Doomed (31 page)

“I’m trying! It’s not as easy as you think.”

“Let her play, Eli. You need to focus on the map,” Theo barks.

I glance up, see a huge group of people huddled together in the center of the road about a hundred yards ahead of us.

“Turn right at the corner. It’ll get us out of this mess.”

Theo does as Eli says, then slams on the brakes so hard that I fear whiplash as I jerk against my seat belt. When my brain stops rattling in my head, I peer out the front windshield. There’s a huge group of people blocking the street. They’re carrying bats and metal pipes, makeshift weapons that they’re using to bash in store windows and car windshields.

“Shit, I’m sorry!” squawks Eli.

“Get out of here, Theo!” I yell.

Theo throws the car in reverse, starts backing out the way we came, but it’s too late. The crowd from the main street is pouring onto this one, blocking us in as they loot and destroy.

“What do we do?” Eli asks. He’s trying not to show it, but I can tell he’s afraid. Then again, so am I.

Theo crawls forward with the car, hoping, I think, to intimidate people into getting out of the way. But another look proves that’s not going to happen. All he’ll do is get
them angrier, and the last thing we want is for them to turn that fury and fear on us.

Conscious of the time limit ticking away on my laptop, I shove it in my backpack anyway. “We need to ditch the car.”

“What?” Eli goggles. “Are you crazy? They’ll rip us apart out there.”

“Not if we get out now, before they reach the car.” I toss both Theo and Eli their backpacks.

“She’s right,” Theo says, even as he casts an uneasy glance behind us.

The mob’s getting closer. Another minute and they’ll be on us. “Let’s go!” I say, grabbing my backpack, throwing open the door, and plunging into the mass confusion.

Eli and Theo are right behind me—I can tell because they’re both swearing as they follow my headlong flight away from the car and through the throngs of seething humanity. It’s a dangerous move, especially with the game’s time limit running out, but staying in that car is even more dangerous.

I’m jostled and bumped with every step I take, but it isn’t too bad. Isn’t nearly as bad as it could be. When I reach the corner, I look back. People are already on the Blazer, beating in its windshield and side windows while others rip out the radio.

“Don’t stop!” Theo tells me, shoving me forward with a firm hand on my lower back.

I turn the corner into more chaos, start wrestling my way through it. As I do, I’m conscious of every second that passes. If I don’t find a spot to play the game now, there’s no
way I’ll be able to complete the task. No way we’ll be able to advance.

Looking around, I make another executive decision and duck through the shattered window of an already-looted store. From the looks of it, it was a women’s boutique, but there’s not enough merchandise left for me to be sure. Just a few broken bottles of bath salts and some ripped blouses and sweaters.

“What are we doing in here?” Eli demands, but I don’t waste time answering him. I just duck behind the counter and pull out my laptop. Two minutes and fifty-eight seconds left. I am so totally screwed.

Not sure what else to do, I systematically press Ctrl plus every key on the keyboard. I finally hit paydirt when I land on
K
. I start to glow again, but this time it’s not the helpful, vibrant red from the last level. It’s bright yellow and it starts in the center of my being. A burning, pulsating heat that grows and grows until it all but encompasses me.

“What do I do? What do I do?” I’m back to pressing every key, hoping for some clue as to what’s happening. Am I going to implode? Spontaneously combust? Turn Supernova and suck everything and everyone around me into the sixteen-pronged force field that is growing around me with every second that passes? As the Vergina Sun, a symbol of the twelve gods of Olympus, forms behind me, that last idea seems more and more likely.

Eli and Theo are leaning over my shoulder, eyes wide as they watch me amass more and more energy, more and more fire, on the screen. If I don’t do something with it
soon, I’m going to explode. There’s no way I can hold all this.

I glance at the countdown timer. Two minutes and three seconds.

A noise sounds at the door, glass crunching under boots, and Eli and Theo throw themselves on the floor behind the counter. If it’s more looters, we don’t want to be caught here with our solar backpacks and laptops. If it’s the cops, we don’t want to be caught here at all. And if Homeland Security has somehow managed to catch up with us … Well, it doesn’t even bear thinking about.

I hit the Mute button on my computer, try to keep playing even as I’m afraid to breathe. The guys are sitting up against the wall, weapon-like shards of glass clutched in their hands as they wait for whoever’s at the doorway either to make a move or to head somewhere else.

On-screen, time’s passing at what feels like warp speed, and I still don’t know what to do. People are IMing me, but I don’t have time to read, don’t even have time to look as I search desperately for a way out of this mess.

Whoever’s at the door of the store decides not to move on, their footsteps coming closer to the high counter we’re hiding behind. The countdown hits 1:00 and I know this is it. I either try to do something or bail out of the game right now. Following my instincts, I run across the rocky, ripped-up desert, leaping over small cracks and fissures until I get to the huge fracture that so much of the noxious gas is pouring out of.

This is fracking at its worst—Big Oil polluting the dirt
we grow things in and the groundwater we drink by injecting chemicals into the earth to release natural gas to the surface. The only problem is it releases all these other toxins as well, more evil into a world already saturated.

Knowing this is my last hope, I jump straight into the fracture. As I fall, I pray I’m doing the right thing, that I won’t die like all the others who fell through the earth during the giant attack.

Long, excruciating seconds pass as I fall and fall and fall. Longer, more excruciating seconds crawl by as whoever’s invaded our space pokes around, looking for something.
Merchandise to barter?
I wonder.
Or three teenage fugitives on the run from every government agency in the country?

Suddenly, my laptop screen lights up, the entire thing turning supernova bright. I throw myself over it, try to cover it as my avatar slowly floats out of the fissure, my entire body alight with the power of the sun. Next to me, growing larger with every ray that shines over him, is a young man clutching a bow and arrow and a harp. Apollo, god of the sun.

He’s glowing as brightly as I am, and as I watch through the gaps in my fingers, the noxious odors disappear, baked away by the sheer, unconcentrated power of the sun that I have somehow managed to harness. I think of Orinoco, of its huge solar array, and wonder if what my father is saying here is possible. Can we really—

A huge hand slams down on the counter above me, and I jump, terror rushing through me as I look up and into the eyes of one of New Mexico’s finest.

“Drop the glass and stand up, hands in the air,” he says to us, gun drawn and leveled straight at Theo’s chest. We obey, making sure to keep our hands where he can see them as he shifts the gun back and forth between the three of us.

“What are you doing in here?” he demands. “This is private property.”

Figuring I’m the least threatening of the three of us, which isn’t saying much as I’m about three inches taller than the officer is, I take it upon myself to answer, sticking as close to the truth as I can manage. “We were driving and got caught up in the mess outside. When they stopped our car and started pounding on it, we got out and ran. We figured this was as good a place to hide as any until they moved on.”

He doesn’t know whether to believe me or not. I can see it in the way he’s looking at me, weighing my words. “Let me see some ID. One at a time and very slowly, please.” He nods at me. “You first.”

Oh shit
, is all I can think. We’re sunk. Completely and totally finished. Major communications failure or not, it’s hard to imagine that he doesn’t know my name when Homeland Security is currently combing these streets looking for me. It occurs to me that he could be here right now because he’s been notified to be on the lookout for us.

“It’s in my bag.” I point to where my backpack lies drunkenly on its side. “Can I get it?”

His gun dances back and forth across Theo and Eli—a threat if ever I’ve seen one—before coming to rest on me. “Go ahead. But don’t do anything stupid.”

It’s way too late for that warning. I bend down, pick up my backpack. Fumble with it for a few seconds to buy myself
some time—for what, I don’t have a clue. “Hurry up!” he tells me, and I know this is it. It really is done.

I reach for my wallet just as the walkie-talkie on his belt screams to life. I don’t understand the code that comes through it, but the words that follow are easily distinguishable. “Where are you, Crewshank? I’ve cleared my stores and am heading toward yours.”

As the words register with me, everything seems to slow down. I can hear Crewshank’s breathing, even as the pounding of my own heart slams in my ears. Backup is coming. Another police officer. Our chances of escaping just dwindled even more.

Before I even know I’m going to do it, I swing my heavy backpack out as far as I can, slamming it into Officer Crewshank’s face at the same time I dive back down behind the counter.

His gun goes off as he falls, the bullet flying into the wall directly behind where my head just was.

“Jesus Christ!” Eli yells as I scoop up my laptop and leap toward the back of the store. I slam through the shop’s back door, my two partners in crime hot on my heels. I’ve just added assault of a police officer to our list of offenses.

“I’m sorry!” I tell them as we careen around a corner, this time searching
for
the angry mob to get lost in. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

“You did fine,” Theo says, though his face is completely white. He’s as shaken up by what I just did as I am.

“I
assaulted
a
cop
!”

“Yeah. I’m trying to forget that part.”

“Good luck with that. By now, every cop in the vicinity is looking for us.”

Eli grabs my elbow, yanks me around another corner and into another shop. “Change your shirt,” he tells me as he rummages in his backpack. “The brighter the better.” Seconds later, he takes out his red hoodie, pulls it over his head.

I glance at Theo, who’s already following Eli’s directions. Soon, he’s wearing an orange polo shirt and a black baseball cap. I yank on the purple hoodie they bought me the other day at Walmart, and then we’re slipping out the back and into the alley behind the store.

I figure we’re going to make a run for it again, but sitting right there, next to the door, is a black BMW SUV. The driver’s window is smashed in, the radio’s missing, and the driver is passed out on the steering wheel, blood trickling down the side of his face.

Eli looks at Theo, Theo looks at me, and I stare at the ground. I know it’s the best way, know it’s what we need to do, but I don’t think I can do it. I really don’t think I can steal this car right out from under an injured man, even if it means we’ll be saved.

“We need to get him help,” I tell them. “We can’t just leave him here to die.”

“He’s going to be fine. He’s got a bump on his head. We need to get out of here.” Eli’s already opened one of the back doors and tossed his backpack inside. Then he heads around to the driver’s side. “Give me a hand, Theo.”

“Theo, no!” I tell him. “We’re not doing this.”

For the first time since I met him, he looks truly conflicted. “We have to, Pandora. We’ve got to keep moving so we can beat the game.”

“Screw the game! We are not just abandoning someone who’s hurt. Otherwise, what are we trying to do here? Who are we trying to save?”

“Ourselves!” Eli runs a hand through his hair in frustration. “You’re going to get us all killed. We need to move. Now.”

“So go. I’m not stopping you.”

“Damn it, Pandora! You’re wrong here.” He grabs hold of my arm, yanks me out of the way before reaching in to pull the driver out.

I see red—at his words and at the hand that is still locked around my bicep.

“That’s enough!” Theo steps into the fray, his voice low and final as he pries Eli’s hand from my arm and pushes him away from the car. “You need to chill the hell out.”

“Yeah, she does—”

“I was talking to you.” He points in the direction we came from when fleeing Homeland Security. “We passed a hospital about eight blocks that way. We can drop him off there.”

The fight leaves me as relief abruptly overwhelms me. “Thank you,” I whisper.

“Don’t.” He shakes his head. “You’re right. What’s the point of saving the world if we aren’t willing to save the people in it?”

He slides into the driver’s seat, moving the man to
the passenger seat as he does. I climb in the back with Eli, doing my best to ignore the way he’s glaring at me.

The next few minutes pass in tense silence as Theo negotiates around the crowd. We have to go about twelve blocks in the wrong direction to avoid them, but it’s worth it. The whole time Eli and I slump down in the back so that if we pass any cops, they won’t see three of us traveling together.

When we get to the hospital, Theo and Eli pull the guy out of the car and carry him inside. I hop out and run for the parking lot, hoping to find another car to take. Besides having a broken window, the SUV is almost out of gas.

I find one—an old Ford Explorer—and hot-wire it the same way I saw Theo do. The engine roars to life, and I pull it around to the front of the ER so I can transfer the backpacks from the BMW to the Explorer.

Seconds later, the guys are back and buckled into the front seats. Eli’s still annoyed with me, but I don’t actually give a damn. I’ve done the wrong thing for the right reason over and over again since this disaster began. It feels good to do the right thing for a change. Now if only doing the right thing doesn’t end up getting us caught or killed …