finding the biggest knife in the kitchen.
Orsay Pettijohn was no longer hungry for dreams. She was
hungry for food.
Since coming to Coates she had eaten barely enough to
stay alive. The situation was desperate. Kids were going into
the surrounding woods looking for mushrooms, chasing
squirrels and birds. One boy had made a trap and managed
to catch a raccoon. The raccoon had bitten the boy repeatedly
before being beaten to death with a piece of rebar.
A girl named Allison had collected a bowl full of mushrooms. She had reasoned that cooking them would make them safe. She microwaved them till they were rubbery but
fragrant.
Orsay had smelled them cooking and had been driven
nearly crazy by the smell. One of the boys had attacked
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Allison, beaten, her and stolen the mushrooms as Allison
wept and cursed.
Within a few minutes the boy was vomiting. Then he
began raving, crying, shouting at things that weren’t there.
He’d fallen silent after a while. No one had entered his room
since to see if he was dead or alive.
Some kids had gathered grass and weeds and boiled them.
They had not gotten very sick, just a little. But they hadn’t
really gotten full, either.
Kids were thin. Their cheeks were hollow. They didn’t look
like starvation victims yet, because the serious hunger was
only a few days old. But soon, Orsay knew, bellies would bloat
and hair would turn red and crisp, and deadly resigned lethargy would set in. She had done a report once on famine, never imagining it would be something she would experience.
More and more kids made dark jokes about cannibalism.
Orsay was less and less sure she wouldn’t go along.
Unless, of course, she herself was the meal.
She was lying in her bungalow, in the woods, out behind
the school, watching an old download of a show that seemed
to be from another planet. The download came with a commercial for Doritos. The characters ate food all the time. It was impossible to believe that world had ever been real.
Suddenly, Orsay was aware of another person in the room.
She didn’t see him or hear him. She smelled him.
He smelled like . . . like fish. Her stomach rumbled and her
mouth watered.
“Who’s there?” she demanded, frightened.
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Bug appeared slowly. He emerged from the background of
Mose’s shabby room.
“What do you want?” Orsay demanded, not really afraid
of Bug now that she knew it was him. The smell, the fat, luscious aroma of fish, had her slavering like a hungry dog.
“I need you to do something,” Bug said.
“Did Caine send you?”
Bug hesitated. He glanced aside and for a few seconds
faded into the background again. Then he reappeared. His
face was twisted into a very un-Bug-like expression of determination. He glanced warily over his shoulder as if fearing that some second version of himself was lurking, listening.
“They have fish.”
“I can smell it,” Orsay whimpered.
“I brought some for you,” Bug said.
Orsay felt like she might faint. “Can I have it?”
“First you have to promise you’ll do what I say.”
Orsay knew Bug was a little creep. Who knew what he
would want her to do? But she also knew she wasn’t going to
resist. There was just about nothing she wouldn’t do for food.
Fish would be much, much better than the other type of meat
kids were considering.
“What do I have to do?” Orsay asked.
“We have to take a walk. Then you have to do your thing.
There’s some, like, creature or whatever. They want you to
watch its dreams. See what it wants.”
“The fish,” Orsay whispered urgently. “Do you have it with
you?”
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5
Bug drew a Ziploc bag out of the pocket of his hoodie.
Inside was white, crumbly, smashed-up fish. Orsay lunged for
it, tore the packet open with trembling fingers, and ate it like
an animal, sticking her mouth into the bag.
She didn’t stop until she had turned the bag inside out
and licked the plastic clean. “Do you have any more?” she
begged.
“First, you do your thing. Then we go back to town and
talk.”
“We’re doing this for the Perdido Beach kids?” Orsay
asked.
Bug snorted. “We’re doing this for whoever gives us the
best offer. Right now, Sam’s guys have some fish. So we’re
with them. But if Drake gets hold of us, somehow, we’ve been
on his side all along. Right?”
“I’m too weak to walk a long way,” Orsay said.
“We only have to get as far as the highway. A guy will be
there with a car.”
THIRTY-FOUR
06 HOURS, 3 MINUTES
E D I L I O D R O V E T H E creepy little mutant, Bug, and the girl
he’d brought along with him. He wasn’t happy about having
to do this. Mostly he wanted to stay in town. Nightfall could
bring trouble. And Sam . . . well, Sam wasn’t acting like Sam.
Sam had looked like a zombie listening to Quinn and
Albert’s confession last night.
And then, this morning, Bug told his story. It was every
kind of bad news rolled into one shamefaced confession after
another, and Sam had just stared. Fortunately Astrid had
stepped up.
Sam, Edilio, Brianna, Taylor, Quinn, Albert, Astrid—the
seven of them in Astrid’s living room, listening as Bug alternately groveled and whined.
Then, Astrid read Lana’s letter.
Sam:
I’m going to try to kill the Darkness. I’d explain what
that means, but I don’t even know. I only know that it’s
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7
the scariest thing you can imagine. I guess that’s not too
helpful.
I had no choice. It had its hooks in me, Sam. It was
in my head. It’s been calling to me for days. It needs me
for something, I don’t know what. But whatever it is, I
can’t let it happen.
Hopefully I’ll be fine. If not, take care of Patrick.
Cookie, too.
—Lana
“I knew she was having some problems,” Quinn said,
sounding guilty. “I didn’t know about this, though. I mean . . .
it’s like Lana used me and Albert so she could get back out to
the desert.”
“That would be putting a convenient spin on your own
sneakiness, Quinn,” Astrid had snapped.
“She brought up the gold to me,” Albert said thoughtfully,
not at all intimidated by Astrid’s anger. “It was a good suggestion. So I jumped at it. But it came from her, originally.
Maybe what we need to think about is whether Lana is working with this creature.”
“No,” Quinn said.
Everyone waited for him to explain. He shrugged and
repeated, “No.” And then he added, “I don’t think so.”
“We need Lana,” Sam said, finally breaking his gloomy
silence. “It almost doesn’t matter i
f she’s helping this thing.
Friend or enemy, we need Lana.”
“Agreed,” Albert said, as though the conversation were
one between him and Sam, like it was just the two of them
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debating what to do. For a guy who had been caught breaking
various rules, Albert didn’t seem too worried.
But then he wouldn’t, would he? Edilio reflected. He had
food. Food was power now. Even Astrid wasn’t really going
after Albert, although she obviously didn’t like him much.
“We need to know what this creature is,” Albert said.
Sam looked at Bug, who had been ordered to remain visible. “What’s this Orsay girl’s thing?”
Bug shrugged. “She sees people’s dreams, I think.”
“And Caine wants her to spy on the creature.” Almost
despite himself Sam was becoming more engaged. Edilio had
seen the wheels begin to turn again in his friend’s head. It
was a huge relief. “If Caine wants it, maybe we want it, too,”
Sam had said, and one by one the others nodded agreement.
“Albert’s right: we need to know what we’re dealing with.”
Which was how Edilio had ended up playing chauffeur to
Bug and this strange girl.
“What’d you say your name was?” Edilio asked, making
eye contact with her in the rearview mirror.
“Orsay.”
She probably wasn’t bad looking, under normal circumstances. But right now she looked terrified. And gaunt. Her hair was all over the place. And although Edilio wasn’t one to
complain, one or both of them back there smelled, and not
just like Quinn and Albert’s fish.
“Where you from, Orsay?”
“I lived at the ranger camp. In the Stefano Rey.”
“Huh. That’s kind of cool.”
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9
She didn’t look as if she agreed. Then she said, “You have
a gun.”
Edilio glanced at the machine pistol on the seat beside
him. Two full clips rattled with each bump. “Yeah.”
“If we see Drake, you have to shoot him.”
Edilio pretty much agreed. But he had to ask, anyway.
“Why?”
“I’ve seen his dreams,” Orsay said. “I’ve seen inside him.”
They were off-road, heading vaguely toward the hills.
They had found Hermit Jim’s shack—Edilio had a good sense
of direction—but none of them had ever been to this mine
shaft. All they had were the directions Caine had given Bug.
The sun was setting behind the hills, turning them an ominous dark purple. Night would come too soon. No way Orsay could do whatever it was she was supposed to do in time for
them to get back to town before full night fell.
“What exactly are you supposed to be doing?” Edilio
asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you’re a freak, right? Bug wasn’t too clear.”
Bug looked up at the sound of his nickname. Then, as if in
response, he faded from view.
“I can see dreams. I told you,” Orsay said, and looked out
of the window.
“Yeah? You wouldn’t want to see my dreams. They’re kind
of boring.”
“I know,” the girl said.
That got Edilio’s full attention. “Say what?”
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“Long time back. You and Sam and Quinn and a girl
named Astrid. And the other one. I saw you hiking through
the woods.”
“You were there, huh?” Edilio said. He pursed his lips,
not at all happy with the idea that some girl could see his
dreams. He’d said his dreams were boring. Mostly they were.
But sometimes, well, sometimes they weren’t something he
wanted a stranger sitting in on. Especially a girl.
He squirmed in his seat.
“Don’t worry,” Orsay said with a trace of a smile. “I’m used
to . . . you know. Whatever.”
“Uh-huh,” Edilio muttered.
The Jeep bounced and rattled as they went though a rocky
patch. They had the top up and buttoned tight. It was dusty
and Edilio didn’t trust Bug not to drop off and simply disappear.
Then, too, there were the coyotes. Edilio kept an eye out
for them.
They were closing in on the hills. There was the fold
formed by a spur, just like Caine had shown on the map he’d
drawn for Bug.
There was a bad look about the place. The shadows seemed
deeper than they should be for the middle of the day.
“I’m not crazy about this,” he said to no one.
“Do you have family?” Orsay asked.
The question surprised Edilio. People tended to avoid
talking about family. No one knew what had happened to the
families. “Sure.”
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1
“When I’m scared I try to think about my dad,” Orsay
said.
“Not me,” Bug said.
“Not your mom?” Edilio asked.
“No.”
“Because me, I think about my mom. In my mind, you
know, she’s like beautiful. I mean, I don’t know if she was . . .
is . . . in reality? Right? But in here,” Edilio tapped his head.
“In here she’s beautiful.” He tapped his chest. “In here, too.”
They rounded the end of the rocky spur and there, in pitiless sunlight, a ghost town lay revealed.
Edilio put on the brakes.
“That look like what Caine told you?” he asked Bug.
Bug nodded.
“Okay.”
“Caine said go through the town. Past a building that’s
still standing. Up a path. Mine shaft.”
“Uh-huh,” Edilio said. He knew what he was supposed to
do. But he didn’t like it. Not at all. Less, now that he was here.
He was not a superstitious person, at least he didn’t think so,
but there was something very wrong about this ghost town.
He put the Jeep into gear and crept ahead, no more than
ten miles an hour. The last thing he wanted to do was have to
figure out how to change a tire.
“I don’t like this place,” Orsay said.
“Yeah. Let’s not go here for spring break,” Edilio said.
Through the town.
Past the ramshackle building.
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The path was narrow, but the Jeep managed it at a crawl.
“Stop!” Orsay cried.
Edilio slammed on the brakes. They came to rest beside
a high outcropping of rock. If this had been an old Western,
Edilio thought, this is where the ambush would take place.
He lifted the gun. It was a reassuring weight in his hand.
He checked to make sure it was cocked. Thumb on the safety.
Finger resting on the trigger guard, just like he taught his
recruits.
He listened but didn’t hear anything.
“Why did we stop?” Edilio asked Orsay.
“Close enough,” she whispered. “I . . .”
Edilio twisted in his seat. “What is it?”
What he saw shocked him. Orsay’s eyes were wide, glittering whites showing all around.
“What’s with her?” Bug asked in a quivering voice.
“Orsay. Are you
okay?” Edilio asked.
Her only answer was a moaning sound so unearthly that
at first Edilio didn’t realize it was coming from her. It seemed
to generate from her chest, a sound too deep for this frail girl.
It was something closer to an animal growl.
“Girl’s crazy,” Bug moaned.
Orsay began to tremble. The trembling escalated until she
was shaking, in spasm, like a person being electrocuted. Her
tongue protruded from her mouth, gagging her.
She was biting her tongue. Like she was trying to bite it off.
“Hey!” Edilio slammed the glove compartment open and
yanked everything out with frantic fingers, screwdriver,
flashlight, a thick digital tire gauge. He grabbed the tire gauge
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and pushed his way into the backseat. He yelled, “Grab her,
hold her!” to Bug, who instead shrank away.
Edilio grabbed her by the hair, there was nothing else he
could hold with one hand, twisted his fist into her hair until
he had a firm purchase, yanked her head forward, and shoved
the tire gauge between her teeth.
Her jaws clamped hard, so hard, they cracked the plastic of
the tire gauge. Blood flowed from her mouth, but her teeth no
longer closed on her tongue.
“Hold that in her mouth!” Edilio yelled at Bug.
Bug just stared, paralyzed.
Edilio yelled a curse and said, “Do it or I swear I will shoot
you!”
Bug snapped out of his trance and grabbed Orsay’s head
with his hands.
Edilio threw the Jeep into reverse and began backing up
as fast as he could go, down the path. The first he noticed of
the coyotes was when he felt a bump and heard a canine yelp
of pain.
One hand on the wheel, yelling in fear, Edilio smashed the
Jeep into an embankment. He threw it into drive, advanced
a few feet to get clear, threw it, gears grinding into reverse
again as a huge, snarling face appeared beside him. Coyote
teeth slavered and tore at the plastic.
Edilio snap-aimed and fired. The burst was short, maybe
five rounds, but more than enough to dissolve the coyote’s
head into red mist.
Down they bumped, down the path, smashing and jolting.
Edilio could barely hold the wheel.
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Then, suddenly, they were on flat terrain. He spun the
wheel as two coyotes hurled themselves at the plastic sheath.
Hunger_A Gone Novel Page 39
