I bent closer. “Yeah, I think so.” Straightening, I smacked Pol’s shoulder. “Weird building. And it’s not falling down at all. Which means it made it through an earthquake and lasted over a hundred years.”
“And it’s just waiting for something slightly heavy to land on it to make it crumble to dust,” Pol said.
“I’ll just set down lightly. I’ll be ready with the throttle.” Melisa sounded like she was tired of Pol’s worrying.
The rest of us stood watching as Melisa brought the pod to hover above the flat concrete top of the building. She slowly eased us down. The pod’s lights washed over the surprisingly clean concrete. There were small branches and leaves here and there, and plenty of bird crap on the side walls, but otherwise it was clear. Which made sense. How was debris going to get up this high anyway? The building had to be thirty meters tall at least.
The pod descended steadily, the circle of light getting smaller with each meter we dropped.
“Light.” Pol was practically reaching for the holographic controls. “Land it light.”
“I know!” Melisa had each hand on a control on the console in front of her. Her left kept the throttle under control; her right controlled the angle of the propulsion.
Then the floor felt like it dropped out from under us. I sucked in a breath and grabbed a loop above me. “Melisa!”
“Sorry.” Sweat dripped down her face. “Sorry. My fingers slipped.”
“Don’t slip again,” James said.
“Good idea,” she said. “Maybe stop talking.”
We kept quiet.
The pod bumped onto the building’s surface, hopped off just a bit, then settled back down. Pol turned the lights so they were shining farther out.
We all stayed completely still, listening and waiting for the building to buckle under us. My fingers were squeezing the loop above me tight enough to melt it into my hand. Because holding a strap was going to save me when tons of concrete crushed the pod.
The whine of the propulsion units slowly faded as Melisa slid the throttle control down. Then the units turned off.
Nobody moved.
“Anybody hear the building breaking under us?” James asked. He grinned. “That wasn’t a pleasant bump there, Melisa, but good job.” He turned and hit the button to open the pod. “Come on, relax. If the building doesn’t collapse under the propulsion units blasting them and the weight of the pod, we’re good.”
I forced my fingers to open on the strap attached to the pod ceiling. “Okay. Let’s take a look around.” I followed James out of the pod, into the hundred-year-old dead city.
Chapter 19
Concrete was hard. Somehow it felt harder than the mountain rocks I’d been living in and running on for the last few months. Was it because concrete was flat? Every step I took felt like it was jarring all the way from my foot, through my leg, and into my back.
James stomped. “This stuff is bizarre.”
I turned when I heard a knocking sound. Pol was crouching, rapping his fingers against the stuff. “It’s so flat and smooth. But it’s rock.”
“It’s dumb,” Melisa said. “It doesn’t capture kinetic energy from cycle wheels and people walking. What a waste.”
Lily stood there watching us, an amused expression on her face. “People, it’s concrete.”
We spread out, exploring the top level of the strange, squat building.
“Oh, I get it!” Pol called out from somewhere deeper in the shadows. The sun had completely set and the remaining light was fading fast. “Guys, come see this.”
I hurried over, my ears straining to hear any sign of cracking in the building. Somehow, after a hundred years and who knew how much rain and wind—and a big earthquake, of course—the building was solid. I tapped my chest light on and found Pol standing at the top of a long, wide ramp that led to the next level down.
Pol’s grin made his face light up. He looked like he’d just discovered a new way to make a really big explosion. “You’re not going to believe this. This is a building for cars. Like, a car house or something.”
“How’d you figure that?” James showed up right behind Melisa.
“Look.” Pol pointed down the ramp.
James and Melisa turned on their chest lights. The individual beams melded into one wide stream of light that cut through the shadows. Down there, at the bottom of the ramp, was a car. An actual car, not a moldering, melting heap of junk.
“Bugging spam,” Melisa whispered.
Pol, despite his size and his limp, somehow actually got to the car first. Lily just walked down the ramp, obviously not quite as excited as the rest of us.
The car was a lot less intact than it had looked from far away. There was nothing in its windows, and it was missing a lot of its shell. Or whatever you called the outside pieces. That left gaping holes that showed what the inside of the car was. As if it had no skin.
Circling the thing, I found it was missing three of four wheels. The last wheel was just a metal disc that was somewhat warped by the weight of the car sitting on it at a bad angle. If I remembered right, the wheels should have had some kind of black rubber on them. I thought back to the video clip I’d found on the memory card a while back. There had been cars in it.
Tires. The black rubber parts were called tires. This car didn’t have any of that. In fact, it had very little. No seats—only some metal bolts and braces where I guessed they were supposed to be.
“Back here it’s more worn out,” James said from the other end of the car.
We joined him and saw he was right. This part of the car was right next to the open side of the building, so the sun and rain must have been hitting it all the time.
I stepped back and looked the thing over. “Actually, I think that’s the front.”
“How can you tell?” James asked.
“Yeah, he’s right,” Melisa said. “Look, this is the control console.” She brushed dust a few centimeters thick off a cracked and warped panel. “There was some kind of control stick here, I think.”
I closed my eyes, wishing I had that video clip again. “Right. Like a round thing, though, to turn the wheels.” I ran my hands down the lower front of the vehicle. “This is the section that had the propulsion units and stuff.”
“Engines. They had engines,” Pol said. He was leaning over the compartment, brushing what few pieces were still attached.
“This one looks like it must have carried a few people,” James said.
I noticed Lily watching us from deeper in the building. Her flowing, light brown clothes waved in an early evening breeze. “You okay?”
Lily nodded. “You four look like kids discovering a new toy.”
“You don’t think this is amazing? It’s almost like we’re traveling in time.”
“I haven’t been sheltered in a completely artificial environment my whole life. I’ve seen these before.”
She had a point. I studied the old car. “It has to be a quarter the size of a pod. Maybe less. I wonder how many people it used to carry.” I stepped back again, trying to imagine people actually driving this thing around on the old, plant covered streets out there.
“Some people had big families back then,” Melisa said. “This might have been a family’s car.”
“Could have carried like six or seven people, I bet,” James said.
“It’s too bad it’s basically an empty shell now,” Pol said. “I’d love to see how it worked.” He dropped to the ground and stuck his head under the car. He popped his chest light out of its harness and shone it under there.
“Careful,” I said. “This thing’s over a hundred years old.”
“It’s not going to spontaneously explode or collapse,” Pol said. A loud screech came from the back of the thing. Pol yelped and scrambled up.
Melisa poked her head around from the back. “Not collapsing.” She grinned.
“Bug me!” Pol shook his head, putting his hands on his knees to catch his breath. I tr
ied not to laugh.
“I think this thing had a name,” Melisa said.
I joined her. “What was that noise?”
“I moved it maybe a centimeter.” Melisa tugged on a thin metal arm that hung from the middle of the back panel. Why this panel was still here, I didn’t know. “It uncovered this.” She rubbed at the metal.
I bent closer. “Ravan.” I used a sleeve to try and get some of the corrosion off. “Yeah, it says Ravan.”
“It’s part of the car. Maybe they named their cars back then?” She ran her fingers down the back panel. “Why would they do that?”
“No idea.”
“Guys.” James had wandered over to the low wall that ran the entire length of the building, and he was looking outside. “Come here.”
Something in his voice made the hair on my neck stand up. We ran over. “What is it?” I asked.
“Down there.” James pointed to the ground outside the building, maybe fifteen meters below us.
Darkness had fallen completely while we examined the car. We all shone our lights down. Lily turned on the light at the end of her keeper. There was a carpet of plants on the ground far below that covered everything, hiding shapes and piles of junk. A plant-free track through the carpet led from our building out to what must have been the street.
“What are we looking at?” Pol asked.
“See that path that goes out from the building?” James pointed.
“Sure. What’s the problem?” Pol’s light flickered to the path and all around it.
“Plants don’t grow like that, leaving perfectly straight lines between them,” James said. That’s people.” He tapped his light to make it brighter and shone it out to the road. “Somebody’s been here.”
Chapter 20
Spam, he’s right. I stepped back and wished I hadn’t left my keeper on the pod. I turned fast, throwing my chest light all around us. Nothing.
“We need to get back to the pod.”
“That could be natural,” Pol said. “I mean, maybe there’s something keeping it from—”
Melisa grabbed him. “You can theorize in the pod.”
We ran back up the ramp. By the time we were at the top, I was breathing hard and my heart pounded in my ears. When was the last time I’d had my heart rate this high? Strange how this had all started with me deliberately pushing it higher, since now I almost never did.
“Why are you guys so worried?” Lily stood outside the pod as we all grabbed a keeper.
“Do you know who’s been here?” Pol asked.
“Well, no,” Lily said. “It could be anyone.”
“Exactly,” Pol said. “Remember, the Ranjers are after us and not all Wanderers are as nice as you and Scott.”
“Fair enough.”
We kept watch all night, trading off to let four people sleep at a time. Nothing attacked us. I spent the first hour of my designated sleeping time lying awake on my blankets, wondering who could have worn that path in the plant cover. Had to be Wanderers. Or maybe those Outcasts that Tasha had talked about. Except they were supposed to be in a building somewhere near Mento.
Morning broke and I could barely move. I rose, stretching and groaning. It didn’t help that I’d been sleeping on a hard bench in a Ranjer pod—they weren’t designed for sleeping comfort.
“Anybody got any food?” Pol, with his hurt ankle, had been deemed one of the injured along with James and had gotten to sleep in a pilot chair up front.
Melisa leaned into the pod through the open door. “Pol, you were supposed to pack your own.”
“I did, but all I’ve got left is this protein paste.” He stretched and stood. “Seriously though. Anybody have some of that rabbit meat?”
“You mean my rabbit meat?” Melisa asked. On her second day out hunting with Tasha and Lily, she had returned to the camp practically glowing with pride and carrying a fat rabbit. Tasha had been impressed.
“Sure. Got any?” Pol rummaged through his pack.
“No, Pol,” Melisa said. “We ate it all that day. Rabbits are small.”
I’d eaten my last apple the day before, so I was down to protein paste too. We had to figure out this food thing better next time. “We can eat while we scan, can’t we?”
“True statement,” Melisa said. She went over and kicked the pilot chair. “James, wake up.” James was the deepest sleeper I’d ever seen. He’d once slept through a shouting match between Pol and David.
The former Enforser stirred and pushed himself up. He hissed and grabbed his shoulder. “Warning, everyone: Getting shot isn’t fun.”
I put my hand on my side. “Really? That’s crazy.” Whatever Kristin had done to my bullet wound had held even through the fight with the Ranjers.
“An arrow’s worse.” Lily pulled a pack of dark strips of something out of her pack and opened it. She selected one of the strips and took a bite.
Melisa fired the pod up and got us moving.
“What is that?” Whatever Lily had, and it looked like meat of some kind, had to be better than protein paste. The paste tasted basically like mashed New Chapter.
“Cured deer meat. It’s called jerky.” She tore another small bite off the stuff.
“Cured?” My mouth was definitely watering.
“You cut the meat into thin strips, soak them in salt water if you’ve got it, then just put it in a smoker and let them basically slow cook over a couple days.” She threw a small piece my way. “It makes the meat last longer—longer than if you cooked it regularly.”
The jerky smelled rich and wild. I put my paste away and took a bite. It was tough to get through, but once I got a mouthful, I was in love. The toughness didn’t make it unpleasant. Instead, it felt like more of a meal. I finished my tiny piece and wondered how rude it would be for me to ask for more.
“I’ll show you how to make it some time,” Lily said.
The pod banked under us. I watched the ruined city through one of the windows as Melisa brought the pod low and directed us between two rows of buildings. I went forward and watched Pol calibrate the sensors.
“Okay, they’re good. Let’s go.”
We flew down the street. The sensors’ readouts flashed quicker than I could follow, capturing all kinds of shapes and patterns.
“Looks like it’s working,” Pol said. “We just need to keep track of the ground we cover.”
I looked out the windows of the pod and tried to make sure we didn’t skip a street, but it got boring fast. Every so often, we would disturb a flock of white birds, making them fly off a building, sometimes out of a tree. I wondered why we didn’t see more animals, like deer or… something.
“So why do you think there aren’t animals in the city?” I wasn’t asking anyone in particular.
“Really?” Lily sounded surprised and amused. “We’ve been here since yesterday and you still can’t figure that out?”
So I was missing something obvious. Great. I caught James’s eye, then glanced at Pol. I could tell he was listening. At least he didn’t know the answer right away.
“If the place were actually flooded, like Scott said it was, it would make sense,” James said. “But it’s not.”
“No, not right now,” Lily said. She looked out a window. “It’s what? Twelve hours after we first got here?”
After having the Papa attached to me my whole life, it was strange to not have a quick way to tell time. I checked where the sun was.
“I guess something like that.”
Lily smiled. “So the tide’s still out.”
“The what?”
“The tide. You know, the way the water gets higher and lower in a twelve hour cycle?” She turned to each of us in turn. “You’ve never heard of it.”
I shook my head. Pol spoke up. “I’ve heard of that, but only once or twice in school.”
Lily pointed out the front of the pod. “Okay, so the tide goes out and comes in. You’ve got high tide, when it’s in, then low tide, when it’s out. One hig
h tide is about twelve hours before the next high tide—the same with low tide. So six hours between the highest tide and the lowest tide.”
“So the tide is out right now?” I followed where she was pointing. “That’s why the city’s not flooded—but it will flood when the tide is high?”
“Probably.”
I thought about that. “It might be better if we go down there when the tide’s out.”
“Might be. And we’ll want to pay attention so we don’t get caught by the tide coming back.” Lily lifted the keeper she’d been working with since the day before. “Also, I still need someone to show me how to use this.”
Chapter 21
James joined Lily on a pod bench and they bent over the keeper. I stayed in the front. It felt like it took at least a half hour to finish our search of the first street.
“Pol, are you sure this will work?”
“About 85% sure,” Pol said. “It really should.”
“You can be the backup,” Melisa said. “Keep a lookout and maybe you’ll see it.”
“You’re a funny person,” I said.
I watched the plant-covered buildings slide by the pod. I’d grown used to the slight vibration in the floor caused by the propulsion units, and it only took a few tight turns for me to learn to keep my knees bent so I didn’t topple over.
It took another twenty minutes to go down the next street. There had to be over a hundred streets for us to scan. It was going to be a long morning.
“There’s water down there now.” Pol stood and leaned over, watching the ground. “The tide must be coming in.”
We were over halfway through the search and the sensors had actually found some old green signs with words like ‘Grove’ on them. One had said ‘Gough.’ I’d never heard of a ‘gough.’ What did they name streets for back then, anyway?
We came to a place where there were no buildings on one side of the street. We’d seen a few of these before; I guessed they had been parks like Hope Park back in New Frisko. Now they were just wild, overgrown areas. This one actually had trees.
A couple beeps sounded.
“Bugging spam, it worked.” Pol jumped up. “Melisa, right there! That’s Grove, right there!” He was practically jumping up and down. “Across from that park or whatever. There’s a sign right there!”
Push (Beat series Book 2) Page 13