Pulse

by Patrick Carman

  “That’s a terrible opening line,” Faith said.

  Dylan smiled and took two cautious steps forward.

  “Relationships are about trust, so I thought I’d better come clean right up front.”

  Faith was not impressed with Dylan’s circular logic, but she did like the way he looked in his jeans and that leather jacket as he took two more steps toward her.

  “Let me guess,” Faith said. “You’re really a vampire. You’re a thousand years old, and you think it will gross me out. You’re right.”

  Dylan let the comment slide as he arrived next to her and reached out for her hand. Faith pulled back.

  “Oh no, you don’t. Not until I get some truth-telling out of you. What did you lie about?”

  “I have two things I want to show you, not one.”

  “Are either of them unpleasant?”

  “I don’t think so, but I’m wrong a lot.”

  “Not comforting.”

  Dylan smiled, and their eyes met for an instant, then he walked past her and kept going without turning back.

  “Hey, whoa—you can’t just leave me here.”

  “Come on then, I’ll show you the first thing. Won’t take long.”

  Faith wanted to follow, but she was afraid of where it might lead. What if she ended up in trouble again? Dylan had the appearance of someone even more mysterious and unpredictable than Wade Quinn.

  You sure know how to pick ’em, Faith thought.

  The electricity wasn’t on at the old mall, so none of the streetlamps were shining down as she followed Dylan warily. All the old buildings were dark and shadowy, and for a split second she thought she might have seen a figure move on the other side of one of the broken windows. She started taking two steps to each of Dylan’s one until she caught up.

  “Do you ever worry about Drifters?”

  Dylan didn’t respond the way she thought he would.

  “I’ve met a few Drifters. They’re misunderstood.”

  Yeah, two of them are my parents. I know all about misunderstanding, Faith wanted to say but didn’t. It was her secret, and she sure wasn’t going to share it with a mysterious guy she barely knew.

  “How are you at climbing?” Dylan asked. He was staring up at the back of the old Nordstrom, a notoriously tall building. Faith could barely see the outlines of a fire escape in the darkness.

  “I don’t climb on a first date. It’s a rule I have.”

  Dylan looked a little disappointed, then he started up a metal ladder, leaving Faith to decide if she should follow for the second time in as many minutes.

  “Both of the things I want to show you are on the roof,” Dylan said, quickly up on the first landing. He was staring down at her, and their eyes locked. “You sure you won’t check it out with me? It’s safe, I promise.”

  Faith wasn’t technically afraid of heights; she just hadn’t been in many high places. There hadn’t ever been much of a reason to get her feet off the ground.

  “Do you ever wonder what it would have been like to travel in an airplane?” Faith asked, staring up at Dylan as his dark hair fell forward over his face.

  “Yeah, would have been cool,” Dylan agreed. “I tell you what—you come up here with me, and I promise I’ll figure out a way to get you flying sometime in the near future.”

  “How are you going to keep a promise like that, Romeo?” Faith asked, putting her foot on the first rung of the ladder leading to the landing where Dylan stood.

  Dylan didn’t answer, choosing instead to continue his journey up to the second landing before Faith could change her mind. It was a series of switchback stairs made of metal grating the rest of the way up; and before Faith made it to the first landing, he was already three more landings up in the air. Dylan leaned over the railing and called down.

  “You’re slow.”

  “Sorry to disappoint you.”

  Faith was naturally competitive and genuinely curious. All her reticence went out the window as she took two steps at a time on her way to the top of the old Nordstrom building. She only made the mistake of looking down once, when she arrived at the fourth landing, and it took her breath away. After that she kept her focus upward, yelling for Dylan to wait more than once. She was having fun though, so much fun in fact that it didn’t occur to her that the situation wasn’t that dissimilar from her night with Wade Quinn. She was only fifteen minutes into her date with Dylan and already she was climbing up the side of a building.

  “Okay, now you’re impressing me,” Dylan said as Faith arrived on the tenth platform with him.

  “I bet you say that to all the girls,” Faith said, catching her breath as she looked up the side of the building. “That part looks scary.”

  Getting to the roof required a final ascent on a ladder with at least thirty rungs, and this time, Dylan wasn’t going to leave her behind.

  “You go first. I’ll catch you if you fall.”

  “Why am I not comforted?”

  Dylan flashed a smile at Faith, his eyes sparkling like little diamonds in the soft light. Maybe it was the altitude or the cool air, but Faith definitely felt light-headed for a moment as she looked at this mystifying boy.

  “How did you get me all the way up here?” she asked, not expecting an answer.

  “Keep going; it will be worth it.”

  Faith smiled back at Dylan, turned to the remaining ladder, and decided to take the rungs as fast as she could. If she was going to go first, she was going to get there in time to really check things out before he got there. She climbed fast, finding herself halfway up the wall in no time. If she had looked down at that point, Faith might have lost her nerve. The stars and the moon left everything behind her on the ground in shades of gloomy gray and black. There were very few lights as far as the eye could see, but one thing was for sure: it was a long way down.

  “You keeping up down there or am I too fast for you?” Faith said, hoping to find that he was still standing on the platform below her. Dylan didn’t answer, so she kept going, faster still, until she had her hand on the roof of the building, the cold, concrete rail slick on her palm. Faith pulled herself up and looked at the roof. There was a table set for two, a gas barbecue, and candles. But those weren’t the most surprising things about the roof of the old Nordstrom.

  The most surprising thing was that Dylan Gilmore was lighting the candles.

  Chapter 12

  It’s Not Just a Burger

  “How’d you do that?” Faith asked. She was starting to feel afraid, like she’d been given another Wire Code or something worse and the whole experience was a trick of her imagination. Dylan, the ladders, the landing, the table—was any of it even real?

  Having lit the candles, Dylan opened the grill and struck another match. When he turned to Faith, the orange light of the flames was dancing on his face.

  “There’s another way up is all,” he began. “I’m making hamburgers; I hope that’s okay. I’m afraid the patties were frozen hockey pucks an hour ago. Best I could do was raid the Old Park Hill cafeteria freezer.”

  “What do you mean, another way up?” Faith asked. She was still standing on the ladder.

  “I promise I’ll tell you after dinner. It’s just another way, not a big deal.”

  The hamburger patties had thawed out before Dylan put them on the grill, and they sizzled when he placed them over the flames. White smoke billowed softly into the night air, and Faith was suddenly aware of the lights off in the distance. She wasn’t sure if it was the lights or the smell of the food or the fact that her legs were getting tired that finally led her to climb off the ladder and onto the roof, but it didn’t really matter. She was on the roof with Dylan now whether she liked it or not.

  “The lights are the first thing I wanted to show you,” Dylan said. He flipped the burgers and closed the grill, then looked toward the far edge of the rooftop. There, a glowing orange filtered through the distant trees. Whatever its source was, it looked massive, like the sun we
re about to rise over the horizon and light the world on fire.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Faith asked, awestruck at the size and shape of the soft light.

  “The Western State. It’s only a hundred miles away now, give or take.”

  “It’s closer than I thought,” Faith said. The fear rose in her voice.

  “They don’t mess around,” Dylan said. He went back to cooking the patties in silence, adding thick slabs of cheddar cheese to each one and watching them melt. Faith kept staring at the light. There were no mountains or high places near Old Park Hill, which was why the school had been given its name to begin with. By hill, they’d meant bump. It wasn’t much of a climb up to the campus, and the campus was surrounded by tall trees on every side. The roof of the Nordstrom building was much higher, and there was nothing but a flat parking lot down below. The trees were far enough in the distance to let the light through from a hundred miles away.

  “I think these masterpieces are ready,” Dylan said, placing each thin burger on a white plate.

  Faith let Dylan pull out her chair for her and sat down. There was an orange disk in the center of her plate but no bun.

  “It’s not really a burger without bread, ya know?” Faith joked. She knew bread was hard to come by.

  “I thought about using pancakes, but that just seemed wrong. And it’s not just a burger. It’s a cheeseburger. Big difference.”

  “I do like me some cheese,” Faith agreed, nodding at the bunless wonder on her plate. She picked at the gooey corner and pulled up a string of cheese, wrapping it around her fork like spaghetti.

  “It’s getting really close,” she said after chewing on some burger.

  “I heard it’s growing by ten miles a month in some areas,” Dylan said. That made it sound even scarier.

  “So you think Old Park Hill will be gone in less than a year?” Faith asked.

  “They’re prepping land as close as thirty miles that way,” Dylan pointed off the end of the roof with his fork. “I don’t think it will be even a year before they allocate this land for the States. Takes a lot of space to hold a hundred million people, right?”

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  They ate in silence, Faith taking small bites just to be polite while Dylan put away his entire cheeseburger.

  “This is really nice,” Faith said. “Thank you.”

  “Don’t let the State scare you. It’s for a good reason. Saving the world and all that.”

  “Is it the wall that makes it glow like that?” Faith asked. There was no reason why Dylan should know, but he seemed to be aware of things about the State that others weren’t, so Faith asked.

  “I think so, yeah. Weirdest thing ever, but pretty cool.”

  Faith nodded. All she knew was that the States were surrounded by movable walls that weren’t really walls at all. They were more like energy fields rising into the sky that kept things in and kept things out. As the States grew, the walls moved out, taking up whatever space they wanted.

  “There’s something else I need to show you,” Dylan said. “It’s a little more important.”

  “Let me ask you something first,” Faith said. “How did you hack into my Tablet and send me a message today during class?”

  Dylan shifted nervously in his seat and shrugged, but he could tell that Faith wasn’t going to let it pass.

  “Hawk isn’t the only one who knows how to mess with a Tablet. Let’s just leave it at that, okay?”

  Faith nodded slowly. She was starting to think Dylan was mysterious, romantic, and brainy. Not a terrible combination.

  “Okay,” Faith said apprehensively. “What else do you want to show me?”

  She held her hands in her lap, wondering where this was going. The night had been dreamy and exciting, but it had also put her on edge. Seeing the Western State that close made her worry for herself, her parents, everyone she knew. There was something diabolical about the way it was coming toward her.

  “First I need you to do something for me,” Dylan said. He leaned forward but didn’t touch the table and looked at Faith as if nothing else existed in the world, which happened to be true. At that moment, Dylan’s entire universe was filled with Faith and Faith alone.

  She held his gaze, and even in the dimness of the candlelight, her eyes sparkled in shades of blue and green. Her lips parted and she started to speak, then held back with a sigh, tilting her head ever so slightly as if to say What is it you want me to do? She pushed her long, blond hair behind one delicate ear and waited for the answer.

  “Close your eyes.”

  The request was a little unnerving for Faith. She had a hazy memory of Wade Quinn asking her to do the same thing or something like it. “Why?”

  “Just humor me, will you?”

  Faith had the feeling that Dylan was going to surprise her with flowers or a present. She liked the way he was treating her. Faith was thinking all those things at once as she closed her eyes and smiled.

  “Now what?” she asked, nervous but excited. She imagined feeling his lips on hers as he leaned over the table and kissed her, but instead she heard his voice.

  “Now seriously, you have to keep your eyes closed for me no matter what I say. Can you do that?”

  “I guess so,” Faith said.

  “Think about the glass on the table, the one you were drinking out of. Remember it?”

  “Yeah, I remember. It had water in it.”

  “Okay, good—now imagine it, in your mind, doing something other than what it’s doing right now.”

  “You mean, instead of just sitting there on the table? This is weird.”

  “I know, I know—just do it for me, please. Keep your eyes shut, think of the glass. Think of it doing something besides sitting there.”

  If Faith had opened her eyes, she would have watched the glass tip over on its own, spilling water across the white tablecloth. She heard the clank of the glass as it happened and, opening her eyes, started to get more worried. She had imagined the glass tipping over, and the fact that it was lying on its side, all the water poured out, could mean many things. Maybe Dylan had somehow read her mind and pushed the glass over in order to surprise her. Or possibly he did this trick with girls all the time and knew that most of the time people who closed their eyes and thought about what would happen to a glass of water thought of it tipping over. And there was another option, the one that scared Faith the most. Dylan could have given her a Wire Code that she couldn’t remember, and the entire evening was being filled with hallucinations she would eventually forget she’d ever experienced.

  Faith thought of these many alternatives as she watched Dylan peel off his leather jacket and hang it on the back of his chair. His arms were powerful looking, with wisps of soft hair along their surfaces.

  “Okay,” Dylan said. “Now put it back the way it was.”

  “Pardon me?” Faith said. “You don’t have to close your eyes this time. Just think of the glass. Think about setting it back up again. Don’t worry about putting the water back in.”

  Don’t put the water back in? Faith thought. Is he crazy or am I?

  Faith pushed her chair away from the table but didn’t stand up.

  “Did you know Wade gave me a Wire Code—no wait, two Wire Codes—without telling me?”

  Dylan didn’t speak, only nodded. A silence ensued, then he spoke, just above a whisper. “Put the glass back where it was, Faith. I need to see you do it.”

  “Either I’m crazy or you drugged me. Which is it?”

  “Neither. No one’s crazy, and I don’t give people Wire Codes. And Wade Quinn is a huge jerk for about a million other reasons.” Dylan took a deep breath and tried one last time. “Please, just put the glass back where it was. You can do it.”

  “Maybe it’s you that’s crazy,” Faith said. She stood up and turned in the direction of the ladder leading down to the fire escape.

  “Faith, listen to me—”

  “NO,” Faith yelled, thin
king of the few sips of water she’d taken when it was still in the glass. “You put something in my drink, didn’t you? Were you going to take advantage of me? Is that it?”

  “You don’t understand.”

  “You’re just like Wade Quinn, only worse. And your burgers suck.”

  Faith was angry and confused as she looked at the glass where it lay on the table. Thinking of the glass, she swished her arm fast in front of her. The table was five feet away; but as she moved her arm, the glass flew with lightning speed, as if a blistering wind had picked it up. It flew ten feet through the air, then smashed violently onto the roof, shattering into a thousand pieces.

  “We’re going to need to get that under control,” Dylan said. It wasn’t clear whether or not he was pleased or merely logging the event in his mind.

  Faith was shaking her head, on the verge of tears as she backed up.

  “Why are you doing this to me? Do you get some kind of sick pleasure out of it?”

  “Faith, listen to me—it’s not what you think.”

  “I bet it’s not.”

  Faith turned on her heels, hoping she could escape whatever was happening to her before it was too late.

  “You’re going to remember this tomorrow,” Faith heard Dylan say. She was almost to the retaining wall that wound its way around the roof of the building when Dylan appeared out of nowhere in front of her. He was standing on the ledge looking down at her. Had he appeared all at once, out of thin air, or had he somehow moved there before Faith could see him do it? It was dark enough that she couldn’t be sure.

  “What’s it going to take to get you to stay with me?” Dylan asked.

  Faith was so angry and scared that she wanted to scream. Dylan had slipped something into her water glass or who knew what he’d done. All she knew was that none of it could be real, and it would only get worse. She was so mad, all she could think about was shoving Dylan off the roof. And as she had this thought, Dylan reeled back, lost his balance, and fell out of view.