Gone (30 page)

Edilio took with him the boat's emergency kit, which amounted to little more than a few Band-Aids, a book of matches, two emergency flares, and a tiny compass.

"How do we get Utile Pete up this cliff?" Sam wondered aloud. "It's not a really hard climb, but,. "

"He can climb" Astrid said. "He climbs trees sometimes. When he wants to"

Sam and Edilio wore identical expressions of doubt.

"He can" Astrid said."I just need to remember the trij^er words. Something about a cat"

"Okay.*

"He followed a cat up a tree once.* "I don't know if we have tides anymore" Quinn said,"but if we do, this beach is going to be underwater soon." "Charlie Tuna" Astrid said. The three boys stared at her.

"The cat" she explained."His name was Charlie Tuna " She crouched next to Little Pete. "Petey. Charlie Tuna? Charlie Tuna? Remember?"

"This is not too crazy," Quinn mutlered under his breath.

Sam said, "Okay, how about Edilio, you go first, then Astrid so Little Pete will follow you. Quinn and I will come last in case L. P. slips."

It turned out Astrid was right. Little Pete could climb. In fact, he almost passed Astrid on the way up. Nevertheless, it took them till dark to gain the top of the cliff. By the time they finally collapsed on a bed of grass and pine needles beneath towering trees, they needed every one of the Band-Aids Edilio had brought.

"I guess we sleep here," Sam said.

"It's warm out," Astrid said.

"It's dark" Sam said.

"Let's light a fire" Astrid said.

"Keep the bears away, huh?" Edilio agreed nervously.

"That's a myth, unfortunately," Astrid said. "Wild animals see fire all the time. They're not especially scared of it."

Edilio shook his head rueftjtly. "Sometimes, Astrid, you knowing everything isn't really helpful."

"Understood," Astrid said. "What I meant to say was that bears, like all wild animals, are terrified of lire."

"Yeah, Too late." Edilio peered nervously into the blacker-than-black shadows beneath the trees.

Astrid and Edilio watched Little Pete while Sam and Quinn searched for firewood.

Quinn, nervous for more than one reason, said, "This isn't me dogging you or anything, Sam, but brah, if you really do have some kind of magic, you need to be figuring out how to use it/'

"i know" Sam said. "Believe me, if I knew how to turn on a light, I would."

"Yeah. You always have been scared of the dark"

After a while Sam said, "I didn't think you knew that."

"It's no big thing. Everybody's scared of something" Quinn said softly.

"What are you scared of?"

"Me?" Quinn paused, holding his few sticks of firewood, and considered. "I guess I'm scared of being a nothing. A great big ... nothing"

They collected enough wood and enough pine needles for kindling and soon they had a cheerful, if smoky, fire burning.

Edilio Stared into the flames, "That's better, even if it doesn't scare any bears. Plus, I'm not on that boat anymore. I like solid land."

The warmth of the lire was unnecessary, but Sam enjoyed it anyway. The orange light reflected dully from tree trunks and branches and made the night even darker. But while the fire burned, they could pretend to be safe.

"Anyone know any ghost stories to tell?" Edilio asked, half Joking.

"You know what Td like?" Astrid asked. "S'mores. I was at camp once. It was an old-fashioned camp with fishing and horseback riding and these awful sing-alongs by the fire. And s*mores. I didn't like them then, mostly because I didn*t want to be at camp. But now ., *

Sam peered at her through the flames. The starched white blouses of the pre-FAYZ had given way to T-shirts. And he wasn't completely intimidated by her anymore, not now that he'd been through so much with her. But she was still so beautiful that sometimes he had to look away. And the fact thai he had kissed her meant that now every thought of her came with a Hood of overwhelming memories, scents, sensations, tastes.

He fidgeted and bit his lip, using the pain to keep him from thinking any more about Astrid and her shirt and her hair and skin. "Not the time, not the place" he muttered under his breath.

Little Pete sat, legs crossed, and stared into the fire. Sam wondered what was going on in his head. He wondered what power was concealed behind those innocent eyes,

"Hungry" Little Pete said. "Munchy, munchy"

Astrid gave him a hug. "I know, little brother. We'll get food tomorrow"

One by one they felt their eyelids grow heavy. One by one they stretched out, fell silent, slept. Sam was the last. The fire was dying. The darkness was moving in from every direction.

He sat cross-legged, crisscross-applesauce they called it when he was in kindergarten, turned his hands around, palms up, and lay them on his knees.

How?

How did it happen? How had this happened to him?

How could he control it, make i: happen on command?

He closed his eyes and tried to recall the panic he'd felt whenever he had created light, it wasn't hard to remember the emotion, but it was impossible to feel it.

As quietly as he could, he stole away from the fire. The darkness under the trees might ccnceal a thousand terrors. He walked toward his lean

Pine needles crunched beneath his feet. He walked until he could only just make out the faint glow of the fire's embers behind him and could no longer smell the piney smoke.

He raised his hands, the way he'd seen Caine do, palms out, like he was signaling someone to stop, or else like he was a pastor blessing a congregation.

He dredged up the tear of that nightmare in his bedroom, the panic when Little Pete was choking him, the sudden reaction when the tirestarter tried lo kill him.

Nothing. It wasn't going to work. He couldn't simulate fear, and trying to scare himself with a dark forest wasn't working, either.

He spun. A noise behind him,

"It's not working, is it?" Astrid said,

"It almost did, you almost scared me enough to make it happen," Sam said,

Astrid came closer, "I have a terrible thing I want to tell you,"

"A terrible thing?"

"I betrayed Petey. Drake. He wanted me to call him a name." She was twisting her lingers together so hard, it looked painful.

Sam took her hands in his. "What did he do?"

"Nothing. Just.. "

"Just what?"

"He slapped me a couple of times, it wasn't so bad, but—" "He hit you?" It felt like he had swallowed acid. "He hit you?"

Astrid nodded. She tried to explain, but her voice betrayed her. So she pointed at the side of her face, at the place where Drake's hand had hit her with enough force to jerk her head sideways. She steadied and tried again, "No big deal. But I was scared, Sam, I was so scared." She stepped closer, wanting maybe to have his arms around her.

Sam took a step back. "I hope he's dead" he said."I hope he's dead, because if he isn't. I'll kill him "

"Sam."

His fists were clenched. It felt like his brain was boiling inside his skull. His breath came shallow and harsh. "Sam," Astrid whispered. "Try it now." He stared, uncomprehending. "Now," she yelled.

Sam raised his hands* palms out, aimed toward a tree.

"Aaaaahhhh!" he yelled, and bolts of brilliant, green-tinged light shot from his hands.

He dropped his hands to his side, panting, stunned by what he had done. The tree was burned through. It fell, slowly at first, then faster, and crashed heavily in a patch of thorn-bush.

Astrid came up behind him and slid her arms around him. He felt her tears on the back of his neck, her breath in his ear. "Pm sorry,Sam"

"Sorry?"

"You can't summon fear whenever you need it, Sam. But anger is fear aimed outward. Anger is easy"

"You manipulated me?" He untwined her arms and turned to face her.

"It happened with Drake, just like I told you" Astrid said. "But I wasn't going to tell you until I saw you out here trying. You kept saying it was fear that made the power work. So, I thought.. "

"Yeah " He felt strangely defeated. He had just, for the first time, willed the light to come. But he felt sad, not elated. "So, I have to be mad, not scared. I have to want to hurt people"

"You'll learn to control it," Astrid said. "You'll get better at it, so that you can use the power without having to feel anything."

"Well, won't thai be a happy day?" Sam said with bitter sarcasm. "Til be able to burn someone without feeling anything"

"Fm sorry, Sam, I really am. Sorry for you, I mean, sorry this has to happen. You're right to be afraid of the power. But the truth is, we need you to have this power"

They stood, distant from each other though only a foot apart. Sam's mind was far away, playing out memories from a time that seemed like a million years ago. A million years, or maybe just eight days.

"Sorry" Astrid whispered again and threaded her arms beneath his to pull him against her.

He rested his chin on her head, looking past her, seeing the fire, seeing the darkness everywhere else, the darkness that had scared him ever since he was a baby.

"Sometimes you catch the wave. Sometimes the wave catches you," he said at last.

"It's the FAYZ, Sam. It's not you: it's just the FAYZ."

113 HOURS, 33 MINUTES

LANA'S FOOT CAUGHT a rcot and she tell onto her hands and knees. Patrick bounded over to look at her, but kept his distance.

Nip, the coyote who was Una's personal tormentor, snapped his jaws at her.

"I'm getting up, I'm getting up" Lana muttered.

Her hands were scraped. Again.

Her knees were bloody. Again.

The pack was well out in front, weaving through sagebrush, leaping ditches, stopping to miff at gopher holes, then moving on.

Lana could not keep up. No nutter how tast she ran, the coyotes always outpaced her, and when she fell behind, Nip would snap at her heels, and occasionally draw blood.

Nip was a low-ranked coyote, anxious to prove himself to Pack Leader. But he wasn't vicious, not like some of them, so he wouldn't rip and tear at her with his teeth, he would only snarl and snap. Bui when she delayed the pack with her slow, clumsy human running, then Pack Leader would snarl at Nip and slash at him while Nip whimpered and abased himself.

Patrick was lowest of all in status, lower even than Lana. He was a big, strong dog, but he bounded along with his tail wagging, his tongue lolling, which the swift, efficient coyotes seemed to find contemptible.

The coyotes were solitary hunters, catching even the fastest rabbits or squirrels. Patrick was left to his own devices, and since he Wis much slower, he was going hungry.

Lana had been offered one of Pack Leader's kills—a half-eaten, still half-alive jackrabbit, but she wasn't that hungry. Yet-

She had almost forgotten that none of this was possible. Amazing how quickly she had come to accept a world defined by a giant barrier. Absurd that she knew she could heal with a touch. Ridiculous that she had accepted the fact that Pack Leader could speak. In words. In English, however garbled.

Madness.

Insanity.

But what had happened down in that mine, down where the seething darkness hid, far from the sun, tar from the world of reason, had killed whatever doubt remained for Lana: the world had gone crazy.

She had gone crazy.

Lana's task now was to survive, not to analyze or understand, just to survive.

Her shoes were already beginning to fall apart. Her clothing was ripped in several places. She was filthy. She'd had to urinate and defecate in the open, like a dog.

Her legs and hands had been repeatedly torn by sharp rocks, sliced by thorns, stabbed by mosquitoes. She had even been bitten by a cornered raccoon. But the wounds never lasted long. They hurt, each time they hurt, but Lana healed them.

They had run throughout the right, the coyotes, chasing the next meal.

It had been just twelve hours or so, but already it seemed like forever.

*Tm a human" she told herself. Tm smarter than he is.
Vta
superior,
Ym
a human being"

But here in the wild, in the dark desert night, she wasn't superior. She was slower and more clumsy and weaker.

To keep her spirits up. Lana talked to Patrick, or to her mother. That, too, was crazy.

"Really enjoying my time here, Mom " Lana said. "I'm losing a little weight. The coyote diet Don't eat anything and run all the time"

Lana fell into a hole and felt her ankle twist and break. The pain was excruciating. But the pain would last only a minute. The exhaustion was far deeper, the despair more painful.

Pack Leader appeared, looking cown at her from a jutting rock.

"Run faster," Pack Leader ordered, "Why are you keeping me prisoner?" she demanded. "Kill me or let me go."

"The Darkness says no kill," Pack Leader said in his tortured, high-pitched, inhuman voice.

She did not ask him what he meant by "the Darkness" She had heard its voice in her head, down at the bottom of Hermit Jim's gold mine. It was a scar on her soul, a scar her healing power could not touch.

*Tm only slowing you down" Lana sobbed. "Leave me here. Why do you want me around?"

"Darkness sav: You teach. Pack Leader learn "

"Learn what?" she cried. "What are you talking about?"

Pack Leader leaped at her, knocked her flat on her back, and stood over her with his teeth bare above her exposed throat. "Learn to kill humans. Gather all packs. Pack Leader leader of all. Kill humans."

"Kill all humans? Why?"

Pack Leader was salivating. A long string of slobber fell from his muzzle onto her cheek "Hate human, Human kill coyote."

"Stay out of towns and no one kill coyote" Lana argued.

"All for coyote. All for Pack Leader. No human" With his strained, unworldly voice. Pack Leader couldn't really rant for long, but the liiry and hatred came through in very few words. She didn't know what a stne coyote would sound like if it could talk, but there was no doubt in her mind that this was an insane coyote.

Animals didn't get grandiose ideas about obliterating a whole species. That thought had
wot
come from Pack Leader. Animals thought about food and survival and procreation, if they thought at all.