Gone (5 page)

Astrid looked away discreetly. Later he would be embarrassed. Right now he was just glad to be able to throw up. He breathed more oxygen.

Quinn was holding the garden hose, Edilio was racing to hook one of the bigger lire hoses up to the hydrant. There was a trickle, then, as Edilio worked the long-handled wrench and opened the hydrant all the way. a gusher. The kids on the other end had to wrestle the hose like they were lighting a python, it would have been tunny some other time,

Sam sat up. He still couldn't talk.

He nodded to where half a dozen kids knelt around the little llrestarter. She was black, black by race and from the coating of soot. Her hair was gone on one side, burned away. On the other side she had a little girl's pigtail held with a pink scrunchy.

Sam knew from the reverential way the kids knelt there.

He knew, but he had to ask, anyway. His voice was a soft croak.

Astrid shook her head. Tin sorry, Sam," she said. Sam nodded.

"Her parents probably had the stove on when they disappeared" Astrid said. "That's mosi likely what caused the fire. Or maybe a cigarette"

No, Sam thought. No, that wasn't it.

The little girl had the power. She had the power Sam had, at least something like it.

The power he had used in panic to create an impossible light.

The power he had used once and almost killed someone with.

The power he had just used again, dooming the very person he was trying so hard to save.

He was not the only one. He was not the only freak. There was—or had been—at least one other.

Somehow, that realization was not comforting.

291 HOURS, 07 MINUTES

NIGHT CAME IO Perdido Beach.

The streetlights turned on automatically, doing little to push back the darkness, doing a lot to cast deep shadows on frightened faces.

Close to a hundred kids milled around the plaza. Everyone seemed to have a candy bar and a soda. The little store, the one that sold mostly beer and corn chips, had been looted. Sam had snagged a PayDay and a Dr Pepper. The Reese's and Twix and Snickers were all gone by the time he got there. He'd left two dollars on the counter as payment. The money was gone within seconds.

The apartment building had burned half away before the fire had run out of energy. The roof had collapsed. Half the upper floor was gone. The ground floor looked like it would survive, though the shop windows were smoke-blackened on the inside. Smoke rose now in tendrils, not billows, and the stench was everywhere.

But the hardware store and the day care had been saved.

The body of the lillle girl still lay on the sidewalk. Someone had put a blanket over her. Sam v/as grateftil for that.

Sam and Quinn sat on the grass, toward the center of the plaza* near the dead fountain. Quinn rocked back and forth, hugging his knees.

Bouncing Bette came over and stood awkwardly in front of Sam. She had her little brother with her. "Sam> do you think it's safe to go to my house? We have to get something"

Sam shrugged."Bene, I don't know any more than you do"

Bette nodded, hesitated, and walked away.

All the park benches were taken. Some little family units draped sheets over the few benches, making limp pup tents. Many kids w*ent home to their empty houses, but others needed people around them. Some found comfort in the crowd. Some just needed to see what was going on.

Two kids Sam didn't know, prcbably fifth graders, came up and said, "Do you know what's going to happen?"

Sam shook his head. "No, guys, I don't,"

"Well, what should we do?"

"I guess just hang out for a while, you know?"

"Hang out here, you mean?"

"Or else go to your house. Sleep in your own bed. Whatever feels right"

"We're not scared or anything."

"You're not?" Sam asked dubiously. "I'm so scared, I wet myself."

One kid grinned. "No, you didn't"

"Nah. You're right. But it's okay to be scared, man. Every single person here is scared *

It was happening a lot. Kids coming to Sam, asking him questions for which he had no answers.

He wished they would slop.

Ore and his friends dragged lawn chairs out of the hardware store and set themselves up right in the middle of what had once been Perdido Beach's busiest intersection. They were Just beneath the stoplight, which continued changing from green to yellow to red.

Howard was berating some lower-ranking toady who had lit a Prest-O log and was trying to get it to grow into a bonfire. Ore's crew brought a couple
ot
wood axe handles and wooden baseball bats out of the hardware store and tried unsuccessfully to burn them.

They also carried metal bats and small sledgehammers from the hardware store. Those they kept.

Sam didn't bring up the little girl, the way she was just lying there. If he brought it up, then it would become his Job to do something. To dig a grave and bury her. To read the Bible or say words. He didn't even know her name. No one seemed to.

"I can't find him." It was Astrid, reappearing after an absence of at least an hour. She had gone to hunt for her little brother. "Petey*s not here. Nobody has seen him"

Sam handed her a soda. "Here. I paid for it. Tried to, anyway."

"I don't usually drink this stuff.'

"You see any 'usually' around here?" Quinn snapped.

Quinn didn't look at her. His eyes were restless, going from person to person, thing to thing, like a nervous bird, never making direct eye contact. He looked strangely naked without his shades and fedora.

Sam was worried about him. Of the two of them, it was Sam who was usually too serious.

Astrid let Qu inn's rudeness slide and said, "Thanks, Sam" She drank half the can but didnl sit down. "Kids are saying it's some military thing gone wrong. Or else terrorists. Or aliens. Or God. Lots of theories. No answers."

"Do you even believe in God?" Quinn demanded. He was looking for an argument.

"Yes, I do" Astrid said. "I just don t believe in the kind of God who disappears people for no reason. God is supposed to be love. This doesn't look like love"

"It looks like the world's worst picnic," Sam said.

"I believe that's what's called gallows humor," Astrid said. Noticing Sam and Quinn's blank looks, she said, ^Sorry, I have this annoying tendency to analyze what people say. You'll either get used to it or decide you can t stand me"

"I'm leaning toward the second choice," Quinn muttered.

Sam said, "What's gallows humor?"

"Gallows, as in, what they hang people from. Sometimes when people are nervous or afraid, they make jokes." Then she added, a bit ruefully, "Of course, some people, when they're nervous or afraid, turn pedantic And if you don't know what pedantic means, here's a clue: in the dictionary, I'm the illustration they use."

Sam laughed.

A little boy no more than five years old and carrying a sad-eyed gray teddy bear came over. *Do you know where my mom is?"

"No, little man, Pm sorry" Sam said.

"Can you call her on the telephone?'* His voice trembled.

"The phones don't work," Sam said.

"Nothing works" Quinn snapped. "Nothing works and weVe all alone here."

"You know what I bet?" Sam asked the boy. "I'll bet they have cookies at the day care. It's right across the street. See?"

"Pm not supposed to cross the street."

"It's okay. I'll watch while you do, okay?"

The little boy stifled a sob, then walked off toward the day care, clutching his bear.

Astrid said, "Kids come to you, Sam. They're looking to you to do something "

"Do
what? All I can do is suggest they eat a cookie" Sam said, with too much heat in his tone.

"Save them, Sam," Quinn said blterly. "Save them all."

"They're all scared, like us," Astrid said."There's no one in charge, no one telling people what to do. They sense you're a leader, Sam. They look to you."

"Pm not a leader of anything. Pm as scared as they are. I'm as lost as they are."

"You knew what to do when the apartment was burning" Astrid said.

Sam jumped to his feet. It was just nervous energy, but the movement drew the gaze of dozens of kids nearby. AH looking at him like he was going lo do something. Sam felt a knot in his stomach. Even Quinn was looking at him expectantly.

Sam cursed under his breath. Then, in a voice just loud enough to carry a tew feet, he said, "Look, all we have to do is hang tight. Someone is going to figure out what's happened and come find us, okay? So everyone just Chill* don't do anything crazy, help each other out snd try to be brave"

To Sam's amazement he heard a ripple of voices repeating what he'd said, passing it on like it was some brilliant remark.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," Astrid whispered.

"What?*

"It's what President Roosevelt said when the whole country was scared because of the Great Depression," Astrid explained.

"You know," Quinn said, "the one good thing about this was that I got away from history class. Now history class is following me"

Sam laughed. Not much, but it was a relief to hear that Quinn still had a sense of humor.

"I have to find my brother," Astrid said.

"Where else could he be?" Sara asked.

Astrid shrugged helplessly. She looked cold in her thin blouse. Sam wished he had a jacket to offer her. "With my parents somewhere. The most likely places are where my dad works or else where my mom ploys tennis. Clifftop"

Clifftop was the resort hotel just above Sam's favorite surfing beach. He'd never been inside or even on the grounds.

"I guess Clifftop is more likely" Astrid said. "I hate to ask, but will you guys go with me?"

"Now?" Quinn asked, incredulous. "At night?"

Sam shrugged. "Better than sitting here, Quinn. Maybe they have TV there"

Quinn sighed. "I hear the food's great at Clifftop. Top-notch service" He stuck a hand out, and Sam hauled him to his feet.

They passed through the huddled crowd. Kids would call out to Sam to ask him what was going or, ask him what they should do. And he would say things like, "Hang in. It's going to be okay, lust enjoy the vacation, man. Enjoy your candy bars while you can. Your parents will be back soon and take it all away"

And kids would nod or laugh or even say "Thanks" as if he had given them something.

He heard his name being repeated. Heard snatches of conversation. "I was on the bus that time" Or, "Dude, he ran right into that building" On "See, he said it would be okay."

The knot in his stomach was growing more painful It would be a relief to walk out into the night. He wanted to get away from all those frightened faces looking to him, expecting something from him.

They walked close to Ore's intersection encampment. The lame fire was sputtering, melting the tarmac beneath the embers. A six-pack of Coors beer rested in an ice-filled cooler. One of Ore's friends, a big baby-faced lump called Cookie, was looking green and woozy.

"Hey. Where do you guys think you're going?" Howard demanded as they approached.

"For a walk" Sam said.

"Two dumb surfers and a genius?"

"That's right. We're going to teach Astrid how to surf. You have a problem with that?"

Howard laughed and looked Sam up and down. "You think voir re the man. don't you, Sam? School Bus Sam. Big deal. You don't impress me"

"That's a shame, because I live my entire life in hopes of impressing you, Howard," Sam said.

Howard's face grew shrewd. "You need to bring us back something."

"What are you talking about?*

"I don't want Ore's feelings to be hurt" Howard said, "I think whatever you're going to get, you should bring him back some."

Ore was sprawled in a looted chair, legs spread, paying only slight attention. His never-wry-focused eyes were wandering. But he grunted, "Yeah," The moment he spoke, several of his crew discovered an interest in Sam's group. One, a tall, skinny kid nicknamed Panda because of his dark-ringed eyes, tapped his metal bat on the blacktop, menacing.

"So you're a big hero or something, huh?" Panda said.

"You're wearing that line out*Sam said.

"No, no, not Sammy, he doesn't think he's better than the rest of us," Howard sneered. He did a rough parody of Sam at the fire. "You get a hose, you get the kids, do this, do that, I'm in charge here, I'm ;., Sam Sam the Surfer Man."

"We're going to go now," Sam said.

"Ah ah ah" Howard said, and pointed upward with a flourish to the stoplight. "Wait till it turns green."

For a tense few seconds Sam considered whether he should have this tight now, or avoid it. Then the light changed and Howard laughed and waved them past.

290 HOURS, 07 MINUTES

NO ONE SPOKE for several blocks.

The streets grew emptier and darker as they joined the beach road.

"The surf sounds strange," Quinn observed.

"Flat" Sam agreed. He felt like eyes were following him, even though he was out of sight of the plaza.

"Fo-flat, brah," Quinn said. "Glassy. But there's a low-pressure front just out there. Supposed to be a long period swell. Instead it sounds like a lake"

"Weatherman isn't always right" Sam said. He listened carefully, Quinn was better at reading the conditions-Something sounded like it might be strange in the rhythm, but Sam wasn't sure.

Lights twinkled here and there, from houses off to the left, from streetlights, but it was far darker than normal. It was still early evening, barely dinnertime. Houses should have been lit up. Instead, the only lights were those on timers or those left on throughout the day. In one house, blue TV light flickered. When Sam peeked in the window he saw two kids eating chips and staring at the static*

All the little background noises, all the little sounds you barely registered—phones ringing, car engines, voices—were gone. They could hear each footstep they made. Each breath they took. When a dog erupted in frenzied barking, they all jumped.

"Who's going to feed that dog?"Quinn wondered.

No one had an answer for that. There would be dogs and cats ail over town. And there were almost certainly babies in empty homes right now, too. It was all too much. Too much to think about.