Summer Ruins (30 page)

It’s a short hike to the science building with all the labs. The fact that we’re surrounded by brick buildings that for some reason largely survived the Others’ destruction as the population shrunk makes me feel safe. Perhaps this was one of the last cities to be demolished, and the Others were already secure in their victory and control. The structures that claim to house history and English departments, and one that says fine arts—whatever that means—are reduced to rubble.

No matter the reason, I’m glad a few of these halls full of beds and amenities survived, along with the science equipment we need.

I hope we find a way to take the Others down using their own reverence for all knowledge scientific and mathematic. It would be so appropriate.

The team working in the lab today called us together. Some people switch in and out, but the kids consistently working on breaking down the dymium are Mark, Brittany, Leah, Christian, Justin, Ryan, and Kerstin. Jordan, Katie, Laura, Alice, Sophie, and Ben have been scouting the university, setting up lookouts, and running schedules. Sophie spends time in the lab, too, but switches almost every day. She says the fresh air clears her head.

I like her. I like most of them. The more hours and days we spend together, the better I get to know them as individuals instead of a lump of humanity that I’m responsible for, the happier I am that we unveiled them. The way they help one another restores my faith in people. Every day, no matter how many failures in the lab or the fact that we’ve come back without finding the site of the Summer Celebration, someone finds a way to make us all laugh.

“You all know that we isolated the components of this element several days ago—it’s not neodymium, you guys were right about that—and we’re really close to being able to engineer our own synthetic version.” Brittany scans the room, looking for our agreement. When she gets a few nods, she continues. “The problem is we still don’t know what it is, which isotope or property, that sustains the Others. Without knowing that, we can’t figure out how to alter it so that it hurts them instead of sustaining them.”

We wouldn’t have been able to accomplish this much in two weeks without Rita’s help. The poor woman paid with her life, and the mental image of her crumpling to the ground at that Warden’s feet still burns my throat, but her chemistry and physics knowledge might save us all.

Leah pipes up, running her fingers through the snags in her dark curls. “We want everyone to be up to date on our findings so you can be thinking about it while you’re out, or going to bed, or bathing, or whatever.”

“You said this variation of dymium that Deshi brought from the Underground Core isn’t neodymium, which is the element we know about from Cell. Are they mining something different? Or are they altering it somehow during extraction?” Katie asks, and everyone stops muttering and listens.

She’s got that ability, kind of like Brittany but with more innate authority. People listen to her. And to be honest, Katie doesn’t always use her power for good. She hardly gets up unless she feels like it, asking someone to bring her a drink or a can of beans. She’s got all the prettiest clothes. No one even thinks of telling her no when she asks for a shirt she likes or a pair of shoes that would match a dress she found.

Not even me, and I’ve recognized this air about her.

I don’t dislike her because of it. It’s interesting, that’s all. I wonder if in another life her face would have ended up carved on the side of a mountain.

“We don’t know. We’ve isolated at least two variations that could be broken down from the same sample Deshi brought us. And that’s a post-extraction sample, so we don’t know what it’s like coming out of the ground.” The heaviness in Leah’s voice says she’s not only frustrated, but tired.

No one seems to have any ideas, and Pax must have recognized the same thing I did, because he gets up and goes to Leah, putting an arm around her shoulders. “Okay, so think on it, okay?”

“Well, what properties do both versions share? I mean, what are the practical applications of neodymium or similar elements on the periodic table?” Ben asks, sliding his glasses back up his nose. They’ve broken somewhere along the way, and tape holds one of the earpieces together.

“It could have any number of practical applications. It’s a metal,” Brittany replies dully. Her ice blue eyes are far away, as though she’s working on the puzzle herself instead of engaging with the discussion.

I’ve noticed that look on all the kids’ faces, the ones who have been working with the element every day. The desire to figure this out has taken over their every waking hour. Judging by the dark circles ringing their eyes, maybe the sleeping ones, too.

“She’s right that it’s commonplace. Neodymium is categorized as a rare earth metal, but in reality it’s probably pretty prevalent in the Earth’s crust. Even though it does have a long radioactive half-life, it’s harmless,” Christian adds.

“But it made those kids bleed last autumn,” Jordan reminds us. She keeps pulling her hair off her sweaty shoulders and dropping it again until it starts to stick, then repeating the process.

“Right.” Laura nods. “Six kids in Des Moines were taken away, and they never came back.”

It’s still so strange to me how they remember those things happening, even though at the time everyone acted as though they didn’t notice.

“In dust form it’s pretty irritating to mucous membranes. I don’t know why they took those kids, though. It has no lasting ill effects. A couple of us had nosebleeds the first day, before we realized inhaling the oxidized metal dust caused it.” Mark shrugs, his typical scientific detachment allowing him to assess bloody noses and compromised mucous membranes as though it’s as uninteresting as what we had for dinner.

Which has been pretty uninteresting, since Wolf brings down a squirrel or a rabbit every few days but that doesn’t go far. But tonight he dragged back a deer he must have snagged close to our camp. Pax promised to cut it up after our meeting, so at least we’ll have meat for a day or two.

“So it’s a common, harmless substance to humans, but essential to the Others.” I’m trying to order the information in my mind, to understand the problem fully in order to turn it one way and another in an attempt to figure it out. Leah nods, leaning into Pax’s side. “It stands to reason, then, that it’s not the element itself, but how it interacts with the Others’ biology.”

“It’s highly magnetic,” Sophie offers. “I don’t know if that’s important, but it’s the most interesting thing about the stuff, I think.”

Magnetic. Huh. That piece of information sparks a thought that immediately escapes me, and I’m too tired to hunt it down. Instead we all agree to think on it and break for dinner.

Lucas brings me a can of black beans—my favorite—and holds it out of my reach until I give him a kiss. We’ve been lucky in so many ways to find this place—there were also piles of non-perishable food and bottles of water in a bigger version of a Cell eatery.

I could be wrong, but I think this might have been one of those Cells—schools—where kids used to live after the last year of Upper Cell. College. There are signs at various edges of the property that say
Southern Methodist University
.

“I can hear the wheels turning in there.” Lucas presses a playful ear to my temple.

I swat him away, pulling the tab on my beans and taking a bite. “I don’t know. Maybe the magnetic thing could be useful.”

“You know what I think?” I shake my head no, and he steals a bite of my beans and then continues. “That we have four test subjects right here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you said when you drank the pink drink concoction in the park that day that you had a reaction to it—it increased your power, right?” He swallows another bite, then continues without waiting for my response. “And when Deshi gave it to you at the Underground Core it helped heal your injuries and your acid burns.”

“True. So you think we should test the versions they’re coming up with in the lab on ourselves to see if they work?”

“Or see if they don’t. That’s what we really need to know. How to make it stop working but resemble the stuff they need enough to fool them.” His beautiful eyes go thoughtful, and he brushes away a piece of my hair that’s stuck to my lip. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s a really good idea, except for two things. We only have half their genetics. Even though the element affects us, we don’t need it the way they do. It might not work the same on them.” I can’t stand the disappointment on his face and lean in to kiss it away. His lips taste like beans and sweat, but they’re still delicious.

“What’s the second thing?”

“Huh?”

“You said there were two problems.”

“Oh, right. We could get hurt. It could hurt us, have the reverse effect. Take away our power instead of increasing it,” I suggest. It’s not a major concern, I don’t think, but worth mentioning.

“We’ll all need to agree, but I don’t think it’s a huge risk,” Lucas says, agreeing with my instincts even though I didn’t voice them. “I mean, it increased our power, but it doesn’t sustain us. I think, even if it took us the opposite direction, the worst thing that could happen would be weakened abilities, but only until it wears off.”

“True. We’d have to hope our luck holds and the Others don’t show up while one or more of us is out of power, though.” I smile at him just to see him return it. “You’re right. We should try it. We have to know if it works, and we’re the best way to test that.”

“And at the very least we’ll be able to tell them when they’ve got the synthetic right.” Lucas stands up and stretches, tugging his shirt back into place far too soon. “I’m going outside with Pax to slice up that deer. I’ll talk to him and see what he thinks.”

“See you later.”

While they’re gone, the rest of us finish eating and get ready for bed. Brittany and Mark slip out in the deepening twilight, and I watch from an empty window frame as they cross the tangled weeds and rubble to the science building. They’re going to kill themselves trying to figure this out. Everyone else settles in—there was a cluster of seven unlocked rooms when we arrived, so we’re all sharing. We probably could have broken into more and had our own beds, but I think we all feel safer with more people around us.

I know the four of us prefer to be within earshot if something goes awry.

There are fleeting moments when I wish Lucas and I were alone, but between scouting for the Celebration site most of the day and discussing our science issues deep into the night, we’re too exhausted and stressed to think of much besides sleep once we finally head to bed. We’re sharing with Pax and Leah, and Deshi moved an extra bed in the center of the room. It’s worked out well. For one thing, we often have things to discuss regarding where to search the next day or alternative options for defeating the Others if we can’t figure out how to work the dymium to our advantage.

But mostly I think it’s the sound of one another’s breathing, the knowledge that no matter how scared we are, we have one another. It’s a bond I didn’t expect between the four of us. Although I’m still closer to Lucas and Pax than Deshi, I no longer feel completely comfortable unless the four of us are within shouting distance.

Cadi told us more than once that the Elements are not only stronger when they’re together, but they prefer to be close enough to touch, that it pains them to be separated. Maybe it’s like that with us, and that’s the reason I’ve come to need them close by.

Or it could simply be that we’re friends. Closer than that—family.

Lucas strolls into our room after the sun has disappeared from the sky. He smells like soap in addition to his typical pine and snow aroma, and I take advantage of the moment alone, sinking into his embrace. There’s still nothing that can erase the worries of my day, of my life, like his strong cold arms. The chill penetrates my thin tank top, scattering goose bumps across my shoulders. I press my lips to his neck, tasting his clean skin, then tip my head back so his lips find mine.

I’ve got him pinned against the door, my toes pressed into the floor as I answer his growing demand with my own. My tongue feels fiery against his, which grows colder the longer we kiss, and the sensation makes me want to crawl inside him so I can know what it feels like from his side. We have only minutes before Pax or Deshi or Leah return from their own showers. In fact, I’m surprised Leah’s not in here already—she walked over to the science building an hour ago to get Brittany and Mark and demand they get some rest.

Lucas slides his arms from around my back and drags his hands lazily up my arms until they land on my cheeks, moving my face to allow him to kiss me until I can’t breathe, until I forget where I am or what we’re up against. There’s nothing but the chill under my palms as I clench handfuls of his T-shirt. Hot trembles make it almost impossible to stand.

The door vibrates behind him, as though someone is trying to shove it open but can’t get it to budge under our combined weight, and he pulls back from my lips. They feel bruised and tingly, swollen in the best possible way.

“Just a second,” he rasps to whoever interrupted. Lucas pulls my face back to his, kissing me gentler this time. “I think it’s a good thing we aren’t alone right now.”

I cock an eyebrow, somehow managing to bluff my way through my jelly knees and the heat still licking through my middle. “Oh, yeah?”

He leans his forehead against mine, cold beads of icy sweat melting against my face. “Oh, yeah.”

My heart squeezes. “Me, too.”

A mischievous grin steals across his face. He picks me up and tosses me over his shoulder, slapping my butt when I squeal, then opens the door. Pax and Deshi stand there with bemused looks, obviously at a loss for words at the sight of my upside-down face. I grin and they shake their heads, then Lucas moves aside to let them in.

He tosses me on our bed, giving me one last lingering look before morphing back into the boy who’s all business and gentle affection. “Sorry. Door was stuck.”

They both snort, kicking off their shoes and socks and stretching out on top of their beds, but no one says anything. Lucas and I have busted Leah and Pax a few times, too, and privacy doesn’t last long for any of us, so it’s no big deal.