtip, the scent-seer who had first informed Gregor that he was, in fact, a rager, a natural-born killer. He remembered seeing the baby Bane for the first time. He remembered giving the Bane to Ripred to raise, and subsequently being tried for high treason. His third time down, when his mom had gotten sick with the plague and he went on another quest to find the cure. He remembered how, in the end, he never really needed to look. His last trip down, he had gone on a 'picnic' that had gotten Thalia the bat killed. He remembered watching the nibblers 'spin and snap, quiet while they take a nap,' in the volcano. He remembered being thrown in jail for sneaking out and finally getting the hang of echolocation while behind bars. He remembered then finally fighting the full grown and dangerous Bane. He remembered watching the Bane, in his dying breaths, kill Ares, his bond. He remembered saying goodbye to all of them. He remembered telling them that he would be okay.
That was a total lie. He was not okay. He was not okay with leaving behind his friends, who had become like family to him over the years. He was not okay with being in the Overland for good. Ever since he had closed the cover on the tunnel in Central Park his last time, even though he didn't want to, he kept planning in his head how he could get back. How he could see them again.
But his family had moved to Virginia. That threw a wrench into any plans he had of getting back without making a real fuss. He didn't understand why they had moved. It seemed as if his parents thought that moving and planting some tomatoes would be healing. It was like saying, "Oh, I know you practically died defending those people. I know you finally fit in somewhere. I know you will never even be able to wear short sleeves in the summer anymore because of the scars. But I think moving away from it all will magically heal the wounds, inside and out!"
Gregor wasn't sure where that thought had come from. Why couldn't they just see how he was rotting away inside, unable to take sixty seconds without thinking about the Underland? Stop. You know why Mom doesn't want to go back there. You know why Dad can't even think about going back down, Gregor thought. It was true, he did. His mom, in the time she had been under the earth, had contracted a deadly plague which developed into a case of pneumonia which made her so weak she couldn't stand up. Not only that, she had also seen her boy slowly accumulate the scars that riddled his skin.
It was even more understandable that his dad didn't want to go back. He had been kidnapped and held by the rats down there for…what was it? Two years, seven months, and thirteen days, give or take a week or so, since it's hard to tell time in the Underland, because there is no sun. Even when he had been rescued, he was never the same. Externally, he had a strange disease that he had picked up from the Underland somehow, a fever that would never go away. Internally, like Gregor, he could never forget the Underland. He had been captured, tortured, and abused by the rats in ways he would never put to words. He left the Underland a changed man, never to be a science teacher again.
Lizzie, well, she left the Underland different, too. She wasn't nearly as scared of everything as she was before. She had actually made a ton of friends in Virginia, which, when Gregor thought about it, was ironic, because he had always been the outgoing one of the family. She had always been the quiet, withdrawn one. Three years ago. Before the Underland.
If only…that began a ton of Gregor's thoughts these days. If only I could be back down there. If only I could see Luxa and Ripred again. That was another thing. Those two were bonds now. They had sworn to defend each other to the death. This unofficially meant that the gnawers and the humans had a peace that they had never known before. Not in their lifetimes, anyway.
If only… He had been trying to stop thinking about it. It wasn't working. Every time his mind drifted, it was to the Underland. You can't help it. You will never forget, he thought.
"Gregor, bekfast!" Boots called from downstairs. She had finally learned how to pronounce his name right a few months ago. She still struggled with some longer words, though.
"Coming!" he replied. Oh well, time for another day, Gregor thought. He walked downstairs to the smell of eggs and bacon. There was something to be said for a good breakfast, he supposed.
"Wash your hands, please," said his mom. Once she had recovered from the pneumonia, she had adjusted back extraordinarily quickly to an Overland life. Gregor supposed she had to, in order to come across as normal. As normal as Gregor's family could be. As Ms. Cormaci used to say, "People might ask questions!" It was true, there were many things his family could not afford, but questions topped the list.
He ate quickly and grabbed his backpack, practically running out the door. "See you later, everybody!" he shouted as he rushed out the door.
"See you later, baby!" his mom replied from somewhere inside the house.
Gregor was glad it was only a ten-minute walk to school from his house. Much longer and he would have time to think on his way. He decided to think about school that day, ignoring the obvious. Compared with the Underland, school was a breeze. He mostly got Bs, even the occasional A on his report card. At first, the school had wanted to hold Gregor back a grade because he was absent for a lot of sixth and seventh grades. But his mom had told the principal that Gregor was really "very smart" and would "fit right in".
They were still running on the excuse that he was sick for all of those absences. That was a stretch, considering some of those ran for weeks on end, but the school bought it, and that was all that mattered. Sometimes, he would even fake having a cough or something, just to fit the 'chronically ill' part that he had to play. He had even come up with a reason for the scars, in case anyone asked. If they did, he would just say that he was in a bad car accident when he was younger. Hiding the truth had become a way of life.
He had been in school for three months now, and had made a grand total of zero friends. Mostly it was because he was scared that anyone would notice that something was wrong. But part of him was still trying to figure out how to live again, how to "fit in" as his mom put it. He had been struggling with "fitting in" for months. He couldn't afford to be vulnerable up here. If his secret got out…no, he couldn't think about that. They would probably lock him in some insane asylum with psychiatrists trying to coax out the 'truth'. The sad thing was, the truth would only make him sound more insane. No one would believe. No one would even care. No one ever cared. No one will ever care.
Gosh, that's sad, thought Gregor. Only thirteen and already giving up on life. He gave up and surrendered to the thoughts of the Underland for the remainder of the walk. He was almost there. Just a couple more minutes and he could attempt to lose himself in his work. It was a welcome distraction. What he would give for a day without those thoughts.
The bell rang and Gregor breezed through the first few periods. Math, literature, history, science. It was the same routine every day, and Gregor loved it. There was a sense of order, of substance, in the supposed boring cycle. Lunch was always difficult, not only because the food was not always the best.
The worst part about it was sitting alone at a table in the corner by the vending machines. The vending machines weren't the bad part either, it was the alone part. Being alone gave him time to think, and thinking hurt most times. It didn't help that science was his last class before lunch. Almost every day, the teacher would say something that Gregor's dad, a former science teacher, had said at some point before. That usually was all it took to take his mind back to the Underland. It also didn't help that he didn't have anyone to talk to. That wasn't going to change, though.
The bell rang again, and Gregor again tried to lose himself in schoolwork. After school, he would do his homework using the computer for research. Every so often, he would search 'Mysterious Disappearances in Virginia' or something along that line.
He remembered that Vikus had mentioned that there were five known entrances into the Underland. He already knew where two of those were, one in his old apartment's basement laundry room, and one in Central Park. It made sense that the others would be nearby, but the Underland was huge. Just the part that the Underlanders had settled and charted covered hundreds of miles. And then there were the Uncharted Lands. Who knew how long they went? Maybe around the world.
Still, he couldn't help thinking that somewhere around here there was an opening. Virginia, on a global scale, was not that far from New York, and who said that distances were the same there as here?
"Gregor, dinner!" called Lizzie. She was far more outgoing than before her trip underground. She had a boatload of friends from school. She had sleepovers practically every weekend. Gregor was glad for that, at least Lizzie had survived her trip down without many emotional scars. She was probably the only one besides Gregor who probably wouldn't mind going back. She would probably like to see Ripred, actually. She hadn't seen enough of Ripred to know better.
Actually, the fact that Lizzie had to call upstairs for Gregor to come down for dinner was an improvement in itself. Back in New York, they had only had a small apartment for the five of them. Gregor, when he was aboveground, had slept in what was supposed to be a closet that his mom had squeezed a bed into. Now he had a whole room just for himself. A couple weeks after they came up for the last time, they had received a package from Vikus, filled to the brim with money. Gregor didn't know where the Underlanders got all that money, but in the end, it didn't matter. Maybe they got the money that fell through all of the sewage drains of the world or something. His mom had put away most of that money to start renting the new house. The rest was for nurses for Grandma, who died only a few weeks afterwards. Mom was sad that Grandma had never seen the home in Virginia. She knew that that was where Grandma belonged.
Dinner certainly looked good when Gregor came downstairs. It was Tuesday, so it was steak and potato night for the family, Gregor's favorite meal of the week most times. "Wash your hands, please," came from the kitchen.
"Ok, Mom," replied Gregor. He washed his hands and sat down at the table with the rest of the family. He ate fairly slowly, his mind still drifting in the Underland.
"You okay, sweetie?" asked his mom.
"Yeah, you're really quiet tonight. Is there something wrong?" asked his dad.
"No, nothing's wrong. Just thinking about homework and stuff. Boy, is this steak great or what?" replied Gregor, not so skillfully avoiding the question. Gregor had yet to become an expert at avoiding questions. He was, however, an expert at shielding his parents from the problems that he faced. He didn't wish his problems on anyone else.
"Well, yes, I suppose it is. I tried a new marinade this week, and I think it really improves the taste. You know, I…" and he went off on a tangent about grilling techniques. Gregor had, thankfully, chosen an excellent topic to change to. His dad could talk for hours about things like this. Since he had been aboveground again, he had been only working part-time as a hall monitor at the school Gregor went to, so he had the time to dabble in other things. Not that he didn't want a full time job, but with that strange disease, he could feel fine in the morning and be sick as a dog by the time the clock struck noon. He guessed that hall monitors had pretty flexible hours.
Gregor finished up quickly, excused himself, and went back to his room, supposedly to do more homework. When he was gone, his mother said, "I wish his teachers would give him less homework. I'm all for a good education, but he should be able to do other things." How little she knew. Not that that was a bad thing. Gregor would rather look overworked than heartbroken.
Why do I feel homesick even when I'm home? Gregor thought. You know why, he answered himself, You don't belong here anymore. You are an outcast here. No one cares about you. Not many ever did up here. Then he thought, Well, why do you think that you would feel at home in the Underland? Not many cared about you down there, either. That was true. Luxa was one of the only ones that genuinely cared about him. Ares had, but he was dead. Twitchtip had, but she was dead too. So was Cartesian. So was Tick. And the list went on and on. Ripred was still alive, but you couldn't really say he loved anything. Yikes, I'd probably end up like Ripred if I did live down there. Like Ares. Like an outcast. Useful in war, but dangerous and useless any other time. In a time of peace, who really needs a warrior? As he thought, he realized how tired he was. He drifted off to sleep, preparing for the nightmares to come.
When Gregor woke up the next morning, he was surprised to find that he hadn't had a nightmare like he usually did. Wow. I forgot how sleeping without nightmares felt. It's true; he had had nightmares of some sort almost every night for the last few months. Maybe I'm like Mrs. Cormaci's husband, who went off to war when he was younger, Gregor thought. Mrs. Cormaci said that after that, her husband was plagued with nightmares for the rest of his life. Plagued with memories. Yep, that was about it. That's pretty much how Gregor felt most of the time. He couldn't imagine what it must have been like to live for decades, weighed down with images that he couldn't shake. Well, I suppose I can relate, at least, he thought.
"Gregor, bekfast!" called Boots. Boots was lucky. She was too little to have these feelings. When she grew up, she probably wouldn't remember much of anything that happened in the Underland, even though she had witnessed a good portion of the bloodshed. That was the great thing about three-year-olds. Gregor envied that. He would give anything to forget.
Here we go again, thought Gregor. Time for another day. Walking downstairs, he noticed a cockroach on the wall. He had sworn to never swat another crawler, so he picked it up and put it outside. Strange, Gregor thought. I haven't seen any cockroaches since we moved down here. His old apartment was full of them, so many that the crawlers had declared his mom "Most Fearsome Swatter". Gregor forgot about the incident as soon as he saw breakfast. Since last time he came up, he had been on a growth spurt, and was, as the Underlanders would say, "Eating like a shiner." This referred to the fireflies in the Underland, whose loyalty was decided on who could fill their stomachs best. And they ate a lot.
After breakfast, Gregor rushed off to school. He wasn't late, but he would rather be by himself for a while. He was careful not to show how much he was hurting, even to his parents. If they knew, they might actually make things worse. And anyway, Gregor was getting to be skilled at hiding his emotions. There are only a couple people who I can really talk to anymore that would understand. The problem is, in any likelihood, you will never see them again.
Luxa, the queen in the Underland, would understand, or at least have compassion for him. Truly, though, there was only one creature on the face of the earth that could understand what he felt. Ironically, however, it was the one creature on the face of the earth that he did not want to talk to. Or rather, below the earth. Ripred.
Ripred the gnawer was the only person… well, creature… that could truly understand, not just be compassionate. But Ripred wasn't compassionate. He cared for nothing but himself. Mutual need was the only thing that kept him from being a total jerk all the time. Still, he would understand, thought Gregor. He, like me, has lost almost everything he ever cared about. That was true; Ripred had lost his entire family in a battle that wasn't his fault. That was the thing that had driven him to believe that peace was the best idea. Not war. But that didn't keep him from being a pain half the time. He would probably be an enemy of Gregor's had he not chosen the right side.
Being an enemy of Ripred's tended to be a bad decision for most, though. Ripred, like Gregor, was a rager, a natural-born killer. Almost no one could defeat a rager in battle, especially not single-handedly. Ripred had said, "I start to crack at about four hundred to one." Gregor had so many reasons to talk with Ripred, but he still didn't want to face him. He was afraid that Ripred would just laugh his problems off like they were nothing. Then again, they probably were in comparison with Ripred's. It doesn't matter. You'll never see him again. You'll never see any of them again.
He reached school and went through the first five periods just like any other day. Then came lunch, just like any other day. He took his seat at the empty table in the corner next to the vending machines, just like any other day.
But something different happened that day during lunch. An enormous rat came out from behind the vending machines. Well, not Underland enormous, just Overland enormous. At first Gregor was too stunned to do or say anything. He just stared at the rat, while the rat stared back at him. After a good five seconds of staring, Gregor finally found enough sense to yell, "It's a… a… it's a… RAT!" That threw the cafeteria into a panic, naturally. All of the girls screamed and the guys tried hard not to. Gregor just sat at his seat, staring at the rat. It ran out of the room and into the hallway, causing mass panic.
Gregor just sat and wondered, How did it get in here? It would have to go through the front door, through the hallways, and back behind the vending machine without anyone noticing it. Considering the panic it caused in the five seconds or so that it had been in the open, that was a long shot. Gregor decided he would check behind the vending machines later on. After all of the fuss had died down. Maybe after my last class, I'll try to get back in here. To use the vending machine, he thought.
"Gregor, are you all right?" asked the hall monitor, who Gregor supposed had been worried that he'd had a heart attack or something, since he was sitting so still.
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Thanks!" Gregor said, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically.
"Well, then... just let me know if you need anything," replied the hall monitor, still somewhat convinced that Gregor would need therapy sometime soon. Maybe he would.
Gregor finished his lunch quickly and left to avoid the stares from everyone. He wasn't sure why everyone was staring at him like that. Maybe because he was closest to where the rat had been. Maybe because he was the only one in the room who hadn't really reacted to it. Gregor wasn't sure, but stares, he had learned, could lead to questions. And he couldn't afford questions. Yes, later, much later, I will look. He just couldn't shake the feeling that this had happened somewhere before.
Gregor hurried off to his next class, and the afternoon cycle began again, just like any other day. But this wasn't just any other day. He had remembered where this had happened before. It was back in his apartment, about a year ago. When his mom refused to let Gregor into the Underland, Ripred had sent an army of Overland rats to bring him down. But one rat wasn't really an army. Still, it was a strange coincidence. Especially with that cockroach he'd seen that morning. Gregor knew that cockroaches were rare in Virginia. This can't be a coincidence, can it? thought Gregor. Usually, at least for Gregor, coincidences almost never happened when they involved rats and roaches. Usually, it was a sign. Usually, it was a call.
After his last class, Gregor walked up the hallway toward the cafeteria. He had his plan all worked out. He would enter the cafeteria, and walk straight toward the vending machines. That was, after all, what he was in there for. That's what he would tell any teacher that crossed his path. They would believe him. He wasn't the only one that would use them after school. Once he got to the vending machine, he would insert the exact change for what he wanted. He would push the button and then wait, as if expecting change. When the change didn't come, he would look around the vending machine to see the wall behind it. Then hopefully he would see where the rat had come from. That was the plan anyway.
When he reached the cafeteria, he opened the door. It was perfect. The only person in the entire cafeteria was the janitor. He walked to the vending machine, put in the money, pushed the button, and waited. When the change didn't come, he looked around to the back of the machine.
"Gregor?" said a voice from behind him.
"Huh?" Gregor turned around and saw that it was Principal Rosencrantz, the tallest, largest man Gregor had ever known.
"Why are you looking behind the machine?" Rosencrantz asked. Gregor figured that that was a logical question. The problem was, he hadn't thought up any logical answer.
"Uhh..," he sputtered, "No reason. I mean… I, uh… I dropped a quarter underneath the machine. I thought it might have rolled behind it."
"Hmm. Well, go ahead and get your snack and then go home. School's over, you know," the principal said.
"Ok!" said Gregor, grabbing his chips and hurrying out of the cafeteria. But his plan had not been in vain. In the half-second or so that he was able to look behind the machine, he had noticed two things. One was a vent, probably for air conditioning or something like that. The other was a scroll sticking out of the vent.
