No.
My skin prickles and burns. I grab onto the window ledge for support.
More Xua are coming.
I jerk back upright, panic flooding my veins. Everything happens so fast, I don’t even have time to react.
For a split second, everything in the landscape has a mirror image, from the cars to the buildings to the people. What is and what might be. Now and in the future. Together in one moment.
Then the mirror doors open.
Long, slender silver bodies step from the future into our time. About thirty of them line the street and the field below. Their Leader makes a gesture with one hand, and the others get into position.
“Close the windows,” Billy shouts. “Hurry!”
The Xua are about to turn from flesh-and-sparkling-blood into vapor. One by one, their bodies disappear as they transform.
Everyone on the field starts to run and shout, and I don’t know what’s going on. I push someone out of my way so I can see outside.
“Get away from the windows!” Natalie yells as she starts slamming the windows closed. But she slams one of them too hard, and the glass breaks. It shivers and falls in pieces to the floor.
One of the girls in the room begins to yell, really loud, so loud I can barely stand it. She won’t shut up, and I start to get mad.
Then I realize the screaming girl is me.
Because my little brother is down on that field.
22
Only a heartbeat passes, but that’s long enough for the Xua to turn into smoke.
Panicked, I scan the field for Gabe and Justin, but I don’t see them. Maybe they’re pressed up against the building, hoping to be invisible. Maybe they ran around the front of the school and they’re racing up the stairs, trying to get to us.
Please let them be anywhere but down there.
The Xua fly at everyone on the field, diving toward their open mouths. One by one, everyone I can see falls to the ground, twisting and clawing at their throats, like they’re being smothered and they’re powerless to do anything. Their legs jerk; their eyes bulge.
It’s awful.
I’m screaming, but I don’t know if Gabe can hear me. I shouldn’t say his name, but I have to; I can’t help myself—
“Run, Gabe, run!” I scream out the broken window. “Close your mouth! Run!”
Just then, everyone on the grass below stops trying to fight the Xua. The possession is complete, and it’s too late for them—they’ll never be human again. As one creature, they all turn around and look toward the same spot, right where someone is trying to hide behind an equipment bin.
They’ve found Gabe.
Narrowed eyes, crooked grins, jaws hanging loose. They’re Jumpers. Their shoulders hunch forward, their fists clench, and they all head toward my brother like they’re trying to corner him.
“Run!” I scream. “Get the hell out of there!”
“Run!”
We’re all shouting it now, a chorus of voices, male and female, all saying the same thing. Billy and Natalie stand beside me, frantically waving their arms as if that will make my brother hear us better. I still don’t know where Justin is—I can’t see him. Billy cups both hands around his mouth, creating a megaphone that carries his voice farther than any of ours.
Gabe takes off running as fast as he can, weaving across the field, trying to get to the street, but he can’t. All the Xua-possessed people are after him like a band of evil demons.
I’ve got to get down there and help him.
Justin appears then, a few steps behind Gabe. He must have stopped long enough to grab a weapon, and now he’s swinging a bat that had been left behind with the other athletic equipment.
“Leave him alone!” Justin yells. “You wanna fight? Come and get me!”
And then he runs toward the nearest possessed person, swings that bat, and breaks the guy’s leg. Bellowing in pain, the guy falls to the ground in a twisted heap. Justin doesn’t react; the Genetic soldier in him must have kicked in, because he’s showing no emotion. He’s in fighting mode, his muscles tensing as he races across the field, his mouth clamped shut. He raises his arms over his head, both hands wrenched around the neck of that bat, and he swings again with dangerous precision. Kneecaps shatter, blood and bone spray out in a pulpy mist, voices howl in agony, and he doesn’t stop.
But the Xua-possessed group doesn’t stop, either.
They don’t look back. They just keep charging after my brother.
Silver mirrors twist and spin, the ground slips out from beneath me, and ten more Xua soldiers appear on the field. All ten of them stand on the bloody field, looking up at me, at the broken window that beckons.
The one we were all screaming out of.
Oh, holy crap. I know what they’re going to do.
Their bodies dissolve before I can react. Natalie pulls me away from the window.
Three columns of smoky vapor shoot upward, quicker than the wind. They fly across the field, higher and higher toward their destination.
Right toward our broken window.
23
I made a huge mistake. I know it now. In every life, there’s a moment when I realize this is it, this is the mistake that’s going to mess it all up. Sometimes it’s a big thing; sometimes it’s so small I don’t even realize it was a turning point until much later—when I find Gabe sprawled in a pool of his own blood.
I should have kept Gabe with me, we shouldn’t have come to the school, I shouldn’t have tried to save anyone else. If I had just stayed focused on him, he would be safe. He’d be right beside me, complaining about the fact that he doesn’t want to wear smelly clothes.
But I didn’t keep him with me.
Plan B, hastily formed as it was, has already failed.
Ella grabs a backpack someone left in the classroom and tries to use it to block the window, but she’s not fast enough. Ten columns of twisting smoke flow through that narrow opening, all of the aliens trying to get inside our classroom at once, they’re so eager. Their vaporous bodies slide through the jagged opening of broken glass.
I swing my laser switchblade out and power up.
“Close your mouths!” Natalie yells.
The blue-haired girl starts to yell, while the blond girl dashes out of the room. Desks overturn, and chairs tumble through the air.
My lips press together tightly, and I slice up and to the right, red beam cutting through black smoke. Billy and Natalie do the same, all three of us with a red glow emanating from our hands; we become the brightest lights in a Xua-infested room.
But several Xua are after Ella. She runs backward, stumbles, hands over her head until she’s backed into a corner. There’s nowhere for her to run, she doesn’t have a laser switchblade, and she’s starting to panic.
“Help!” she cries out.
That’s all it takes. A Xua swoops down and pushes into her open mouth.
I only have a couple of seconds to save her. The smoke has to get all the way inside or the bond won’t take. I just don’t know if I can get there in time.
I scramble across the room, push aside a desk, jump over a chair.
It’s already halfway inside her, and she jerks left and right, her body flailing, arms waving, eyes wide, tears streaming down her cheeks. It looks like she’s trying to cough, but in the process her arms swing out, punching me in the leg. This part is like trying to save a drowning person—they might take you down with them if you’re not careful.
I’m in position, right beside her, that smoky alien plume about three-quarters of the way inside her. Her throat is distended, like she’s a snake swallowing a mouse, and her chest swells up. She slugs me again, so I pin her left arm down with my foot. It’s awkward because she’s not holding still—this would be better as a two-person job—but I manage to swing my laser and slice through
the Xua. It takes a split second before I know for sure whether it was a clean strike and if I cut through the alien or not.
The smoke lingering in the air turns red like fire. Then it dissolves.
Like it was never here.
The Xua is dead.
But Ella’s not completely safe yet—she could choke on the part of the creature that’s still inside her. She slumps to the ground, gagging, unable to breathe. I grab her by the arm and flip her over—this part is like CPR for alien invasions—then I slam my open palm against the middle of her back, praying. Please work, please let her live, please. She coughs, and more fiery red smoke pours out of her. I hit her on the back again and again, until finally she’s breathing steadily and no more smoke comes out. She leans against the wall, legs splayed out beneath her.
“Get up! You have to get out of here!” I tell her. Then I turn around and try to figure out where the other Xua have gone.
Across the room, Natalie has a dark-haired girl pinned against a wall, and she’s slicing through a Xua who’s halfway inside the girl. Natalie’s black hair sweeps across her face, almost hiding her gritted teeth, narrowed eyes, and the flush that colors her cheeks. She hasn’t killed the beast yet, but it’s obvious she’s got everything under control.
Back in the corner, next to the hallway door, two more Xua chase the blue-haired girl, and Billy runs after them. There’s no way to know for sure what’s going to happen, but I know, between Billy and Natalie, all these aliens are headed for oblivion.
I have to get out of here. I have to get down to the field, before those monsters do something to Gabe or Justin. Right now I don’t know which one of them I’m more worried about.
Less than a minute has passed since the Xua flew into the classroom, but it’s a minute I’ll never get back. Aerithin isn’t coming to rescue me. I’m on my own. And the aliens are still going after my little brother.
I charge through the door and race down the hallway, my feet sliding when I get to the stairwell. I grab the railing with my right hand, leap over the first several stairs, and manage to land on the fourth step. At that point, I almost topple over and fall the rest of the way down, so I jump instead. It’s a lot farther than I expect, and my landing isn’t smooth. I fall forward, try to brace myself with my hands, but my shoulder slams the wall. Hard. Fortunately it’s my left shoulder. I’ll still be able to swing a weapon, even if it’s only my fist.
Running down the rest of the stairs, I force myself to slow down even though I want to run faster than I’ve ever gone before.
My chest threatens to explode, shrapnel shooting out, all my fears turning into weapons of mass destruction. He can’t die, he can’t be taken over by the Xua, he can’t get hurt, not this time, no, that just can’t happen—
God, no. Not my baby brother. And not the guy I’ve fallen in love with, either.
I’m still running, out the front door and down the stairs, my shoulder burning like it’s on fire and adrenaline flowing through my veins like a drug. I didn’t notice my surroundings before. I was only looking at the possibility of a live threat. I wasn’t looking at the dead.
I can’t ignore them now.
The street is filled with cars that must have crashed into one another last night, bodies strewn on the pavement—women, men, children.
I didn’t expect there to be little kids, and I can’t look. I just can’t.
I try to close my eyes as I pass a tiny body sprawled on the sidewalk, little fingers curved in fists, curls of blond hair smeared with dirt, a romper decorated with purple dinosaurs and blood. I want to block out the image, but I can’t; I choke, my chest heaves, I curl over and stumble. Blood on the sidewalk. Blood on the hands of the woman who stands over the child, her eyes glazed, her head cocked as she watches me with curiosity.
Has she been here all night or did this just happen?
“Stay away from me or I’ll kill you, I swear to God!” I yell as I pass her. She doesn’t move; her hands hang at her sides, but I know at any moment she could swing into action and come charging after me.
I pause at the edge of the field, disoriented, trying to remember where Gabe was the last time I saw him from the second-floor window. Meanwhile, a Xua-possessed guy with a broken leg hobbles up and tries to grab me. I kick him back down. Two others are curled on the ground with injuries that should have them moaning—obviously they were struck by Justin and his bat—but they just watch me, quiet.
I scan the field again and note that both Justin and Gabe are gone, along with the rest of the kids who were here before.
I’m not sure which way they went, so I jog to the edge of the field.
There. At the end of the street. Six people are chasing someone weaving between houses and through backyards. I think I can hear them chanting, their words faint.
“Gabe—Gabe—Gabe—”
That’s when I know for sure that at least one Hunter is leading the pack. It must have caught my brother’s scent.
My laser switchblade is out now, and I’m chasing them, jumping off the curb, feet pounding cement.
24
I never catch up with the Xua-possessed group as I run through the suburbs, but it doesn’t matter. I just follow the trail of bodies—an elderly man sprawled in the street, a girl facedown on the corner, a businessman still clutching his briefcase. They look like they were killed by Xua. I find several more people, all of them dead or seriously wounded, probably by Justin and his bat. As horrible as it is, I’m glad Justin’s with my brother.
I know he’ll do whatever it takes to protect Gabe.
I spot a cluster of cars on the ramp to the 405, their windshields busted, a woman standing beside an SUV, crying, blood on her dress. I don’t look inside the cars. I’ve seen enough collateral damage today. These cars must have been here all night, and the woman must be in shock.
But I can’t help her right now. I have to find Gabe.
And Justin.
The Santa Ana winds blow hot, whispering through the trees, ripping off leaves and loose branches. This is the kind of wind that starts fires that rage for days. My throat burns and my lips are cracked, but I don’t dare open my mouth. I slow to a jog as I head down the freeway ramp, hesitant, wondering if Gabe panicked and ran onto the 405 or if he could be somewhere in the nearby suburb.
The slope of the entrance ramp lessens gradually until I stand beside a graveyard of cars. It was only yesterday that they were all zooming home on autopilot, everyone inside safe and oblivious, watching the Valiant launch on their tablets, probably excitedly chatting to one another through their skin sites.
Now, the freeway is choked with vehicles crashed into one another, cars that raced off the overpasses and tumbled down on the trapped sedans, SUVs, and buses below. The wreckage of cars is bad enough—there’s still a lingering odor of burned rubber and spilled oil—but the human wreckage is even worse. Bodies are everywhere, inside cars, between the lanes, draped over the hoods and the concrete freeway median.
Over it all is the stench of burned flesh.
I fight a gag reflex and pull my bandanna over my nose. Maybe I can deal with it if I can block out the smell.
The Xua-possessed group swarms along the freeway shoulder about thirty feet away from me. Within a matter of minutes, this group has transformed from normal people to savages that look like they stepped out of The Lord of the Flies. They stand with feral postures, shoulders curved forward, legs bowed and ready to run, and a brutal expression in their eyes, a bestial gleam that sparks as their heads snap back and forth, surveying their surroundings. One of them licks his lips with darting lizard-like gestures, tongue sliding out then disappearing.
But they’re not alone. Along the way, they’ve picked up more possessed people. New men and women push their way to the front of the group, all of them staring hungrily at the freeway.
Four of them b
reak away from the pack and race after a girl who must have survived yesterday’s car crash and is only now limping her way toward a freeway exit. Two other Jumpers rip out of their human bodies, killing their hosts. They change into smoke, and then fly toward a man and woman running across an overpass.
Those remaining on the freeway edge survey the wreckage hungrily.
I follow their gaze and see the carnage. The cars are a twisted tangle of metal. On top of that, bodies and pieces of bodies are strewn across all four lanes, dark stains on the pavement that must be blood.
My heart stops. I can’t move; I can’t think.
Gabe, please don’t be out there in that mess.
I can’t bear this. I close my eyes, trying to control the fear that surges through me. Finally I force myself to look—I have to if I want to find him. I lift my head and see Justin, standing atop a car in the second lane of the freeway.
He swings his bat and strikes a man who lunges toward him, knocking him backward. Another guy tries to climb the car, but Justin breaks that guy’s hands, causing him to fall to the pavement. Then Justin leaps to the ground and races toward the rest of the Xua. Three of them burst into smoke, leaving their human skins behind like bloody shells. They swarm around Justin’s head like bees, but he keeps his mouth closed and he’s still able to fight the rest of the pack, taking them down one or two at a time.
He’s definitely got this under control.
Where is Gabe?
I stand on my tiptoes to see all the way to the center of the freeway, past cars and bodies until I spot the concrete median. There he is. My little brother crouches low, trying to hide behind an overturned SUV, but it’s him.
An extra dose of adrenaline floods through me.
He’s safe! Both Justin and Gabe are still alive.
Without thinking, I climb over the nearest car, then I do the same thing again and again, like this is what I do every day. I get up, I brush my hair, I get dressed, I race across a freeway covered with carnage to save my brother from aliens and possessed people. As I’m running, I realize that Justin is only a step behind me.
Valiant Page 11
