Black River Falls (22 page)

“I yelled at Crystal this morning.”

“What? Why?”

“I don't know,” she said. “We've gotten kind of friendly over the last few weeks. More than with the other girls, I guess. And it's been nice, but . . . she's got this huge crush on Ren and she found out this morning that he doesn't feel the same way. She showed up wanting to talk about it,
needing
to talk about it, and I just—”

Hannah's eyes narrowed on the stone between us, as if she were searching for something in its crags.

“What?”

“I told her I didn't have time for her and her stupid crush.” Her eyes flashed up at me. “I actually said that. I didn't even know why. It was like I was watching myself do it.”

“It's just—it's stress or something.”

Hannah shook her head. She let go of the key and hugged her knees to her chest.

“You remember the night we saw the fireflies? How after Greer left, it was just me and you up here and we . . .”

I nodded, feeling the pinch of that memory.

“After you left, I had this feeling like I couldn't breathe,” she said. “Like the tent was collapsing around me. The second the sun came up, I was down in camp, talking to Astrid about moving in with them.”

Hannah made a fist and laid it over her chest.

“It's like there's this second heart in my chest, right next to mine, and whenever I get close to somebody, it starts to beat harder and harder. And I know there's only one thing I can do to make it stop.”

“What?”

“Run,” she said. Her voice was hollow, frightened. “As fast and as far away as I can.”

Her eyes glistened but she wiped at them before any tears could fall. More than anything I wanted to put my hand on her shoulder, or draw her to me—but I knew I couldn't.

“And it's not new,” she said. “I'm sure of that. Every time I feel it, I can tell.” She turned to me again. “Why would Lassiter's wipe everything else away—my name, my life, my family—and leave that behind?”

“Hannah . . .”

There was a rustle in the trees behind us.

“Guys? Hannah? Card?”

DeShaun and Ricky were standing in the clearing, just off the trail.

“Greer says it's time to go,” Ricky said.

“Actually,” DeShaun corrected, “he said if you guys make him deal with ‘those pint-sized demon spawn' on his own, you're both dead to him forever.”

“Okay,” Hannah said. “We'll be right there.”

“You all right, Hannah?”

She managed a brave smile. “Yeah, D. I'm good. You guys go ahead.”

Once they left, Hannah dabbed at her eyes and tried to fix her hair.

“So. Any carnival-going tips for me?”

Her face was red and her hair was a tangle of vines. She was so beautiful I didn't think I could stand it.

“If someone asks you to ride the Ferris wheel with them, say yes.”

By the time I got back to camp, the kids had disappeared into their cabins to finish getting ready. Greer wasn't in his, so I decided to check the dining hall. I went into the kitchen and found it empty. At first I thought the dining room was empty too, but then I saw Benny.

He was sitting alone at one of the tables, with a can of soda in front of him. As soon as he saw me, he got up to leave.

“Ben. Wait.”

“I have to get ready. It's almost time to go.”

“Just a second. Please.”

He stopped where he was, his little body framed in the sunlight coming through the open front door.

“I shouldn't have left like that.”

He was still for a moment, then slowly looked over his shoulder. “So why did you?”

I sat down at the table. He'd had enough excuses. “Ever since that night, since the sixteenth, I . . . it's like I get caught up in this current I can't even see. And before I can stop it, I'm a hundred miles away from where I started. You know?”

There was a long stretch of silence, and then he nodded. Outside, the rest of the kids were emerging from their cabins and gathering at the head of the trail.

“Anyway. I just wanted to say I was sorry. Looks like you better get moving.”

He started to leave, then paused at the door. “You going to be here when we get back?”

“Are you kidding? Can't miss hot dog night.”

Benny grinned, and then Greer hollered out in the camp, “Listen up, everybody! We are leaving in five . . . four . . . three . . .”

I gave Benny a nod, and he ran out into the sunshine. I tossed his soda can into the trash and followed.

Greer managed to get the kids into some semblance of order, then did a final head count. His face was scrubbed, and he'd changed into a cleanish pair of jeans and a button-down shirt that was only a little too big for him. He looked good, despite the fact that on closer inspection he was clearly more than a little jumpy. Whether it was because he was about to lead his charges into the largest gathering of infected since the outbreak or because of his impending date with a Ferris wheel and a green-haired girl was hard to say.

“Maybe you should dip into some of Makela's happy pills before you go,” I said. “Might take the edge off.”

He chuckled nervously. The door to the girls' cabin slammed open behind us, and then came Hannah's voice.

“I'm coming! Sorry I'm late!”

“No problem,” Greer said. “We were just—”

He shut up the second he saw her. I didn't blame him. She'd changed into a white dress that was speckled all over with small blue flowers. Her arms and shoulders were bare, and she'd put her hair up with a few clips Astrid had made out of twigs and sparkling bits of stone. She stopped dead a few feet from us, likely because our slack-jawed staring was freaking her out.

“What? Do I look stupid? I look stupid, don't I?”

“No!”

“It's the boots, isn't it?” She looked down at her feet, which were still clad in her old black combat boots. “Can you believe that? We find
this
dress, but no shoes that fit me. Forget it, this was a dumb idea. I'm going to change.”

Greer almost jumped out of his skin to stop her. “No! Don't. You look great. Seriously. Awesome. You look like a
completely
different person.”

Hannah gave him a look. Good lord, Tennant, he really didn't have any moves whatsoever.

“You guys should probably get going,” I said, hoping to save him from any further embarrassment.

“Yes!” Greer said. “Let's go! Good times ahead!”

He trotted off, but Hannah didn't move. She stood there fiddling with the hem of her dress, looking nervous and worried.

“It's going to be fun,” I said.

“Yeah. I know.”

“Dude!” Greer called out. “Come on!”

Hannah rolled her eyes, smiling at the same time. “Better go.”

She started toward the others, green hair bouncing, dress swishing at her knees. In no time at all she'd be around the corner, down the mountain, and gone.

“I feel it too.”

She stopped and turned around, suspended halfway between me and the kids. My mouth felt as if it were coated in sand.

“That heartbeat,” I heard myself say. “I feel it too. All the time.”

Greer called out again, but Hannah made a motion for him to wait. She came back up the trail.

“What do we do?” she asked.

There were all sorts of things I could say, some of them even sounded pretty good in my head, but in the end I told her the truth.

“I don't know.”

For a moment it was like we were back on that trail under the moonlight. Hannah reached out and took my gloved hand. She started to come closer but stopped herself mid-stride.

“I wish we could—”

“I know,” I said. “Me too.”

Greer called again.

“Go on,” I said, barely able to speak around the catch in my throat. “I'll see you later. We've got a date with some fireflies, right?”

Hannah smiled, then hurried toward Greer and Benny and Margo. She took Benny's hand, Greer scooped up Margo in his arms, and they all continued down the trail. There was a bark behind me as Snow Cone and Hershey Bar raced out of a cabin to see them off. I stood there listening to their fading voices. Once they were gone, the dogs came trotting back. They followed me as I returned to the garden.

I
WAS IN MY
tent reading when I heard the helicopter.

It was a distant buzz at first, but it grew steadily louder until it shot by, right overhead. The dogs jumped up and ran down the trail. I'd moved back to my old camp by then, so I made it to the cabins in no time. Just as I did, helicopters screamed by, skimming the treetops on their way to town. I picked out Marvin logos on their bellies as they slipped past. The Guard had flown helicopters over the QZ plenty of times when they were in charge, but never so many at once and never so low. Did it have something to do with the carnival? Some kind of air show? The dogs stayed close as I headed farther down the trail for a better view.

The Marvins' carnival had transformed Monument Park into a pool of light in the middle of the dark valley. The helicopters swept across town and took up positions high above it. I grabbed my knife's hilt as Hershey Bar and Snow Cone whined. Something was wrong. They could feel it too.

“Come on, guys.”

The dogs ran ahead as I sprinted back to camp and found our radio in the boys' cabin. Nothing but static on every channel. There was a shout coming from up the mountain. I dropped the radio and went to the back window. Flashlights lit up the trees. Jen and Marty, the couple who'd told Greer about Ricky and Margo, came stumbling down the trail, pushed along by a pair of Marvins. As they passed out of view, another couple appeared behind them, then a family of four, then more Marvins. They were herding the infected through camp toward the trailhead that led off Lucy's Promise.

“You can't do this!” Marty screamed as they dipped down into the trees. “This is our home!”

“Don't worry.” One of the Marvins laughed. “I hear Arizona is great this time of year!”

Arizona?
I ran back to my tent and pulled the phone Gonzalez had given me out of my backpack, thinking maybe he'd know what was going on. But when I powered it up, there was no signal. Not a weak signal.
No
signal. It didn't make sense. Gonzalez said there was a cell tower on the next mountain.

I pulled on my mask and gloves, then tossed the phone into my pack and threw it over my shoulder. The dogs tried to join me as I came back through the camp, but I warned them off and started down the mountain.

By the time I got to the foot of Lucy's Promise, Jen, Marty, and a dozen other infected were being loaded into the back of one of the Marvins' big cargo trucks. I searched for someone in charge and spotted a familiar face right away.

“Raney! What's going on? Where are you taking them?”

As soon as he saw me, Raney barked an order to his men, then headed for a Humvee that was parked on the side of the road.

I ran to catch up with him. “What the hell are you doing? You said nothing was going to change. You said everything was going to stay just like it was.”

“What did you think?” he barked. “The governor was going to wall off an entire town and play nanny to you and your friends for the rest of your lives? There are thousands of uninfected people out there who want their homes back. Who want their businesses back.” He yanked open the Humvee door. “World's moving on, kid, starting tonight.”

“Where are you taking them?”

Raney slid into his seat and signaled to the driver. The engine rumbled.

“Good places,” he said. “Safe places. We've got facilities in Arizona, Oregon, The Dakotas. A few in Canada. Your friends will be perfectly safe until somebody figures out a cure for this thing. In the meantime, Black River, New York, will be back in business. Hell, a month from now it'll be like none of this ever happened.”

“But it's not right! You can't just—”

I was interrupted by a deep boom coming from somewhere across town. The ground trembled, and then a ball of fire rose over the treetops. All around me radios screeched and Marvins scrambled to their vehicles.

“What was that? What's happening? Raney—”

But he was already moving. His Humvee sped away, and so did all the others around me. There was another boom, smaller this time, followed by a crash. I spun around, trying to figure out where the sounds were coming from. A third explosion made it clear. They were coming from Monument Park.

I ran flat out, jumping fences and cutting through yards. Every street I passed was full of sirens and flashing lights and roaring engines. When I got to within a block of the park, I heard thousands of voices all yelling at once, so many that they merged into a storm of white noise. I hooked around the back side and climbed the hill, staying low, moving from shadow to shadow until I reached the crest. Once there, I found a thicket of trees and dropped to my belly.