Coyotes watched. They were anxious, skittish, scared of the massive insects.
She wished she could ask Jamal what was happening. But Jamal would not be answering any more questions.
She wondered if she could flee. She wondered if she should flee. But what difference would it make?
The bugs had piled up a small mountain of rocks. Bigger and bigger stones were being hauled out.
She stepped in front of one of the insects. It was carrying a rock that could easily crush her. It would be nothing for these bugs to attack her, tear her apart as they’d apparently done to poor scared Jamal.
But the bug just scuttled around her.
Why? Why would they eat Jamal and not her? Because they ate only truly living flesh? Or because they knew that she was Drake and Drake was she and they could not harm Drake?
What was stopping them?
Who was stopping them?
But Brittney already knew the answer. She knew that something, someone, some mind was touching hers. It was as if she’d always known it. As if that cold consciousness had always been there in the background watching her even as she averted her eyes and looked to heaven.
When she was still in her grave, clawing at the dirt, she had felt it.
When she looked deep into the eyes of her brother, Tanner, she could sometimes catch glimpses of it, in layers down beneath his disguise as an angel.
She had known but had not wanted to know that Drake was its creature, the creature of this devil, just as she was God’s creature.
She looked at the mine shaft, stood there as the insects cleared the rocks. Like a rock herself in the midst of rushing waters.
They were freeing the evil one. She could do nothing to stop them. She would do nothing to stop Drake from going to be with it. The devil would win this battle.
The dark mind teased at the edges of her own muddled thoughts. In faint, wordless whispers it made promises.
“What do you want with me?” she asked.
To give you what you want.
“I want to die,” Brittney said. “To go to heaven.”
When she closed her eyes she felt, rather than saw, something very like a glowing smile from a deep pool of darkness.
She had begged God to free her. Maybe this was His way. Maybe it wasn’t Sam who would free her, but this devil inside the mountain.
Brittney walked into the mine shaft, lifted a small rock, and carried it away.
“Can you make any sense out of that?” Sam asked Jack.
They were in the marina’s office. Two dozen boats sat placidly in the water. Several dozen more were raised out of the water in a long boathouse. There were papers on a desk, books in gray steel shelves, two broken-down rolling office chairs. The out-of-date calendars were reminders that no one had been here in a very long time.
The computers were useless, of course, without electricity. But Jack had insisted on carrying three of the half-exhausted laptops from the train. And a search had turned up a flash drive.
“It’s some kind of proprietary software. I had to open it in Preview and it’s hard to make sense of.”
Toto was rummaging through cupboards, finding nothing much. Dekka was sitting in one of the chairs with her feet up, gazing gloomily out at the lake. From time to time she surreptitiously ran her hands over her stomach, shoulders, thighs, checking for any sign of infestation.
And from time to time she would pull her shirt back to check the cauterized wound from Sam’s fire.
“Hah!” Jack said. “I think I’ve got it. They had a truck deliver marine gas just a week before the FAYZ. A thousand gallons in round numbers. That should have brought them up to about twelve hundred gallons total. And they have diesel, too. I just can’t find those. . . .”
He trailed off, lost in the numbers again.
This, thought Sam, is why I brought Jack.
Sam was feeling amazingly contented. He’d had a sudden flood of good news. They had found food. They had found soda. They would undoubtedly find beer and more soda and maybe a few bags of ancient chips once they searched the boats, the kind of stuff people took for a day on the lake.
Best of all, the lake was huge and filled with fresh water. More fresh water than they could ever use in a thousand years.
They’d also found a clipboard with scrawled figures indicating that the lake had recently been restocked with trout and bass.
It was like stumbling into the Garden of Eden. They could move the whole population up here. Use the boats as housing. Fish the lake. Drink the water. Use the gas to haul the crops from the fields up here.
It wasn’t perfect. But for the FAYZ it was heaven.
If only Astrid were here.
He tried to push that thought aside. He was mad at Astrid. He was sick of Astrid. And yet, all he could think of was her face when he handed her a jar of Nutella and a can of Pepsi.
“Why didn’t they do something?” Dekka wondered aloud.
“Who?” Sam asked.
“The people who were studying crazy boy over there.” She jerked her head toward Toto.
“What were they going to do?” Sam asked with a shrug.
“How about warn people what was happening?” Dekka said. “Like, ‘Hey, people of Perdido Beach, something very weird is happening’?”
“They were scientists,” Jack mumbled, no longer deciphering boring documents but searching the laptop’s hard drive, reveling in the sheer visceral pleasure of opening applications.
“So they were scientists,” Dekka snapped. “So what?”
“So they were studying, right?” Jack said. “They had to understand it first. Can’t just run around . . . Hey, look, there’s this cool Easter Egg if you press—”
She wished she could ask Jamal what was happening. But Jamal would not be answering any more questions.
She wondered if she could flee. She wondered if she should flee. But what difference would it make?
The bugs had piled up a small mountain of rocks. Bigger and bigger stones were being hauled out.
She stepped in front of one of the insects. It was carrying a rock that could easily crush her. It would be nothing for these bugs to attack her, tear her apart as they’d apparently done to poor scared Jamal.
But the bug just scuttled around her.
Why? Why would they eat Jamal and not her? Because they ate only truly living flesh? Or because they knew that she was Drake and Drake was she and they could not harm Drake?
What was stopping them?
Who was stopping them?
But Brittney already knew the answer. She knew that something, someone, some mind was touching hers. It was as if she’d always known it. As if that cold consciousness had always been there in the background watching her even as she averted her eyes and looked to heaven.
When she was still in her grave, clawing at the dirt, she had felt it.
When she looked deep into the eyes of her brother, Tanner, she could sometimes catch glimpses of it, in layers down beneath his disguise as an angel.
She had known but had not wanted to know that Drake was its creature, the creature of this devil, just as she was God’s creature.
She looked at the mine shaft, stood there as the insects cleared the rocks. Like a rock herself in the midst of rushing waters.
They were freeing the evil one. She could do nothing to stop them. She would do nothing to stop Drake from going to be with it. The devil would win this battle.
The dark mind teased at the edges of her own muddled thoughts. In faint, wordless whispers it made promises.
“What do you want with me?” she asked.
To give you what you want.
“I want to die,” Brittney said. “To go to heaven.”
When she closed her eyes she felt, rather than saw, something very like a glowing smile from a deep pool of darkness.
She had begged God to free her. Maybe this was His way. Maybe it wasn’t Sam who would free her, but this devil inside the mountain.
Brittney walked into the mine shaft, lifted a small rock, and carried it away.
“Can you make any sense out of that?” Sam asked Jack.
They were in the marina’s office. Two dozen boats sat placidly in the water. Several dozen more were raised out of the water in a long boathouse. There were papers on a desk, books in gray steel shelves, two broken-down rolling office chairs. The out-of-date calendars were reminders that no one had been here in a very long time.
The computers were useless, of course, without electricity. But Jack had insisted on carrying three of the half-exhausted laptops from the train. And a search had turned up a flash drive.
“It’s some kind of proprietary software. I had to open it in Preview and it’s hard to make sense of.”
Toto was rummaging through cupboards, finding nothing much. Dekka was sitting in one of the chairs with her feet up, gazing gloomily out at the lake. From time to time she surreptitiously ran her hands over her stomach, shoulders, thighs, checking for any sign of infestation.
And from time to time she would pull her shirt back to check the cauterized wound from Sam’s fire.
“Hah!” Jack said. “I think I’ve got it. They had a truck deliver marine gas just a week before the FAYZ. A thousand gallons in round numbers. That should have brought them up to about twelve hundred gallons total. And they have diesel, too. I just can’t find those. . . .”
He trailed off, lost in the numbers again.
This, thought Sam, is why I brought Jack.
Sam was feeling amazingly contented. He’d had a sudden flood of good news. They had found food. They had found soda. They would undoubtedly find beer and more soda and maybe a few bags of ancient chips once they searched the boats, the kind of stuff people took for a day on the lake.
Best of all, the lake was huge and filled with fresh water. More fresh water than they could ever use in a thousand years.
They’d also found a clipboard with scrawled figures indicating that the lake had recently been restocked with trout and bass.
It was like stumbling into the Garden of Eden. They could move the whole population up here. Use the boats as housing. Fish the lake. Drink the water. Use the gas to haul the crops from the fields up here.
It wasn’t perfect. But for the FAYZ it was heaven.
If only Astrid were here.
He tried to push that thought aside. He was mad at Astrid. He was sick of Astrid. And yet, all he could think of was her face when he handed her a jar of Nutella and a can of Pepsi.
“Why didn’t they do something?” Dekka wondered aloud.
“Who?” Sam asked.
“The people who were studying crazy boy over there.” She jerked her head toward Toto.
“What were they going to do?” Sam asked with a shrug.
“How about warn people what was happening?” Dekka said. “Like, ‘Hey, people of Perdido Beach, something very weird is happening’?”
“They were scientists,” Jack mumbled, no longer deciphering boring documents but searching the laptop’s hard drive, reveling in the sheer visceral pleasure of opening applications.
“So they were scientists,” Dekka snapped. “So what?”
“So they were studying, right?” Jack said. “They had to understand it first. Can’t just run around . . . Hey, look, there’s this cool Easter Egg if you press—”
