And maybe they had done better than just survive: Astrid’s laws were in effect. They’d been voted in by all the kids assembled the day after Mary’s Big Jump, as Howard had dubbed it.
It was a bitter thing, to Sam, to think that after all she had done, Mother Mary was to be known for her final madness. Sam hoped she really was alive, somehow, on the outside.
There would be no grave in the plaza for Mary. There was one now for Orsay.
They might never know whether that brief glimpse of a world just outside the FAYZ wall was real or just a last trick of the Darkness. The one person who might know was talking even less than usual: Little Pete had fallen into something almost like a coma since he’d held his shattered game player. He would eat. But that was all he would do.
If Little Pete died, God only knew what would happen to this universe that he had created. And if kids ever really guessed how powerful Little Pete was, and yet how vulnerable, how long would he be left to live?
“I asked how long you think we can keep this up?” Howard repeated.
“I don’t know, man,” Sam said. “I guess we take it day by day.”
“Like everything,” Howard agreed.
There came the faint sound of Drake’s voice. A muffled howl of fury.
“He does that when he gets control,” Howard said. “That and a lot of threatening. Mostly, ‘I’ll kill you all!’ That kind of thing. I’m kind of getting used to it.”
“It wants us to be afraid. It wants us to give up,” Sam said.
Howard formed his sly grin. “Yeah, well, we don’t want to do that, do we?”
“No. No, we don’t.”
But that mad, screaming voice, even muffled as it was, still sent a chill up Sam’s spine.
“You guys need anything?” Sam asked.
Howard answered. “You mean, aside from a hamburger, a peach pie, a bucket of ice cream, a DVD, a TV, a phone, a computer, and a one-way ride out of crazy-town?”
Sam almost smiled. “Yeah. Aside from that.”
He went back outside. The street was empty. The unreal sun shone high overhead. He doubled over and coughed. The flu that was still going around had finally caught up with him.
But he was alive. And that was all you could ever ask from the FAYZ.
About the Author
MICHAEL GRANT has spent much of his life on the move. Raised in a military family, he attended ten schools in five states, as well as three schools in France. Even as an adult he kept moving, and in fact he became a writer in part because it was one of the few jobs that wouldn’t tie him down. His fondest dream is to spend a year circumnavigating the globe and visiting every continent. Yes, even Antarctica. He lives in Southern California with his wife, Katherine Applegate, and their two children.
Read more about life in the FAYZ at www.thefayz.com, where you’ll find Sinder’s blog.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
PRAISE FOR THE GONE SERIES
Gone
“This intense, marvelously plotted, paced, and characterized story will immediately garner comparisons to Lord of the Flies, or even the long-playing world shifts of Stephen King, with just a dash of X-Men for good measure. A potent mix of action and thoughtfulness—centered around good and evil, courage and cowardice—renders this a tour de force that will leave readers dazed, disturbed, and utterly breathless.”
—ALA Booklist (starred review)
“If Stephen King had written Lord of the Flies, it might have been a little like this novel. Complex issues, from peer pressure to the science of nuclear power, are addressed with the teen audience in mind.”
—VOYA (starred review)
Hunger
“Like Gone, this novel is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. Nonstop action.”
—School Library Journal
“Readers will be unable to avoid involuntarily gasping, shuddering, or flinching while reading this suspense-filled story. The tension starts in the first chapter and does not let up until the end. The story is progressing with smart plot twists, both in actions and emotions.”
—VOYA (starred review)
Credits
Jacket photo © 2010 by Amber Gray
Jacket design by Joel Tippie
Copyright
LIES: A GONE NOVEL. Copyright © 2010 by Michael Grant. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Grant, Michael.
Lies: a Gone novel / Michael Grant.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: As conditions worsen in the FAYZ, where supernatural forces have trapped children under the age of fifteen and resources are running out, it becomes tempting to heed the words of a prophet who says that only death will set them free.
ISBN 978-0-06-144909-3 (trade bdg.)—ISBN 978-0-06-144910-9 (lib. bdg.)
[1. Supernatural—Fiction. 2. Good and evil—Fiction. 3. Survival—Fiction. 4. Prophecies—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.G7671Li 2010 2009027542
[Fic]—dc22 CIP
AC
FIRST EDITION
EPub Edition © March 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-200147-4
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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