Strangelets (10 page)

“Did you see anything behind it?”

“No.” Anat chewed her lower lip. “What could be large enough to frighten a bear?”

“In Long Island? Not much, I don’t think.” Declan wasn’t sure of that, though; maybe Nico would know.

“You guys coming in?” Sophie called. “Or are you going to hang around out there until the bear changes its mind?”

Turning, Declan saw her frame in the doorway. In the shadows behind her he made out Yosh and Nico. They’d kept the door open for him and Anat. He felt a surge of gratitude for that; he wouldn’t have bet on some of his mates doing the same.

And thankfully, whatever had spooked the bear seemed to be gone.

As soon as they were inside, Sophie slammed the door shut and locked it.

“Not sure that’ll be enough,” Declan said. “Perhaps we should block it.”

“Last time I checked, bears couldn’t open doors,” Sophie said, raising an eyebrow.

“No, but—”

“How do you say it … better safe than sorry, yes?” Anat jerked her chin toward the desks at the far end of the room. “Those look heavy. Help me stack them.”

“But it was a bear,” Sophie said, enunciating each word as if they were slow.

“Maybe not just a bear,” Declan said. “Anat’s right. Better safe than sorry.”

Sophie opened her mouth again as if to protest, but the others were already heading for the desks. “Really?”

Declan stepped close to her and said, “Honestly, I’ll feel much better about closing my eyes tonight if the only way in is blocked.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. That bear was running from something. You didn’t see it, though?”

She shook her head. “We didn’t see anything. I wasn’t really looking, though. I was kind of focused on the bear that was about to tear you apart.” Hesitantly, she laid a hand on his arm. “I’m really glad you’re okay.”

“Me, too,” Declan said. Their proximity suddenly made him uncomfortable, even though he’d technically been much closer to her the past few hours; hell, he’d basically been carrying her. But he found himself overly aware of how warm and soft her hand was. He took a step back. “I should go help with the desks.”

“Yeah, sure,” Sophie said. “But it’s just … what else do you think could be out there?”

“Honestly? I haven’t a clue,” Declan said. “But when we leave tomorrow, I’d like to be holding something more lethal than a can of beans.”

Sophie lie wide awake
staring at the ceiling. She’d used verbal commands to dim the lights—after what happened outside, she couldn’t stand the thought of a pitch black room. The look in Declan’s eyes had seriously unnerved her. Up until this point, nothing seemed to faze him, but he really seemed to think that something even scarier than a bear was out there. She mentally tried to reconstruct the mysterious print they’d seen in the cafeteria; a bear could have made that, right? She was forced to admit that her familiarity with animal tracks was limited to cats and raccoons.

By unspoken accord, they’d all chosen to sleep in the same wing of the hospital, on the girls’ side. After propping open the infirmary’s outer door with metal bed rails to guard against accidentally locking themselves in, they’d selected rooms. Anat stuck to hers, Nico was at the end of the hall, and Yosh chose the one next door. Sophie didn’t want to return to the room she’d woken up in, so Declan took it. She couldn’t explain why, since all the rooms were basically
identical. But part of her was afraid that if she fell asleep in there, she might wake up somewhere even stranger.

It was kind of spooky, that there had been just enough rooms in each section for the six of them. Almost like someone had planned it that way.

Of course, now there’s only five of us
, she reminded herself.

As if by mutual consensus, they’d stopped talking about Zain.
It was already like he’d never been there at all
, she thought guiltily. Yosh seemed to be doing better, but when Declan had gently prodded her about what happened in the vents, she shut down fast, in a way that didn’t invite any other questions.

Granted, Sophie had only spent a few minutes with Zain, but he didn’t seem like the type to set off on his own. Had a bear gotten him? If so, wouldn’t they have seen some sign of it? And if he was attacked, how had Yosh gotten away?

Sophie sighed. This definitely wasn’t helping her sleep. Maybe Yosh would be better in the morning, and they’d finally get some answers.

She ran a hand through her wet hair, trying to untangle the snarls. She hadn’t been able to find a comb, even though the shower had soap and shampoo dispensers. Nasty, industrial-quality soap, but at least she’d been able to wash the grime out of the cuts on her hands and legs. She was exhausted, and her whole body ached; she felt like she’d run a marathon. Still, she found herself unable to sleep. Her head was spinning from everything that had happened, and her pulse rate had kicked up; she recognized the onset of a panic attack, and forced herself to calm down. Going over and over things in her mind would only make her crazy. She wouldn’t find anything else out tonight.
Besides
, she reminded herself,
they’d been outside now
. And weird though everything was,
this was definitely the real world; no fire or brimstone anywhere.
Long Island probably wouldn’t turn out to be purgatory
, Sophie thought with bemusement. Tomorrow they’d get back in cell phone range and find out what was going on. There was probably a perfectly reasonable explanation. They’d all end up laughing about how paranoid they’d been.

Right?

Sophie couldn’t stop picturing that strange void, the swirl of colors reaching out for her. She wondered what had happened to her family—were they still standing around an empty bed in Palo Alto, wondering what the hell had happened to her? How
had
she ended up here?

And since when were there bears on Long Island?

On reflection, Sophie was happy that Declan and Anat had insisted on barricading the door. It had struck her as a silly precaution at the time. Now she was comforted by the fact that a few desks stood between her and whatever lurked in the darkness.

She wished one of the others was still awake and willing to talk. But no one seemed to want to discuss the strangeness of their situation. As soon as they got back to the infirmary, they’d shuffled off to their separate bedrooms. Five minutes later, she’d heard Declan snoring next door.

Meanwhile, her stomach was churning, and she kept tasting bile in the back of her throat. She hoped all that canned food they’d eaten was really okay. How ironic if she survived cancer, only to die of botulism poisoning …

There was a quiet rap at her door—she’d left it open to prevent getting locked in. Sophie raised her head off the pillow and saw Yosh standing on the threshold looking uncertain.

“Come on in,” Sophie said, keeping her voice low. She
struggled with the bed’s controls, trying to adjust it. Frustrated, she finally gave up and pushed upright, wrapping her arms around the extra pillow.

Yosh perched on the chair beside her bed. “I could not sleep,” she said in a small voice.

“Me either,” Sophie said. “Anyone else awake?”

Yosh shook her head. “I checked.”

“Guess that makes us the sentries.”

“Sentries?” Yosh looked puzzled.

“Yeah, like … guards who keep watch. You know, the people who warn everyone else of danger.”

“Were we supposed to be sentries?” Yosh asked, wide-eyed.

“No. Although I’m kind of surprised Anat didn’t suggest it. Seems like the kind of thing she’d go for,” Sophie snorted. “Of course, a bear could come marching in here right now and there’s not much I could do about it.”

“No, there’s not,” Yosh said gravely. “We would be eaten.”

Sophie laughed, even though Yosh hadn’t sounded like she was kidding. “Yup. Although considering how I feel right now, I doubt we’d taste very good. I kind of pity the bear that would have to experience those chickpeas secondhand.”

Yosh made a strange sound. She held a hand in front of her mouth. It took a second for Sophie to realize she was giggling.

“Seriously,” Sophie said. “I’m totally nauseous. Aren’t you?” But despite her stomachache, she started cracking up too. The two of them laughed for a full minute. “You were brave, going in after the rest of the food,” she finally managed to say as she wiped away stray tears.

“But you hated the food.” Yosh doubled over again.

“Oh, God, stop. I’m seriously close to puking,” Sophie finally gasped.

“Sorry. Going in was not so bad. Just a smell.” Yosh
hesitated, then continued. “There should not have been so many bad cans, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“Almost all of them were broken. Bent,” Yosh said. “Even the ones on the shelves. And the food in the refrigerator—it was very old.”

“So maybe we were all knocked out by … whatever happened,” Sophie ventured.

“Yes, but for how long? I checked the dates on the cans. They should still have been good for a long time.” Yosh pulled the chair closer to the bed and said, “Declan said you were sick. With cancer.”

That was annoying; she hadn’t exactly wanted her illness to be public information.
Thanks a lot, Declan
, she thought as she answered, “I was dying.”

“And you woke up here?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Sophie said. “Why?”

Yosh didn’t respond immediately. Finally, she said, “What Declan said, about purgatory. This is a real place?”

“Ah …” Sophie wasn’t sure what to say. She was pretty sure the Japanese practiced some form of Buddhism, but didn’t know if there were any parallels between that and Christianity.
Too bad Yosh didn’t want to know about near death experiences
, Sophie thought wryly. Those she could have gone on about all night. “Some people believe in it.”

“Not you?”

“No. Not me,” Sophie had very clear opinions about heaven and hell, in that she didn’t believe in either of them.

“But what happens in purgatory?”

Sophie squirmed, fervently wishing that one of the others, preferably Declan, would wake up and join them. She was way out of her element in this conversation, yet felt
obligated to answer. There was an urgency underlying Yosh’s words. If possible, Sophie wanted to put her mind at ease so that at least one of them had a shot at sleeping. She dug through her memory banks, trying to recall decade-old Sunday school lessons. “Declan would know better than me, but I think it’s a place where people’s souls get … stuck.”

“Stuck like glue?”

“Kind of. Stuck, in that they’re not in heaven or hell. They’re somewhere in the middle.”

“And what unsticks them?” Yosh’s eyes were shaded by her bangs, making them hard to read.

“I don’t know,” Sophie said. “But honestly, Yosh, I don’t think this is purgatory.”

“What is this place, then?”

“Long Island, according to Nico,” Sophie said dryly.

“I don’t think so,” Yosh said quietly. “This is a bad place. A very bad place.”

“Yeah?” Sophie said. Yosh’s eyes were anxious. Still, she was talking; that was an improvement. “Can I ask you something, Yosh?”

Yosh inclined her head slightly but didn’t respond.

“That boy, Zain. Did he … leave you, once you got up there?” Sophie asked hesitantly.

Yosh’s face crumpled as she whispered, “Zain.”

“Yes, Zain,” Sophie said. The color had drained from Yosh’s cheeks, but Sophie pressed forward anyway. “The thing is, if he’s out there somewhere, hurt or something, we should go help him.”

Yosh was already shaking her head. “He is gone.”

“Gone where?”

“Just gone.” Yosh lowered her eyes. “He will not come back.”

“Okay.” Sophie fought the urge to push harder. She got the sense that if she did, Yosh might go full-on catatonic again, and frankly she didn’t have the energy to deal with that. She tried to sound reassuring as she continued, “Maybe you can explain it to me tomorrow. Right now I think we should try to get some sleep.”

Yosh nodded and stood. “Good night, Sophie.”

“Night.”

Yosh paused on the threshold and turned back. “Sophie?”