* * * * *
It’s the longest day of my life.
Sunlight stretches long on the walls of the cell. I lie on my back, staring at the ceiling. Waiting. Waiting for Uncle Cassius to come in and say that he’s sorry about siding with Madeline, to say he was wrong to ally with her, to say it was all some big misunderstanding.
He never shows. Of course, there’s no way he can know where I am. And why did he join Madeline? Why on earth did he decide to help her and not me?
Why?
The station’s noisy, and it gets more so the closer it gets to nightfall. People go in and out. I never see them, but I catch snippets of conversation. The Stetsons are going with us to the State Fair tomorrow. We convinced them. I’ll have Jeff put their cats in the basement. And then one woman says I can’t get Fran to go out tomorrow. She hasn’t been feeling well. Burton tells her that she’ll take care of it. This goes on for the whole afternoon, until I’m certain that Evansburg will be a ghost town after lunch tomorrow.
Not one of them comes back to talk to me or Dorian.
They can’t face us. I know it. We’re the ones who get to do the dirty work.
I take a breath and set my food tray down on the floor.
I’m going to help save a hundred people from ending up like me.
But I’m going to…going to…
Tommy’s going to be so upset. What will he think of me after I go through with this? Why doesn’t he understand that there’s no other way?
I close my eyes and drift. There’s nothing else to do.
I’m in a pit of darkness where there’s no one to reach out to. It deepens, closing in tighter. My breathing slows. The conversations get muffled so much that they might as well be in another universe, one that I’m fading from.
And then I’m standing in the Evansburg park near the swing set. Thunder rumbles and the sky grows darker by the second, going from gray to rolling black. The clouds make awful shapes over our heads. Laughing monster faces. Evil serpents.
Dorian stands opposite me, eyeing the sky.
I call his name. “We have to get out of here.”
He faces me and smiles.
Then I notice.
His eyes are green. Not brown with black flecks.
Rain pours down. Lightning flashes. He stands, defiant. Dorian’s not collapsing. He’s showing no signs of an Outbreak.
And no roar explodes in me.
“We’re cured,” I say. The rain plasters my hair down on my head. “We’re free.”
He nods. “We are. Ready to get out of Evansburg?”
“Definitely.” I draw closer to him…closer…until we’re embracing. Dorian’s warm even in the driving rain. His heart beats against mine. He breathes in and out.
I press my lips to his.
Heat explodes and the rain stops. We’re standing there making out in the middle of the park. I don’t care. I don’t want this to end. Dorian slides his hands down my back. Pulls me closer to him until I’m sure we’re merging again. I catch my breath and reach around him, feeling his curly hair and—
“Allie! No!”
We break apart. Turn.
Uncle Cassius stands feet away, mouth open in horror.
Behind him, downtown Evansburg is gone.
Mountains of bricks and debris lie where buildings once stood. Even Betsy’s Kitchen is gone. It’s a garbage pile now. Pieces of tattered purple awning is all there’s left to say that it was once a restaurant.
Beyond downtown lies nothing. Nothing except for concrete slabs, sets of cement stairs, and snapped tree trunks.
“Allie!” Uncle Cassius is the only life in the picture in front of me. “What have you done?”
“You abandoned me.” I spit the words out, turning them into flying knives.
“It’s not what you think,” he says. “Please, Allie.”
Uncle Cassius keeps shouting, but no words reach me. He’s muted. Unreachable.
“Allie.”
I wake.
I’m back in the jail cell.
“Allie. Sit up. It’s noon. It’s Thursday.”
It’s Officer Burton. She stands on the other side of the cell, keys in hand.
Burton steels her stance. “We need to hurry. There’s a storm coming. Most of the people in Evansburg are gone now, but if I’m going to get the last holdouts to leave in time, we need to move.” She glances down the hall in the direction of the boys’ cell. “We also need to get your friend Tommy to safety. This station won’t be here much longer, I’m sad to say.”
God.
It’s already time.
I sit up so fast that I step on my food tray and send milk splashing all over the floor. My heart’s pounding. “How much longer?”
Burton unlocks my cell. “Jeff says the storm will be here in an hour. It’s coming right from the west. Your presence is drawing it here.”
I step out into the hall and see something that makes my stomach tie in knots.
A tear in the corner of her eye. It swells and threatens to spill out.
“The human residents won’t be the only ones with losses today,” she says. “I love Evansburg. I know everyone here.”
I can’t speak. I’m part of the reason she’s crying.
“But it’s better to protect the people here than to protect their property,” she says, closing the cell door for the last time. “They come first. I’d rather see them suffer for a few months instead of the rest of their lives. They can rebuild their homes. Humans always do. They’re strong. We need to think of it that way.”
I swallow. My throat constricts. “Yeah. We do.”
“Let’s go get the boys,” she says, rushing me down the hall.
The other officer, the man, unlocks their cell. Tommy’s standing on the other side of the door, pale and eager to get out. Dorian hangs back, stuffs his hands in his pockets, and finally decides to follow Tommy.
The five of us cram into the hall. I can’t breathe. Dorian stares at the floor. We say nothing to each other.
We walk for the front door in silence. Dorian avoids my gaze. He blinks sleep out of his eyes. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that he just came out of the same dream that I did. And why am I thinking of that now? We’re about to level the whole town.
Jeff and his herd of volunteers wait in the front lobby. Every face is grave. Sad.
“All the businesses are empty,” Jeff announces. “We just finished our final check. Nobody’s going to open up with the power cut.”
“Double check the bank,” Burton orders.
“Already done. They won’t run business with the computers down.” Jeff clears his throat. “We’re pretty sure that nobody’s called the power company. I lied and said I’d take care of it.” Every word carries weight. Guilt.
We step outside and stand on the edge of the apocalypse.
Evansburg’s as empty as a town in a zombie movie. A lone paper blows down the street. Tommy’s car and a beat-up pickup are the only two vehicles here. All the buildings are dark. Barren. Closed signs hang in every door. Betsy’s Kitchen looks sad across the street. I have a feeling that even it won’t survive. Not if she doesn’t own the place.
“Tommy, isn’t it?” Jeff tosses him a pair of keys. “Take your car and anything you’ve left in your hotel room. I’ll have my friend Carl escort you out of town.” Jeff faces another guy, an older, balding one with glasses. “Make sure he stays away from his friends until we give you the say-so. I don’t trust him to do that on his own.”
“No!” Tommy lunges for me, but Carl grabs his arm and pulls him back. “Allie!” He kicks the air. “I won’t let you do this to her!”
Carl drags him across the street. There's no one else to hear his shouts. A shadow from a cloud overhead falls over him, dimming the street.
An ice pick rams do
wn through me. It's time.
“Tommy!” I jump forward, but Jeff's hand catches my arm. “I’ll be okay. I promise!”
I don’t know if he ever hears me, because they walk us around the corner to where the cruiser’s waiting. Dorian shoots me a look. Even though he’s walking for the car out of his own free will, his eyes have that same terrified shine that they had in the dream. For a second, I’m sure that we really were both in the same dream together.
Burton opens the back door of the cruiser.
I get in and they close the door. Dorian enters the other side. Jeff stays by my door while Burton and her partner climb into the front. He's blocking me in. One of Jeff's buddies stands on Dorian's side. They don’t trust us to stay put, and I can’t blame them after we ran from them at first.
Burton starts the car as if she's hitting the switch to turn on an electric chair.
We're off. The car rockets out of the alley and Jeff and his friend fly away.
I spot Jeff and his friend scrambling to his black SUV. They've rehearsed this. They'll come up behind us just in case.
I face Dorian. He meets my gaze. He bites his lip like he wants to say something, anything.
Burton drives the cruiser through Evansburg's one blinking red without slowing. There's no one here to hit. Jeff's SUV does the same behind us. She makes a right so fast that I lean over and slam into Dorian.
“Whoa,” he says. He makes no effort to push me off. He's as warm as he was in the dream. When we were both human. When--
Why am I thinking about this now?
Evansburg disappears for the last time. We’re right outside of town now. Only fields open up ahead of us.
Beyond the farms and flat land looms the biggest thunderhead I've ever seen.
It towers towards space, spreading gray film across the blue sky. It bulges with cloudy tumors and growths. Its deadly underside is a greenish-black.
“God,” Dorian breathes.
“It's working,” the male officer says. He leans forward to study the storm. “Allie, it looks like you heard right. You're drawing it right over where we need it.” He turns to Burton. “Slow down. We have to drop them off close to town. Or they could miss. Jeff says we need to use that spot off Wendell here.”
I can't speak. Not when this storm's in front of me, waiting. My chin wobbles. I'm going to break down.
Dorian clasps his hand over mine. Squeezes. He's shaking.
I link my fingers through his. We're one in our horror. United. Almost as close as we were when we merged.
What will it be like to merge again?
A single truck passes us, going in the opposite direction.
I pray they don't stop in Evansburg. That they survive.
The storm looms larger. Darker. More menacing. Evansburg must be a mile behind us now.
The male officer swats Burton on the arm. “Wait—here. Turn down that way. Go far from the road.”
Burton slows the car and tears into a dirt drive. She strangles the steering wheel like it’s Madeline herself. The car bounces along the ground. Thunder rolls over us.
And the growl explodes inside me like it’s answering the storm’s call.
I look at Dorian. He’s paste. I wonder if old Outbreakers feel anything before it happens.
“Stop. Here.” The guy officer points to a hill in the field. “We dug it up there.”
“Dug what?” Dorian asks. “Dug what?”
The officer doesn’t answer. Neither does Burton. She pulls the car into park. Jeff’s SUV pulls up behind us and he jumps out like a soldier on a raid. His friend does the same.
Doors fly open. I climb out, but one of Jeff’s buddies grabs my arms anyway. Ominous wind blows in. It ruffles my hair. Throws it in my face. My head feels like it’s going to detach.
“We need to hurry,” Jeff shouts to the others. “I’m starting to feel drowsy. If I have an Outbreak, they might not.”
I try to look at Dorian, but he’s already out of the car. Burton and Jeff’s friend have his arms. He kicks. Swears. His foot hits the car door and slams it shut so hard the car shakes.
Dorian’s still not on board with this. Why doesn’t he understand?
“Allie. Come on.” Jeff’s there, stifling a yawn.
I follow him. We make it to the top of the hill. There’s a hole dug, so fresh there’s a pile of black dirt next to it. Burton and Jeff’s friend stand before it. Dorian’s gone. He’s already inside, shoved in by the others.
“In!” Jeff pushes me forward. I slide to the edge of the hole. My stupid feet kick over air. Dirt flies. Dorian looks up at me from below and presses against earth.
I fall into darkness. Land. Yellow and white flare in my vision, then fade. Dorian’s jeans tilt in front of me. The smell of earth invades my nostrils.
Dorian pulls me to my feet.
Footfalls dart away, leaving the sky above us toiling with the first of the storm. Car doors open and slam. Engines rev and disappear.
We’re alone out here.
The first raindrops splatter down.
“Allie,” Dorian says. “We have to get away from each other.”
“Why are you wanting to back out now?” I ask. “You were all cooperating before. Do you want everyone in Evansburg to end up an Outbreaker? I mean, I don’t want to do this either, but Madeline’s going to strike tomorrow night if we don’t.” My heart’s pounding. I’m scared, too.
Thunder cracks. Dorian wipes the sweat off his forehead.
“Look, I never wanted to do this. I only got in the van with Jeff so nothing happens to my parents. Tommy’s right that this could screw us up.”
“Screw us up?” I stiffen and hold onto the wall of the hole. I’m dizzy. My transformation’s getting closer.
“Yeah. If an Outbreaker kills or causes huge destruction like this, even by accident, they can go bad. They start wanting to hurt people and destroy property. It doesn’t happen all the time, but I don’t want to take that risk. Why doesn’t Jeff care about that?” Dorian eyes the edge of the pit.
“What?” Panic explodes in me. “You’re saying we could turn evil after we do this?”
“We could,” he says, jumping for the edge. He grabs on and dirt crumbles down. It’s too high. “Not right away. It can take a couple years. My older cousin was a nice guy once. But then he had an Outbreak in the middle of his town a few years ago and killed a man by mistake.” He faces me, shaking. “He slowly went bad after that. You heard about that tornado last year that killed those kids on the camp bus? That was him. Only this time he did it on purpose. I don’t want to end up like that!”
“God.” Now I understand why Dorian’s parents fought so hard to make sure we escaped. Why Dorian’s been acting this way. “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”
“Didn’t have the chance.”
He’s right, now that I think about it.
Jeff should have told me about this. Why didn’t he think I deserved to know?
Overhead, storm clouds march above. Lightning forks across the sky.
“But we’re doing this, knowing we’re saving people,” I say. “Maybe that’ll stop us from turning evil.” I’m hoping. Praying. Oh, God. What if I’ve done the wrong thing?
“We can’t know. No Outbreaker’s ever leveled a town for good before,” he says. “But I’m still not risking this. We’ve got to get out of this hole. This could flood.” His face is a pale oval in the deepening dark. “Outbreakers can die in floods. It’s happened before.”
He’s right. When I transform I’ll be out of this pit. Dorian will leave his body behind.
“Stand on my shoulders,” I order. I crouch down. “You need to get out. I’ll be fine. Once you climb out, run. Get as far from me as you can.”
Rain beats down. It’s cold. Freezing.
&nb
sp; My body’s light. Weightless.
Dorian’s shoes dig into my shoulders, snapping me back to reality. I’m solid again. Dorian grunts and hoists himself up. He lifts a foot. Dirt crumbles down.
I’m air again and he falls. We land together in the mud.
He crumples away from me and sits against the wall of the pit. Breathes hard. “Allie…”
The color in his eyes is swirling.
Twisted.
A maelstrom of brown and black.
Dorian’s Outbreak is close.
“Dorian!” I leap for him.
My arm’s transparent. I’m air. Storm. I wrap my arms around him, holding tight.
His eyes slide shut. Allie! No!
Dorian’s voice explodes in my head, but his lips don’t move.
We’re already merging. We’re one mind. One monster.
Wind snaps into the pit, the rain blasts sideways, and the ground vanishes below.
Chapter Eighteen