by Jo Schneider
“Stop right there!” a voice said from the end of the hall.
Lys turned her head to see two men in black coming toward them. Only these guys weren’t in black suits, they were in black body armor. Just like the guys she remembered seeing outside the hospital.
Chapter 10
“Go!” Brady said, pointing at the hole. “I’ll hold them.”
“Hold them?” Lys asked.
“Trust me,” Brady gave her another grin. “I’ve got this.”
Mark shook his head. “Don’t be stupid. You remember what I told you about the suits.”
“Just so we can get away!” Brady said, bouncing on the balls of his feet like a boxer warming up. “Now get going.”
Kamau started pulling Mark over to and through the giant hole in the wall. Lys had no choice but to follow. Well, she could have let Mark fall flat on his face—there was always a choice—but she didn’t think that would be very nice. Or smart. So she kept going, trying to get them moving as fast as she could.
“Who are these guys again?” she asked no one in particular. She didn’t expect an answer; she just wanted someone to validate the situation for her. The black body armor looked like something right out of the movies. It creaked like leather, but her fuzzy memory told her that they could take a beating. Their helmets resembled black bug heads with large, glossy eyes and pointed noses.
“The New,” Mark said. “And they don’t like us very much.”
The dust settled and Lys saw that Kamau had been right. A small parking garage lay before them. Four cars and two vans occupied six of about twenty stalls.
“Where do we go?” Mark asked.
A blast sounded from behind, and Lys turned to look. More dust rolled at them, and she could hear Brady laughing hysterically.
“I told you to stay back!” his enthusiastic voice said. “I tried to warn you.”
Two more figures ran toward them from the opposite direction Brady had gone. “Brady!” Lys cried. “Watch out.”
An alarm started to squawk, and strobe lights began to flash. The two figures ran at the hole. Brady arrived in the same instant they did. Both parties stumbled to a stop. Through the strobing lights, Lys could see that the two figures weren’t men in black. They were kids.
Well, not little kids, although one of them wasn’t even as big as Brady, but teenagers like her.
The taller figure grabbed the little one and got in front of him.
“Whoa,” Brady said, holding up his hands.
“Who are you?” a girl’s voice, accented in Spanish, demanded.
“I, uh . . .” Brady stumbled over the words. Between strobe light assaults, Lys finally got a good look at them.
The shorter figure, a boy probably only twelve or thirteen, studied Brady through long, scraggly blond hair. The other figure, a taller girl with skin the color of caramel and dark hair that hung in loose curls down to the middle of her back, glared.
“Inez, look at him,” the younger boy said, working his way out from behind her to get a better view of Brady. “Check out his eyes.” He pointed.
“Who are you?” This time Mark spoke. He managed to use an imposing voice, and both figures turned to see who had addressed them. The girl grabbed the younger boy by the collar and shoved him behind her again.
“Cut it out!” he complained.
“Who are you?” Inez asked, glaring at them through the dust. She kept her eyes moving back and forth between Brady and Mark. “Are you with them?” She jerked her head back down the hall toward the last place Lys had seen the guys in black. Now the hall stood completely blocked by rubble.
“No,” Mark said. He tried to stand up, but it didn’t really work. “We’re not with them.”
Inez continued to glare. Her angry, haunted eyes seemed out of place on her beautiful face.
Lys felt the Need kick a foot loose and looked away. Why had it felt so repressed before, and why was it coming out now?
“That one is using,” the kid said, pointing at Brady.
“Shut up, Peter,” Inez said although she did glance over at Brady, looking at his face for a moment.
“We need to get out of here,” Mark said. “Before they bring reinforcements.”
Inez glanced at Lys, Kamau, and then back at Mark. When her eyes came to his hands, they widened, and she muttered something in Spanish. Lys had no idea what she said.
“Inez,” Peter said, tugging on her arm. “They’re coming.”
“I can get you out of here,” Brady said, finally regaining the use of his tongue. “We were just leaving.” He shot Inez a crooked grin; Lys thought he was going for charming.
Inez gave him a hard glare. “We don’t need your help.”
“We’re all going to get caught if we don’t move,” Peter said. Lys noticed that he kept breathing deeply and looking back down the hall.
“You’re on your own,” Inez said to Brady, grabbing Peter by the arm.
“Wait!” he protested, pulling free. “We can’t leave them here.” He pointed at Brady, who stepped through the hole toward Lys. “He’s using. You’re always saying that we’d help anyone who—”
“Forget what I said,” Inez said through gritted teeth. “We have to get what we came for and go.”
“We can’t go back,” Peter said. “They’re coming from there.”
“We have to go,” Mark said. “Now.”
The tone of his words left no room for argument. He started to stumble away, pulling Lys and Kamau with him.
“You can’t get out that way,” Peter said.
“Maybe you can’t.” Brady looked back at them. “But I can.” He shrugged. “You can follow us if you need to.”
Kamau, who had been silent during the exchange, whispered, “There should be a door leading to the lobby in that corner. If I’m not turned around, there are a number of buildings right next to this one. We should be able to take cover.”
Brady nodded, moving past them and into the lead.
“But Inez,” Peter protested, “they’re both using, and check out that guy’s hands. Isn’t that the stuff that you said we should—”
Inez shushed him. Lys glanced back just in time to see Inez dragging Peter down the hall.
“Do you think they’ll be alright?” she asked no one in particular.
“We don’t even know who they are,” Kamau said. “Just as long as they don’t draw attention to us.”
Brady led them across the small parking garage. They wove through the vehicles, and no other people appeared. She could hear shouting, but she couldn’t tell how close they were. The sound echoed between the walls, bouncing back and forth like a racquetball.
“There,” Kamau said as they came around a large van. “The door is behind that wall.”
“How did you know that?” Brady asked.
“Someone came in the door when we pulled in.”
“If you were awake, why didn’t you try to escape?” Brady asked.
“Escape is difficult when your hands and feet are cuffed.”
Brady shrugged. “Sure, I guess.”
The door grew ever closer, but before they got there, a pair of armored men charged through.
“Don’t move!” one of the men yelled, pointing a large gun at them.
Lys didn’t know much about guns, but the barrels on these were huge. The bullets that came out of them must be the size of oranges. Lys did not want to find out what it would do to a person. She didn’t move.
“Yeah, right,” Brady said, reaching out for the car next to him.
One of the men aimed his gun at Brady and pulled the trigger. Lys couldn’t help it, she screamed.
A flash caused Lys to flinch, and then something the size of two baseballs stuck together came flying out of the end of the gun. It quickly spread out, revealing itself as a net. Before it could reach Brady, he grabbed the bumper and pulled part of it away from the car with a shrill screech of metal. He threw it and caught the net before it hit him.
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The metal and the net flew back and hit the man in the armor, causing him to go sprawling on the ground. His helmet clattered off revealing Jed. He glared at them.
The other man fired his gun before Brady could do anything about it. Kamau pulled Lys aside just in time to avoid being buried in the net. The edge of it scraped her arm, and she cried out. A cold chill, not unlike when Brady had touched her in the woods, started up her arm and toward her shoulder.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
“I don’t think so,” she said, her words slurring like Mark’s.
“Can you move?” Mark asked.
Lys tried. She could move everything, but her right arm responded slowly.
“Missed again,” Brady said, laughing at the two men with guns. He kept tossing bits of concrete, car parts, and whatever else he could get his hands on in their direction. How was he doing that?
“Come on,” Kamau said, “if we can get out that door then we can get to the street.”
Lys nodded, and started to move.
“Hold it!” a voice said, sounding metallic coming through the helmet.
“You hold it,” Brady said.
Lys didn’t look back. She heard more grinding metal and a loud thump. Brady laughed again just as Kamau got them through the ruined door.
The short hall beyond led to a small lobby. Lys didn’t much care about the furnishings. Her focus landed on the wall of windows and the door that led outside.
“Out,” Kamau ordered.
Lys did her best to keep up, heaving Mark along beside her and hoping that Brady would come after them.
The lobby sat void of people. Beyond the windows, night had settled. Maybe they would actually get away.
She kept thinking back to the woods behind the hospital. These had to be the same guys. So why did Mr. Doyle try to convince her that he just wanted to help? The more people who came at them, the less Lys believed anything Mr. Doyle said. Who attacked kids with net guns? For that matter, who ran around in black combat armor, or whatever that stuff was?
“Brady!” Kamau yelled over his shoulder as they reached the front door. “Come on.”
“Coming,” Brady said, skipping through the door and into the entryway. His eyes still swirled black.
Just as they reached the exit, a net flew from the opposite end of the lobby. Brady didn’t see it, and in mid skip it hit him, flinging him to the floor.
“Don’t move!” a metallic voice said.
Lys looked into the lobby and saw Peter and Inez sprinting down the hall, heading straight for them. Another two figures in black chased the duo. Lys caught a glance of someone coming in from the garage. They were in trouble.
Kamau looked around, taking in their surroundings. “Cover your ears.”
“Why?” she asked as she covered one of her ears and one of Mark’s.
Kamau closed his eyes and opened his mouth.
A rumbling seemed to come from Kamau. It started in the air and then moved into the ground. The floor beneath Lys’s feet began to buckle and shake. The air itself started to hum, vibrating her brain through her uncovered ear. She stumbled and almost went down. The windows of the lobby spider-webbed, and Lys had to turn her face as the glass shattered. A wave of tile rose behind Inez and swept toward her pursuers. Peter looked back, but she grabbed him and they kept running.
The wave, now a foot tall, hit the figures in black and they scattered.
Peter and Inez ran through the broken window. She kept going, but Peter paused, looking at Kamau in awe. Kamau shut his mouth and the rumbling stopped.
“Dude, that was awesome!”
“Peter!” Inez said, coming back and grabbing him by the arm.
He slithered out of the hold and went over to Brady. “We can’t leave them here!” He gave her a puppy dog look. “They saved us.”
“They screwed us,” Inez muttered under her breath. However, she ran to where Peter knelt next to Brady. She took a black, wicked looking knife out of her boot. Before Lys could object—why did she feel like the other girl might plunge the knife into Brady’s heart?—Inez cut the net. It sizzled and flared, like a light bulb, and then went out, going from hard cords to slack. She then reached out and pulled it off Brady.
“Come on,” she grumbled, tugging him to his feet.
Brady looked groggy, but he smiled when he saw who had a hold of his arm. “Hey,” he said, nodding. “I told you we could get you out.”
“Stupid,” Inez said. She turned her fierce gaze on Lys and Mark. “Listen, you follow us and keep up. If you fall behind, we leave you.”
Chapter 11
Before Lys could ask Inez any questions, Inez moved through the broken windows and out onto the street.
Kamau glanced at Lys. “I suppose we should follow her.”
Lys didn’t answer. Kamau’s brown eyes were now silver and white, like clouds in the sky. The Need twitched again.
“Come with us,” Peter said, leading a shaky Brady by the wrist. “We’ll take care of you.”
Kamau turned away to follow. Lys shook her head, not so certain that Inez would help. Inez didn’t seem to want to have anything to do with them. She would probably ditch them the second she got the chance.
“Don’t worry about her,” Peter said, waving his free hand. “She’s a softie.”
Lys highly doubted that, but she followed anyway. Glass crunched beneath her slippered feet as she moved through the empty window panes and onto a small street. Low warehouses surrounded them, and the night sky blazed with light. Lys wondered where they could be. She wondered about a lot of things.
These kids seemed to know more than she did. Peter recognized Brady’s eyes and hadn’t freaked out. Did that mean Brady would be okay? Mark seemed a little concerned, but nothing like Lys would be if her eyes suddenly turned oily black. Inez and Peter knew something, and since Lys knew nothing, it seemed prudent to follow them.
Mark’s head lolled back and forth, and he muttered something.
“What?” Lys asked as they made their way across the street and darted down the alley way between buildings.
“Where are we going?” he said, this time more clearly and right at Inez.
“Away,” Inez said, looking over her shoulder. “We should put some distance between them and us. There are plenty more guys where those came from.”
Inez led them across the street and between the two nearest buildings. Broken crates, rampant clutter, and garbage bins provided obstacles for them to dodge. Lys made them out easily, but everyone else seemed to be having difficulty. Kamau almost ran straight into a pile of broken boards.
“Watch out!” Lys said, pulling Mark back so Kamau would stop.
“What?” he asked, turning his still-silver eyes toward Lys.
The Need shook its head like a groggy dog. This was not good. Lys quickly looked back at the ground.
“There are some boards there,” she said, turning them so they would go around.
Kamau reset his path and they set off again.
Inez, it seemed, may not leave them behind. Lys saw her exit the alley, but a moment later she returned and whispered something to Peter.
“Okay,” he said, nodding. “You stay with Inez,” he told Brady. “I’ll be right back.”
Brady nodded. The smile on his lips faded, and the color drained from his face. He lowered his head, shoulders slumping.
“Hey,” Inez said, smacking him hard on the shoulder.
Brady slowly lifted his head. He never quite got it all the way up.
“Stay with us here,” she ordered. “Do not shut down.”
Odd words, but Lys didn’t have time to ponder them because she and Kamau got to the end of the alley, and Mark collapsed between them.
He’d been able to get his feet under him for a while, but the way he slumped to the ground made Lys wonder if he could get up again.
“What did they do to him?” Inez asked, squatting down as Kamau pulled Mark into a sitting posi
tion, shoving him against a nearby wall.
Lys took a moment to study their new ally. Tall and slender, Inez had just the right proportions and the long, glossy hair to match. If they went to the same school, Lys knew she and her friends would lament about how much they hated Inez for looking so perfect. Torn jeans and a baby doll t-shirt, which should look casual, only added to her appeal. However, the crease between her eyebrows deepened as she looked at Mark. She must make that face a lot, Lys thought, because the scowl lines never went away.
“I do not know,” Kamau said.
“He’s got bruises everywhere,” Lys said, remembering what she’d seen before.
“Yeah, they do that,” Inez said, her face showing a look of pity for a moment.
“Do what?” Lys asked.
Inez shook her head. “Nothing good.”
Why would no one answer her questions? Inez went to get up, and Lys reached out to touch her arm. Just before she got there, Inez’s hand grabbed her wrist, twisting it sharply.
Lys gasped, but managed not to cry out. Pain shot up her arm, and she moved to keep the pressure from breaking her wrist.
“Don’t touch me,” Inez said in a hard voice, her face a mask of disdain.
Lys returned the glare. For once the Need did her a favor; it gave her the guts to not back down. “Who are these guys?” she asked. “They kidnapped us; I want to know who they are.”
Inez continued to stare for a moment before tossing Lys’s wrist away like a used paper towel. “I don’t have time right now to explain it.” She cast a quick glance at Mark, who was watching them. “He probably knows more than I do anyway.”
Mark shrugged, his pale face making him look like a ghost. “Can’t explain now,” he muttered. “Do you have a healer?” he asked Inez.
She frowned. “A what?”
“A healer,” Mark said again, his voice cracking as he coughed. “I know you know what I’m talking about.”
Inez shook her head. Peter ran back around the corner.
“Where are they?” she asked.
He pointed. “Most of them went the other way, but there are five headed right toward us.”
“We have to move,” Inez said, glancing down at Mark.
“I can lead them away from here,” Kamau said.