“I have two things: information and this.” I pull out one baggie filled with tiny blue pills. “You might not recognize it because it’s not on the street yet—”
“Syn-Op,” she says, the word coming out like a sigh. “This right here will do it. I don’t need your information. You don’t know anything we didn’t know last week.”
I hand her the baggie of pills. Then I grab her wrist and pull her closer.
“You don’t know this,” I tell her. “The attack today is just the beginning. You have to keep your mouth closed when they come here. They look like shining silver men, but they can turn into smoke in the blink of an eye. Their goal is to get inside you, through your open mouth. And once that happens, they’re in charge. You can’t come back from that.”
She does her best to show me her brave face, but her lip is trembling. “Where did you hear that crap?”
“I’ve seen it. Firsthand. I’ve lost people I love. You’ve got your own army. Let us teach you how to fight. Protect and shelter us for the night and we’ll make sure you survive, too.”
She lets out a hollow laugh. “Your crew can stay with me tonight and tonight only. We’re down with the military vets. See the flag there?” She points to an American flag flying upside down, then she hands me a red poker chip. “The general’s out on a scouting missing, but you can tell the lieutenant that Carla let you in. And if anybody wants to hurt you, show them this. It’s my marker. Don’t lose it, no matter what.” She pauses to examine me again, running her gaze over me. Then she gives me a measured smile. “You’re tougher than you look, sweetie.”
“Sara.”
Carla laughs again, then says, “Don’t forget: you’re teaching us your fighting techniques tonight. It’s part of the deal. There’s still time for all of you to wish you’d never heard of Snake City.”
15
We make our way down to the center of Snake City, while the city of Santa Ana burns and explodes and crumbles. Except for Taco Mesa and the overpass, the Xua haven’t attacked this part of town yet. They’re busy looking for a boy who smells like Gabe.
Meanwhile, my brother—who smells like piss and looks just as bad—sits on a worn-out blanket, as far away from me as he can get. There’s a wound on his forehead from earlier tonight, his lip is swollen from my backhanded slap, and there’s an ache in my chest that feels like a Xua warrior has crawled inside me. It burns and scrapes, and I can’t think of anything except the fact that I hurt Gabe.
I’ve never hit my brother before, not in any lifetime.
I want to hug him and tell him I’m sorry, but I don’t dare. Not when we’re surrounded by Snakeskins—that’s what this gang calls themselves. They come and go while we eat their dinner of beans and rice, and at this point, I think there are at least thirty of them. But the ex-military camp is so large that I can’t count them. There are hundreds of men and women, all outcasts, ignored, left to fend for themselves after their time in the service was over, no matter what injuries they might have incurred along the way.
Carla’s father is the general, so it makes perfect sense now. Why her gang wears camouflage, why she’s in charge, why she recruits the toughest of the people my age who end up here.
We’re all fighting our own wars.
And we need people on our team to help us survive.
Justin is talking to Carla. Bits of their conversation drift over to me, and I can tell he’s trying to convince her that everything I said is true. Billy and Natalie are arguing about who’s a better lead guitarist, Nantucket Blue from Maximum Death or some old dead guy from Led Zeppelin, while Ella stares down at her plate, not eating.
Gabe sits beside her, his jaw clenched.
He looks like he might start crying.
I bite my lip, remembering our first time in this alien apocalypse, how almost everyone we know died. How he didn’t make it.
He never has.
None of us has ever made it this long.
I don’t care about the Snakeskins. Let them think I’m soft. Maybe the soft side of me is the best part. Maybe it’s the only part of me that’s still human.
I set my plate down and stride across the campsite, then I sit between Gabe and Ella.
“Eat,” I tell her.
She shakes her head. “I can’t keep it down. I…I keep throwing it up.”
I put one arm around her. “Then don’t eat. Just drink your water. Slowly.”
Gabe stares into the darkness, acting like I’m not here.
“I’m sorry,” I say to him, and I don’t lower my voice like I normally would. “I shouldn’t have done that. You know I love you.” But my last words are more of a question than a statement.
He shrugs.
“I know I’m bossy.”
“More than bossy,” he says.
“I’m a bitch.”
A small grin teases his lips. That’s when I notice that he’s got the beginnings of a black eye and his jaw is turning green and purple.
“You’re the fifth person to slug me today,” he says as he rubs his jaw. “At least you didn’t pull a knife on me. Or a gun. Or try to run me over with an SUV.”
“Did all that happen today?”
He nods. “My skin sites aren’t working, either. Not since that jerk in front of our apartment building jumped me. Why is everyone after me? I still don’t understand.”
There’s a raw angst in his voice that hits me like a knife in the chest. How often do I feel like the whole world is against me? Whenever I don’t pass a test in school, whenever I realize I’m not as pretty as the school cheerleaders, whenever I realize my parents are basically drug dealers. I guess we all feel that way sometimes. Except with my little brother, it’s real.
The whole world really is out to get him.
“I don’t know exactly why everyone’s after you, but you’re not alone. Remember that, okay? Now, let me get a look at you.” I pull a small flashlight from my backpack and shine it on his jawline. It’s swollen, more than it should be from just a punch. “Natalie? Can you come here?”
A heartbeat later, she’s studying Gabe’s injuries, gently turning his head back and forth in her hand. I didn’t ask her to join us, but Carla comes over, too.
“That looks bad,” Carla says. “Is this your brother?”
Justin must have given her more information than I expected. “Yup.”
“His skin sites need to come out. They’re broken, and his jaw’s getting infected,” Natalie says, then she looks at Carla. “Is there anyone here who can do that? Without making him deaf?”
“Deaf? I might end up frigging deaf?” Gabe pulls away from us and stands up, looking like he might run. That’s when I notice that Justin and Billy are behind him.
“It’s okay, buddy,” Justin says. “I think we can get you something to take away the pain. And nobody’s touching you unless they know what they’re doing. I got your back.”
And just like always, knowing Justin is with us makes us all calm down. Gabe’s shoulders relax, and I let out a sigh. That Syn-Op in my pocket will do the trick. It will definitely take the edge off my brother’s pain—if we can find a surgeon somewhere in this black-market city. If the apocalypse can put itself on hold long enough for my brother to get the medical attention he needs.
Because he has to survive. No matter what.
…
“You really owe me now.” Carla stands akimbo at the door of the tent. “You better have some unbelievable fighting skills to share with my gang or you’ll be owing me more of that Syn-Op. I’ll be outside waiting until your little princess wakes up.”
“Did she just call me a princess?” Gabe mumbles.
“Yeah,” I say with a laugh.
Despite all Carla’s threats to turn us into mincemeat, she’s done nothing but help us since we got here. I might be starting to like
her. A little. A thin trail of blood snakes down Gabe’s neck, despite the cold cloth the doctor’s pressing against the wound.
His skin sites are now sprawled out on this black-market surgeon’s instrument tray, along with a pack of cotton swabs and a couple of hemostatic clamps and a pair of scissors. Speckles of blood, long plastic tendrils, a clump of Gabe’s hair tangled in the mix. We won’t be able to call each other anymore.
I snap my fingers next to his ear. “Did you hear that?”
He nods.
Then the doctor hands me a bottle of antibiotics and moves on to the next person. Justin helps Gabe to his feet but basically has to carry him out. Natalie, Billy, Ella, and Carla stand just outside the tent doorway.
“Pay up, sweetie. I mean, Sara,” Carla says. She motions with one hand, and four of her team members join us.
I glance at my watch. It’s one o’clock in the morning and, so far, the Xua haven’t invaded Snake City. Maybe we’ll make it until morning.
Maybe.
But first, it’s time to teach a gang of Snakeskins how to fight.
16
Billy and I swing and strike, our laser switchblades glowing bright red. Up until now, fires have been burning up in Santa Ana, Tustin, Irvine, and the rest of Los Angeles. People were screaming and cars crashing. But every now and then, there’s a lull.
That’s the scariest time of all.
The quiet makes my heart beat faster.
It makes me think they’re looking for Gabe. They’ve stopped attacking because they know he’s not wherever they’ve attacked. They’re regrouping. A new Leader is giving them different instructions…
But I don’t stop. “Like this,” I say as I swing my blade up.
Carla’s crew watches us, imitating our moves, puzzled. I know it doesn’t make sense. If you haven’t seen the Xua and how they attack, this looks ridiculous.
Then two Snake City residents stumble into camp and start telling stories about what they saw tonight, when they were “in the above.” That’s what they call the rest of the world. After that, rumors begin to ripple up and down the Santa Ana riverbed, tales of mysterious creatures murdering people, and everyone in Snake City stands at attention. Former soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines climb from their cots, Genetics prowl the edges of camp, all the lights dim, and Carla puts a hand on my shoulder.
“We got it,” she says. “It’s time to go dark.”
She hands me a pair of night-vision goggles. Neither she nor Justin needs them to see in the dark, but I do. Darkness like I’ve never seen sweeps from one end of the riverbed to the other. All of Snake City is invisible and silent. The only thing glowing right now is Natalie’s tablet. She’s been studying something ever since I got back from Gabe’s surgery. As soon as she realizes what’s going on, she snaps her tablet off and gestures for me to join her.
I sit next to Natalie, while the rest of my crew joins us. Gabe blinks sleepily, trying his best to stay awake. If it wasn’t for Justin propping him up, my brother would be asleep on the ground.
“I found some old diagrams of the river, then checked them against what the river looks like today,” Natalie tells us. “There’s a hidden space, like a long, narrow room, right over there.” She points across the river. “From what I can tell, there’s an alcove that was built maybe ten or fifteen years ago inside the concrete channel wall. It’s possible nobody here even remembers it.”
“What is it?” I ask.
“Maybe a storage area for stolen goods? The first people to live in Snake City were thieves and ex-cons. Maybe they even hid people inside there. I don’t know. You’ve got night-vision goggles on. See how the slope of the western wall is different from the eastern wall?”
She’s right.
“Look, I know you think hiding in a crowd is the best way to ride out the night, but I’m having my doubts. It would only take two or three of these Genetics or metal men to be possessed by the Xua. They’d be able to get Gabe away from us. We’re not strong enough to fight everyone.”
“You guys are creeping me out,” Gabe says.
“Shh,” Ella whispers. Then she does something I don’t expect. She quiets him with a kiss. It works. Neither one of them says anything. For a long time.
I don’t mean to stare, but I can’t help it. That has definitely never happened before. None of this has. I’ve never met Carla before or come to Snake City. And Gabe has never had a girlfriend.
Unless she was a secret.
Like how I have kept my feelings about Justin a secret. Even from him.
I glance up at Justin and Billy. Billy nods, then takes a protective stance beside my brother. Justin moves close enough that both Natalie and I can hear him when he speaks in a low voice.
“Where is the door?” he asks.
“I couldn’t find a door,” Natalie says.
He pauses long enough to study and compare the concrete slope of the eastern wall with the western wall of the river. “I’ll find it and check it out. Will you be okay while I’m gone?”
I never feel okay when he’s gone, but we’re going to need the hiding place if everything goes south. “Sure.”
He looks at me, like he’s a soldier ready to go into battle but he’s waiting for the command. I think he’s reading my hesitation and interpreting it as a, No, please stay.
“Go,” I tell him. “And hurry.”
Then I sense something, like a tremor of fear, strong as a flood, moving our way.
I stand up and try to see over the crowds. Carla and her team are positioned about twenty feet away, and they’re picking up on it, too, all of them looking upriver. Whatever it is, it’s still far away, on the northern edge of Snake City, somewhere beyond the bend in the river—I can’t see it; I can’t hear it. But I can feel it. Carla looks back at me.
I gesture for her and her team to join me. If we find a place to hide, her team can hide with us.
But she’s been trained to guard this place, so I don’t know if she’ll like my plan. Her father, the general, is still gone and, even though the lieutenant is here, she might really be second-in-command. If so, she can’t leave her post.
That means she might not survive.
“Any of you have a spare laser switchblade?” I ask my crew. Natalie digs through her backpack and pulls one out. That girl is always prepared for the worst scenario. I give her a hug, then take the weapon and run toward Carla.
Although, that could have been a big mistake.
Leaving my brother behind is never a good idea.
“We’re getting out of here,” I tell Carla when I reach her. “You can come with us.”
She glances at me over her shoulder. All her attention is fixed on whatever is coming. I’m like a gnat, pestering her, distracting her. She doesn’t have to answer me. I know she’ll refuse. Instead, I put the laser switchblade in her palm.
“Stay alive,” I tell her.
She swivels to face me. “You’re the girl from those videos, aren’t you? How did you know?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I told you any intel you might have would be old news here. But I didn’t know about this,” she says, glancing down at the switchblade. “Thanks.” Then she pauses, as if she’s got a secret, too, and she doesn’t know if she should tell me. “I wish my dad was back. I think he’d want to talk to you.”
“Maybe he’ll be back soon—”
“Is there any chance you know a guy named Noah?”
Her words startle me, and I replay everything Aerithin has ever told me about how I’m supposed to meet a guy named Noah and that it’s a cascading event. It’s destiny. But before I can answer her, that horrible thing heading our way looms into view.
It sweeps around the bend in the river, a bright fog of light and chaos and destruction. Even though it’s still far away, we can hear
the screams. It’s a frenzy of Xua, both in their sparkling silver shape and in a haze of smoke, moving like a rolling ball down the riverbed. Everything in their path disappears. Or gets absorbed. I can’t tell what’s happening from this distance.
I don’t know if Justin has found that hidden alcove yet or if it can even protect us from this. All I know is that I have to get out of here and find my brother.
So, like almost everyone else in this man-made valley of concrete, I turn away from the approaching danger and run.
17
“Get Gabe into that alcove, or grab him and get the hell out of here, now!” I yell into my skin sites. More than anything, I wish Gabe’s skin sites were still working. I need to talk to him and know he’s okay. I’m running as fast as I can, but I’m getting pushed by thugs and human monsters three times my size. One of them slams me against the eastern wall, and it makes me lose my sense of direction. For a nanosecond, I forget which way I was heading.
Then I see that bright frenzy of Xua, rolling closer.
A glowing ball of death, plowing over every dark human monster.
“Natalie! Can you hear me?” I cry.
Her voice comes back like static, intermittent bursts of her low voice. “Inside…crackle…small space… Gabe isn’t…hiss…”
“Gabe isn’t what?!” I scream as I start running again. I’m heading south, toward the ocean, and I hope I don’t go past the doorway that Justin was looking for. “Justin? I can’t find you—”
“It’s okay—I’ll find you,” he says, his voice so clear he could be standing next to me.
I lift my head, trying to see over the mass of bodies running and jumping and climbing over one another. They’re fighting, swinging punches at anyone who gets in their way. This crowd is almost as bad as the Xua frenzy heading our way.
Why did I think it would be safe here?
Then I see Justin, moving toward me, carving a path like a butcher slaughtering his way through a herd. Bodies fall to the left and the right of him. He might be only seventeen years old, but he’s a match and then some for anyone in this dark city. Another Genetic accidentally collides into him, and he almost punches her in the face because she slowed him down. He pulls his fist back, swings it forward, and then stops it a few inches away from her chin.
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