No one said anything.
“So we don’t drop it,” Drake said finally.
“Yeah. We carry it for miles and we don’t drop it,” Diana said. “While Sam and Dekka and Brianna are coming at us. I can’t see how that would be a problem.”
Jack said, “The closer you are, the deadlier it is. So if you’re a couple feet away, you’re dead real quickly. If you’re farther away, you die slowly. If you’re far enough away, maybe you don’t die until you develop cancer. And if you’re even farther away, you’re safe.”
“I choose farther away,” Diana said dryly.
“How long to get ready?” Caine asked.
“Thirty minutes.”
“It’s late enough now we should wait for dark,” Caine said. “How do we get out?”
Jack shrugged. “There’s a loading dock behind the reactor.”
Caine sagged into a chair. He bit savagely at a thumbnail. Drake watched, making no attempt to disguise his contempt.
“Okay,” Caine said at last. “Jack, get everything ready. Drake, we’ll need a diversion. You attract Sam’s attention out front. Then you catch up with us.”
“Let’s just grab a truck,” Drake suggested.
“We can’t go up the coast road. They’ll see us right away,” Caine said. “We have to go overland. There are trails going up over the hills. We find a way to the highway. Cross it. Then get a vehicle and head into the desert.”
“Why should we sneak?” Drake asked. “We’ll have the uranium, right? Who is going to mess with us? Who is going to take a chance on you dropping it?”
“Let me ask you something, Drake,” Caine said. “If you were Sam, and you saw me and you and Diana and Jack all together marching up the coast road, and you saw that I was carrying this big, dangerous radioactive thing around, what would you do?”
Drake frowned.
“Oh, look: Drake’s trying to think,” Diana said.
“This is why I run things and you don’t, Drake. Let me explain it in terms you might grasp. If I’m Sam, and I see the four of us, and I figure I can’t go after us . . .” Caine held up four fingers. One by one he subtracted them. He left the middle finger up.
“He takes the rest of us out,” Drake said. He gritted his teeth, and his eyes blazed with suppressed rage.
“So if the three of you want to just walk out of here all bold and brave, let me know,” Caine said, meeting Drake’s glare with one of his own. Then he leaned close to Drake, almost embracing him. He brought his mouth to Drake’s ear and whispered, “Don’t start thinking you can take me down, Drake. You’re useful to me. The minute I start thinking you’re no longer useful . . .”
He smiled, patted Drake’s gaunt cheek, and with a hint of his old swagger said, “We’re going to reshuffle the deck. Sam thinks he holds all the cards. But we’re going to change everything.”
“We’re going to feed the monster who has his hooks in your head,” Diana said coldly. “Don’t try to dress it up. We’re feeding a monster and hoping it will show its gratitude by letting go of your leash.”
“Let it go, Diana,” Caine said. The bluster was gone.
Diana glanced to see that Drake was out of earshot. “Bug’s not coming back. You know that.”
Caine chewed at his thumb. Jack had the unsettling thought that he might be hungry enough to eat his own finger.
“You don’t know that,” Caine said. “He might have had trouble finding Orsay. He wouldn’t turn against me.”
“No one’s loyal to you, Caine,” Diana said. “Drake is itching to take you down. No one at Coates is rushing to bail you out. You only have one person who actually cares about you.”
“You?”
Diana didn’t answer. “I know it has a hold on you, Caine. I’ve seen it. But that monster of yours isn’t loyal to you, either. It will use you and throw you away. It will be everything and you will be nothing.”
“Most of what I have to say is speculative,” Astrid began.
Sam, Astrid, Edilio—almost from the start, they had been a team. They’d fought Orc when he was calling himself Captain Orc and trying to dominate the FAYZ. They’d fought Caine and Pack Leader. They had learned to survive the Big One-Five.
Now, the picture of something much more terrible was becoming clear.
“From what Edilio has said, what Lana’s letter said, what we’ve learned of Drake’s story from Lana in the past, and all the little things we’ve pieced together.”
She glanced at Little Pete, who sat in a chair by the window, looking out at the slowly sinking sun and nodding mechanically. “And from what I’ve been able to guess from my brother. Something . . . maybe some type of freak, a mutated human. Maybe a mutated animal . . . maybe something else entirely that we don’t understand at all . . . is in that mine shaft.”
“This thing, this gaiaphage, has the ability to reach out, mind-to-mind, and influence people. Maybe especially people it has had some contact with. Like Lana,” said Sam.
“Or like Orsay,” Edilio interrupted. “Someone with that kind of mind, you know? Like, sensitive, or whatever.”
Astrid nodded. “Yes. Some may be more vulnerable than others. I am sure, now, that it is in contact with Little Pete.”
“They talk?” Edilio asked skeptically.
Astrid rolled her head, stretching her neck forward, trying to shake off the tension that tightened her jaw. Sam was struck by how beautiful she still was. Despite everything. But he saw as well how delicate she seemed, how thin and fragile. She had lost weight, like everyone. Cheekbones more prominent than before, eyes bruised by exhaustion and worry. There was a welt just in front of her temple.
“I don’t think they talk, not like you mean,” Astrid said. “But they can feel each other. Petey’s been trying to warn me . . . I didn’t understand.”
“Short version,” Sam said in a low voice. “What do you think?”
Astrid nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry, I’m not . . .” Her voice trailed off. But she shook her head vigorously and refocused. “Okay, it’s some mutant creature. Origin unknown. It has great power to influence minds. That power is greater over people who’ve already encountered the creature. Like Lana. Drake.
“And possibly Caine,” Astrid added.
Sam said, “You think Caine has had a run-in with this gaiaphage?”
“You asked for the short version. So I’m leaving out the epistemology.”
Sam recognized Astrid’s favorite ploy: dazzling people with polysyllables. He managed a faint smile. “Go ahead. Leave out the . . . whatever it was.”
“Suddenly,” Astrid went on, “after months of relative quiet, Caine reemerges. We know from Bug that he was in some kind of a coma, or delirium, before that. But suddenly, he’s better. And the first thing he does is charge off to take over the power plant.”
“At the same time, Lana begins to feel the gaiaphage calling to her. And Petey is starting to talk about something being hungry in the dark.”
“Orsay says the thing is expecting to be fed soon,” Edilio said.
“Yes. And then, there’s Duck.”
Sam’s eyebrows shot up. “Duck?” He had not expected this.
“No one listened much to his story. Me included,” Astrid admitted. “But he kept saying there was a cave down there that glowed. Like from radioactivity. He said like something from The Simpsons.”
“Yeah?” Edilio prompted.
“The power plant is at the center of the FAYZ,” Astrid said. “We know it was going into meltdown when Little Pete reacted by creating this . . . this bubble. But why were things changing even before that? How did Little Pete acquire that kind of power?”
“The accident thirteen years ago,” Sam said, realizing it even as he said it.
“The accident. We’ve always said it was a meteorite that hit the plant. But maybe it wasn’t just a meteorite. Maybe there was more to it.”
“Like what?”
“Some people theorize that li
fe on Earth grew from a simple organism that reached this planet by comet or meteorite. So, let’s say something as simple as a virus was alive on the object that hit the power plant. Virus plus radiation equals mutation.”
“So that’s what this gaiaphage is?” Sam asked.
“Please don’t act like I just told you the answer, okay?” Astrid said. “Because I’m totally off in guesswork. And it doesn’t really explain much, even if it’s true. Big ‘if.’ Really big ‘if.’”
“But?” Sam prompted.
“But maybe this thing that’s been living under the ground for thirteen years has been living on radiation. Feeding on it. Think about a virus that could survive thousands of years in the environment of space. The only possible food source would be hard radiation.”
The next part was hard for Astrid. Sam could see the way her lip quivered. “The power company lied: they never cleaned up all the radiation from the accident. It’s been under our feet all this time, seeping into the water, being absorbed into the food we eat.”
Astrid’s father had been an engineer at the power plant. She must be wondering whether he had known of the deception.
“They may not even have known they didn’t get it all,” Sam said. “The people who worked there—they probably didn’t know.”
Astrid nodded. The quiver stopped. The tight anger in her expression remained. “As the gaiaphage mutated, so did some of us. Maybe some kind of synthesis. I don’t know. But one safe guess is that the gaiaphage began to run out of food. It needs more. It can’t get to it, it can only attempt to make others do its will. I think—I believe—that the meltdown Little Pete stopped was caused by someone at the plant. Obeying the gaiaphage. Attempting to blow up the plant, which would spread radiation everywhere, kill everything nearby . . . except for the creature that lives on radiation.”
“Little Pete stopped the meltdown. Created the FAYZ. But he did not destroy the gaiaphage. And the gaiaphage is still hungry.”
“Hungry in the dark,” Little Pete said.
“Caine’s going to feed it,” Sam said.
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“And then, the gaiaphage will survive and adapt. It can’t go on living in a hole in the ground, relying on others. It needs to be able to escape. To move freely. And to survive attacks from us.”
“Maybe it’s good if it comes out to fight,” Edilio said. “Maybe we can kill it.”
“It knows what powers we have,” Astrid said. “And it has had some help imagining ways to build a body that would be invulnerable.”
“Help? Help from who?”
Sam put his hand on Edilio’s arm, calming him. “From someone who doesn’t know what he’s doing,” he said.
“Nestor,” Little Pete said.
“Try some, dude. What are you, three years old?” Antoine tried to pass the joint to Zil. Zil waved it off.
“I’ve tried it before,” Zil said. “I didn’t like it.”
“Yeah, right.” Antoine took a long pull off the joint and began coughing like he was hacking up a lung. He coughed so violently, his knee hit the coffee table and knocked over Zil’s water.
“Hey,” Zil yelled.
“Oh, sorry, man,” Antoine said when he could speak again.
Lance took a hit, made a face, and handed it off to Lisa. She giggled, smoked, coughed, then giggled some more.
Zil had never had a girlfriend before. Girls didn’t like him. Not like, like. He had never been one of the popular kids.
In the old days Zil was mostly known for the strange lunches his mother packed for him. They were always vegan, organic, and always very “green,” with nothing disposable, nothing prepackaged. Unfortunately much of what his mother packed for his lunch smelled. Vinegar dressing for salads, tapenade or hummus reeking of garlic, stuffed grape leaves.
Zil loved his mom and dad, but the coming of the FAYZ had been liberating in one way: he’d finally been able to eat all the cookies and chips he’d wanted. He’d even done what his parents would have considered unforgivable: he had eaten meat. And he’d liked it.
Of course now he would give anything to have a gooey wad of hummus and some whole wheat pita bread.
He had no food. What he had were stomach pains. And his crew. His posse. The Human Crew. All of whom, he realized, were losers. Except for Lance. Lance being there kind of made them look cooler than they were. He even managed to look cool by the flickering candlelight.
“The freaks have food,” Turk said for the thousandth time. “They always have food. Regular kids are going hungry, but the freaks always have enough.”
Zil doubted that, but there was no point arguing about it. It wasn’t some crazy story about the freaks having food that made him hate them. It was their superior attitude. But whatever.
“I heard Brianna caught some pigeons and ate them,” Lisa said, then giggled. Zil wasn’t sure if she always giggled, or was mostly giggling because she was high.
She was drawing on a pad, perching a small flashlight on her lap and using a Sharpie to do variations on the letters “H” and “C” for Human Crew. She had a version that Zil kind of liked where the “H” and the “C” were sort of joined, slanted to one side, all hard edges.
Antoine had found the weed in his parents’ bedroom. While conducting yet another desperate search for food.
“That’s what I’m saying,” Turk said, pointing at Lisa like she was evidence. “They have their ways of getting food. The freaks all work together.” Turk was not smoking. He was staring at Zil. Like Zil might have some solution. Like Zil was going to have some kind of plan.
Zil didn’t have a plan. Zil just knew that freaks were running things in the FAYZ. And not just in Perdido Beach, but up the hill at Coates, too. And now at the power plant. Freaks running everything. Well, freaks and their helpers, like Edilio and Albert and Astrid.
And the other thing Zil knew was that things were a mess. People were starving. And if the freaks were in charge, who else’s fault could it be?
“They have food, I guarantee you,” Turk said.
“Yeah, well, we have tree,” Antoine said, and laughed at his own wit.
The front door opened and Zil reached for his baseball bat, just in case. It was Hank. Hank came in, stepped right up to Antoine, who was easily twice his size, and said, “Put that away.”
“What are you, the po-po?”
“This is not about getting stoned,” Hank said. “That’s not what Zil is about. That’s not what the Human Crew is.”
Antoine looked blearily at Zil. Zil was surprised at hearing himself referred to as if he had some larger meaning. It was flattering. Also confusing.
“Yeah, put away the weed, man,” Zil said.
Antoine made a dismissive noise.
To everyone’s amazement, Hank knocked the joint from Antoine’s hand.
Antoine rose from the couch, looking like he might flatten little Hank. But Zil said, “No. No fighting between ourselves.”
Lance said, “Yeah. That’s right,” but he didn’t sound too sure.
It was left to Turk to settle the matter. “Hank’s right. Zil’s not about us acting like everyone else, like kids. Zil’s about us dealing with the freaks. If we sit around getting high, Zil’s not going to be able to deal with the problem. He needs us to be cool.”
“Yeah,” Lance agreed. “But be cool about what?”
“I found Hunter.” Hank delivered the news with quiet pride. Like he was presenting a straight-A report card to his parents.
Zil jumped to his feet. “You found him?”
“Yeah. He’s across the highway, hiding out in a house over there. And you’ll never guess what he’s got there.”
“What?”
“Food. The mutant freak killed a deer. Then he cooked it with his freak powers and last I saw he was cutting it up with a knife.”
“Keeping it all for himself,” Turk said. “Just him and the other freaks. They’ll eat venison, the rest of
us can go boil some grass or whatever.”
Zil’s mouth watered. Meat. Actual meat. And not rat or pigeon, but something that was almost like beef.
“I’ve eaten venison,” Lance said. “It’s good.”
“Has to be better than dog,” Antoine said. “Although I’d eat some more dog right now, if I had any.”
“What do we do?” Lance asked Zil.
Every eye, even Lisa’s, turned to Zil. “What do you think we do?” Zil asked rhetorically, stalling for time.
“We go get him!” Antoine said.
Zil slapped Antoine on the shoulder and laughed. “Yeah.” Then he high-fived Hank. “Good work, man. Venison is on the menu.”
“Right after we hang Hunter,” Hank said.
That stopped the conversation cold.
“Say what?” Lance asked.
Hank looked coldly at Lance. “You think the freak is just going to give us the food? He’ll kill us, if he gets the chance. Freaks don’t care about us, don’t care if we starve. Anyway, he’s a murderer, right? What are you supposed to do with a murdering freak?”
Zil swallowed hard. Hank was pushing this thing too far. It was one thing busting on Sam, trying to get some respect for normals.
To Zil’s relief, Lance spoke up. “Dude, I don’t think we want to, like, kill the guy ourselves.”
“It was Zil’s idea,” Hank said. “That first night. Why did we have a rope with us if we weren’t going to execute justice on Hunter?”
The rope had not been Zil’s idea. But should he admit that? He’d just figured on giving Hunter a beating. He wanted Hunter to cry and confess that he’d stolen that last shred of beef jerky. He hadn’t been thinking about actually killing Hunter. That was just talk.
“You think Sam and Edilio and all of them are going to let us just execute Hunter?” Lance argued.
Hank smiled. It was a strange, little-boy smile. Innocent. “They’re all gone. Dekka’s at the power plant, right? And Sam and Edilio just blew out of town in that Jeep. The whole bunch of them, off trying to deal with Caine, I guess.”
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