The memories of his mom and dad, his old life, they were far away. Like photos in an old album. Not quite real. Someone else’s memories, his pain; someone else’s life, his loss.
The memories of the battle—those couldn’t even be called memories because weren’t memories something from the past? That day might have happened three months ago, but it wasn’t the past to Quinn, it was right here, right now, always. Like a parallel life happening simultaneously with this life. He was driving through the night and feeling the gun buck buck buck in his hands and seeing the coyotes and the kids, all mixed up together, all crisscrossing, weaving through the arcs of the bullets.
Finger off the trigger. Too close to shoot. He’d hit the kid. He couldn’t do it, couldn’t take that chance, and so the coyote had leaped, jaws open, and—
And that wasn’t long ago and far away to Quinn. It was right now. Right here.
“Okay,” Lana said, bringing him back to reality. “Slow down, we’re almost there.”
The headlights lit scruffy bushes and dirt and scatterings of rock. Then a wooden beam, badly charred. Quinn swerved to avoid it.
He stamped on the brakes. Then, much more slowly crept forward again.
The headlights illuminated a section of wall, just a few feet. Charred wood was everywhere. Two blackened cans of fruit or beans or whatever lay on their sides in the dirt.
Despite himself Quinn wondered if there was anything edible left. He remembered that terrifying night spent cowering in the cabin, waiting for the coyotes to drag them out and kill them.
That was when Sam had finally revealed the extent of his powers. For the first time he had been able to control the devastating light that shot from his hands.
Quinn stopped the vehicle. He put it into park.
“It was here,” Quinn said softly.
“What happened here?” Albert asked.
Quinn killed the lights, and the four of them climbed from the SUV. It was silent. So much quieter than the last time Quinn had been there.
Quinn slung his machine pistol over his shoulder and fished a flashlight from under the seat. Albert had a flashlight of his own. The two beams stabbed here and there, highlighting this jagged beam, that singed bit of rug, a kitchen utensil, a twisted metal chair.
“This is where we met Lana for the first time,” Quinn said. “We’d escaped from Caine. Run away into the woods up north. Decided to go back to town and make a fight of it. Anyway, Sam decided.”
He bent down to pick up a hefty number-ten can. The label was charred. It might be pudding, though. Roasted pudding, maybe, but the can looked intact. He walked it back to the SUV and tossed it into the back.
“How was it destroyed?” Albert pressed.
“Partly it was Sam. First time he ever used his power deliberately. Not out of panic, or whatever, just cold-blooded, knowing what he was doing. You should have seen that, man.” Quinn recalled the moment perfectly. It was the moment when his old friend was clearly revealed as something far, far beyond Quinn. “Partly the coyotes had set the place on fire.”
“Where’s the gold?” Albert asked, not really caring about the story.
Quinn waited for Lana to show the way, but she seemed rooted to where she stood. Looking down at the brown, dead remains of Hermit Jim’s quirky attempt to keep a lawn in the midst of this dry, empty land. Cookie stood just behind her, big pistol stuck in his belt, ready, scowling at the threatening night, ready to lay down his life for the girl who had saved him from agony beyond enduring.
Patrick was busily running around to anything remotely vertical, smelling carefully. He didn’t mark anything himself, just smelled. He seemed subdued, tail down almost between his legs. The scent of Pack Leader must still be strong.
“This way,” Quinn said when it was clear that Lana wasn’t going to respond.
He threaded his way through the wreckage. There wasn’t much, really; most of it had burned down to ash. But the surviving bits of shattered lumber were stuck with nails, so Quinn moved cautiously.
He bent down when he reached what seemed like the right place and began pushing two-by-fours and shingles aside. He was surprised to find the plank floor mostly intact. It had been singed but not consumed by the fire. He found the hatch.
“Let me see if I can get it open.” He tried, but the fire had warped the hinges. It took both of them, him and Albert, to raise the hatch. One hinge broke, and the hatch flopped awkwardly to one side.
Albert aimed his flashlight down into the hole.
“Gold,” Albert said.
Quinn was a little surprised by Albert’s matter-of-fact tone. He’d half expected a Gollum-like “My precioussss,” or something.
“Yeah. Gold,” Quinn agreed.
“It didn’t melt,” Albert said. “Heat rises and all that. Like they taught us in school.”
“Let’s start loading, huh? This place gives me the creeps,” Quinn said. “Bad memories.”
Albert reached down and lifted out a brick. He set it down with a thud. “Heavy, huh?”
“Yeah,” Quinn said. “What are you going to do with it all?”
“Well,” Albert said. “I’m going to see if I can melt it down and make coins or something out of it. Except I don’t have any kind of coin mold. I had thought about using muffin tins. I have a cast-iron muffin tin that makes the small-sized muffins.”
Quinn grinned and then laughed. “We’re going to use gold muffins for money?”
“Maybe. But, actually, I found something better. One of the kids searching houses found where the guy had made his own ammunition. He found some bullet molds.”
They kept busy lifting the gold out and onto the ground. They stacked it crisscross, like kids playing with blocks.
“Gold bullets?” Quinn stopped laughing. “We’re going to make gold bullets?”
“It doesn’t matter what shape they are, so long as they’re consistent. All the same, you know?”
“Dude. Bullets? You don’t think that’s maybe, you know . . . weird?”
Albert sighed, exasperated. “Gold slugs, not the gunpowder part, just the slug part.”
“Jeez, man, I don’t know.” Quinn shook his head.
“Thirty-two caliber,” Albert said. “That was the smallest size the guy had.”
“Why isn’t Cookie helping us?” Quinn wondered.
In answer, Lana, from somewhere outside, said, “Guys, I’m going to look around for food. Cookie will help me.”
“Cool,” Quinn said.
In a few minutes they had all the gold up out of the hole.
They began walking the gold to the truck, a few bars at a time. The gold bars were not big, but they were heavy. By the time Albert and Quinn had finished hauling the gold they were sweating despite the chill of the night.
Albert climbed in and pulled a canvas tarp over the gold.
“Listen, man,” Albert said as he worked to tie down the corners, “this isn’t something we want anyone talking about. Right? This is just between the four of us here tonight.”
“Hold up, dude. You’re not telling Sam?”
Albert climbed down to stand face-to-face with Quinn. “Look, I’m not trying to get over on Sam. I have the most total respect for Sam. But this plan works better if it all comes out at once.”
“Albert, I’m not going to lie to Sam,” Quinn said flatly.
“I’m not asking you to lie to Sam. If he asks you, tell him. If he doesn’t ask . . .”
When Quinn still hesitated, Albert said, “Look, man, Sam is a great leader. Maybe he’s our George Washington. But even Washington was wrong about some things. And Sam doesn’t get what I’m talking about. How people all have to work.”
“He knows people have to work,” Quinn argued. “He just doesn’t want you getting over on everyone, making yourself the rich guy.”
Albert wiped sweat from his forehead. “Quinn, why do you think people work hard? Just to get by? You think your folks worked just to get by? Did they bu
y just enough food? Or did they get just barely enough house? Or a car that barely runs?” Albert’s voice was urgent. “No, man, people like a good life. They want more. What’s wrong with that?”
Quinn laughed. “Dude, okay, you’ve thought about all this and you’re probably right. I mean, what do I know? Anyway, look, am I going to go running straight to Sam and tell him what we did? No. As far as I know, I don’t have to do that.”
“That’s all I’m asking, Quinn,” Albert said. “I wouldn’t ever ask you to lie.”
“Uh-huh,” Quinn said cynically. “What about the Healer? She . . .” He looked around, suddenly aware that he hadn’t heard her or Cookie in quite a while.
“Lana!” he yelled.
Then, “Healer!”
The night was silent.
Quinn aimed the flashlight into the truck cab. Maybe she was in there. Asleep, maybe. But the cab was empty.
He swiveled the light around the area, picking out the poles that had once held Hermit Jim’s water tower.
“Lana? Lana? We’re ready to go,” Quinn yelled.
“Where is she?” Albert wondered. “I don’t see her or Cookie. Or her dog.”
“Lana! Healer!” Quinn shouted. No answer came.
He and Albert exchanged looks of horror.
Quinn leaned into the truck, intending to sound the horn. She’d have to hear that. He froze when he saw the Post-it note. He tore it from the steering wheel and read it aloud by flashlight.
“‘Don’t try to follow us,’” Quinn read. “‘I know what I’m doing. Lana.’”
“Okay,” Albert said, “Okay, now we have to tell Sam.”
TWENTY-ONE
18 HOURS, 23 MINUTES
JACK STRAINED AGAINST the door.
It was built strong. Very strong. Steel in steel.
But it creaked and groaned, and Jack could see the seam between door and jamb growing.
His strength was shocking to him. He’d done very little to learn to control it. He hadn’t really tested it much. In fact, he kept forgetting he had it because it was not, it never would be, part of who he really was.
Jack had grown up being a brain. He liked being a brain. He wore the geek label proudly. He had no interest in being some superstrong mutant. In fact, even as he pushed against the door, he was wondering if there wasn’t an electronic control of some sort on the door. Wondering where the control panel might be. Wondering whether he could cut a wire, or solder another wire, and open the door. Wondering whether it might be computer-controlled, in which case it would be a question of hacking.
Those thoughts engaged Jack’s mind. And that gave Jack pleasure.
Pushing on a steel door like some kind of ox? That was stupid. It was what stupid people did. And Jack was not stupid.
“Keep at it, Jack,” Caine encouraged him. “It’s starting to give.”
Jack heard Diana saying to Drake, “I told you he was strong. And you thought you’d just go and pick him up and bring him to Coates? Hah.”
The door would give way in another few seconds, Jack could feel it.
“When it goes, Jack, you need to drop to the floor,” Caine said.
Jack would have asked why, but the exertion was popping the veins in his neck, squeezing his lungs, bulging his eyes, and generally making it hard to imagine engaging in conversation.
“Soon as it goes, Jack, drop to the floor,” Caine reiterated. “Someone in there might start shooting.”
What? Shooting?
Jack lessened his effort.
“Don’t slack off,” Drake warned. “We’ll take care of whoever is on the other side.”
Jack heard the sound of a gun being cocked. And a low, mean laugh from Drake.
He wedged his feet tight. One more big push. And drop.
Suddenly he was scared. Getting shot at was not part of the deal.
He shoved hard. All his might.
The door collapsed suddenly, but not the way Jack had expected. It snapped at the top hinge and the deadbolt broke. The door was still in the doorway, bent at an angle but held in place by one hinge. Another push and it would swing in.
The sound of the gun was shocking.
Jack dropped to the floor. He covered his head, covered his ears.
He yelled, “Don’t kill me, don’t kill me!” but no one could possibly have heard because now the firing was coming from both sides. Whoever was in the control room was firing short bursts through the gaps. BlamBlamBlam!
Drake was firing back in rapid-fire single rounds.
Bullets pinged off the steel and ricocheted in the hallway.
Drake yelled, Caine yelled, Jack yelled, and from beyond the doorway a girl’s voice was screaming in rage and fear.
Then Caine struck. He hit the weakened door with a blast of his own.
The steel door exploded inward.
It skidded across the floor beyond and knocked the legs out from under a girl who kept firing as she fell, spraying automatic weapons fire wildly in the air.
Jack hugged the ground, sobbing, “Don’t kill me!” Drake leaped over him, gun in one hand, whip hand unfurled.
Lying on his side, Jack saw a crazy tableau, the girl, unable to move, her legs twisted at impossible angles but bringing the still-firing gun around toward Drake.
Drake’s whip hand snapping.
The girl pointed her gun straight at Drake’s chest.
Click.
Empty.
Drake’s whip connected.
A scream of pain.
Another.
“Stop it!” Diana cried.
Caine, accidentally kicking Jack’s head as he rushed into the room.
Again, the lash of Drake’s whip, and now he was yelling in wild glee, crowing and cursing.
Jack crawled forward, blinded by tears. He knew the girl. He knew her. Brittney. She’d been in history with him. Three rows back.
Again Drake struck.
The empty gun fell from Brittney’s hand.
She was cut, bleeding, legs shattered from the impact of the door, her face a mess of tears and blood and Diana screaming abuse at Drake and Caine saying nothing to stop the psychopath and Jack wanting to cry, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” but unable to find the words.
Diana reached Drake and grabbed his whip hand at the shoulder. “Enough, you sick piece of—”
Drake spun around, face-to-face with Diana. He bared his teeth and roared at her, roared like an animal, spit flying.
“She’s right: enough,” Caine said at last.
“Keep your girlfriend out of my face!” Drake bellowed at Caine.
Caine looked coldly at Drake. “I let you have your fun. We’re not here for your entertainment.”
Jack was stunned. He was unable to tear his eyes away from Brittney. She moaned, tried to move, then slumped to the floor. Unconscious or dead. Jack didn’t know which.
She’d been in his class.
He knew her.
“Get to work, Jack,” Caine said.
Diana turned bloodshot eyes on Jack, eyes full of hatred and sorrow. She brushed tears away. “Jack’s hurt.”
“What?” Caine demanded. “Jack?”
Jack wasn’t hurt. He started to get up, ashamed of cowering on the floor. But his left foot gave way. He looked down, mystified, and saw that his pants, from the knee down, were soaking red.
“He’s losing a lot of blood,” Diana said.
It was the last thing Jack heard before the floor rushed up and smashed him in the face.
Lana heard Quinn’s shouts. She heard the truck’s horn. She was no more than two or three hundred feet away, just beyond the reach of the stabbing flashlight beams.
Cookie walked stolidly beside her, quiet, though he must have had his doubts.
Lana hoped Quinn and Albert wouldn’t come after her. She didn’t want to have to explain what she was up to.
Patrick, too, heard the honking horn, so she whispered, “Quiet boy. Shhh.”
Lana had
made sure to wear sturdy boots—a big improvement over the last time she had walked this route. She had her heavy pistol in her shoulder bag, which was another major improvement. And she had Cookie.
If Pack Leader found them out here, Lana intended one of them—she hoped it was she, not Cookie—to shoot him in the face.
Also in her bag was a bottle of water, a can of button mushrooms, and an entire cabbage. Not much food, especially for a guy Cookie’s size, but then she expected to find at least a few cans of something in the shed at the mine. Hermit Jim would have stashed at least some food there.
She hoped.
The last time she had walked this path she’d gone in search of Jim’s truck, hoping to use it to get to Perdido Beach. By that point she had found the gold and figured out that the eccentric hermit was a prospector. She had followed tire tracks to the tumble-down, abandoned mining town hidden in a crease of the hills. She’d found Jim’s truck but not the keys. Then she had found Jim himself, dead in the mine shaft.
She knew now where the keys were.
Back then, back before so much had happened, she would have been terrified of digging through the pockets of a corpse. But that was the old Lana. The new Lana had seen things that were so much worse.
She knew where to find the keys. And where to find the truck. And she remembered the big LPG—liquid petroleum gas—tank Jim used to fire the smelter.
Her plan was simple: Retrieve the keys. With Cookie’s help, load the gas tank into Jim’s truck. Drive the truck and the tank to the mine entrance. Open the valve on the gas and let it seep into the mine shaft.
Then light a fuse and run.
She didn’t know if the explosion would kill the thing in the mine. But she hoped to bury it under many tons of rock.
The Darkness had called to her in her dreams and in her waking dreams as well. It had its hook in her and she knew it was drawing her in.
Come to me. I have need of you.
It wanted her.
“Hello darkness, my old friend,” Lana half sang, half whispered. “I’m coming to talk with you again.”
TWENTY-TWO
18 HOURS, 18 MINUTES
JACK WOKE TO pain.
He’d been moved. Someone had turned him over. He sat up too suddenly. His head swam, and for a moment he thought he would pass out again.
Gone Series Complete Collection Page 63