by Joss Ware
She nodded. “You’re right. But I’m not going to leave without you, Elliott.”
He almost leaned forward to kiss her right then, but thought better of it. There would, God willing, be time for that later. Now he—they both—needed to be focused on finding Theo.
He tucked the keys, not under the floor mat, but into the pocket behind the driver’s seat, and quietly closed the door. “Mac?” he asked. “What else did he say?”
“Not much.” She pulled out a paper and read. “Hurt. Can’t move. Gangas. At Mac.”
Great. She hadn’t mentioned the fact that there were gangas in there—although why it should be a surprise to him, he didn’t know. If it wasn’t gangas, it was Strangers. Or rabid lions. Or blackout storms.
“Why don’t you stay here and let me go in and try to find him . . . that way both of us won’t get caught by the gangas,” he suggested.
Jade shot him a glare, just as he’d expected she would. “I’ve been dealing with gangas longer than you have,” she pointed out, not inaccurately. “And you know how to drive that thing. If one of us is going to stay here, it should be you.”
Check and mate. Damn.
Moving right along. “We could try and get in on this side—there’re going to be entrances all over,” he said. “The problem will be finding a McDonald’s. Or whatever Mac means.” The problem was, Elliott hadn’t paid much attention to mall stores, so he couldn’t think of the name of any shop that had Mac in it. There was Abercrombie. PacSun. Had it been a typo, and Mac was really meant to be Pac?
Possible, but not likely. The keys weren’t all that close together. A computer geek would be a good typist.
How the hell were they going to find him in this huge place? And avoid the gangas? Yeah, they were dumb, but still. . . .
One step at a time.
Jade followed him as he walked out of the parking structure and scanned the building. There was no sign of life, no sign of living anywhere. A jungle had begun to overtake the south side of the building, growing thick and full on those walls and beginning to spread around to the east side, where they’d approached. What had once been a glass entry near the far end of the structure had shattered long ago and it appeared that someone had attempted to board up the hole.
But whoever it was had left a door, and that was the entrance he and Jade started toward. Knife in hand, and ears sharp, he waited, then carefully eased through the door.
Silence. Stillness. Not a sign of orange eyes.
Gray shadowed the mall’s interior. The only illumination came from the bit of sun that was able to filter through the dust and grime covered skylights, most of which were still intact. A musty, peaty smell told Elliott that the lack of sunlight had encouraged the growth of moss, fungus, and mildew rather than trees and bushes. The soft skitter of nails and a slithering, rustling on what had been a marble floor, had Jade shuddering behind him, but to give her credit, she didn’t grab at him. Or draw back.
It took a moment for Elliott’s eyes to get used to the dimness, and although he had a lighter, something warned him not to use it. He reached back and closed his fingers around her arm and drew her forward so that she could see his warning not to speak. Their eyes met and she lifted a finger to her lips, as if to shush him. He smiled. Of course. She was in charge.
The area through which they’d come was not through one of the large anchor department stores, but a main mall entrance. Thus, there were storefronts lined up on either side of the wide thoroughfare. Elliott edged up next to the nearest one, glancing at the shattered plate glass windows.
The sign was a Wheel of Fortune clue: PR S D NT T X DO.
If he were Quent, he’d drop in and see if there was anything left to salvage, but as it was, Elliott merely moved past. The last time he’d needed a tux was when Janelle, one of his middle cousins, got married in a Big Fat Hispanic Wedding.
A new pang swept over him. Sitting around on a Saturday night folding whatever they could find into Tía Sarita’s fresh corn tortillas and drinking cerveza. Christ Almighty. He prayed they’d gone easily and quickly.
Unlike many of the other buildings he’d been in recently, this one hadn’t been completely remodeled by Mother Nature. There were remnants of her tenacity—moss, some patches of grass, even a few trees that had likely already been growing in the place. The floor was covered with dirt, and leaves had piled into corners and around kiosks, benches, and storefront corners, presumably providing comfortable accommodations for a variety of rodents.
Knife in hand, Jade close behind him, Elliott started off through the eerie mall, looking at the store signs, trying to figure out what Theo had meant by Mac.
The dank, swampy smell became stronger as they moved past The Gap—whose plastic sign was dingy, but still intact except for a crack through the P (he’d like to check in there for some shirts to replenish his stock consisting now of one), BA H & OD W RKS, and a jewelry store on the corner as the thoroughfare opened into the main part of the mall.
Elliott glanced at the broken glass cases overrun by the shadow of mildew and realized that Jade seemed not to notice. And why would she? What use would she have for a diamond—if they hadn’t already been foraged—when she’d probably rather have cotton panties? Or silk ones.
That thought nearly veered him off into territories best left unexplored, but Elliott did not succumb to the temptation. Now that they’d reached the main part of the mall, he saw that a second level yawned above them. At one time, it would have been accessible by the four escalators and single glass elevator. What had been a glass or plastic railing on the upper level had cracked and now sagged in a useless wave around the opening.
So far they’d heard nothing to indicate that there was any other living creature in this building, yet he still felt uneasy.
He watched closely for any shift in the shadows, any glow of orange, and paused regularly to listen. But the only sounds were the same faint rustles and skittering, and, once, the flap of a bird’s wings as it soared through the air above them.
No, that wasn’t a bird. That had been a bat. Elliott glanced at Jade, but she had no reaction. They’d passed F-Y-E and POT RY B RN but nothing like Mac. If they didn’t find something soon, they were going to have to start looking in each dark store.
Then he heard it. Faint but distinctive.
Ruuuuthhh. Ruu-uuuthhh.
He looked at Jade as her gaze flashed to his. Shit, she mouthed. Let’s get going.
Elliott yanked them into the deepest of shadows and pressed her against the wall as he looked around for those orange eyes. If the gangas were upstairs, then that was a good thing; it would take time for them to make their way down those escalators. And if they were down here with him and Jade, they simply had to go back up to evade them more easily.
With a single jab of his finger, he pointed to the stairs and looked at Jade. She followed his gesture and nodded, understanding his plan.
The ganga moans became a bit clearer as they moved faster but stuck to the shadows more closely. Elliott felt a severe rise of frustration. How in the fucking world were they going to find Theo in this place? It was like finding a needle in a haystack. Couldn’t he have given them better information? There wasn’t a golden arch in sight, or even a PacSun. Nothing that even related to Mac.
And then suddenly he saw it: The Apple Store—where they sold Macs (Of course. Where else would a geek be?)—and the sounds of the gangas clearly emanating from a different wing of the building. But moving closer.
Elliott pulled Jade behind him as he rushed toward the back of the store. It was dark and after he nearly tripped over one of the display cases—for the second time—he thought, fuck it, and pulled out the lighter.
The flame gave off a small glow, exposing the computer hardware littering the floor and the dust stirred up by his movement. Holding the beacon aloft, Elliott hurried to the back, navigating through the debris and display cases, heading to where the stockroom must have been.
&n
bsp; Theo had been foraging for electronics. A geek was a geek was a geek.
What had been a door to the stockroom sat on sagging hinges, and moved when Elliott pushed it gingerly. The door opened a bit, but stopped at thirty degrees as if something blocked it. “Hello?” he called softly, slipping through the narrow expanse, pushing his hand behind him in a wait motion. “Theo, are you here?”
He heard a faint sound, breathing, and began to scan his light around the room. He wasn’t worried that a ganga lay in wait; they hadn’t that subtlety. Either it was Theo, stalling to see if he was friend or foe—or preparing to assault him—or the man was injured and couldn’t move or speak.
“Lou sent us,” he tried again, scanning the light as he stepped in farther. He felt Jade follow him, and the door close behind her, blocking out any little bit of light that might come from the opening of the mall . . . and the glow from his lighter for any inquisitive gangas.
“Here,” came a voice.
Still motioning for Jade to stay back in case it was a trap, Elliott moved toward the voice, around tall metal shelf units that had tipped like rows of dominoes. White Mac boxes of all sizes littered the area, and between the shelves and the boxes, he felt like he was making his way through a maze.
Then Elliott’s light fell on the unmistakable sight of a human figure half obstructed by a huge, metal shelving unit that had crumpled on top of him. The man beneath it was about his age, with short dark hair, long sideburns, and a little stubble on his chin. The guy looked up, then squinted as Jade blasted a flashlight toward him, revealing a wristwatch with a little red light on it and a pack on the floor next to him.
“Where’s Theo Waxnicki?” Elliott asked, flicking off his light. Then he knelt next to the obviously injured man. “Where are you hurt?”
“Who are you?” the man replied, his words grinding out. Then he must have looked up and seen Jade behind him, because he grunted, “Jade. What the hell are you doing here?” He was obviously distressed, but not as much as Elliott, who’d so far received answers to none of his questions.
“Who the hell are you?” he asked again.
“I’m Theo Waxnicki,” said the young man.
Chapter 18
“Who the hell are you?” Theo Waxnicki asked, looking up at Elliott.
Elliott stopped gawking at the man who was definitely not the seventy-seven years old he’d expected and moved into emergency mode. “Name’s Elliott Drake. Your brother sent me with Jade. He thought you must be injured. I’m a doctor. I—uh—went to Michigan.” He looked at the other man steadily, and waited for the comprehension. “A real doctor. Like . . . from the past.”
With only the illumination from Jade’s flashlight, it was hard to see exactly what was in Theo’s eyes, but it looked like an intelligent gleam settled there. “Awesome, because I can’t move,” he said, gesturing to his legs.
“Can you feel your toes?” he said, already moving to lift the shelving unit. “Jade, help him get out when I lift this.” It was large and unwieldy, but simple to get it up and shove it to the side. He took care to be as silent as possible.
“My toes are wiggling fine. I can feel my legs—ohhh,” Theo groaned. “Son of a bitch, that f—” He cut off whatever he was going to say, and Elliott understood that feeling was surging back into his limbs like a thousand acupuncture needles.
Agony for him, but a really good sign. Thank God. At least he wasn’t going to have to make a decision about healing a paraplegic.
“Gangas are coming. We’ve got to get the hell out of here,” Elliott said, helping Theo to his feet.
“God, Theo, how long have you been like this?” Jade asked, deep concern in her voice, reaching to touch her friend. “I’m so glad we got your messages, or you could have been here for a lot longer.”
The moaning, groaning rruuu-uuuths sounded like they were getting closer.
“I’ll be able to walk . . . soon,” he said, sagging toward Elliott.
Mainly because he was overcome by curiosity about the man’s youthful appearance, Elliott did a quick, vertical scan of Theo, noticing with interest that his body was just as young inside as it appeared from the outside. And he was, thank God, completely healthy.
There was an odd formation near the base of his back, in the fleshy part above the hip, but it didn’t appear to be contributing to any injury. And Theo was right—he should be able to walk soon, for there was nothing seriously wrong with him. A pulled muscle, legs weakened by stasis—he wasn’t certain how long he’d been trapped under the shelves—and lack of food and water were all minor things.
Elliott would have to be careful helping him so that he didn’t absorb the injury himself. Taking care not to touch him directly, skin to skin, or for more than a second at a time. The one thing he’d realized about his healing power was that it took concentration and more than a brief touch to allow the healing energy to sizzle through his body to the patient. Even when he’d “healed” the old man and passed it on to Lenny, he’d been scanning and concentrating on him, not knowing what would happen. It was the getting rid of the injury, the passing it on to some other entity, that seemed to happen uncontrollably, and in a flash.
“They’re getting closer,” Jade said. Her eyes held worry, but not panic.
“This mall is a storage place,” Theo said, his voice thready with pain as he put full weight on his legs. “For the gangas. A freaking warehouse for the bastards. I’ve been avoiding them, hiding out here for two days while trying to hack into the Strangers’ Chatter. What the hell are you doing here, Jade?” He reached for his pack on the floor.
“I wasn’t going to let Lou come, you craterhead.”
“We can talk about the whys and hows later, dammit,” Elliott said. “We’ve got to go.”
He offered his hand to help the other man, then changed his mind and grabbed Theo’s shirt-covered arm.
For a geek, Theo was fucking solid, and buff as hell, Elliott noted as he took on part of his weight. The arm that draped over Elliott’s shoulder had a long, serpentine dragon tattooed on it, curling from the hand and wrist up along the forearm, and farther. Definitely the type of guy women liked. Fortunately, he didn’t sense anything but sisterly love from Jade—and vice versa.
“Come on,” Elliott said. He took two steps, then had a thought.
Every storefront in the mall had to have a delivery door at the rear of the backroom that usually opened directly to the outside, or at least to a rear corridor that led outside. They could slip out through that back door and be away from the gangas.
“The back door,” Elliott said, more to himself than anyone else. “Jade, I need the flashlight.”
Theo eased away from him, standing weakly under his own power, and said, “It’s blocked. That’s how I managed to get myself trapped for two days.”
“I can move the stuff.”
“No, I mean it’s blocked by a huge concrete slab that must have fallen from the upper level. I already tried,” explained Theo. “The only way out of this store is through the front. But there are other back doors behind other storefronts.”
“They’re getting closer,” Jade said again, urgency in her voice. Her fingers brushed Elliott’s arm in a light caress.
“How many?” Elliott asked, looking at the other man.
“Three dozen or more,” Theo replied. “There are more every time I turn around. They’re either fucking like bunnies and procreating right here, or more are arriving. This has to be some sort of central location for the Strangers too.”
“Either way, it’s going to be tight.”
They left the backroom of the store, navigating around the white boxes. Elliott could fairly feel Theo’s anguish at leaving possibly scavengeable electronics behind, but the other man didn’t say a word. Except maybe a little groan when they passed the miraculously pristine box of a MacBook Pro, but other than that, Theo remained stoic. He seemed to be concentrating on trying to hold up his own weight, a feature that would come i
n handy . . . about now, because—
He heard a faint whir start up, and immediately a soft yellow glow filled the room.
“Damn,” Theo said. “Someone’s got the generator working again. It’s not powerful enough for the lights to be on full, but this makes things a bit more interesting.”
“I’ll say,” Elliott muttered. He didn’t think gangas were that smart, which didn’t bode well for the situation. Was someone else here, helping them?
As they hurried out of the Apple store, Elliott heard a creaky whir, and realized almost immediately what it was. Theo did too, but Jade—who’d probably never seen a working escalator in her life—didn’t.
“Fabulous. Now the gangas can chase us up or down,” Theo grumbled as Elliott looked up and saw the orange eyes. They glowed from the upper level of the mall, and some of them were already beginning to lurch nervously onto the moving stairs.
It would have been humorous to watch the clumsy, staggering creatures try to navigate onto the rolling steps if Elliott hadn’t noticed another group of orange eyes just across from them. On their level, moving closer. Jade bumped up next to him, and he felt her fingers close around his arm.
He counted at least ten pairs of eyes. And then another dozen or so gangas that were lining up to edge their way onto the escalator. “Fuck.”
“More over there,” Jade said, her voice steady. “We’re trapped.”
“There’s a hallway right there, at two o’clock,” muttered Theo. “That’s where we have to go. Holy cats, can you smell those fuckers?”
Yeah. Elliott could definitely smell the rotting, moldy scent. “I have a bottle rocket in my pack,” he said, digging for it. By the time he pulled out the small alcohol-filled bottle with a little rag tied around it, Jade was prepared with the lighter.