Push (Beat series Book 2)

by Jared Garrett

  She’d been watching me. She blinked and looked at the street. “Yeah. Maybe we should go get my pack.” She popped the last bit of jerky into her mouth.

  “They need to get back. We have to go find that Edwards Air place,” I said. “Maybe that’s where Holland is.”

  “Maybe. Hopefully it’s not another abandoned building that we have to almost die in so that we can find a secret room,” Melisa said.

  “Hopefully.”

  I straightened out my spare shirt and flapped it in the air, then hung it over the window frame to try to help it dry. “I’ll see if I can figure out how far it is from here.”

  “Good idea.” Melisa stomped her feet and rubbed her arms. “It’s getting cold. I’m going to say the Ranjers aren’t out there looking for us, so I’m going to find stuff we can burn.”

  “You want my light?”

  Melisa looked out the window. “Should be okay.” She headed toward the door. “Any more of that jerky?”

  “I wish. I don’t even have protein paste.”

  “You’ll regret your unreasonable hatred of protein paste if we die of starvation,” she said, heading down the hallway.

  “Probably not!” I leaned on my damp shirt. The tide was back out and the ground looked surprisingly dry. The sun painted the hazy clouds pale orange and pink as it approached the horizon of dark blue ocean.

  Stepping away from the window, I crossed to the map. The map drew my eye. Now that Melisa had pointed out the red circle, I couldn’t help but see it. I stopped and tried to estimate the distance between old San Francisco and the Edwards Air place. I could make a pretty good guess as to where New Frisko was in relation to the old city. If I remembered right, New Frisko was about 150 kilometers from the old one.

  Why’d they even name it New Frisko if was going to be so far away? And what had changed to make the old city flood every day? I thought about what we’d seen in the city, buildings with big cracks and some that had collapsed partway. And Scott had said that there had been a huge earthquake that had changed the land along the west side of California. The area must have dropped lower, allowing the ocean to flood it twice a day.

  So of course people left. Who would live here, except for people who want to live on boats?

  I forced my thoughts back on track. If New Frisko was 150 meters from the old one, I put my finger on the spot where I thought New Frisko was on the map. It looked like Edwards Air was maybe twice as far away. So 300 meters.

  And who knew what it looked like. Maybe it was guarded as well as or even better than Anjeltown was. How were we going to get there without being found out and stopped?

  I crossed the hallway and a wide open space to get to the other side of the building. I looked east, peering between buildings to try to get a good look. My parents might be 300 meters that way, locked up somewhere under Adam Holland’s control. Adam Holland, the guy who’d practically wiped out humanity.

  Squeezing the window frame I was leaning out of, I wanted to jump out of the building and fly over there right away. I wanted to break down whatever building Holland was hiding in, destroy him, and rescue my family. Then we could live in peace, free from the evil spam eater.

  We could fly at least part way—that was if Pol and the others came back any time soon. Why couldn’t they be back already? We could fly 300 miles through the night, use the darkness as our cover, and have my family free by morning.

  I wandered restlessly around the building, imagining plan after plan for rescuing my parents. As I went, I gathered what few scraps of wood and pieces of rock I found. The problem was that if my parents really were at this Edwards Air place, Holland was too, and he was evil and well armed. And we had no idea how many Ranjers he had.

  We couldn’t pose as Ranjers by stealing their suits either, since they were keyed to the Ranjers’ DNA. If we put a suit on, we would just be wearing highly articulated body armor, which was better than nothing, if I thought about it.

  Any plan we made had to include finding and stopping Holland at the same time that we found and rescued my parents and the others that had been taken. We had to be smarter than him. But how could we be smarter than a guy who had somehow been around for over a hundred years and controlled three cities at the same time? He’d fooled two or three generations of people, tricking them into wearing a heart rate monitor that regularly injected a murderous biotoxin into them.

  But people had been happy when they didn’t know the truth about the knockout. And I’d ruined—Stop it. I hefted one of the rocks I’d picked up and threw it as hard as I could out a window. It soared across the street and sailed through a window in another building. I heard it roll to a stop. What’s done is done. I spammed things up, but it was for the right reason. We can make it better.

  I thought about the Papa, how Holland had been hiding his weapon right inside what was supposed to be the savior of mankind. Something about that caught my attention. I arranged the rocks I’d found in a wide circle on the floor we’d made our campsite, then piled the bits of wood I had picked up. I kept chewing on that thought.

  By the time Melisa came back with her arms full of wood scraps, I was rolling a plan over in my mind. It was kind of simple, but it might work. I followed Melisa back out and told her what I’d been thinking as we gathered more wood from the nearby park and the streets. The wood that the tide had brought in was wet, but we thought it might dry if we set it near the fire.

  “You want to wrap us in thermal shielding cloth, then sneak into Edwards Air at night?” Melisa set two more small pieces of wood on top of the pile in my arms.

  “Yeah,” I said. “If we get there in the afternoon, we can watch the area and get to know the defenses. There’s got to be a gap in them, right? So if we stay out of sight and shield ourselves from the night vision they’ve got, we ought to be able to get in, right?

  Melisa grabbed her pile and we went back upstairs. “I mean, sure. If everything went perfectly and there really was a gap in the defenses, and if the Ranjers and the tech they have are stupid, and if we’re just really lucky enough to outthink people and machines that are smarter than us—yeah, we might not die right away.”

  “Well, what’s your plan?”

  Melisa paused over the pile of dry twigs and leaves she’d made. “To get warm for the first time in a day or two. Then to try not to think about how empty my stomach is while we wait for Pol and James to get back.”

  “Come on,” I said. “Can you think of anything better?”

  “No, but I don’t think well when I’m cold and starving,” she said. “I think you’re right—we have to get in without being seen. There’s no way we could beat whatever defenses are there.”

  “Exactly.”

  “And this is all assuming we’re right about where Holland is hiding with your parents and the others,” Melisa said.

  “We’re right. We have to be.” I wished she would get the fire started. The evening breeze was getting cold on my still slightly wet clothes.

  Melisa lit the fire with a sparking tool Rojer had thrown together a few days after we escaped New Frisko. She blew it to life carefully. “It’s definitely better than nothing. And if they’re not there, maybe we’ll find something else that shows us where they are.”

  We worked together to coax the fire bigger, adding wood pieces in turn and bending to blow on the small fire. Melisa spoke again. “I know it means something that Edwards Air is circled. I wish I knew what the other words were.”

  I leaned closer to the fire, wishing I could pick up a chunk of it and slide it under my sleeves and pant legs to dry me out completely and ward off the chill. I spread my spare shirt out near the fire and angled my body so I could maximize the heat of the fire on my still damp trousers. Night had fallen completely and our fire didn’t have much fuel. I turned my chest light back on.

  “Gonna be a long night,” I said.

  “Want to go back down there and try to find my pack and keeper?” Melisa asked.


  “Maybe we should,” I said. “What’s in your backpack?”

  “Couple of tubes of protein paste, a few dishes, my firestarter. Some clothes too.”

  The thought of any kind of food, even the protein paste, made my stomach growl. We went down together and found the floor nearly dry as we descended.

  “The water’s draining somewhere,” Melisa said.

  “Has to be,” I said.

  The secret room under the building looked even more bare now that the water was gone and there was nothing on the walls. Melisa’s pack was wedged in a corner between a tall stack of drawers and a wall. It had come open, spilling most of its contents around the room.

  Melisa picked up some clothes from where they were gathered at the base of one of the arched doors. “Did you find any of the protein?”

  I held up the tube I’d just found under the heavy metal table. “Yay. Dinner.”

  “We have to get better at this food thing,” Melisa said. “We were just part of the most advanced society this world’s ever seen and we’re hungry. That seems kind of fundamental, don’t you think?”

  “Advanced doesn’t mean we all know how to find, kill, and cook food,” I said.

  “There are always those vegetables too,” she said.

  “And fruit. I can’t believe we didn’t have apples in New Frisko. That right there should have been a dead giveaway that something was wrong.”

  She laughed, wringing her clothes out. I thought she would stand, but she stayed crouched near the door. “Nik, why are all my clothes and lighter things in the same place?”

  I went over. “What are you talking about?” I flipped the tube of food-like stuff in my hand.

  “My clothes, a plate, a few straps. They’re all right here at the base of this door.”

  “So they stayed together,” I said.

  “They’re lighter, they should have spread out.” Melisa lay down in front of the door and put her face right to the bottom of it. “Bring your light here.”

  I leaned on the wall next to the door and pointed my light down.

  “There’s a crack here. Not big enough to save us from the water, but enough for the water to drain out,” Melisa said.

  I studied the door frame and all around it. “Huh. That’s useful I guess. I don’t think it opens.”

  “It’s dark in there,” Melisa said. She stood and we both searched the secret room for a way to open the door.

  “I got nothing,” I said.

  “Me neither.” She frowned. “Maybe we should stop wasting our time with it?” She raised her eyebrows.

  “Good call,” I said.

  We did another circuit of the walls and the rest of the underground room to make sure we hadn’t missed anything. By the time we were done, the tube of protein paste was squeezed completely empty.

  “You think they found them?”

  “The Wanderers? Yeah, Lily sounded like she knew where to go,” I said.

  “You think Lily will come back?”

  “What? Why wouldn’t she?”

  Melisa raised her eyebrows at me and led the way back up the stairs to our camp room. “Seriously? Scott’s her dad. She was about to burst a blood vessel when she found out the Ranjers were after him. I bet she stays.”

  “Good point.” We climbed, our feet on the concrete steps the only sound. “Yeah, I probably wouldn’t leave again either.”

  Melisa rooted through her bag, positive she’d had another tube of paste in there. I was done. That stuff tasted like—nothing. It was as if a machine had sucked in meat, chewed all the flavor out of it, then squeezed what was left into a plastic tube. I stood at the window, watching the stars come out. How would this city have looked when people lived here? There had to be lights everywhere, and cars driving up and down the wavy roads. Did the lights have different colors? And the sounds—was it always noisy?

  The city was totally silent. I didn’t even hear the birds we’d heard calling out earlier in the day. The only sound was soft, hushed, and it rose and fell. It was like the near constant whisper of the forest, but bigger. It had to be the ocean with its waves rolling in and out.

  Orange light flickered on the walls of the room. I wondered how this room looked from the outside. Was this the first time it had been lit up in more than a hundred years? Had to be.

  Melisa fed another chunk of wood to the fire and hunched near it, rubbing her arms and legs. It never seemed to bother her that everything was completely different. She’d never blamed me for any of it, either. How did she do it?

  A bit of pale light from my chest light reflected off the wall behind Melisa. Wait. My chest light’s not on.

  “Down! Put the fire out!” I grabbed my spare shirt and threw it toward the small blaze.

  “What?” Melisa didn’t hesitate though. She kicked out and broke the fire up. My shirt landed on a small piece of burning wood.

  I dove to the floor. “A light. Out there.”

  We put out the tiny fires and scrabbled to the side of the room, watching a familiar light grow outside. It was a pod. And James and Pol hadn’t called to say they were back. I stretched out for my keeper. It had gotten soaked. Why hadn’t I checked to see if it still worked? Sometimes I was really stupid.

  “Ranjers.”

  Chapter 28

  Melisa tapped my shoulder. “Are you sure?”

  “Has to be!”

  “It could be Pol and James,” she said.

  “No, they would have called through the EarComs,” I said. And then realized my right ear was empty.

  “You still have yours? Mine fell out when I was drowning,” she said.

  I shook my head. “Actually, no.”

  “We know you’re in there,” a loud voice said from outside—amplified by a pod’s speakers. “Come out and we might not tell everyone what you’ve been doing alone together.”

  “Oh, honestly,” Melisa said. She stood. It was Pol.

  I thumbed on the red laser sight on my keeper and jumped in front of the window. “Get back, you murdering Ranjers!” The front lights of the pod swiveled up and blinded me.

  “Nik! It’s us!” Pol’s voice spiked high on the last word.

  “How do we know you’re not in there with a bunch of Ranjers who have keepers to your heads?” I yelled back, blinking and turning my head to get the glowing purple spots out of my eyes.

  “Nik, come on,” Melisa said, laughing.

  “We could tell Jan that you and Melisa were curled up next to a cozy fire.” That was James. He and Pol burst out laughing.

  “All right, all right,” I said. I looked at Melisa, my face burning. She couldn’t see that in the blazing light from the pod, could she? Then the color rose in her cheeks, and she didn’t meet my glance. She’s really cute when she blushes. Spam. I needed to get my head straight.

  “Why aren’t you responding to our transmissions?” Pol asked. “We’ve been trying to reach you for a while.” His voice was powerfully amplified by the pod’s sound system.

  I motioned toward my ear, but Melisa yelled back. “We lost our EarComs.” She studied the street. “Land and pick us up!”

  “We thought we’d have you jump through the open window,” James said. “Sound good?”

  “Land!” I shouted back. “We think we found them!”

  “Really? How—” Pol cut off. “Yeah, that’s not working.” The pod was already nearly on the ground.

  “Time to go,” Melisa said. I turned on my chest light and she picked up the map and the papers that had legible words on them. “I’ll bring all of this back to the cavern. Maybe Rojer or someone can help us read more of it.”

  “The cavern?” I stuffed my shirt into my pack and followed her out of the room. “We’re not going back there now.”

  “Of course we are. We need a real plan,” Melisa said.

  We stomped down the concrete stairs. My shoes were the only things that were still wet. It wasn’t pleasant.

  “Okay, sure. My plan’
s not great. But we’ll come up with something else. No way are we going back now that we know where they are.” I slung my bag over my shoulder. “We have to get my parents!”

  “We think we know where they are,” Melisa said. As we made our way to the front of the building, Melisa refused to see how wrong she was, no matter how hard I tried to convince her. As we emerged onto the street, I turned and threw a final glance at the interior of the building Holland had created the Bug in. It seemed like we should do something, maybe burn it down. Or just blow it up, since it was made of bricks.

  “Who knows what Holland’s doing to them?” I said as we jogged into the pod. “We have to go there right now.”

  “I know,” Melisa said. “We don’t know what he’s up to, I know. But if we show up without a plan better than ‘wrap ourselves in thermal shield cloth and sneak in,’ we’re just going to be killed. And your parents and everyone else will be too.”

  “Then think of a better plan!” The pod door had been closing even as I stepped onto the metal floor, and we were taking off already. “James, go east!”

  “You two get up here,” James called back.

  I dropped my pack and keeper and joined Melisa at the front of the pod. I leaned on the copilot chair, where Pol was sitting.

  “Did you find the Wanderers and Lexi?” As I said it, I looked around. “Oh, hey Lily.” She was sitting in the back corner of the pod; it looked like she was sharpening a knife.

  “Nik.” She didn’t even look up.

  “Yes, we found them,” Pol said. “They’re fine. We got there like three hours after we left and used the pod to get the slower people moved quickly.”

  “So that’s what took so long,” I said.

  “Kind of,” James said. The hair on my neck stood up a little at his tone.

  “What happened?” Melisa asked.

  “You fly, I’ll talk,” Pol said.

  “Fine,” James said. He guided the pod above the nearby buildings and accelerated.

  Melisa and I exchanged a glance. What was going on?

  “James,” I said. “East. Actually, southeast.”