Hunger_A Gone Novel

by Michael Grant

  storm swept over him, almost knocked him to his knees. He

  386 M I C H A E L

  G R A N T

  grabbed the door and held on to it, shaking.

  It came to him as hunger. Hunger deeper than anything he

  had ever felt himself. As if he had nothing inside his skin but

  a roaring, starving tiger.

  Hungry in the dark.

  Caine whimpered. He caught himself before he did it

  again, but the desperate sound was out of his mouth. Had

  Drake heard?

  Leave me alone, Caine pleaded silently with the voice in

  his head. I’m doing what you want, but leave me alone.

  Caine, looking down at the floor, saw Drake’s feet. Drake

  had arrived soundlessly. Or maybe Caine had been beyond

  hearing anything.

  “You okay?” Drake asked.

  “I’m fine,” Caine snapped.

  Drake said, “Good. I’m real glad about that.”

  Caine pushed past him, making sure to dig a hard shoulder into Drake.

  “What are you all doing asleep?” Caine demanded in a

  loud voice. “Sam could be outside right now, waiting for a

  chance to come back after us.”

  “We won’t have to worry about Sam for long,” Drake said.

  “Not once he’s fed.”

  Caine kicked Jack’s chair. He kicked the nearest of the

  hostages. “Wake up. All of you. It’s almost daylight outside.

  Sam may be planning something.”

  “What is your problem?” Diana demanded. “Did your

  monster overlord wake you up? Did he crack his crazy-brain

  H U N G E R

  38

  7

  whip and make you jump?”

  “Shut up!” Caine said savagely. “I don’t need this from you.

  Has anyone searched for food?”

  “You don’t think in the last three months Sam’s people

  have searched this place for food?” Diana said, but with less

  overt hostility than usual.

  “That’s not what I asked,” Caine yelled. “I asked whether

  any of you stupid, lazy idiots bothered to look for something

  to eat. It’s a yes-or-no answer.”

  “No,” Diana answered for all of them.

  “Then get off your butts and go look,” Caine said.

  Diana sighed and got to her feet. “I wouldn’t mind a little

  walk.”

  Jack got up as well. So did Drake’s two gunmen. The four

  of them disappeared down various hallways.

  “Just don’t go outside the building,” Caine yelled after

  them.

  Caine pulled Drake aside. “Has Jack got it worked out yet?”

  “I think so. He was looking smug right before he fell

  asleep.”

  Caine nodded. “We should move out as soon as we can.”

  “Shouldn’t we try to take Sam out first?” Drake asked.

  Caine snorted a laugh. “You say that like it’s easy. If we

  could start by taking Sam down, we’d have an easy time of

  it.” He shook his head. “No. That’s not how we do this. If they

  catch us, we use the uranium to make them back off.”

  Despite himself, Drake grinned. “Threaten to drop it on

  them?”

  388 M I C H A E L

  G R A N T

  “Threaten to smash it open,” Caine said. “Threaten to

  launch it into the air and smash it open.”

  “And everyone will glow in the dark,” Drake said, as if that

  was a happy thought.

  “I’ll only have one hand free,” Caine said. “So you may

  finally get a chance to use that gun you love so much.”

  “Should we send Bug to Coates?” Drake asked. “Bring

  more of our people?”

  “They wouldn’t come,” Caine said flatly.

  There was a commotion and Caine glanced aside to see

  Computer Jack storming down the hallway trailed by Diana,

  who tried unsuccessfully to hold him back. Like a two-yearold trying to hold a bull.

  “You!” Jack bellowed.

  He waved his fist in the air and Caine could see naked

  wires, like hair-thin snakes in his fingers.

  “You said you took these down!” Jack cried accusingly.

  “Oh, gee, I must have missed some,” Drake said. “Hey, did

  you find your girlfriend while you were looking around?”

  Jack froze. “What?”

  Drake had his arm uncoiled, ready to use. “She must have

  been doing pretty good speed when she hit the wire. Breezed

  right through them. Oh wait, I said that wrong. The wire

  breezed right through the Breeze.”

  “She . . . what . . .” Jack gasped.

  “Cut her right in half,” Drake said, laughing with

  sheer glee. “It was kind of neat to see. You’d have found it

  interesting, all her insides, sliced right in half. Like a meat

  H U N G E R

  389

  cleaver went through her.”

  “I’m going to kill you,” Jack whispered.

  “You don’t have the—”

  But Jack had tossed Diana aside and was running straight

  at Drake.

  Drake managed to lash him once with his whip hand, but

  only once. Jack hit him like a linebacker. Drake went flying

  across the room, flying like he’d stepped out in front of a bus.

  Drake landed hard, but rolled to his feet. He lashed again.

  There was a loud crack, and a tear appeared in Jack’s shirt.

  Jack never slowed down but went straight for Drake. But

  then, suddenly, he couldn’t move. He motored his legs, but

  could not advance.

  Caine with one raised hand held him with an irresistible

  force.

  “Let me go, Caine,” Jack yelled.

  “He’s yanking your chain, you idiot,” Caine yelled. The

  temptation to let Jack kill Drake was strong. It would solve a

  major problem—sooner or later Drake was going to challenge

  Caine. But for now, Drake was still necessary in a battle.

  Drake slashed at Jack with his whip, but the whip stopped

  in midair, hitting an invisible barrier.

  “Both of you knock it off,” Caine yelled.

  “You touch me, I’ll kill you!” Drake shrieked at Jack.

  “I said shut up, both of you!” Caine bellowed. He pushed

  both palms out, one aimed at Jack, the other at Drake. Both

  boys went flying backward. Jack landed hard on his back.

  Drake, lighter and without Jack’s superhuman strength, hit

  390 M I C H A E L

  G R A N T

  the wall and crumpled at its base.

  Caine caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and

  saw the backs of the two hostages as they bolted from the

  room.

  Caine twisted to aim for them, but they were out of his

  line of sight. He heard footsteps pelting away. “Get them!” he

  yelled.

  But Drake was slow getting up and Jack would be no help.

  Drake’s two thugs stood stock still, paralyzed. Caine realized

  that they were loyal to Drake, awaiting his orders and not

  Caine’s.

  He spun, raised his hands, lifted both the punks off the

  floor, and hurled them bodily down the hallway after the

  hostages.

  “Bring them back!” Caine bellowed.

  “Look out!” Diana cried.

  Gunfire erupted. Insanely loud. Caine heard bullets fly

/>   past his ear like buzzing dragonflies.

  Brittney!

  Not dead. Just playing dead and slowly, slowly working her

  way toward a gun she must have known was stashed under

  the counter.

  She was still in a heap on the floor, unable to stand, unable

  even to sit up, lying on her side firing.

  Caine leaped aside as bullets flew.

  He slammed heavily into the table, rebounded, and fell to

  his knees. He brought his palms up, but the barrel of the gun

  moved faster.

  H U N G E R

  39

  1

  But faster still, was Drake’s whip hand. It snapped and

  wrapped around Brittney’s wrist. The gun fired, but the bullets hit wall and ceiling.

  Caine, enraged, aimed his full power at the girl. She skidded across the floor and hit the wall, so quickly that Drake was still attached and was drawn along with her.

  Caine jumped to his feet, holding his focus on Brittney,

  raised her from the ground, suspended in midair.

  “You piece of—” Brittney said, and then she was a bullet

  herself, rocketing through the air.

  She flew through the hole Sam had burned earlier.

  That had not been Caine’s intention. The girl was lucky.

  Or someone was looking out for her.

  Outside, standing faithful guard, Dekka heard the eruption

  of gunfire from the control room.

  She leaped toward the wall just as something flew through

  the burned-out hole. It landed with the unmistakable sound

  of a human body hitting the ground.

  Dekka stared, too stunned to react.

  Then, off to her right, gunfire from inside the turbine

  building. Bright yellow flashes outlined the doorway.

  She broke her trance and ran toward the door. Edilio’s soldiers jumped up off the ground and fell in behind her.

  “Orc! Orc!” Dekka shouted.

  She heard rather than saw the monster stir. He’d been

  asleep in the back of the SUV. The springs squeaked as he

  clambered out.

  392 M I C H A E L

  G R A N T

  Two of Caine’s gunmen appeared as shadows in the doorway. Their guns aimed at the fleeing forms.

  Gunfire and one of the shapes fell without even crying out.

  Collapsed onto his face and did not move. The other ran, ran,

  ran.

  “I got him! I got him!” someone cried, more terror than

  pride in his voice.

  “Taylor!” Dekka yelled. “Distract them!”

  “Bouncing!” Taylor yelled back and disappeared.

  “Oh, my God, I think I killed him,” the voice moaned.

  Dekka raised her hands and both gunmen floated up off

  the ground. One smacked the top of the doorway. The other

  slid back inside, out of Dekka’s reach. The firing stopped. The

  running hostage collapsed, gasping, behind a vehicle.

  One second Taylor was running beside Dekka.

  A split second later she was staggering, still half running,

  across the control room of the power plant.

  “You stupid psycho!” Caine screamed at Drake.

  Drake had gone bone white, all but his cold gray eyes. “I

  just saved your life!”

  “You were being an idiot! You pushed Jack just to watch

  him squirm,” Caine yelled. “And look what happened. I’m

  busy keeping you two apart and look what happened, you

  stupid thug!”

  “Hey!” Diana yelled.

  It took Taylor a moment to recognize her. Her head was

  practically shaved.

  H U N G E R

  393

  “Hey!” Diana yelled again, pointing at Taylor. “We have

  company!”

  Caine whirled and swung his deadly hands up, but Taylor

  bounced across the room to appear in a far corner, behind

  him.

  “Jack, you traitor!” Taylor yelled, and bounced out of the

  room.

  Taylor popped back, right in Dekka’s face. “They’re freaking

  out in there. We should hit them now!”

  Dekka came to a stop. She added quickly in her mind. She

  had Orc and Taylor and herself. She had three of Edilio’s guys.

  The hostages were no longer an issue.

  But Caine and Drake were still alive. Still very, very dangerous. Plus at least two gunmen, maybe more.

  “No,” she said, feeling deflated. “Not without Sam.”

  “We should go now, right now!” Taylor yelled. She pointed

  at the bloody mess on the ground. “Look what they did. Look

  what they did! Look at what those animals did!”

  Dekka put a calming hand on the girl’s shoulder. “We go

  in now, we’ll lose,” she said. And even if Sam were there . . .

  She’d never seen Sam acting the way he had earlier. Like the

  fire had gone out in him.

  “You’re just scared,” Taylor said.

  “Don’t be up in my face, Taylor,” Dekka warned. “We don’t

  have the power. Simple as that. We attack now, we’ll lose. Sam

  will have more bodies for Edilio to bury. I don’t know if Sam

  can . . .” She stopped herself. Too late.

  394 M I C H A E L

  G R A N T

  “What about Sam?” Taylor demanded.

  Dekka shrugged. “Nothing. Boy’s just tired, is all. I think

  maybe he doesn’t need another fight tonight.”

  Taylor looked like she might argue some more. Then her

  shoulders sagged. “Yeah. Whatever.”

  “You head back to town. Tell Sam what went down. Tell

  him what you saw inside there.”

  “It’ll take me a few minutes. I can’t do it all in one bounce,”

  Taylor said.

  “Then get going.”

  Taylor disappeared and Dekka kicked furiously at the dirt.

  It had all happened too fast for her to do much more than

  watch.

  Mike Farmer was creeping from behind the truck where

  he’d hidden. Mickey was facedown and terribly still. The

  remains of Brittney were a nightmare.

  Dekka felt a flash of anger at Sam. He had run off and

  left her in charge. Well, she didn’t want to be in charge. Sam

  wasn’t the only one who was hanging on by his fingernails.

  Brianna . . . The thought was like a knife to the stomach,

  twisting, twisting.

  She had never even told Brianna how she felt. And now it

  was too late.

  Something landed on the pavement next to Dekka. She

  stared at what looked a great deal like chicken bones. Cooked

  chicken bones.

  Dekka looked up. She moved back and back to get a clear

  view.

  H U N G E R

  39

  5

  Ten stories up, eerie in the blazing light atop the turbine

  building, someone was waving her arms. Very fast.

  Time seemed to stand still. Dekka couldn’t breathe. She

  stared hard, not wanting to be wrong, not willing to believe

  until she was sure.

  “Breeze?” Dekka whispered, amazed.

  Dekka lowered her head for just a moment and thanked

  God. Brianna. Alive.

  Alive and as impatient as ever, by the look of it.

  No way Brianna could hear her over the noise of the plant.

  How Brianna had managed to get herself up there was a mystery, but judging from her frantic semaphore of waving arms, she wanted to get down.

  Dekk
a waved. She even displayed a rare smile. Brianna,

  alive.

  Brianna stuck her hands on her hips as if to say, “What’s

  keeping you?”

  Dekka considered for a moment. Then she pointed to

  a spot just at the base of the wall, well away from the door

  where Caine’s boys crouched hidden with guns.

  Brianna nodded.

  Dekka raised her hands.

  Brianna leaped into midair. And stayed in midair. No

  gravity dragged her down.

  Dekka took a deep breath. She switched off her power for

  a second and Brianna fell. On again and Brianna stopped

  falling. Off. On. Until Brianna floated just a few feet off the

  pavement.

  396 M I C H A E L

  G R A N T

  Dekka released her and Brianna landed lightly, taking the

  shock in her knees. Dekka steadied her.

  “What is going on down here?” Brianna demanded. “I

  heard guns. Woke me up.”

  “Good to see you, too, Brianna,” Dekka said dryly. “Everyone thought you were dead.”

  “Well, I’m not. Duh.”

  Dekka shook her head in tolerant amazement.

  They joined Mike behind the truck, leaving Edilio’s soldiers in place watching the door, guns leveled.

  Mike was surprised. “Hey, Drake told Jack you were dead!

  Jack totally lost it believing him.”

  Brianna grinned. “Oh he did, did he?”

  “Totally. He went all Aragorn on Drake. Tried to kill him.

  That’s how we . . . I mean, how I, got away.” He burst into

  tears then, weeping uncontrollably and covering his face with

  his hands.

  “You have a thing with Computer Jack?” Dekka asked.

  She carefully modulated her voice, giving nothing away of

  her inner turmoil. This was no time to burden Brianna with

  feelings she wouldn’t reciprocate. Feelings that might even

  make her mad at Dekka. The two of them hadn’t exactly been

  friends while they were at Coates. Dekka wasn’t sure Brianna

  even knew Dekka was gay.

  “I didn’t think I did,” Brianna answered, looking pleased

  with herself. “I guess I do.”

  “Okay,” Dekka said, swallowing hard. The important thing

  was Brianna was alive. And Mickey and Brittney were not.

  H U N G E R

  39

  7

  Dekka was in charge here, she had to make some decisions.

  “You going to tell me how you came to be up on the roof?”

  “Um . . . no. But here’s the thing: There’s a door up there

  that leads down inside. If I had a crowbar or something, I

  could get it open, get in and out of there before they know it.