Nexus

  Then she felt Kelsie startle, a jitter that pulsed through the group, dragging her mind back to the real world.

  ‘Guys,’ Kelsie said. ‘It’s not just this building.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Nate asked.

  Kelsie was staring across the street. ‘Those other warehouses, they’re full of people too.’

  Nate shrugged. ‘Could just be civilians working.’

  ‘Regular people wouldn’t be this intense. Nobody at a warehouse is ever this committed to what they’re doing.’

  ‘Oh shit.’ Flicker leaned back against Thibault, as if her legs had gone rubbery. ‘It’s all the way down the block, as far as I can see.’

  ‘What is?’ Nate whispered.

  ‘Food, mostly. Canned stuff on pallets, boxes stacked to the ceiling. Medical supplies – bandages and disinfectant. Crutches, even surgical instruments. And survival gear. Tents and sleeping bags. Knives and hatchets and…guns.’

  Ethan went wide-eyed. ‘What the hell?’

  Chizara swallowed. She could feel the low-tech activity from here – forklifts and conveyor belts. Heavy stuff moving around.

  ‘Boxes of ammo – shelves, rooms of it!’ Flicker flung an arm out. ‘That long warehouse near the water? It’s full of nothing but bottled water. This whole area is Prepper Central.’

  ‘Except they’re not prepping for a hurricane,’ Thibault said in a hollow voice. ‘They’re bringing down the disaster themselves. That’s what scared Rien away.’

  ‘Holy crap,’ Ethan said. ‘I told you we should’ve gone to Mexico! We should’ve built our own bunker and gone underground!’

  Chizara stared at Nate. ‘So you still think we should hold fire on that transmitter?’

  He met her gaze, his eyes invisible in shadow. For a few seconds he was silent, his uncertainty curdling the air around them.

  When he finally spoke, she hardly recognized the snarl in his voice.

  ‘Let’s get in there and burn this sucker down.’

  TEN MINUTES LATER, CHIZARA WAS A SWEATY, SHAKING MESS, BUT SHE’D MAPPED EVERY WIRE AND CIRCUIT OF THE WINDOW ALARM.

  She was as ready as she’d ever be.

  ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘I’m about to go in. Get ready to run.’

  ‘Run?’ Ethan shook his head. ‘I thought we were sneaking.’

  ‘It’s an alarm, Scam,’ she hissed. ‘If I blow this, they’ll know we’re here.’

  He opened his mouth, but she waved a hand.

  ‘Don’t say a thing. One wisecrack at the wrong moment and I’ll slip up.’

  Chizara turned back to the window and grasped the locks in her mind, staring sightlessly at the moonlit concrete. She checked through the circuits again, made sure she hadn’t missed anything, lingered on the black box.

  Speak to me, she thought at it.

  But it gave up nothing.

  Still – there was only one wire that led into the box. If she cut it off from the rest of the system, it had no way to complain.

  She focused her power on that one slender wire, probed the metal gently. Plain old ordinary copper.

  With a twitch of power, she snipped through the wire.

  The black box let out a little squawk of signal.

  ‘Oh crap,’ Chizara said.

  ‘Crap what?’ Ethan asked.

  She waved him silent. From the box’s labyrinthine depths, it had signaled its failure – wirelessly. She’d been a fool, thinking that just because they didn’t want phones buzzing around, Essence and her Crashes wouldn’t use a single hidden antenna.

  But it had only been that tiny squawk. Maybe that lone, vulnerable wire hadn’t been a trap…

  And then into her brain rushed madness.

  It was like the buzz of crashing a city, to the power of ten. It hit Chizara and decompressed into her head, her chest, her loins. Pure hot bliss lit up her body, springing her from her crouch, arching her back.

  She felt like she was hanging a foot off the ground, out flat and rigid, power jagging out all around her. Jolt after jolt went through her. The air rang with cries. She couldn’t tell which were hers, which weren’t.

  And she couldn’t stop it. They’d stored this power up somehow, maybe in all those ancient transformers on the building’s far side, and the whole building was broadcasting it now, soaking her with bucket after bucket of buzz.

  It was like holding a live wire, the power contracting her muscles in a grip that would surely snap her bones. This trap had been designed just for Crashes, and she’d sprung it, and now she was helpless in its grip.

  Dimly she felt the others try to save her, to pull her out of the seizure. Their shaking and pinching was featherlight compared to the force racketing through her. The trap had crashed her body, just like she’d imagined crashing all those wisps of hearts and nervous systems.

  Alarms were ringing, people shouting, distant behind the frothing of her blood, the thudding of her bones, the ecstatic screaming of her muscles.

  She didn’t want to be saved. This was everything.

  But then she was coming out of it, her lungs raggedly pumping, her muscles booting back up. Her friends were dragging her away. Fleeing her mistake.

  Chizara laughed like a madwoman, floppy as a length of cloth. Her legs wouldn’t work, skidding like a rag doll’s across the concrete, bouncing over the sprouting weeds. Her brain pushed commands at them. They didn’t listen.

  Floodlights blasted down, bleaching everything stark white, the road and the parking lot, the broken windows and crazy old brickwork of the plant – and Thibault and Nate carrying her. The HQ door had burst open and people were bundling out.

  ‘Look!’ she tried to shout, but it came out squashed and foolish. ‘Got their own army of Craigs!’

  ‘Oh my God, that’s Glitch!’ Kelsie said, snatching a look behind. Her panic flitted across Chizara’s ecstasy, not ruffling it in the least.

  ‘Drop her, Anon,’ Nate said. ‘I’ll stay.’

  Her right arm was dropped. It didn’t hurt to be dropped. Nothing hurt when you were made of champagne bubbles. She flopped there, admiring the angles of the warehouse corner, the plant’s two big smokestacks towering among the stars.

  ‘Just leave me,’ Chizara said, trying to sound sensible.

  ‘Nate!’ Kelsie’s voice. ‘We can’t—’

  ‘Move!’ Nate screamed with every ounce of command he had, and Kelsie fled onward.

  Chizara didn’t mind – champagne couldn’t hold a grudge.

  Nate crouched above her, a spotlight flowering over his head, lighting his prison haircut.

  ‘You’re a goodboss!’ Chizara said delightedly. Against her back the concrete vibrated with the approaching thunder of Piper’s crew and the fading footsteps of her own team, retreating…

  Retreating toward the pickup.

  ‘So noble,’ she burbled to Nate.

  The noise, the floodlights, the warm rush of the seizure’s afterglow, they were all going to engulf her like a wave. She was going to be dazzled to death. And she was so, so ready to accept the dazzlement.

  With her last scrap of sense she reached around the corner, sprang the door locks on the pickup, kicked the engine into life.

  ‘Easy-peasy!’ she murmured.

  And then new figures were looming over her and Nate, and she was dissolving in their hands, into shreds of streaming light.

  ‘FIRE HYDRANT!’ FLICKER SHOUTED FROM THE BACKSEAT.

  ‘I see it! They’re my eyes!’ Ethan screamed, and spun the pickup truck right.

  Kelsie clutched the passenger-door handle – the truck jolted beneath her, leaping over the curb and hurtling straight

  at a chain-link fence. The fence hit with a bone-jarring thwack, wrapped around the truck, then slid away under the front wheels with an unholy scraping sound.

  The truck rattled across the empty lot, swerving around patches of broken concrete and scrubby plants. Behind them, the glare of floodlights glowed in the sky. Was Piper’s crew starting u
p all those motorcycles and cars to give chase?

  Chizara was back there – injured and confused – and Nate had given himself up to stay with her!

  Kelsie faced forward again: a silhouette loomed.

  ‘Look out!’ she shouted.

  Ethan jerked the steering wheel left – too late. With a crunch, a rusty old shopping cart spun into the air, landed on its side, and skidded off into the darkness. It had taken out the truck’s right headlight, dimming the light in front of them.

  ‘Why is there so much crap everywhere?’ Ethan cried.

  Kelsie reached over and took his arm, trying to think calming thoughts. But Chizara flashed before her eyes – the way her whole body had stiffened and shuddered, like someone being electrocuted.

  Piper’s lair was a fortress, and it held an army. Going up against her had been madness.

  Kelsie began to shudder with delayed panic, but the Curve didn’t take hold. Not enough people in the car – thank God. The last thing Ethan needed was a feedback loop while driving.

  If you could call this driving.

  At the other side of the empty lot, a thin line of stunted trees came at them. Ethan gunned the engine and aimed between two of them.

  ‘Can you slow—’ Flicker started.

  Branches whipped at Kelsie’s window. The side mirror snapped and dangled, thudding against the door. And then they were through.

  ‘—down?’

  The truck jolted off the curb and skidded onto asphalt, tires squealing. But finally Ethan had control, straightening out and heading away from the river. More fences sagged in front of a warehouse with smashed windows and graffiti-marked walls.

  ‘Fast is good!’ he cried in triumph.

  ‘Zara and Nate,’ Kelsie murmured. ‘We just left them there. She could be dying.’

  ‘That trap was designed for Crashes,’ Flicker said. ‘Do you really think they’d make it lethal? Kill one of their own?’

  ‘No, you’re right,’ said Kelsie. But she didn’t know why any Zero would create something so awful. And the joy their mob had felt as they’d poured out of the power station…

  The remaining headlight caught a pile of trash in the middle of the road. Ethan swerved, and Kelsie slid sideways into the door. A jolt of pain went through her collarbone.

  The truck was squealing now, a low whine coming from the front left wheel.

  ‘Shit, Ethan,’ Flicker muttered. ‘Where’d you learn to drive?’

  ‘My dad. He sucks at it too.’

  Kelsie sank back in her seat. Fast cars were fun with a happy crowd. Less so with panicked Zeroes trying to outrun a gang of psychos, leaving their friends behind.

  ‘So Piper won’t hurt them?’ she asked.

  ‘Never,’ Flicker said. ‘She needs Zeroes to rebuild the world.’

  Ethan snorted. ‘I notice we didn’t stick around to test that theory.’

  ‘Because we don’t want to help her!’ Flicker cried.

  ‘But she’s a Bellwether,’ he argued. ‘You know how coldblooded Nate can be.’

  Flicker shook her head. ‘Nate tries to convince people to join him. He wouldn’t hurt another Zero.’

  ‘Tell that to Quinton Wallace!’ Ethan cried. ‘Nate may not have pulled the trigger, but he tried!’

  They flew through an intersection, rusted warehouses on either side. Parked semis and a dumpster. No signs of life this late, this far from the center of town.

  It felt bleak and empty to Kelsie. At least Piper’s headquarters had been full of life and intensity. She hoped they knew how to help Chizara recover from their trap.

  ‘Keep your eyes on the road,’ Flicker said. ‘Not the rearview.’

  ‘Keep your eyes out of my head!’ he replied. ‘There’s a motorcycle back there. I think it’s following us.’

  ‘Mob, take a look,’ Flicker ordered. ‘You focus on driving, Scam.’

  Kelsie turned, and for a moment only saw dark and empty asphalt. Then a lone motorcycle cornered into view under a streetlight. The rider wore no helmet. She was a light-skinned black girl.

  ‘I know that face…’

  ‘Why only one?’ Flicker asked. ‘They had a shitload of vehicles!’

  At that moment their engine sputtered and stalled. The truck kept rolling, dashboard lights flickering.

  ‘Piece of crap!’ Ethan shouted, frantically trying to restart it.

  The car radio came to life, blaring static. Kelsie stabbed at the controls. The buttons were useless, but the radio began to skip between stations. Music, talk, some kind of preacher.

  ‘It’s her!’ Kelsie shouted over the noise. ‘She’s a Crash! The head Crash. Essence!’

  Ethan swore. ‘So that means we’re—’

  The engine gurgled to life.

  ‘Huh.’ Ethan put his hands back on the steering wheel. The truck was picking up speed, turning, rattling onto the sidewalk.

  A moment later they had turned a hundred eighty degrees.

  ‘Scam?’ Flicker asked.

  ‘It’s not me!’ He grabbed the wheel harder. ‘Power steering, man!’

  The motorcycle ahead turned around as well, Essence giving them a smile before speeding off.

  ‘She’s taking us back to Piper,’ Kelsie said.

  Flicker leaned forward. ‘Hit the brakes!’

  A squeal filled the truck as brake pads clamped down, fighting the engine, and Kelsie was thrown forward against her seatbelt. But then the car spasmed ahead again.

  ‘Power brakes, too!’ Ethan shouted. ‘Any other genius ideas?’

  Kelsie reached across and yanked hard on the parking brake. The engine strained, but the truck still roared forward, convulsing.

  ‘We’re moving too fast to jump.’ Flicker rattled her door handle. ‘And this piece of crap has power locks!’

  Ahead of them, Essence turned right, throwing them a smile. She was enjoying the fight.

  As the truck followed the motorcycle around the corner, a burst of fresh panic went through Kelsie. She was trapped, sealed up in metal and glass in the middle of nowhere with engine and brakes at war, the truck jolting and shuddering. Captive out here in the empty darkness.

  She tore open the glove compartment and scrabbled for anything to break the window – the cold metal of a flashlight filled her hand.

  Perfect.

  Kelsie reared back and brought the butt of the flashlight against the glass beside her. Nothing but a loud smack.

  Anger filled her veins like fire, and Kelsie swung again. This time the glass buckled, spiderwebbed.

  The next blow shattered it into a thousand tiny diamonds. A sudden cold wind blew though the cab.

  Ethan looked over at her, impressed. ‘Okay. Now all we have to do is stop this thing.’

  ‘Crash the truck,’ Flicker said.

  Ethan turned to face her. ‘Are you nuts?’

  ‘It’s the only way to stop it,’ Kelsie said. ‘Essence has to drive us and her motorcycle, so we mess with her. Next time we’re about to turn, I pop the brake and you hit the gas. If we jump the curb hard enough, we’ll break an axle!’

  ‘We are softer than axles!’ Ethan cried.

  ‘Do it, Scam,’ Flicker commanded.

  He didn’t answer.

  Before them, the motorcycle was turning right again. Splayed out straight ahead was a small park surrounded by a wrought-iron fence.

  ‘This is our shot!’ Flicker cried. ‘Three, two, one…’

  Kelsie released the parking brake as Ethan planted both feet on the gas pedal, his hands over his face. The acceleration pushed Kelsie back into her seat.

  The wheel spun on its own, but too late to turn the rocketing truck. At the curb, Kelsie felt the passenger side lifting into the air beneath her, the left tires skidding across the sidewalk with a birdlike shriek. Then the truck crunched sideways into the fence.

  Kelsie’s teeth snapped shut, and she was thrown toward Ethan – her left elbow hit him hard. The seatbelt snapped against her torso, knoc
king the wind out of her.

  The truck fell back onto all four wheels. Kelsie’s head bounced against the headrest.

  No airbags.

  For a moment there was nothing but quiet and the ticking sound of the engine settling.

  Kelsie sat, gasping. Her vision spun. She felt sick to her stomach.

  ‘Everyone okay?’ she croaked, when she had the nausea under control.

  Ethan groaned. ‘No.’

  ‘Everyone out!’ Flicker snapped.

  Kelsie undid her seatbelt and squeezed through her own window, stumbled on solid ground. Flicker knocked out more glass from the shattered back window, then emerged onto the truck bed.

  Both of them turned back to where Ethan still sat in the driver’s seat.

  ‘Scam,’ she said. ‘Move!’

  There was an answering groan from Ethan.

  Kelsie walked around to the driver’s side, wincing as her bruised muscles flexed. There was a narrow space between the truck and the wrought-iron fence.

  She gasped when she saw what the fence had done to Ethan’s door. Like a giant bird of prey had raked it with iron talons.

  She reached for the handle. The door angled open with a pained metal shriek.

  ‘Are you okay?’ she asked.

  Ethan turned to stare at her. His eyes were glassy.

  ‘We have to go,’ Flicker urged.

  Kelsie reached to help him out. Her whole body felt made of jelly. Ethan eased himself down from the seat with a grunt.

  ‘Damn,’ came a voice. ‘You guys trying to kill yourselves?’

  Essence sat there on her motorcycle, staring at them from the middle of the street.

  A dark thought crossed Kelsie’s mind – did Essence know what Zara had realized, the trick of crashing hearts and brains?

  ‘Stay away from us!’ Kelsie cried. ‘You know what I am!’

  ‘Harmless is what you are,’ Essence said with a laugh. ‘No crowd here.’

  Ethan looked up, his eyes glassy. ‘There will be soon. Crowds love accidents. Blood excites them.’

  A shudder went through Kelsie. She knew it was the voice, but it was the creepiest thing she’d ever heard.