Kings of Ruin

by Sam Cameron

  “I think my noth ith broken,” Danny said.

  “You can have it fixed,” Kevin said, relief almost making him dizzy. He bent over the driver, who was sprawled in the aisle. “Is anyone left onboard?”

  “I don’t think tho,” Danny said. “How ith Buck?”

  Kevin took a look at the angle of Buck’s neck and shook his head.

  “He’s dead,” he said, returning to the steering wheel. “Can you get up?”

  He shook his head. “Stuck.”

  The steering column had dropped and jammed. The wheel was tight against his lap. No matter how hard Kevin tugged, it wouldn’t move. They were going to need a winch and chain for that.

  “Sorry,” Danny said.

  The engine was really whining now, and a thick smoke was beginning to roll past the galley and the leather seats. Kevin gulped hard and pulled his FRED out of his pocket.

  He held the phone to the ignition and hesitated. “Kings don’t die easily,” he said.

  Danny peered at him with bleary eyes. The blood from his nose was thick and bright red.

  “Do it,” he said and grabbed Kevin’s free hand.

  “Kevin!” Dad yelled from outside. “Don’t!”

  Kevin pressed the button.

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  The news was playing on the overhead television the second time Danny woke up.

  He didn’t remember much about the first time because the doctors had pumped him full of happy drugs. He knew his mother and Roger Rat had been there. His nose hurt and his wrist hurt and a lot of the rest of him hurt, too.

  “You’re going to be fine,” Mom had said. She had one of those funny white braces on her neck and a cast on her arm. “You hear me, Danny? Just fine.”

  Then she burst into tears, which didn’t reassure him at all.

  Roger Rat patted her shoulder. “It’s all right, Danny,” he said. “Go back to sleep.”

  The second time was better. He didn’t feel so fuzzy, no one was crying over him, and the TV was showing a documentary on Bruce Springsteen. Danny was desperately thirsty, but when he reached for the cup of water on the side table, he almost knocked it over.

  “Careful!” a voice warned him.

  He turned his head, slowly, because it seemed like he had one of those braces on, too. He hoped to see Kevin sitting there. Instead, it was Eric.

  “Do you need something?” Eric asked.

  “Water,” Danny croaked out.

  “Prima donna hero,” Eric muttered. He got the cup and even held it for him while Danny sipped through the straw.

  The water tasted delicious. It helped clear out the taste of smoke lingering at the back of Danny’s mouth. He blinked several times at the new cast on his wrist and at the rest of his body, which seemed fine under a long white sheet.

  “Your parents are in the cafeteria,” Eric said. “There are reporters in the hallway and a security guard, too, because you’re just so popular everyone wants to bust in here and grab an interview for the big story. People magazine, buddy. CNN.”

  Danny squinted at him. Eric never used to talk that quickly. Or maybe that was painkillers dulling Danny’s brain.

  “Crash?” he asked. “What big story?”

  Eric gave him a sideways look. “You know. The bus driver had a heart attack behind the wheel, and drove on the highway on the wrong ramp, and somehow the steering and braking system failed, but you got behind the wheel and saved everyone.”

  Danny frowned. “That’s the story?”

  “Isn’t it?”

  “What about the other kid?” Danny asked. “In the bus with me. Kevin.”

  Eric frowned. “I don’t know about any other kid. Who’s Kevin?”

  Mom came back just then. She no longer had the neck brace on, but there were dark circles under her eyes. She sent Eric off on an errand and sat down carefully by the side of his bed.

  “How do you feel?” she asked.

  “I’m okay,” Danny croaked out. “Are you?”

  She reached for his hand and squeezed it. “A lot better than I was, now that you’re awake.”

  Danny felt his eyes well up a little. He hadn’t meant to worry her, not about any of it. “Mom,” he said. “I’m not crazy. I haven’t been doing drugs or anything.”

  “I know,” she said.

  He blinked in disbelief. “Know what?”

  “A man named Mr. Ford was here,” she said. “He made me sign a bunch of papers about classified information and state secrets. Everyone else was told some cover story about Buck and a transmission problem.”

  “Oh.” Danny felt relieved. “So you know.”

  “All about Ruins and Kings,” Mom said. “But I can’t tell Roger, which is very hard. When you love someone, you want to tell him everything. Especially about things that might hurt them.”

  Danny squeezed her hand. “At least we can tell each other.”

  She leaned over and kissed his forehead.

  Danny suddenly couldn’t keep his eyes open. “Is Kevin here? I want to see him.”

  “Who’s Kevin?”

  “He works with them,” Danny said. “Ford and the others.”

  “Honey, no,” Mom said.

  And that’s how he learned that Ford and his team had already left town without leaving any message at all for Danny.

  Epilogue

  It was a cold Saturday afternoon, just a few days after Danny’s release from the hospital. He was supposed to be resting, but he’d dug his bicycle out of the garage and pedaled here, to Mr. Beaudreau’s house, with his knapsack bulging on his back. The house was empty and had a For Rent sign on it.

  “The old man?” a neighbor said. “He died. Sorry.”

  Danny felt like he’d been kicked in the stomach.

  “Where’d all his stuff go?” he asked.

  “Big moving truck took it away,” the neighbor said. “No name on the truck.”

  Danny stared at the house for a while, wondering what he was supposed to do next. Then a quiet buzzing noise made him look skyward. A tiny gold helicopter zipped toward him, bearing the label CHOPR. After a moment, it darted away. Returned, flew away. Finally, Danny figured out it wanted him to follow it, and he pedaled all the way downtown with it leading the way.

  Not far from Zinc’s Sandwich Shop was a hobby store. Nicholas Toys. Danny remembered the name. It was the same store that Eric’s sister used. An elderly black man was behind the counter, picking out a blues tune on an acoustic guitar. Danny knew that song. His dad had liked to play it, over and over.

  “Good job, CHOPR,” the old man said, putting aside the guitar. “Nice of you to finally come calling, Danny.”

  “Have we met?” Danny asked.

  The old man shook his head. “Call me Nick. My friend Eliot Beaudreau, he said you had Detroit in your blood. Same way he did, same way I do.”

  Danny unzipped his backpack and pulled out the singed husks of 2KEWLE and FIREBUG. “Can you fix them?”

  Nick closed the shop door, locked it, and pulled down the yellowed shade of the window. He carefully examined the two toys. Eventually, he said, “They’re very badly damaged. Even if I could repair the circuit boards and motors, the Ruins that were in them are long gone. They might not ever come back.”

  “You could try, right?” Danny asked.

  “My eyes aren’t so good anymore,” Nick said, tapping his thick eyeglasses. “I don’t know if I can do the work.”

  Danny patted 2KEWLE. “But you could teach me, couldn’t you?”

  Nick smiled toothlessly. “Yes, I could. I could indeed.”

  *

  For the next two weeks, Danny was the most popular kid at school. The national news media covered the story of Moon Conway’s runaway bus. Some of the reporters had captured the amazing light show as the King got zapped, but that had been written off as a freak problem with the bus’s electrical system. Danny had checked carefully, and there was no mention of Ruins or car-possessing aliens anywhere in th
e news. He turned down interview requests and refused to talk about the incident at school. Eventually, people stopped asking.

  That didn’t stop them from gossiping about him, though. Danny Kelly, that gay kid. That’s what happened when you grew up in San Francisco, someone whispered in class. No one had come up to him and tried to pick a fight or anything, but he’d be ready if they did. He felt bad about Laura, who alternated between shunning him and giving him dirty looks, but at least Eric was cool about it and some kids from the school’s Rainbow Club had approached him about joining.

  Now it was almost Thanksgiving. Danny was in the garage studio, plucking his guitar. With his wrist still in a cast, it was impossible to play chords, but he could still pick out notes one by one. He had in mind a song about his dad. A song he’d never tried to write before, but maybe it was time.

  He was working on lyrics when he heard a sound downstairs. Outside the windows, dusk was coming on and the wind stirred leaves on the street.

  Carefully, he padded down the steps. The lights over MUZKBUX were off, leaving everything in shadows.

  “Who’s there?” he asked, reaching for the light switch.

  Kevin’s hand reached the switch first and light flooded through the space. “Just me.”

  Danny blinked at him. “I’ve left you like a dozen messages, you jerk.”

  “I was in the hospital,” Kevin said. “Under an alias. Kind of laid up for a while.”

  Up close, Danny could see that Kevin had dark circles under his eyes, and had lost some weight, and was leaning carefully on one leg.

  “You’re okay now?” Danny asked, his anger forgotten. He touched Kevin’s hand, relishing the warm skin.

  “Yeah,” Kevin said. “But we’re leaving town. New job, down in Austin. Another King.”

  Danny looked at him squarely. “Take me with you.”

  Kevin blinked in surprise. “What? No.”

  “I read more about my dad’s accident,” Danny said. “The police ruled out the other driver, and my dad, and any kind of mechanical failure. Just one of those things, they said. But it was a Ruin, wasn’t it?”

  Kevin asked, “Does it matter?”

  “Yes!” Danny said. “I want to help stop these things. Ruins seem to like me for some reason. I can help you track them down faster.”

  He didn’t say, I’ve got Detroit blood.

  Kevin shook his head. “You have to graduate high school before the government will let you help.”

  “You didn’t.”

  “Mrs. Morris homeschooled me and then I got my GED,” Kevin said. “This job—it’s not safe. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  “And I don’t want to see you get hurt, either,” Danny said. “But it’s kind of too late for that.”

  Kevin didn’t answer. He glanced over his shoulder. Through the windows of the garage door, Danny could see the Pit parked at the curb. Ford was there, no doubt, as well as Gear and Mrs. Morris. Waiting for Kevin to rejoin their mission.

  “You changed my life,” Danny said. “You just can’t leave me behind now.”

  He stepped forward and kissed Kevin. Right on the mouth, hard and hot, his hands gripping Kevin’s shoulders tightly. It was everything that kissing Laura wasn’t. It made Danny’s whole body ache for more, more right now. And Kevin responded with the same kind of urgency mixed with sweetness, a kiss that promised all sorts of things Danny had dreamed about but never done.

  But then Kevin broke it off and gave Danny a very slight smile. Pleased, but resigned as well.

  He said, “I like your argument. Call me when you graduate.”

  And then he walked back to the RV, gave him a brief wave, and rode right out of Danny’s life.

  Part of Danny screamed at him to follow and ride off into the sunset. But he didn’t move.

  Two years until he graduated. Maybe he’d wait that long.

  Or maybe he wouldn’t.

  “You can come out now,” he called out.

  2KEWLE and FIREBUG rolled out from under a workbench. CHOPR whirled down from the top of a cabinet. All three machines beeped their horns and flashed their lights.

  “I know,” Danny said. “We’ve got work to do.”

  THE END

  About the Author

  A Navy veteran, Sam Cameron spent several years serving in the Pacific and along the Atlantic coast. Her novels and short stories have been recognized for their wit, inventiveness, and passion. She holds an MFA in creative writing and currently teaches college in Florida.

  Praise for Sam Cameron’s Work

  Mystery of the Tempest is…“Fast, fun, and a great beach read.”—Kristin Cashore, New York Times bestselling novelist

  “Intrigue that will delight genre enthusiasts…[Mystery of the Tempest] is a true mystery with something to offer teens of any orientation.”—Kirkus Reviews

  The Secret of Othello is…“A lively teen drama with Steven and Denny’s practical, caring, sometimes antagonistic and often humorous brotherly relationship at its center.”—Kirkus Reviews

  “Mystery of the Tempest is brilliantly conceived and executed. The characters literally jump off the page and into your heart. A funny, thrilling, authentic young adult novel in the Fisher Key Adventure series. I can’t wait for the next installment.”—Julie Anne Peters, author of Luna and Keeping You a Secret

  Mystery of the Tempest has…“Danger, mystery, suspense, romance, conflict, and teen angst woven into a plot that speeds along complete with crackling dialogue—what more could a reader want? You’ll be hooked from the tense opening scene, and after you turn the last page, you’ll eagerly await the sequel. Sam Cameron’s writing is a gift to teens, past and present. Thoroughly enjoyable.”—Lesléa Newman, author of Heather Has Two Mommies and A Letter to Harvey Milk

  Soliloquy Titles From Bold Strokes Books

  The You Know Who Girls by Annameekee Hesik. As they begin freshman year, Abbey Brooks and her best friend, Kate, pinky swear they’ll keep away from the lesbians in Gila High, but Abbey already suspects she’s one of those you-know-who girls herself and slowly learns who her true friends really are. (978-1-60282-754-7)

  In Stone by Jeremy Jordan King. A young New Yorker is rescued from a hate crime by a mysterious someone who turns out to be more of a something. (978-1-60282-761-5)

  Wonderland by David-Matthew Barnes. After her mother’s sudden death, Destiny Moore is sent to live with her two gay uncles on Avalon Cove, a mysterious island on which she uncovers a secret place called Wonderland, where love and magic prove to be real. (978-1-60282-788-2)

  Another 365 Days by KE Payne. Clemmie Atkins is back, and her life is more complicated than ever! Still madly in love with her girlfriend, Clemmie suddenly finds her life turned upside down with distractions, confessions, and the return of a familiar face… (978-1-60282-775-2)

  The Secret of Othello by Sam Cameron. Florida teen detectives Steven and Denny risk their lives to search for a sunken NASA satellite—but under the waves, no one can hear you scream… (978-1-60282-742-4)

  Andy Squared by Jennifer Lavoie. Andrew never thought anyone could come between him and his twin sister, Andrea…until Ryder rode into town. (978-1-60282-743-1)

  Sara by Greg Herren. A mysterious and beautiful new student at Southern Heights High School stirs things up when students start dying. (978-1-60282-674-8)

  Boys of Summer, edited by Steve Berman. Stories of young love and adventure, when the sky’s ceiling is a bright blue marvel, when another boy’s laughter at the beach can distract from dull summer jobs. (978-1-60282-663-2)

  Street Dreams by Tama Wise. Tyson Rua has more than his fair share of problems growing up in New Zealand—he’s gay, he’s falling in love, and he’s run afoul of the local hip-hop crew leader just as he’s trying to make it as a graffiti artist. (978-1-60282-650-2)

  me@you.com by KE Payne. Is it possible to fall in love with someone you’ve never met? Imogen Summers thinks so because it’s happened to her. (978-1-60282-592-5)
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  Swimming to Chicago by David-Matthew Barnes. As the lives of the adults around them unravel, high school students Alex and Robby form an unbreakable bond, vowing to do anything to stay together—even if it means leaving everything behind. (978-1-60282-572-7)

  365 Days by KE Payne. Life sucks when you’re seventeen years old and confused about your sexuality, and the girl of your dreams doesn’t even know you exist. Then in walks sexy new emo girl, Hannah Harrison. Clemmie Atkins has exactly 365 days to discover herself, and she’s going to have a blast doing it! (978-1-60282-540-6)

  Cursebusters! by Julie Smith. Budding psychic Reeno is the most accomplished teenage burglar in California, but one tiny screw-up and poof!—she’s sentenced to Bad Girl School. And that isn’t even her worst problem. Her sister Haley’s dying of an illness no one can diagnose, and now she can’t even help. (978-1-60282-559-8)

  Who I Am by M.L. Rice. Devin Kelly’s senior year is a disaster. She’s in a new school in a new town, and the school bully is making her life miserable—but then she meets his sister Melanie and realizes her feelings for her are more than platonic. (978-1-60282-231-3)

  Sleeping Angel by Greg Herren. Eric Matthews survives a terrible car accident only to find out everyone in town thinks he’s a murderer—and he has to clear his name even though he has no memories of what happened. (978-1-60282-214-6)

  Mesmerized by David-Matthew Barnes. Through her close friendship with Brodie and Lance, Serena Albright learns about the many forms of love and finds comfort for the grief and guilt she feels over the brutal death of her older brother, the victim of a hate crime. (978-1-60282-191-0)