by Holly Hook
Jeff drives us right through the middle of town.
I can’t bear to look at it.
The old, cute houses are collections of matchsticks. The flag waves at the post office like it’s saying goodbye. The clock tower reads three in the afternoon. A mom and her kids walk out of a dollar store and head in the direction of the park. The Evansburg Middle and High School building hunkers low to the ground, steeling itself against what’s to come.
Tomorrow, this will all be gone.
The library I love. The whole Old West history of this town. Betsy’s amazing burgers and the cool wooden walkways of the park.
Flattened. Obliterated. It’ll be every nightmare picture I’ve ever seen of the very worst tornado damage. People will mill around, trying to salvage what they can. Hug. Cry.
All three of us stay silent. Dorian eyes his jeans. Tommy doesn’t even argue with Jeff. He knows, like I do, that there isn’t any other way.
But what if he’s right that Dorian and I could get screwed up somehow by merging again? Or that awful stuff could happen to my mind?
I look at the lock on the door to avoid the sight of Betsy’s Kitchen.
The people of Evansburg will lose their homes, but that’s better than them all living the lives of Outbreakers.
And if Dorian and I survived merging once, we can do it again. I’m terrified, but I have to do this.
Jeff pulls up to the sidewalk. We’re at the police station. So much for not getting treated like prisoners.
“We just need to make sure someone watches you for the night,” Jeff says. “Come on. We’ll make sure you’re comfortable.”
They take our phones away and put us in jail cells. Dorian must have left his at home, because they find nothing in his pockets.
I’m stuck by myself in one cell since they’re not going to put me in with the guys. Dorian and Tommy get led down the hall to another one. I hear the door closing with a metallic sound right out of the TV shows.
It turns out that Evansburg’s two main police officers are Outbreakers, too. The woman, who has the name W. Burton on her name badge, stops to check on me. “Would you like anything to drink?” Her brown and black eyes are wide with sympathy.
“Can you let me out? I’m not going to run away.” Tommy’s not in earshot, so I can say it now. “I’m…I’m willing to help you guys keep your neighbors away from the Deathwind. Even though this scares the crap out of me.”
Burton frowns. “You’re in here because we’re protecting you. I still can’t let you out. Not all of the Outbreakers agree with this plan, and there’s a chance one of them might try something if they see you. Not to mention, we have no idea where Madeline and her father are. They know Evansburg just as well as I do. I went to school with Madeline. All the way up to academy, in fact.”
“Really?” Then a question pops into my head. “You had no idea Madeline was a new Outbreaker this whole time?”
Burton shakes her head. “I don’t remember anything different about her. I always thought she was human. She never gave storms a second thought, not like I had to. She spent a few years away from Evansburg. Maybe something happened to her when she was living out of state. She only came back last year to live with her father. I even went shopping with her a few times a couple of months ago.”
“You went—“ I start.
But Officer Burton’s walking away, muttering to herself and shaking her head. She disappears on the other side of the bars. She sighs and the sound fades down the hall.
I get it. Officer Burton and Madeline had been friends.
The same way Uncle Cassius and I used to be.