Burnout (The Invasion Chronicles Book 1)

by Alex Barnett

  “I gave them Andy’s gun, and Reed let them have a couple knives they had. We let them take your mom’s car; Reed says fuse tech is better than straight clean-burn engines…easier to find fuel.”

  Lydia pressed her lips into a grim line, her eyes burning and her stomach churning sickly. Miles and miles of unknown territory, with only a few weapons, some granola bars, and a couple bottles of water, and the Perrys had still thought that was preferable to staying with them. With her.

  She had known Jim and Iris since she was in pigtails and braces. They’d come over to the house for weekend barbecues, and spent hundreds of dollars over the years on stupid wrapping paper and stale cookies for Lydia’s school fundraisers. Iris Perry had made them dinner every night for two weeks after Grandma had died. And they’d left. Gone off on their own because of her. Because of what she could do.

  Grandpa took her chin in a gentle grip, tilting her face up until she was looking him in the eye. “It wasn’t just you,” he said. “All right? Jim and I—we’ve been going at it for weeks, now. With what happened to the others…honey, they were scared and they made a snap decision. I hope to God they make it. But it wasn’t just you.”

  “But I was part of it, wasn’t I?” Her voice sounded flat to her own ears, oddly tinny and distant. Grandpa had no answer for her. She closed her eyes, blowing out a huff of air before turning around again.

  Nothing could change the fact that Jim and Iris had thought she was more dangerous than the Burnouts. This was exactly what her mother and grandparents had always been worried about, always been afraid of. Most people accepted Psios as a given part of life these days, but what Lydia could do was different.

  She was different.

  She pressed the heels of her palms against her eyes, scrubbing roughly at the last of the tears. There wasn’t time to start crying…wasn’t time to start mourning the ones they’d lost.

  “What’s our next move?” she asked.

  When she looked over at her grandfather, he was watching her with a strange mixture of sadness and pride. He shook his head, and looked back at the boys. His expression went harder, though not necessarily unfriendly.

  “We need to decide what we’re going to do,” he said. “And these two need to explain to me just what the hell happened last night.”

  #

  They gathered around the kitchen island, much the same way that Jim and Grandpa had only—the day before yesterday? Had it really been only forty-eight hours since she and Ava were worrying about a couple of Burnouts wandering around up the street? It seemed a lifetime ago. Lydia hopped up on the counter next to the sink, drumming her heels against a cupboard door until Grandpa raised a disapproving eyebrow.

  “So,” Grandpa said, when it became apparent that no one else was going to talk first. “Last night you said you’re a Psio.”

  A tired, bitter smile twisted Zack’s lips for a fraction of a second before the expression vanished. Then he spread his hands on the island and shrugged. “Guilty,” he said.

  “Precognition?” Grandpa prompted. His face and voice were neutral, every inch the old soldier now. Even Lydia couldn’t tell how he actually felt about Zack’s revelation.

  “Yeah. Oh nothing really good, like lottery numbers or Super Bowl results,” Zack said, rolling his eyes. He grinned at them, tight face and too many teeth, that sharp smile that somehow made Lydia’s heart ache a little. No one should wear an expression like that.

  Caleb had been leaning against the sink next to where Lydia was sitting, his arms crossed over his chest. Now, he stepped forward and nudged his brother with one shoulder. Zack stilled, and then cracked his neck from side to side. He coughed to clear his throat.

  “I see things. I mean, not like see see, obviously, but yeah, know things’re gonna happen before they do. Ever since I can remember.”

  “Wait, so then you knew about…about this?” Grandpa swept out one arm, encompassing everything around them. Zack reeled back a moment, before his brow furrowed. He scowled.

  “Yeah, I knew a freakin’ robot zombie apocalypse was on the way, and figured the best thing to do was take a road trip instead of building a bunker or something,” he snapped. “It’s not, like, it’s not a direct line to the future. I get flashes or pictures. Options. We do this then that happens, but if we do this then something else happens. And it always happens so fast. Sometimes I can’t even concentrate on what’s going on. Your camp…we got here and I saw the Burnouts breaking through your walls. Sometimes the day or the entry point changed, but they were always gonna get through. In my vision, they surprised everyone. Killed everyone.”

  He fell silent, chin lifted defiantly. His quick, nervous fingers found the island counter and began tracing random patterns and whorls onto the surface. He swallowed, breaking off and shaking his head again. “I didn’t know there were more around the back,” he said. “I would’ve told you what I could do sooner, I swear. It—it looked like they just came in through the front. I swear that’s what it looked like, to me.”

  “So if Caleb and I led them away, your vision, or whatever, wouldn’t come true,” Lydia said slowly, trying to puzzle the whole thing out. Zack nodded.

  “Sometimes, it works like that. I see all the different ways something’ll go down. We can change it.” His voice lowered, ‘til it was barely audible. “Sometimes, I can’t.”

  Grandpa’s eyes were hard and calculating, darting between the two boys as he hunted for even a shade of insincerity, the slightest indication that they were lying. He rubbed at his temples with a sigh, closing his eyes. Lydia swallowed, her mouth feeling suddenly dry. Zack stared straight ahead for another few heartbeats, before ducking his head again and going back to tracing the countertop.

  “All right,” Grandpa said after a moment, “let’s assume I believe you. What is it you want from us?”

  Almost in the same breath, the brothers went absolutely still. Zack’s mouth tightened into an even grimmer line, and Caleb’s shoulders hunched as though he was about to try and ward off a punch.

  “Look, we’re safer together,” Caleb said before his brother could speak, leaning forward again. “You’ve seen me shoot, and you know Zack can do things to help out. The more people you got, the less chance there is Lydia’ll have to do what she did last night. Me and Zack know how to get around out here. We can help.”

  “Uh-huh,” Grandpa said skeptically. “That doesn’t answer my question, son.”

  A wide range of emotions flickered over Caleb’s face—frustration, worry, fear, resignation. Ultimately, though, what settled over his expression was determination. Something steely sparked in his eyes, and the line of his jaw went tense and hard. He looked as though he was gearing up for the fight of his life; like convincing Grandpa to believe him was the most important thing he would ever do. Before he could do more than draw a quick breath, Zack leaned forward.

  “We’ve been looking for you,” he said. Ava looked up at him, startled, and Lydia froze, her breath catching in her throat. What?

  Grandpa went very still, as well, eyes narrowed as they flicked from Zack to Caleb and back again. “What do you mean, you’ve been looking for us?” he demanded.

  “Just what it sounds like.” Zack gave up running his fingers over the island counter and knotted them in the hem of his shirt, twisting it. “It wasn’t no accident that we found your neighborhood—we’ve been trying to get here since the end of July.”

  Grandpa shifted forward, planting his hands on the counter and leaning in close. “I’m going to need you to explain that,” he said in a low, dangerous voice. It sent a shiver up Lydia’s spine; even on the occasions when Grandpa had to discipline her growing up, she’d never heard him sound like that. Zack seemed to realize he had crossed into a danger zone.

  “I didn’t know about the Burnouts! You gotta believe me, I never saw anything that showed me and Caleb leading them here! We wouldn’t have come if I did.”

  “We wouldn’t put anybody in danger,�
� Caleb added, shouldering his way forward to stand slightly in front of Zack. “Right up until they started just freezing in place, I thought you guys were right…they’d move on once they lost interest. Zack didn’t know they were going to attack until yesterday! We would’ve told you, I swear to God.”

  “That’s what you were talking about in Jill’s living room yesterday,” Ava said. Lydia blinked at her in confusion before she remembered.

  The hushed, whispered conversation she and Ava had walked in on right after they’d seen the Burnouts massed in front of the barricade.

  “Yeah,” Caleb said, blowing out a breath.

  “That’s how it works sometimes,” Zack added. “We came downstairs and I just—I knew we had to get that group away from your wall.”

  “And I’m just supposed to believe that,” Grandpa drawled.

  “It’s the truth,” Zack said quietly. “Believe what you want, but we got no reason to lie. I saw you in July, clearer than I’ve seen anything since this whole shit show started. Okay? I saw you clearer than I saw my dad Burn.” He choked on the last words, his hazy eyes gleaming suspiciously wet. “I saw you guys, and I saw that we all live longer if we stay together. We’re supposed to stay together.”

  Lydia exchanged a silent look with Ava. The thing was…he was right. If the Reeds had wanted to trick them, for whatever purpose, there had been far less dangerous and risky ways to go about it. They could have pretended to be ignorant of Lydia’s own powers—or at least tried to convince her to go with Caleb without revealing Zack’s. They could have just vanished over the fences as soon as Zack knew what was going to happen to Meadowbrook. They certainly could have come up with a better plan

  So either the two had just not thought things out very well or they were telling the truth. Lydia was surprised by how very much she wanted them to be telling the truth. She looked up at Grandpa, to find him staring out into some middle-distance, his jaw working as he clenched and unclenched his teeth. She couldn’t honestly think of anything else they could have done. If they had announced Zack’s powers and premonitions when they had arrived, the others would have thought they were crazy. She, Ava, and Grandpa might have believed, but they would have had to explain why they believed such things were possible. It was hard to get angry at the two for keeping Zack’s powers a secret when she had been doing the exact same thing as long as she could remember.

  And…

  Caleb had risked his life to try and prevent the attack. Her mind kept circling back to that one, undeniable fact. It would be weighing on Grandpa as well. The boys stayed when Jim and Iris left. Maybe it was just because Zack’s power told him that staying with her, Ava, and Grandpa upped their own chances for survival, but something told her that wasn’t all there was to it. Caleb, at least, didn’t strike her as that self-serving. Zack didn’t either, if she was being honest. They stayed.

  That had to count for something. To Lydia, it counted for a lot.

  Grandpa sighed, the sound of it heavy as lead in the quiet of the kitchen. She could read the conflict on his face, in the set of his shoulders, in the way he kept looking at her and Ava.

  “Girls?” he said after a moment.

  Lydia exchanged a look with Ava, silently raising her eyebrow in question. Ava was chewing on her lip, doubt flashing across her face as she processed this new information. Lydia could sympathize. She wasn’t sure how she felt about Zack’s revelation, how she was supposed to feel about something like that. She wasn’t even sure what it meant. Why would them sticking together keep everyone alive longer? Her powers could certainly make them safer, but even she could be overwhelmed by enough Burnouts. Last night had proven that well enough. Still…

  Ava swallowed, nodded to herself, and grabbed Lydia’s hand. “I believe them,” she said. “Mike, I believe them.”

  “I believe them too,” Lydia chimed in. Even with her questions and doubts, it felt right as she said it.

  Zack let out a soft whoosh of air and slumped forward until his forehead was resting on his folded hands. Lydia thought she heard him mutter “thank God” in such a grumpy, put-upon tone that she almost laughed. Caleb’s eyes snapped to hers with startling intensity. She found herself trying to smile at him reassuringly, the smile widening when his face softened in relief.

  Some of the tension melted out of Grandpa. He bent forward again, resting his elbows on the counter and steepling his fingers as he stared at Caleb and Zack. Caleb returned his gaze steadily, but Lydia was pretty sure that he was only not squirming by sheer force of will. Grandpa had that effect on people.

  “All right, then we’ve got a decision to make. Stay with them, or make our own way?” He broke off his staring contest with Caleb to look at both of them in turn. “You get a say in this, too,” he said. Lydia turned her attention back to the brothers, who were both wearing nearly-identical expressions of hope as Caleb watched her.

  “I wanna stay with them, Grandpa,” Lydia said. “I think we need to.” She didn’t quite understand why, or what Zack meant when he said they were important, but the rightness of her words settled deep in her bones. They needed to stick together. Ava was already nodding her agreement, and Grandpa scrubbed a weary hand over his face before focusing on Caleb again.

  “All right, Reed. My girls trust you…and I’ll admit, I don’t see any way that any of this makes sense except if I assume you’re telling me the truth. But understand this, son: I get why you kept your mouths shut about your brother, especially if he’s as strong as my granddaughter. So I get it. But the only way this works is if all the cards are on the table all the time.” Grandpa’s eyes were hard as granite, his words leaving absolutely no room for argument. “If you ever try to keep something your brother knows about us from us again, we’re gone. No ifs, ands, or buts and before I go, I will knock your teeth so far down your throat you’ll be able to chew your own ass out for pissing me off. Understand?”

  Caleb’s eyes had been getting wider and wider as Grandpa spoke, and at the end, he glanced between Lydia and Ava. Lydia only nodded, spreading her hands in an expansive, what-can-you-do? sort of gesture.

  “He’ll do it,” she said seriously.

  “Totally,” agreed Ava.

  “Rule fifty, dude,” Zack finished.

  “Y-Yes, sir,” Caleb stammered finally, reaching up to rub at the back of his neck. Then he shook his head and firmed up his posture. “No more secrets,” he promised, and stuck out his hand. Grandpa regarded him with a level look for a moment, before reaching across the table to shake it firmly.

  “What’s rule fifty?” Ava asked, curiosity sparking in her eyes.

  Zack turned toward the sound of her voice and winked. “Three or more people think someone can kick your ass, there’s probably a reason why.” There was a tiny, fierce smile playing about his lips, and the lines of his body had completely relaxed, as though—threats aside—he already knew that things were going to work out.

  Then again, maybe he did.

  “All right, then.” The last of the tension evaporated, and Lydia breathed a silent sigh of relief. This she could handle. Their situation was still precarious, but at least now they could work together. Grandpa leaned back, slinging one arm around Ava’s shoulders and squeezing gently. “First order of business, we need to decide where we’re gonna go. We can’t stay here anymore. Last night proved that.”

  “You have an idea, Grandpa?” Lydia asked.

  “We’re good on ammunition for a little while, but unless either of you boys have a cache somewhere in that truck, it’s not gonna last forever.”

  Caleb gave a quiet, humorless laugh. “Yeah, I wish,” he muttered. “We’re running pretty low, too.”

  “You can trade ammo for anything,” Zack chimed in. He tilted his head slightly, a thoughtful look settling on his face. “That and toilet paper. Toilet paper’s solid gold, these days.

  “What about Cleveland?” Ava asked, looking between Grandpa and Caleb. “Mike, we heard you and Jim arguin
g about whether we should head for that green zone. Caleb, I know you said a bunch of the green zones weren’t even real, but we can’t just stay on the road. Can we?”

  Caleb shrugged. “I mean, me and Zack have been doing okay. Between him and Lydia, now, we’ve got a better shot than most people. But we’re not safe. Nothing’s safe anymore.”

  “Cleveland’s a three-hour drive from here,” Grandpa said, rubbing the whiskers on his chin. Caleb snorted.

  “You haven’t seen the highways around the city. It’ll take two days just to get through 270.”

  “That long?” Lydia asked in surprise. As soon as she did, though, she recalled the pictures she’d seen on the news before all the comms failed. Highways and roads clogged with thousands of cars as people fled the cities, routes left impassable and cut off. Even if a good portion of them were fuse tech or combustion powered, there would be countless cars that were completely dependent on the highway and street guidance systems for movement. Finding clear paths would be next to impossible. “Never mind.”

  Caleb scrubbed his hand over his hair. “It’s not a bad idea,” he allowed. “We can’t stay here. Even if Cleveland’s closed, at least we’re on the move.”

  Grandpa nodded. “Sounds like we have a plan.”

  Caleb blew out a breath, reaching over to ruffle Zack’s hair. Zack let out an irritated squawk and slapped his hand away. Even so, both boys looked incredibly relieved, tension lifting off of them like fog burning off under the sun.

  “Well, if it’s gonna take us a few days, we better get started,” Caleb said. “Gonna be a long trip. You’ve got to get packed, see if we can squeeze anything else out of your foodsynths, we gotta see how we’re gonna load the vehicles up…if you don’t want to take any of the cars you have here, I can try and find something close that I can hotwire.” At Lydia and Ava’s startled looks, Caleb gave a sheepish shrug.