Meridian (26 page)

“Stop!” I shout, but no one hears me. I can’t get to him with everyone else running wild.

Javier slams his fist sideways into the plate, hard enough to crack it.

Honoria was wrong. It wasn’t an alarm.

The stairs and the Fade on them disappear into a deafening boom, and a cloud of dust.

He blew them up.

M
ARINA
lunges for Rueful and Schuyler, crying “No!” as they fall. I have to catch her before she goes over the side after them.

“Rue!” She screams. She elbows me in the stomach, and I drop her so she can skid to the edge. The stairs are gone. There’s nothing below but open space and the promise of a hard landing.

“What did you do?” I shove Javier backward into the wall; he’s smug, like he did something worth applauding. “You could have killed them.”

“That was the idea.” He shoves me back.

“They’re our ride, you idiot!”

“Did you get them?” One of the younger children darts forward to look down.

Marina’s on her knees, watching the dust settle, scanning the wreckage below. Fade may be resilient, but that’s got to be half a ton of rock and cement.

“They’re all right.” She nearly laughs, and the child beside her gasps.

“Do it, again, Javier,” he says.

“Cherish says they’re fine. They’re annoyed, but not hurt.” Marina’s beaming.

Rueful and Schuyler shake themselves to get rid of the debris. Dog and Whisper help them out of the heap.

“What was that?” Annie asks.

“A fail-safe,” Michael says. “If things went bad, we could make a stand on higher ground without giving them a way up, but it was supposed to be a last resort.”

“More like our last way out,” I say.

“He thought he was helping,” Michael insists.

“Don’t put apologies in my mouth,” Javier snaps. “I did exactly what I meant to do.”

“Our exit’s on the ground floor, moron,” I tell him.

“All of you shut up,” Annie says. “We need another way down. There’re stairs to the roof, so there have to be more to the ground floor, right?”

“The auxiliary stairs were sealed off in the first days,” Michael says. “They took the escape ways off the sides of the building at the same time. Roof access is all we have.”

“That’s no good,” I say. That canopy will be right over our heads.

“Maybe we can lower the little ones down. It’s not that far, if someone catches them,” Annie suggests.

“And then what?” Michael asks. “The rest of us jump?”

“Yes!” Marina says. She’s got that look on her face that means she’s talking to the hive; it’s nearly electric. “We can jump, and they can catch us. Rue!”

“Wait—I wasn’t serious.”

“I am. It’s not a wide jump from here to the wall. Rue can catch each of us easily. Bolt can take the center point on the wall, so we’re almost to the floor before we have to drop—it’ll work. Rue! Bolt! We need you up here,” she calls down.

Claws appear at the end of Rueful’s fingers, and Schuyler’s, and they begin scaling the wall.

“High ground.” I give Javier a thumbs-up. “Great idea. The Fade can’t reach you at all if you’re on the second floor.”

Idiot
.

I swear I hear Rueful say:
Affirmed
, just before Marina giggles.

Behind us, the Ice Cube’s children are in a huddle, with only Michael and Noor standing apart from the rest. They’re shaking, faces stricken with an unhealthy tint to them as they stare at Rueful, like he’s death itself come to collect their souls.

“Evacuation would be simpler with the stairs intact.” Rueful stops at the high point, nearly parallel with our position on the top step.

“We’re improvising,” Marina tells him. “Go with it.”

“He’s a Killer,” Javier says.

“No, he’s not,” Marina says. “Rue’s a Fade, but he is nothing like the creatures you know. He saved Tobin’s life, and now he’s trying to save you.”

“I’d rather die human.”

“You do that,” I say. “The rest of us opt to not die at all. Who’s up first?”

They all cringe back.

“Six months ago, you would have cut off your hand before touching a Fade,” Marina says. “If you want to get them moving, go first and show them it’s safe.”

Another tremor hits hard enough that I have to grab the wall to keep from toppling headfirst into the gap. I catch Marina by the elbow as she steadies herself, and the youngest children scream again. Noor grabs on to Michael’s leg.

“I’ll go, you bunch of babies.” Annie slips between me and Marina. She eases out onto the remaining steps, hanging on to us, with her attention on Rueful rather than the empty space at her feet.

The marks on his face and arms draw tighter. Annie lets go of Marina first, using that hand to brace herself on the wall.

“Easy as breathing,” Marina says.

Annie squeezes my hand, lets it drop, and leaps.

“Nice catch,” she says, and I realize I’ve closed my eyes. When I open them, she’s hanging off Rueful’s arm, clinging to his neck, but the continuing rumble from outside the building leaves no time for celebration. She drops from Rueful’s hands to Schuyler’s, and then sets her feet on the ground.

“One at a time’s too slow!” she shouts at us.

“Right,” Michael says, as though he’s convincing himself of his own resolve as he speaks. “Noor, get on my back and hang on tight. Don’t look until I say.”

I lift her so she can get her arms around Michael’s neck.

He turns to the others, doing a quick survey. “Those four are too small to go on their own,” he says of the younger children. “They’ll have to go tandem, and they need to go next.”

One of the teens grabs a little boy and puts him on her back, but most of the little ones kick and scream, even being held.

“Running after them like lemmings isn’t going to help anyone.” Javier steps forward.

“If you want to stay here, then do it.” Michael steps into the place Annie’s vacated, steadied by me and Marina.

Rueful reaches out.

“Hang on,” Michael tells Noor.

She smashes her face against his back. He leaps, leaving the ground as another rumble rolls the floor.

“Keep moving,” Michael yells back. He hands Noor off to Schuyler and then follows her down, still shouting orders. “Youngest to oldest. Now!”

The rest become a well-orchestrated line, jumping in time, and turn so that as one is released to the floor, Schuyler’s passing down the one behind him and Rueful’s catching another while the next readies for the jump. Javier is the last of them to go, and I swear he only makes the choice because with both me and Marina up here, we outnumber him.

“Now you,” I say, bracing my hand against the top step to help Marina into position.

“Not a chance—you first.”

“Don’t argue with me, Marina. Jump.”

“Listen to Tibby. Marina should be less stubborn,” Rueful says.

“Oh good. Call her stubborn. That’ll help.” I let the “Tibby” slide this time.

“You could have both been on the ground by now!” Annie shouts. Most of the Ice Cube’s children have fled. “Just sayin’.”

“Go,” Marina says as the next rumble comes. “I’ll be in the air before you’re on the tile.”

“You’re making me agree with Rueful. That’s got to be a bad sign.” I kiss her quickly, shifting to her ear to whisper: “If he misses, I’ll catch you myself.”

I lean forward to jump, but the roll of the floor spreads up the walls, throwing the whole structure into a seizure. The stair crumbles, and I fall spinning, arms windmilling. I close my eyes and make a mad, stretching grab for what’s left of the ledge.

Someone catches me; the hand’s too small to be Rueful’s.

“Marina?”

My weight should have pulled her over the edge.

I open my eyes.

“Impossible . . .”

I’m hanging suspended beyond what had been the stairs, my hand clamped tightly by another, but it doesn’t belong to Marina or Rue or even Schuyler. Marina’s stretched out, lying on her stomach. Between us is . . .
impossible
. She’s just impossible.

“Is that . . . are you . . .
Marina
?”

A hand’s tucked inside mine, the fingers so real, I can feel the nails, but they’re nothing but nanites. Just like the arm attached to them, and the body that could be a shadow, if it wasn’t solid.

Cherish caught me; she looks exactly like Marina.

“How—”

“I don’t know,” Marina says.

“Drop,” Annie orders. “Toby, get out of the way!”

Cherish disintegrates as fast as she appeared, tucking herself back into Marina’s body through their linked hands, and as she crumbles, I drop. The fall’s not enough to hurt me from here.

“Marina!” Annie and I are both screaming. “Jump!”

She does, bypassing the Fade to land on her feet. Rueful and Schuyler land on either side.

“Are you okay?” I ask. “Are you . . .
you
?”

“It’s me.”

Cherish was supposed to be gone—an echo that Marina could still hear—but she’s still in there.
Literally
. But where? If Cherish is back, then what happens to Marina?

“Get everyone back to the entrance,” she tells Michael.

“What are you?” he asks, holding Noor away from us.

“She’s hard to explain,” Annie offers.

She’s more than that.

“I’m a friend. And I want to go home. Rue’s people are ready to take us out of here. Once we’re gone, Honoria’s going to blow this place to ash. We can’t—”

The sudden muted pop of gunfire rolls over the end of her warning.

“They’re here.” The words, obvious as they are, fall out of Marina’s mouth.

The first sounds are like rain, but then come solid thumps. Things with feet impact against the roof and hit it running.

“Okay, that’s bad.” Annie’s turning in place, tracking the sounds as they multiply. “We need to hide.”

Somewhere in the rooms above, glass shatters, and one of the few kids who stayed with Michael screams, but cuts herself off by holding her hands over her mouth. She backs away, gaping at the precipice of the second floor; three creatures now prowl the ledge we leaped from.

One balances on the top rail. The one nearest the edge flattens its body, growling in a graceful stretch at odds with its bulk. It springs off its front feet, launching itself high.

The creature falls unnaturally slow, and we scatter. Marina, Annie, and I take shelter behind the ruined steps with a handful of children. Rueful and his Fade blink out of existence. And the wolf-thing finally hits the ground on all fours, snarling as its nanite coat expands to make it even larger.

No one moves. The creatures on the second floor remain in position. They act like scouts rather than invaders, likely funneling information back to the rest so they can map out their assault in earnest.

The first creature takes a step, tilting its head.

The screaming girl’s still holding her mouth. She, and those with her, cringe because it’s so close to them, but it keeps going, uninterested.

Another step. Metal strikes the hard surface of the floor in the silence, a grating whine as its heavy body scrapes the tile. It swivels its head the other way, and stops again.

“What’s it doing?” Annie asks. Her attention darts between the wolf on the ground and those above.

“It’s looking for our Fade,” Marina says.

The wild ones are smart enough to know that Rueful’s people are our greatest advantage, and their strongest physical adversary. They want to take out the biggest threat first.

“It can’t see them.”

“Can you?” I ask.

The wolf sniffs the air, snout turned up. Marina eases Dad’s flare from her pocket.

“What are you doing?” I press her hand down between us.

“It smells Whisper’s wound. It’s almost on top of her.”

The wolf moves forward.

Behind its shoulder, Rueful starts bleeding into view.

“Give me the flare. I’ll do it,” I say, but she’s already moving.

“Hey!” she shouts, stepping away from our shelter. She blows out a shrill whistle that makes the creature turn. “Looking for me?”

The instant it begins to charge, she flicks the cap off the flare with her thumb. It’s burning bright by the time the wolf’s in the air, and Marina gets a clear shot at its underbelly. The wolf’s dead before it crashes onto its side; its nanites perish in clumps of charred glop.

“Nice,” Annie says. “Now do it again.” She points up.

With the first wolf down, the next leaps down to take its place.

It lands facing us, now treating Marina as the threat of greatest importance, the obstacle to be removed before all others.

It never sees the Fade coming.

Dog appears out of nowhere, hurling a piece of debris from the stairs at the creature. It turns on him, and Whisper strikes from the other side. The wolf roars, and Schuyler responds with a blow to its head.

“Where’s the nanobot?” I ask.

My answer is a whistle mimicking Marina’s. Rueful appears standing in the creature’s path. The wolf puts all of its effort into a lunge, and Rueful goes to pieces, dropping to the floor as though he’d been made of sand, and a wind came up to blow him away. Once he’s gone, there’s nothing between the second wolf and the flaming carcass of the first.

It lands on top of the one Marina torched and goes up, too.

“Two down,” she says as the third wolf howls above our heads, and springs.

T
HE
third wolf crashes down, away from Rue and the others, and onto a pile of rubble Michael had been using for cover. The impact flushes him out, along with the children he’d rounded up. He’s now directly across from us, and frantic, searching for something.

Peanut,
Cherish says, filling my nose with the scent.

“Noor,” I say with a gasp. That was Rue’s nickname for her. “She’s not with them. Where—”

“Michael!” Noor cries.

She’s taken refuge in a shallow stairwell across the entry. The steps lead into the glass-walled room full of shelves we saw when we first entered the Ice Cube, and have a short, railed wall on either side. She’s boxed herself in.

“Michael!”

He whips toward her voice, but so does the wolf.

Dog throws a chunk of broken stone at the creature; Tobin a piece of metal. Michael runs into the middle of the room, waving his arms and making noise, but the wolf’s learned from its predecessor. It ignores him.

Make it cease
. Rue broadcasts the command with a
Shh!
, to direct it at Whisper.
Make it still.

She’s scaling the wall with one arm, barely visible, and dragging a long piece of shorn metal from the stairs along with her. Her wounded arm can’t grasp, but the nanites there hang on to it for her. Once she’s high enough, the nanites let it drop. Between the weight, gravity, and the sharpness of the metal, it cuts straight through the wolf, into the floor, holding it fast.

It howls, bucking against the beam, but it can’t dislodge itself.

“Michael!” Noor screams, desperately tucking into a ball to escape its snapping jaws. She takes off the tiny pink shoe I returned to her and flings it with all the strength she can muster, but it bounces off the wolf’s snout.

The wolf can’t get closer, but she’s still trapped.

“One dart’s enough, right?” Anne-Marie asks, dropping her hand into her pocket for her stash. “That thing’s smaller than the ones we hit on the road.”

“Do you realize how close you’ll have to get to use that?” Tobin asks. “The Fade could jump to you as soon as you touch it.”

Anne-Marie stabs herself in the palm with the dart and then pulls another out of her pocket.

“Now they won’t,” she says, and launches herself toward Noor’s hiding spot. She clenches the dart in both hands and hits the wolf full force in the back flank. The creature roars one last time. Fault lines form in the nanite shell along its legs and back. Nanites blow off in all directions, and Anne-Marie dives for Noor to protect her.

“I cannot believe that actually worked,” Tobin says.

I feel as stunned as he sounds. The wolf’s dead.

Anne-Marie hands Noor up out of the stairwell, shaking black powder from her clothes.

“Gross,” she says, spitting onto the floor.

I grab her for a hug; Tobin grabs us both.

“Never do anything like that again,” he says, but our moment is broken by renewed gunfire.

An eclipse overtakes the windows one by one. Shadows pour over the floor as the sun’s blocked, dragging an impossible chill along behind them.

“They’re covering the building,” I say.

“Where is everyone?” Anne-Marie asks. “They should have met us by now.”

“I don’t think they’re coming,” Tobin says, casting a long look down toward the hall leading to the lunchroom. “There’s got to be another breach point where my dad and the others are.”

“What do we do?”

“If they can’t get to us, we go to them,” Tobin says.

Affirmed
. Rue echoes.

Negative.
“Evacuation is our priority,” Bolt says, sounding nearly like his sister.

“We have no weapons.” Javier speaks up for the first time since the incident at the stairs. “What good are we in a conflict?”

Michael uses Noor as an excuse to stall, bending down so she can climb onto his back, but Javier isn’t standing for it this time.

“You know the rules,” he says. “And we know where to go. They haven’t sealed the door yet. We can run for it.”

The wild-Fade have stopped short of covering the main doors. A single strip of sunlight filters through, creating a pathway that looks clear.

“That’s bait,” I say. And this time, I’m not biting. “They’re not stupid. Do you really think they’ve staked out the rest of the building and left the door unguarded?”

“We go to home,” Rue says resolutely. “Home is safer.”

“
Anywhere
is safer.” Javier turns to Michael again. “You know I’m right.”

And I know we’ve lost them. They’ve been through too much too fast; I can’t blame them for taking a long shot as their only shot.

“My dad’s down there,” Tobin says. “I’m not leaving.”

“So’s mine,” adds Anne-Marie. “And my brother.”

“Rami will know where we’ve gone. He’ll bring your families to us.”

“Your brother, but my sister,” Michael says apologetically, clinging tight to Noor. “Come with us.”

“No,” I say, but he persists.

“There’s communications equipment. It hasn’t been used for anything other than broadcasting noise into Death for decades, but we might be able to reach your home base.”

“And they
might
take one look at us and lock us up.”

“We came together; we leave together,” Anne-Marie says.

“Suit yourselves.” Javier heads for the door, and most of the Ice Cube’s children go with him. The rest wait for Michael, who finally gathers the nerve to speak to Rue face-to-face.

“Can you keep those things off our tail?” he asks.

“Mine can distract, but they won’t engage. To engage endangers mine.”

I can tell it’s hard for Michael to even ask for help, much less extend the hand he reaches out toward Rue, waiting for Rue to take it.

“He doesn’t want to talk, Rue,” I warn him.

Rue nods, then tugs sharply on Michael’s hand.

“I
am
sorry,” Michael says.

“So are we,” I say.

He turns to join the rest of his people, but Anne-Marie pulls him back by the sleeve.

“Take these.” She drops three darts into his palm.

“Thank you,” Michael runs out with the others, and I can only hope the shadows on the ground all belong to them.