“He’s coming,” Fitch said and folded his arms.
“Then I’ll be ready,” Zeke replied and walked out.
~~~
Jimmy Swallow sat on the floor of an identical room in an identical wing of the Clinic. Tears streamed from puffy eyes and down scabby cheeks. His arms and hands were riddled with sores. The floor was littered with skin flakes.
Why me?
He clambered to his feet and crossed to the locked door. With every movement a puff of powdered skin fell from his body. He reached out his mind, searching for Zeke’s telltale thought pattern. Nothing. Just the mundane theta waves of the nurses and orderlies.
Why won’t Zeke help me?
Zeke was the only psychic on Mars who might yet save him. But the snotty little kid had snubbed him.
“One day you’ll pay for this,” Jimmy muttered between sobs.
He strode to the far side of his room and the tiny grill that looked out onto the dry Martian landscape. He stared out at the unobtainable freedom.
A sudden bolt of pain struck him. Jimmy cried out as he doubled up. Spasms of agony radiated out from his spine to every fibre of his being. The same pain he had been suffering for weeks now, but this was the worst yet, as though his body was dissolving from the inside out. Another wave whacked him in the stomach. He tried to call for the medics. Instead of words he coughed up a cloud of smoke. He collapsed onto his knees.
“No-o-o-o…” he screamed in his final seconds as a human being. The pain flung his arms back and his head up, even as the light died in his eyes. His body convulsed into a brutal fit. Skin and flesh turned to sand that cascaded from his skeleton, only for his bones to crumble too. With one last, strangulated cry Jimmy Swallow fell back onto the floor, and melted into powder.
For a second, maybe two, the room was silent. Then a breeze danced around Jimmy’s remains, catching the grains and lifting them up into the air. At first a few, then more and more till they were all circling around the room. The breeze grew stronger, concentrating the grains into a whirlwind. A dust devil.
The dust devil streamed out through the grill. Outside, it hesitated briefly, gathering more dirt from the Martian soil and gaining size. Within its swirling vortex, a shape formed, shadowy and shifting, but recognisably humanoid.
The creature stepped away, covering several metres with each footfall. Every step carried it further from the buildings of Tithonium Central and deeper into the Martian wilderness.
~~~
Mars is a planet of secrets. Uncover the truth at Zeke’s web site:
www.zekehailey.com.
And Zeke Hailey’s adventures will continue in The Particle Beast.
Gravity's Eye Page 19