Pulse

by Patrick Carman

  “Nice try, Sasquatch.”

  “Ouch.”

  Faith looked up at Clooger as they began to walk. As tall as she was, Clooger still towered over her by close to a foot. The trench coat draped over him in a way that squared off his whole body like a refrigerator.

  “My parents okay?” Faith asked as they walked along the sidewalk. She had no idea where they were going, but she assumed it would be a long way on a dark night. Clooger set his face like it were made of stone and kept on, unwilling to engage in any further conversation, at least for the moment. This left Faith to think of her parents more than she usually did. It wasn’t that she didn’t care for them; she wasn’t as coldhearted as that. But Faith had always been so independent, so hell-bent on taking on the world by herself. It had been years since she’d felt anything approaching the need for someone to take care of her. When they’d come to her and told her their plan, she’d taken it in stride, knowing that as always, they’d be out there if she needed them.

  “I actually sort of miss them a little bit,” Faith said, her voice betraying a happiness she hadn’t intended to show. “Even if they are wackos. It’ll be good to see them again.”

  Clooger took offense in a way Faith hadn’t expected. “You shouldn’t talk about them that way.”

  He turned around the side of a building, heading down a narrow alleyway that cut into the mall.

  “You can’t be serious,” Faith said. “No way the encampment is in the mall.”

  “Unexpected. That’s the way we like it.”

  Faith had assumed all along that her parents and all the other Drifters were hiding somewhere in the woods outside of town; but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense that they’d be using a fortified structure such as an empty mall as a place to hole up and not be seen. The fact that it was so close to where she’d been living all this time made her feel like her parents really had been watching over her, even if she’d assumed they weren’t.

  Clooger halted at a door and took a set of keys out of one of his many pockets.

  “There will be some surprises in here. Better take a deep breath and prepare for a long night.”

  Faith did as she was told, sucking in a giant breath of fresh air and closing her eyes for a moment. She hadn’t seen her parents in almost four months. It would be good to see them. She was determined not to get into a fight about their views versus her own. She would let them hug her; it would be fine.

  “Take me to your leader,” she half joked when her eyes were open again, and Clooger unlocked the door. He invited Faith to go first, and she stepped into darkness.

  Clooger had a flashlight that performed like the batteries were about to die, so Faith’s initial introduction to the inside of the mall was dim and half seen. They passed through what must have been the immense space of a department store, where clothing racks sat empty or tipped over on their sides. It was like walking through a forest of metal limbs reaching out to touch her, piles of abandoned clothes tripping her up as they went.

  “Watch your step through here,” Clooger said when she balanced herself on his arm. “Best if we leave no trace.”

  He shined his light on a cash register, which struck Faith as an ancient and useless item. She had read about them but had never seen one up close and tried to imagine inserting paper money into a drawer in exchange for a pair of underwear. Weird was the word that came to mind, but it also made her think specifically of her mother. Faith had fought with her endlessly in their last days together.

  “We didn’t always have Coin, you know. That’s part of how they control us,” she had been fond of saying.

  “You just don’t get it,” Faith would respond. “Who wants to carry money around? It makes no sense. It’s dumb.”

  “The Tablets are dangerous. I’m only trying to protect you.”

  But Faith knew better than that. Her mother and her father hadn’t been trying to protect her. They had been holding her back. They wouldn’t even touch their Tablets, and they’d often hide Faith’s in the house to keep her away from it. It made her so angry that she would scream at them, telling them they were out of touch and didn’t know anything.

  “I’m fine by myself. I don’t need you to tell me what to do,” she would say. Then she’d find her Tablet and escape into her room, locking the door behind her until morning, when she could leave for school and be rid of them.

  There had come a point when their ideas about life diverged so dramatically, it was like the very old poem Faith had read about two paths heading off in different directions, never joining up again. She touched the hidden tattoo on the back of her neck and wondered how she’d ever gotten so far down a path her parents wouldn’t take. And a glimmer of hope, that somehow, against the odds, the paths were about to come together again.

  Faith had let her thoughts drift so far that it came as something of a shock when Dylan appeared in front of her, standing at the top of an escalator going down. He looked happy to see her, and she surprised herself when she ran up and hugged him. He put one arm around her—a half hug she took as a sign of confusion on his part—and she leaned back, smiling.

  “Finally decided to invite me to your place, huh?” She glanced around. “It’s big. Could use some decor-ating.”

  Dylan smiled back, then looked up at Clooger. “I’ll take it from here. Next assignment?”

  Clooger nodded, and, without speaking a word, he turned and walked away.

  “Bye, Clooger,” Faith called out. “Thanks for picking me up.”

  Clooger waved without looking back, and a few seconds later he was enveloped in a quiet darkness. “He stops in and sees me once in a while,” Faith said as she held the slick rail and slowly descended one step at a time. “Just to make sure I haven’t burned down the house or fallen down the stairs.”

  “He’s a good man,” Dylan said. He used the light of his Tablet to guide the way, which gave off a much brighter beam than Clooger’s crummy flashlight had.

  “How come you get to have your Tablet and I had to leave mine behind?”

  “This one’s been altered; yours hasn’t. Can’t bring tracking devices in here.”

  Faith knew that most Tablets were equipped with powerful GPS technology that told the State exactly where you were. It made sense not to bring something like that into a secret hideout, but she longed for her Tablet just the same. It really was like having a limb cut off without its constant stream of messages, shows, music, and so much more.

  “I didn’t realize how hard it would be going without it.”

  “That’s how they control us. You know that, right?”

  Faith thought Dylan sounded an awful lot like her parents, and for a moment she recoiled at the idea that Dylan was more like them than he was like her. Anger welled up inside her chest at the idea that Dylan had probably been spending time with her mom and dad, being indoctrinated into their crazy worldview. As they came to the bottom of the escalator, she wished they could be on top of the building, not underneath it, moving things with their minds, together in their own little world.

  Dylan turned to her when they’d cleared the last step and took one of her hands in his. It sent an electric jolt into Faith’s heart, and she realized her feelings for this boy were even stronger than she’d supposed.

  “Listen, Faith, this isn’t going to be easy,” Dylan said. “I just want you to know I’m here for you. We’re going to get through this together.”

  Faith cocked her head sideways, something she did when she found herself experiencing a very specific kind of emotion. She called it an upside-down mixed-up feeling, and that’s what it was. Confused, afraid, apprehensive, directionless—it was all those things rolled into one.

  “I don’t know what my parents told you, but if this is some sort of twisted intervention, it’s not for me. Let’s go back to the roof. That was more fun.”

  “You should make peace with your mom and your dad,” Dylan said, which had the reverse effect of ma
king her pull her hand away in frustration.

  “You’re the second person who’s said that tonight. Whatever they’re telling you, it’s not me—it’s them. We don’t see eye to eye, and we’re not going to. It’s not a big deal.”

  “Okay,” Dylan said. He didn’t pursue anything more about her parents. “Everything is about to change, and none of what’s coming is easy. Are you sure you want to know everything?”

  “Put yourself in my shoes,” Faith said without hesitation. “I recently discovered I have the power to move whatever I want just by thinking about it. Hell yes, I want to know everything! What kind of question is that?”

  Faith was having a familiar feeling of rebellion in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t realize how hard this was for Dylan, how much harder it was going to get before the night was over, or how her reaction was pushing him away.

  “Come on, there’s someone you need to meet,” Dylan said. He put his firm hand on the small of Faith’s back and guided her forward. Faith calmed down as they walked, but with each step she was struggling with the idea of seeing her parents. It would not go well, she knew this now, and it was putting her in a defensive mood she’d have trouble letting go of.

  “Did you know your training started the day after your parents left?” Dylan asked. It was a subject he’d wanted to bring up but hadn’t had the courage to. With time running out, he wanted her to hear it from him, not from Meredith.

  “I don’t understand,” Faith said. “You mean the stuff we’ve been doing on top of the Nordstrom building? That training?”

  Dylan nodded. He was hoping that a couple of small revelations would make the blows to come slightly less overwhelming. “It started the night after your parents left. In fact, if you want to know the truth, it’s why they left.”

  “Why do I not like where this is going?” Faith asked. She stopped in her tracks, fearing the worst. Something had been going on for a long time, and her parents were involved. It was the last thing she wanted to hear.

  “It took a long time to find you, Faith. Years. And we’re out of time. I knew what you could do because I can feel it when there’s a pulse hiding out there. I felt you long before we ever met.”

  “This is starting to sound creepy.”

  Dylan looked up, breathed a sigh. Then his eyes were back on Faith like he wished he didn’t have to explain. “The first time you moved something by thinking about it was in your sleep. That’s the way it starts. I was patiently waiting to feel it happen; and when it did, I found you. That was four months ago.”

  “Four months? Wait, so you’ve been . . . what? Watching me or something? And my parents are in on it?”

  “Faith, please—I’m trying my best here. The only way to draw this power out of your subconscious is to help you. That’s something I can do by watching, thinking certain thoughts, focusing very specifically on you. So yeah, I’ve been watching you sleep. For about four months.”

  “Okaaay,” Faith said. It was voyeuristic, and Faith wasn’t exactly sure how she felt about it. “What do my parents have to do with this?”

  “Catch this,” Dylan said, and then he threw his Tablet out into the darkness like a Frisbee. Faith reacted intuitively, a flash appearing in her brain as the Tablet came back and landed in her hand.

  “If I hadn’t spent those months showing you what to do while you slept, you wouldn’t be able to do that. And it wasn’t going to work if your parents were in the picture. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know the answer. It just goes faster if you’re isolated. I mean really isolated, not just alone. Like I said, we were very short on time. They understood what was at stake.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me any of this sooner?” Faith asked. She felt manipulated, used.

  Dylan couldn’t tell her the truth. She was possibly the most important person on the planet, but he didn’t know how she might react to news like that. He decided to stop while he was ahead.

  “Just don’t blame anything on your parents. You’re going to wish you hadn’t done that.”

  “Stop taking their side. You don’t even know them.”

  That wasn’t exactly true, and Faith knew it. Dylan had been with her parents for the past four months, listening to them go on and on about how terrible Tablets were and how the States were evil and who knew what else. It made her furious, but she decided to hold it in. It would be more satisfying to use it on her parents when she saw them. “Lead on, Prince Charming,” Faith said sarcastically, handing Dylan’s Tablet back to him.

  They started walking again, this time without talking to each other. Dylan was afraid he’d make another mistake, and Faith was laser focused on all the things she was going to say to her parents when she got the chance. They came to a door, which opened with a swipe card Dylan produced, and there was yet another set of stairs.

  “The person you’re going to meet . . . she’ll tell you everything,” Dylan said as they walked down a steep staircase together. “I’m warning you up front, she can be a little on the cold side. It’s just her way; don’t take it personally. The good news is, she’s on our side.”

  “I didn’t realize there were sides,” Faith said. She wanted to ask about this mysterious new person, but she decided to stay quiet. She was thinking about how long Dylan had been watching her sleep at night and how brooding and distant he’d been at school. And what had her parents told him? She didn’t even want to think about it. At the bottom of the stairs, a final door stood open.

  “She knew we were coming; otherwise this one’s usually locked. She’s got the only key.”

  “How deep does this rabbit hole go?” Faith asked, wondering all over again if all the circumstances of the past month were nothing more than an elaborate, Wire Code–induced dream.

  She could see that there was light inside. The ceiling was lower than she liked, but as they rounded a corner to the right, things opened up. The ceiling was higher, and the room was forty or fifty feet deep. They were in a basement with concrete walls and old-fashioned lightbulbs hanging from exposed beams. At the far end of the room, sitting in a red chair with a high back, was a woman. Three folding metal chairs sat around her in a semicircle. They were all empty.

  “Time for me to go,” Dylan said. “I’ll come back for you.”

  “Wait, you’re leaving me here? With her?”

  Faith wanted to grab him by his leather jacket and make him stay, but it was not in her nature to be weak. She would see this through; and if push came to shove, she would put whoever sat in the red chair through the wall. Faith looked across the long, empty expanse of the dimly lit room, trying to size up the situation. When she turned back, Dylan was gone.

  “Come, sit down,” a voice called to her. It was a woman; that much was obvious. Faith was determined to find the answers to her questions; and if talking to this person was the way to get it done, she would sit in one of the chairs and listen.

  And so she did.

  Chapter 18

  I Brought This for You

  A green apple sat on one of the metal folding chairs and, on another, an unmarked envelope with a splattered wax seal. This left only one unoccupied chair, which Faith stared at for a long time before dragging it noisily toward her across the concrete floor and sitting down.

  “Your chair looks more comfortable than mine.”

  Faith spoke first because the woman, for whatever reason, seemed happy to let an awkward silence fill the basement. Whoever she was, she wasn’t like anyone Faith had met before. Her face was at once delicate and threatening: skin so paper-thin that Faith could see the veins in her forehead, blue eyes that never wavered from their chosen target, dark hair held back by a slender, black band. Her lips were pale but full; and when she spoke, very little else moved. Not her gaze, not her hands, not her flawlessly straight nose. Only her willowy eyebrows betrayed her feeling, and hearing Faith comment about the chair, they rose with what appeared to be either surprise or concern.

  “Would you like to
trade places?” The woman asked.

  “Who are you, and why do you live in a basement?” Faith asked. She was not going to let herself be tricked or bullied.

  “So we’ll stay where we are then, good. I’m Meredith; didn’t Dylan tell you anything?”

  Meredith leaned back slightly in her chair, crossing her long legs.

  “He told me some, but not enough. He said you would tell me more.”

  Meredith kept staring at Faith. She seemed to be trying to decide something, but it was difficult to say.

  “I live underground because it’s safe. Also I’m a troll.”

  Faith was taken aback. It sounded like Meredith was making a joke, but that couldn’t be right.

  “You should see me out of these shoes. Hooves. Ghastly.”

  Faith didn’t want to smile, but she did. “You’re not what I expected.”

  Meredith leaned forward slightly. She had a way with slow, small movements that made Faith wonder if she was made of plaster.

  “Dylan tells me you’re a quick study. I’d like to see that for myself, if it’s all right with you.”

  Faith didn’t like the idea of being tested, but deep down inside she was dying to show Meredith how powerful she was. She was thinking about what was in the room that she could move—the chairs, the apple, the envelope, Meredith—when Meredith moved with a kind of speed Faith had rarely seen before. She was sitting in the red chair, and in the blink of an eye she was missing. Before Faith could turn around searching for her, the chair flew up in the air, hovered over her head for a moment like it was deciding if it should fall on top of her or not, and then it, too, was gone. Faith found herself staring at an empty concrete wall and two folding chairs, one with the envelope sitting on top and one with the green apple.

  “Could you put the chair back where it was? Let’s start there.”

  Faith spun around and saw Meredith at the farthest end of the room. She was standing next to the red chair. “Don’t overthink it. Just put it back for me. I’d appreciate it.”