Almost.
“I really like Kent,” she said.
Odd thing to say at that moment, but whatever.
“Me too,” I replied, though I didn’t like him at all.
“But I can’t depend on him. I mean, it’s not like we’re a couple. Not really.”
“Could have fooled me.”
“It’s true.”
“Maybe you should tell him that.”
“Why? He wouldn’t believe me. Kent only cares about Kent. He thinks every girl is in love with him. You can’t rely on somebody like that.”
She stared up at me, expecting me to say something.
I had nothing.
“Why are you telling me this?” I finally asked.
“Because I want to know if I can rely on you.”
I didn’t know where this was going. Was Olivia being flirty just to make sure I’d take care of her? Or did she really like me?
“I . . . yeah. Of course you can rely on me. So can Tori. And Kent. We can all rely on each other and—”
She put her finger on my lips to stop the verbal diarrhea.
“I don’t mean to make you nervous,” she said.
Sure she did.
“I’m not nervous,” I said nervously.
Olivia laughed. She was flirting all right.
“You’re a good guy, Tucker Pierce. A really good guy. I think you’re going to come out of this okay.”
That was a weird thing to say. A second earlier she’d been acting all confused and scared, then suddenly she was speaking with total authority, as if she could predict the future.
Like I said, Olivia was an enigma. A dangerous enigma.
She stood up on her toes . . . and kissed me.
I was so surprised that I didn’t stop her. Okay, I probably wouldn’t have stopped her even if I wasn’t so surprised. I wrapped my arms around her back, pulled her close, ignored the horrible mess we were in for a solid four seconds . . . and then snapped out of it and pushed her away.
“You can’t do that,” I said. “Kent would kill me.”
“I told you, we’re not a couple,” she said petulantly.
“Well, he thinks you are, and that would be enough reason for him to pound me if he knew we were . . . we were . . .”
“We were what? Hot for each other?”
“Yes . . . NO! We’re not hot for each other.”
I slipped away from her and backed for the door.
“Look, you’re great,” I said. “You really are. You know I like you. Why else would I have been your tour guide all summer?”
“But you never tried to kiss me.”
“Yeah, well, you’re out of my league.”
“Seriously?” she said, laughing. “After what we’ve been through? You just got promoted to the majors, Rook.”
“Don’t call me that! It doesn’t matter how I feel about you, or you feel about me, or . . . or . . .”
“Or how you feel about Tori?”
“Don’t go there. She and I are really close and—”
“Do you feel about her the way you feel about me?” she asked slyly.
The truth was, I didn’t. Tori Sleeper was somebody I had wanted to get to know for years. She may have had issues, but that just made her more interesting and independent. It took a disaster to get us together, but after that we quickly came to rely on each other. It’s not an exaggeration to say we owed each other our lives. That’s a strong bond that I wouldn’t want to break.
Olivia, on the other hand, was funny—and hot. Seriously hot. The idea of being alone with a girl like that, kissing in a shower room, was something I could only fantasize about . . . until now. Did I feel the same way about the two of them? Not even close.
“Look,” I said, “we’ve got to watch out for each other, and complicating things will only make it more . . . complicated. Let’s just . . . just . . . pretend this never happened, okay?”
“Okay, except for one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“You didn’t answer my question. Can I rely on you?” she asked. This time she was deadly serious.
“Of course you can.”
“Good,” she said with finality. “Then you can rely on me too. G’night!”
With that, she turned on her toes and scampered back to the ER.
I was left feeling . . . what? Confused? Nervous? Flattered? I’d liked Olivia since the moment I’d first met her. But messing with her was like messing with Kent, and that could hurt.
Besides, I really did like Tori. I didn’t know for sure if she felt the same way about me, but there was definitely something there. It might have been because we were thrown together in scary times and we wouldn’t have anything in common once things got back to normal, but I wanted to find out. There would be zero chance of that if she caught me messing with Olivia. And Kent would kill me.
All told, fooling around with Olivia wasn’t worth it.
I went back to the ER and slowed down as I passed Kent’s bed, fearing he might be lying in wait, ready to pound me. But he was out cold, snoring away.
Everyone was asleep except me.
I got into my own bed, turned off the lantern, and lay there staring up at the ceiling. There were so many thoughts bouncing around in my head that I had trouble nodding off. I needed to focus on one single thought. That’s what I did when I couldn’t sleep. I forced myself to think of one thing and put up a barricade against all the other annoying worries.
In the past when that didn’t work, I would go for a midnight ride.
I decided to do both. I imagined sneaking out of my bedroom window, climbing down from the porch roof, hopping on my bike, and racing along the deserted, dark roads of Pemberwick Island. I pictured the beam from my headlight on the road ahead, scanning for potholes. I imagined the chilly breeze coming off of the ocean and the smell of sea air.
I also thought about Quinn. We always rode together. Thousands of people had been wiped out in Portland, but I didn’t know any of them. Quinn I knew. If he hadn’t suggested we take separate boats on our run to the mainland, we might all have been killed. I owed him. The best thing I could do to honor his memory was to survive and to make a difference. Quinn had dreams of leaving Pemberwick and doing something important with his life. In a way, he had done exactly that. Tori and I were living proof.
But that wasn’t enough. I wanted to make a difference. For Quinn. And for us.
That was my single thought. That’s what I focused on. Strangely, it calmed me. I didn’t know what I would find beyond Portland and what I would do once I got there, but I made a promise to myself that I would do whatever I could to make sure that Quinn didn’t die in vain. It felt good to have purpose and a goal beyond simply surviving. I was going to make a difference.
Quinn’s death would be avenged. Whoever was controlling SYLO would pay for the destruction of our lives and the death of my best friend.
But not right then. I needed sleep.
There was no telling when I’d get the chance to do it again.
FOUR
“Tucker,” came a girl’s voice from my dream. “C’mon, open your eyes.”
It was a good dream. It was Olivia’s voice. You can do anything in a dream and not get in trouble for it, so I chose to enjoy the moment.
“I think I’ll keep them closed for a while,” I said happily. “Why don’t you sing a song or something? That would be nice.”
I suddenly felt a sharp poke in the arm.
“You’re kidding, right?” came the girl’s voice, suddenly harsh.
I cracked open an eye to see that she wasn’t a dream and she wasn’t Olivia.
All I could see was the mass of long black curls that surrounded her face. It was Tori.
I was suddenly very much awake.
“What? Oh? Sorry. I was dreaming.”
“You got that right. Get up, I want to show you something.”
I rubbed my eyes and sat up. The emergency room was slightly
less dark than the night before. Daylight must have been creeping in from other parts of the hospital. It was enough to navigate by, but just barely.
“I made breakfast!” Luna called cheerily.
I hopped off the bed and went to the nurses’ station hoping to see a stack of pancakes next to a pile of bacon and scrambled eggs. What I saw instead was a tray of sliced fruit and a bowl of bagels. That was okay too.
“Sorry the bagels aren’t toasted,” Luna said. “But at least there’s some butter. We should eat it before it spoils.”
I was the last to arrive. Kent, Olivia, and Jon were already eating. Tori seemed more interested in some papers she was reading. With everyone wearing scrubs, it looked like a doctor convention.
“You look a lot better,” I said to Tori as I grabbed a bowl of sliced melon.
“I feel better, thanks to Luna.”
“But you aren’t healed,” Luna cautioned. “You have to take it easy.”
“Yeah, sure,” Tori said unconvincingly. She had no intention of taking it easy; she was just getting back up to speed. “I figured it out,” she said, holding up the papers. “It took four tries, but I think I got most of it.”
“Most of what?” Kent asked with a mouth full of bagel.
“The message. From the radio. I listened to it four times, and with the notes that Jon took, I—”
“Whoa, wait!” Jon exclaimed. “You were messing with my radio?”
“Yes,” was Tori’s straightforward reply.
Jon was livid. “That’s . . . that’s not right. We’ve got to conserve the batteries. And . . . and . . . do you even know how to use it?”
“Yes.”
Tori wasn’t one for justifying anything she did. Or explaining herself.
“But . . . but it’s not yours! Nobody authorized you to use it.”
“The Air Force gave me the authorization to do whatever I damn well please when it killed everyone in Portland.”
Tori was definitely back.
Jon looked ready to lose it but couldn’t find the words to argue.
“It’s all right, Jon,” Luna said calmly. “Let’s hear what she has to say.”
Jon plopped back down in his chair with a huff.
“You listened four times?” I asked. “That means you were up all night.”
“I caught sleep in between. Who cares? You have to hear this.”
She looked through several sheets of papers that were loaded with scribbles.
“I’m guessing at some of it,” she explained. “But between the notes that Jon took and then using a little logic, I think I pretty much know what it’s about.”
We all stopped eating and gave her our full attention.
Tori took a deep breath as if to calm down. She was actually nervous.
“It starts out with some kind of introduction that I didn’t get,” she began. “Something about making an appeal, or appealing to all. I can’t tell exactly. But she goes on to say this: We are the survivors. We have been bloodied, but not beaten. To all of those who have been attacked: Know that we will fight back. Join us. We will take you in and keep you safe. Then she gives what I think are coordinates, but I doubt if I got them exactly. North thirty-six degrees. Twenty-six minutes, twenty seconds. West one hundred fourteen degrees. Thirty-one minutes, fifty-seven seconds.”
“Might as well be in Greek,” Olivia said, scoffing.
“Where is that?” Kent asked.
“No idea, but it would be easy enough to look up,” Tori said.
“How?” Kent pressed obnoxiously. “No Internet, remember?”
“We could go to a library,” I offered.
“Yeah, but . . .” Kent wanted to shoot me down but realized how stupid he sounded. “Is that it?” he asked Tori.
“No. It finishes with: We will fight for our home. We will repel the invaders. We will have strength in numbers. The survivors will stand together. Do not hesitate. She then says the coordinates again, and the message repeats.”
Tori lowered the pages and said, “What do you think?”
“I think those are probably the coordinates for the gates of hell,” Kent replied.
“Not funny,” Olivia chastised.
“Sounds like a call for help from other survivors,” I suggested.
“Or a call to arms,” Tori shot back. “These could be people like us who got caught in the crossfire and want to fight back.”
“Fight back?” Kent scoffed. “Against what? The United States Navy or the United States Air Force? Take your pick. One has their own tactical force that isn’t afraid to kill anybody who gets in their way, and the other has weapons of mass destruction like nobody’s ever seen before. You think a couple of people using a ham radio can fight that?”
Jon jumped up and ran out of the room.
“Jonathan?” Luna called.
He didn’t stop.
“What’s up with that?” Olivia asked.
“He doesn’t want any part of this bull,” Kent said. “Neither do I.”
“What if it’s not bull?” Tori asked. “What if this is our chance to connect with other people on our side?”
“Whoa, slow down, Lobster-Girl,” Kent said. “You’re jumping to a whole bunch of conclusions. As far as we know, the only place that got hit is little old Portland, Maine. You’re making it sound like the whole world has gone nuts.”
“Wake up, Kent,” Tori scolded. “The population of an entire city was nearly wiped out. There was a major ocean battle that was bigger than anything since, what? World War II? If this really is a civil war with two branches of the military throwing everything they’ve got at each other, how can you believe it’s only happening in our backyard?”
Kent jumped to his feet and shouted, “Because that’s what I want to believe!”
He was breathing hard, and his fists were clenched. His outburst was more about fear than anger. When he spoke I wasn’t sure if he was going to scream with rage or burst out crying.
“I don’t want to think that the whole world just crumbled. For all we know that broadcast is being sent by somebody holed up right here in the Old Port who wants to rally the troops and board their lobster boats to strike back against Darth Vader. You want to join a revolution? That’s what your father did, and look where it got him.”
Tori stiffened.
“Ow,” Olivia said, wincing.
“You didn’t need to say that,” I scolded.
“Or maybe I did,” Kent argued. “I’m not saying we roll over and hide like scared rabbits, but before I join up with some vigilantes, I need to know a little bit more about what’s going on.”
“I can help with that,” Jon announced.
He ran back into the ER carrying an oversized book.
“It’s an almanac from the hospital library,” he explained. “We can look up those coordinates.”
Olivia said, “Nice. Why are the smart guys always the most obnoxious?”
Jon ignored her and opened the book on the counter. Luna held the lantern for him to see, and Tori gave him her notes. Jon checked the coordinates and thumbed through the oversized almanac, flipping through page after page of maps.
Kent stepped away and took a drink of water while Olivia rubbed his back to calm him down. She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek while whispering something in his ear.
Seeing that gave me a twinge of . . . what? Jealousy? Not really. It was more about confusion. Olivia was playing both sides. She could still rely on me, but I was definitely going to keep my distance . . . and lock the door whenever I took a shower.
“Got it,” Jon announced.
“So where did it come from, Chadwick?” Kent asked.
“There’s no way of knowing. But I can tell you the place the message was calling the survivors to.”
“Is it the Old Port?” Olivia asked hopefully.
“No, it’s the middle of nowhere. I can’t be exact because Tori wasn’t sure if the numbers were correct, but even if they
were a little off, they would still put the spot somewhere near here.”
“Where’s here?” I asked.
“Nevada.”
“Nevada?” Olivia cried. “Like . . . way-out-west Nevada?”
She seemed totally shocked by the idea, as if Jon had said the message came from Neptune.
Jon shrugged. “That’s what the coordinates say. Looks like it’s in the desert.”
I looked to Kent to see his reaction.
He was stunned.
I didn’t feel so hot either.
I said, “So there’s a call going out for survivors to join up . . . in the desert? In Nevada? Does that mean—”
“Yes,” Tori said, cutting me off. “What else could it mean? The attack wasn’t just on Portland.”
“No!” Kent blurted out. “No way. You’re going by a two-minute recording that you could barely understand to decide . . . what? That the entire United States was hit? We have no idea who even made that recording. For all we know it was SYLO! I’m still not buying it.”
“I know,” Tori said calmly, trying to be less dramatic. “I don’t want to believe it either. I hope I’m wrong, obviously. There’s only one way to find out.”
“How?” I asked.
Tori looked at each one of us in turn and said, “We go to Nevada.”
Olivia and Kent erupted.
“What? No! Are you crazy?”
I tried to be a little more reasonable.
“Are you serious, Tori?” I asked.
“We’re looking for answers,” she replied. “The plan is to go to Boston, but why? Because it’s close? Who cares? We have a very real clue here. There are people reaching out. If we’re going to drive, what’s the difference if we drive for two hours or two days?”
“I’ll go,” Jon announced enthusiastically. “If the message is real, it could be our best chance of joining up with others like us.”
Olivia said, “And what if it isn’t real?”
Jon shrugged. “Then we see the country.”
Tori added, “And we’ll still do what we set out to do, which is to tell the world about what’s really happening on Pemberwick Island. What’s the difference if we do it in Boston or Cleveland or Nevada? The point is to get back to civilization.”