The Roar

Scores of military freighters hover above a nearby park, discharging soldiers to quell the riot. As rioters break through a wall into Mika’s apartment, Mika and Audrey hide in a closet. As the crowd rampages through the apartment, a Pod Fighter appears just outside the window. Soldiers climb onto the balcony and storm the apartment, chasing the rioters away. With the Pod Fighter temporarily empty, Mika and Audrey decide to use it to escape. Mika opens the hatch psychically, and they climb into the cockpit and fly off.

Gorman summons Ellie to his room and informs her that Mika will be returning to Cape Wrath the next day. Just then, a man enters and tells Gorman about the riot. The police have recovered four of the six final contestants, but Mika and Audrey are still missing. Enraged, Gorman orders the police to kill the children.

Mika and Audrey watch from the Pod Fighter as the army drives the rioters back underground. When a police pod tries to capture them, they decide to return to the apartment, but it’s filled with Gorman’s men. They flee, the police in pursuit. Ellie senses Mika’s experience, and she tries to send him a psychic message: “Go over The Wall” (429).

Weary of the chase, Mika maneuvers the Pod into a movie theater to hide. In the darkness, he receives Ellie’s message and launches the Pod Fighter toward The Wall. Gorman orders his men to kill Mika and Audrey before they discover The Secret on the other side. A blast of laser fire greets them as they near The Wall, but they narrowly dodge it, clearing the razor wire and escaping to the other side.

They fly over a calm Atlantic Ocean when Audrey sees something in the water, but before they can locate it, they spot several more Pod Fighters approaching from outer space. They flee. Gorman is exhausted and retires to his room for a brief nap. He climbs into bed clutching a long knife.

As they near the coast of France, Audrey sees a forest and wealthy estates—both supposedly nonexistent since The Plague. They realize the story of The Plague and the massive destruction in its aftermath has all been a lie. Suddenly, a swarm of massive metallic eagle hawks swoops down on them. As Mika deftly dodges their giant talons, Pod Fighters appear over the horizon. Gorman’s men and the eagle hawks battle it out while Mika takes cover in the forest. A lone Pod Fighter spots them, however, and blasts their engines, sending them plummeting to the ground in a cloud of smoke and flame.

In his sleep, Gorman hallucinates—slithering vines wrap themselves around his arms and legs—and he hacks at them with his knife. Gorman calls for his butler, who enters to find his master bleeding from deep gashes in his arms and legs. As Gorman comes to his senses, he believes he’s killed Mika.

Mika and Audrey crash into a tree, the burning Pod Fighter suspended in its branches. He manages to crack open the canopy, letting in fresh air, but Audrey is unconscious and the fighter that shot them down spots the wreckage dangling in the tree. Mika rouses Audrey, and they climb down and flee through the forest with Gorman’s men perilously close behind. They finally take refuge behind a tree. In the distance they hear howls and screams—wolves attacking Gorman’s men. They run further into the forest until they are surrounded by the animals—huge borg wolves, the same wolves kept in the pit at Cape Wrath. Audrey suggests they remain calm and let the wolves smell them. The strategy works, and the wolves drift off into the forest, leaving the children unscathed.

As they explore the forest, they realize everything—The Plague, the stories of a decimated landscape—has been a lie while the ultra-rich have lived outside the Wall, enjoying the full glory of nature. They decide to return to London in the Pod Fighter that shot them down. Walking through the forest, they become aware of The Interconnectedness of the Natural World—countless ecosystems all woven together—so different from the concrete canyons of the city. Fearing a war would destroy all of it, they resolve to stop it before it begins; but first, they must find Ellie.

Mika returns to Cape Wrath where he finds Gorman attached to life-preserving machines. Gorman is convinced that Mika’s return proves his trustworthiness, so he tells him the full truth: 50 years ago, a group of the world’s richest industrialists form the “World Conservation Club” in an effort to save the planet’s natural resources, but they only want to save it for themselves. They concoct the idea of The Plague to frighten the rest of the population into hiding behind walls while they live among the splendor of a world they have helped to preserve. As life behind The Wall has grown intolerable, however, those like Gorman—officials who know the secret but are not part of the Club—are fighting to reclaim the natural world. Mika reconsiders the notion of war—Gorman’s war—as a terrible necessity until Gorman describes his plan if the army is successful: mansions and nature for the Northern Government, but the poor would remain in The Shadows. Mika and the other mutant children have been recruited because the borg animals don’t see them as human and won’t attack them. They are the only ones who can survive on the other side of The Wall. Mika is enraged, but he promises to help Gorman in order to see Ellie again. In return for his assistance, Gorman allows Mika to finally see his sister.

Mika and Ellie are reunited on the roof of the fortress, their auras merging and shining more brightly than ever.

Mika and Ellie’s reunion presages a change, “as if a mechanism that had jammed on the day they were parted was free to move again” (473). As Mika and Ellie fly toward home, Mika subconsciously transmits images of nature—the reality of the world—to the children still imprisoned at Cape Wrath. In the fortress dormitory, the children wake, despite the implants meant to keep them asleep. Roused by Mika’s psychic message, they rebel against the nurses, locking them in a closet and escaping.