Light (Gone, #6)

by Michael Grant

Sam looked at Astrid with affection so obvious a blind man would have seen it. The days of wondering whether they would be together were over. It wasn’t that either of them had said it quite that way; it was just the way it was, it was there, it was a fact. It was chiseled in granite.

grandiose

Sam could not have been more pleased. He had discovered about himself that he had no talent for details. Or managing. And it was a wonderful thing to be able to lie in bed with Astrid and not feel the whole world was depending on him. In fact, glancing up at her now, with her sleeveless T-shirt gapping at the side, and the amazing line of her legs, and . . . He forced himself back to Edilio.

There was one over there right now with two guys pretending to fish but actually shooting video. Sam waved and felt foolish. Life in the FAYZ had changed. As if to make that point, Astrid shaded her eyes and looked off to the north. “Helicopter.” There was a helicopter with some sort of logo, maybe a news station or a police department, impossible to read from this distance. It was hovering above the “out there” marina, most likely aiming a camera into the dome. Perhaps focusing, as well as they could from that distance, on the four of them sitting there. Sam fought a sudden childish impulse to give them the finger.

“I don’t think we should wait for Gaia to choose the time and place,” Edilio said. “She ran away with Diana and Drake,” Astrid said. “She didn’t come right back; she ran off. That doesn’t make me think she’s all that dangerous.” Sam looked down and smiled. “If Toto was here, he’d call BS on that, Astrid. The gaiaphage did not choose to take on a body thinking it would get weaker. You know that.”

Pete had no body, but he had just been punched, very hard. It had hurt. It had sent his mind spinning. He had never felt anything like it. It could only come from one person: the Darkness. The green, vaporous tendrils that had often reached to touch his mind had this time struck him. The gaiaphage. Had punched him. Hard enough to make his consciousness blink out for just a fraction of a second. It was shocking. He had not known such a thing was possible. No one could hit him! It wasn’t okay. It was not okay to hit. His sister had told him that a lot of times. So had his mother. It was not okay to hit. Even if you were mad or frustrated.

He rolled a condom into place and she gasped as he entered her. “This is not the last time, Sam,” she said. “This is not the last time,” he said, knowing that neither of them believed it.

Cameras—ranging from cell phones to full-on Canons with huge lenses—rose in unison and aimed at her. Lana’s hair was sticking out in multiple directions, she was wearing a ragged purple T-shirt that read “FCKH8” over boys’ boxer shorts, and she was sucking a cigarette butt down to the ash. And then there was the automatic pistol in her right hand. Lana went back inside and said, “Okay: now where are my cigarettes?”

“How did that happen?” a stunned Diana asked Gaia. Gaia did not look surprised. She did look troubled. “I hit Nemesis,” Gaia answered, as though it was obvious. “But it wasn’t good, really.” She suddenly bit at the cuticle of her thumb, a nervous gesture Diana recognized: Caine.

morose

But most of all he missed Diana. He could see her if he closed his eyes. He could remember every detail of her body and face. Lips? Yes, he remembered her mouth. The smoothness of her skin? Yes, definitely, yes, he remembered.

She understood him. She loved him, in her own way. And if he had listened to her, he’d still be on the island. Somehow he would have found some fuel to keep the lights on there. Probably. And the food would have run out and then they’d have starved, but hey, this was the FAYZ, where all you could really hope to do was delay the pain. Delay of pain: that was the meaning of life, wasn’t it?

reticent,

“I’d offer you milk and cookies, but we seem to be out,” Caine said. He put his feet up on the desk just to remind them who was boss here. “It’s true. He has no milk. Or cookies.” Toto.

Edilio got right to it. “We can’t have this. We need to get food production back up. We need to think through how to deal with the lookers. We need rules and organization.” “Yeah, brilliant,” Caine said. “I wish I’d thought of that. Choo, make a note: need people to get back to work. That’s genius. That’s what you came to say? Are you asking me to go down there and start smacking kids around?” Edilio pretended not to notice the sarcasm. “No. In fact, I don’t think you can help, Caine. No one trusts you. No one will follow you.” “That’s the truth,” Toto said. Then, in response to Caine’s withering glare, he added, “Spidey.” “Oh, I see,” Caine said. “No one trusts me, but they will follow Saint Sammy here. Well, not to be impolite but—” Caine’s hand came up fast, and the telekinetic punch hit Sam right in the chest. Sam went flying. In fact he flew straight backward through the air. Ten feet. At least—maybe even a dozen feet. And when he hit, he landed on his butt, and the momentum carried him into a backward roll. Caine laughed delightedly. This was so much better than just sitting around and— Sam was up faster than Caine expected, and he managed to leap aside and dodge Caine’s next blow. Sam’s hands were up, palms out. Not ten feet away. And the real problem was that Caine was still seated. It’s not easy to move quickly when you’re sitting and your feet are up on a desk. “I’d actually rather not have to kill you,” Sam said. “But if your hand so much as twitches . . .” Cain...

Well, at least Diana would be grateful, Caine thought. And then smiled. Nah. She wouldn’t be.

The cabin cruiser was throwing up a bow wave Quinn admired and envied. What must it be like to fish from a power boat? “Give ’em a wave, Cath,” Quinn said. So Cathy did, and the captain gave them a sort of salute. And then one of the women on the bow took off her bikini top. “Well, I didn’t expect that,” Quinn admitted.

“I probably better take you to Sam; he can fry you up,” she said. “By the way, why do you have a sack full of dead lizards and some eggs?”

The three of them stared: Astrid with blue eyes wide, hand over mouth; Dekka with mouth wide open and brow furrowed; Brianna like a proud school kid showing off her art project. “Ta-da!” Brianna said.

Caine was walking a little ahead of Sam. Was that because Caine trusted Sam at his back more than Sam trusted the reverse? Maybe. Or maybe, Sam thought, Caine had longer legs. One of those things was probably true.

Sam tried to stop himself asking, but in the end he blurted it out. “And Diana?” “Great body,” Caine said breezily. “And a very open mind.” Sam didn’t buy it. “It’s more than that, you and her.” Caine didn’t

A quick, deep, assured, stabbing thrust. And death before the evil creature, her daughter, could stop her. But then hope, that cruel thing, came to taunt her. Caine would come for her, wouldn’t he? He would know she needed rescue. Because deep down he cared for her, didn’t he? But when he did come, if he did come, Gaia would kill him, wouldn’t she? And then I’ll do it, Diana told herself. Then the quick, deep, assured thrust. Not before.

She was also tall, about five inches taller than Albert, which he liked, and she had large breasts, which Albert also liked.

She waved her arm grandly toward the transparent barrier, toward the desert beyond. “It goes on and on, doesn’t it? How big is it, Diana?” “What, the whole country? Earth?” “All of it. Is the earth all of it? Then the earth. How big is the earth?” Diana shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not exactly honor roll. Astrid would know, down to the mile, I’m sure.” Gaia turned to her, eyes lit with excitement. “But it’s big. How many humans?” “Billions.” That seemed to take Gaia aback. Her mouth dropped open.

consternation.

sanctimonious

It wasn’t like Caine could ever walk free from the FAYZ, Diana knew that. He was a criminal ten times over, a rotten, charming, worthless sociopath, and they would lock him up. And she would visit him and make fun of him behind the security glass at the prison. And then she would wait for him. Years, if necessary. All her years, if necessary.

“Music,” Diana said through gritted teeth. “Music?” Gaia said, confused. “You wouldn’t like it, Gaia. It’s only for humans.” Gaia knew a lot of things. She did not know about child psychology. “I will hear it!”

“Dahra? What are you doing here?” “Praying for you to show up,” she gasped. Orc couldn’t make much of a smile; it was only the human part of his mouth that could do that. “You prayed to God? Like in the Bible?” Dahra was about to say she would happily have prayed to any and all gods and the devil, too, but she stopped herself and instead said, “Yes, Orc. Just like in the Bible.” “And he sent me.” This seemed to give Orc great satisfaction. His huge chest swelled. “He sent me!”

She pondered this for a moment. People always said kids were resilient, so obviously adults were less so. She wondered how much differently things would have gone if it had been three-hundred-plus adults trapped in the FAYZ with the gaiaphage and dangerous mutants—human and nonhuman.

There was smoke coming from the soles of her shoes, and she let herself sink down into cooling water before saying, “Give me your hands, both of you!” “No, find Orc! He can’t possibly swim!”

A boy named Bix ran screaming, stopped suddenly, and was thrown into the air. The green light found him there, and he burst into flames. Like skeet shooting. Gaia wasn’t just killing: she was playing.

Gaia strode through the burning camp, earbuds still in, music still on, with the terrified Alex cringing like a Harry Potter house elf behind her.

Each time she saw movement she aimed and fired. The killing light was quite effective, she thought, not as messy or as slow as using her father’s telekinetic power. But the lifting and throwing and smashing were more fun, somehow.

unceremoniously

Alex seemed suddenly very uncomfortable. “She was . . . While she was about her killing and burning, what do they call it? A reaping? While she . . . there came a whirlwind and hurt her. I saw it. Like a devil whirlwind!” “A whirlwind?” Caine demanded. “Brianna,” Sam said.

The object in Taylor’s other hand was a half pack of Marlboros. Lana grinned and accepted it, ignoring Sanjit’s despairing cry. “Finally,” Lana said. “All this healing stuff finally pays off.” Taylor bounced away and did not bounce back.

Last week he had been a lapsed Methodist; now he worshipped a cannibalistic girl monster.

The head spit water from its mouth and seemed to be whispering. Looking up at him with cold blue eyes, so like the goddess. This awesome horror had to be a sign from her. Alex leaned close, pushing past repugnance and fear, to hear a wet, gurgling voice say, “Who the hell are you?”

Lana laid her hand on Brianna’s scarred, half-destroyed face, and Brianna cursed feebly. “What happened, Breeze?” Lana asked while she stretched to also touch a four-year-old whose leg had been burned down to the white bone. “Gaia,” she said. “The gaiaphage. Trying to kill us all. I—” And that was it for Brianna for a while as her eyes rolled up and she slipped back into the relief of unconsciousness. Sanjit stepped behind Lana, stuck a cigarette in her mouth, and lit it. “How many dead?” Lana asked. Sinder answered, “One of the kids said . . . she said it was all burned down. All the boats, all the vans . . .” Sinder brushed tears from her eyes. “Like more than half the kids up there.” “Sam?” “He wasn’t there,” Sinder said. “Then we’re not beaten yet,” Lana said.

Caine! She reached for his mind, stabbed at him, and, from much nearer than she’d expected, heard a cry of pain. “Caine!” Gaia yelled. “Yes, I can still hurt you!” “Aaaaahhh!” “Scream for me, Father!”

The head named Drake had spoken to Alex. The head had told him that it served Gaia. Gaia would reward Alex if he brought Drake to her. Gaia would give him back his arm, better than ever. So Alex had taken out all the heavy stones but left the head in its convenient carrying case. The cooler was heavy, but he could just manage it with his one arm.

“She’s not that far ahead of us,” Caine said. “She’s probably going straight down the highway.” “If we run . . . ,” Sam said, though he felt too tired to last long running. “You go right ahead and run. I’ll take the bus,” Caine said. “Ah. Yeah, that would be better. Have you ever driven a bus?” Caine shook his head. “No, I have not.” “Strangely enough,” Sam said, remembering the long-ago moment of terror and competence that had earned him the nickname School Bus Sam, “I have.”

“I’m the weapon,” a voice said. Brianna sat up on the couch. Her face was still burned, though was no longer blood red. There were patches that looked almost normal. But one eye was swollen shut. “You’re half blind, you idiot,” Lana said, but not angrily, affectionately. Brianna jumped up, wiggled her legs like the world’s fastest tap dancer, shook her arms fast enough to create a breeze. “Sit!” Lana roared. To Lana’s amazement, Brianna sat. So did Patrick.

ludicrously

“I hurt you, even though I didn’t mean to. I can’t ask you to help me,” Little Pete said. “You don’t have to,” Taylor answered. “I know the Darkness. I know it hates the Healer. I know what side I am on.”

“NO!” Dekka screamed. But there was a hole burned right through Brianna. A smoking hole where her heart should be.

“No, no, no! Brianna!” Dekka sobbed, cradling the burned head in her arms. The obscene hole in her chest did not even bleed; it had been cauterized. Brianna’s eyes were still open. In a hundred movies Dekka had seen the survivors shut the eyes of the dead, but no, she couldn’t do that. Those were Brianna’s eyes. She couldn’t be gone. She couldn’t be dead, not the cocky, funny, terrifyingly brave little girl Dekka loved. “Get Lana!” Dekka raged. “Get Lana!” “We’ll get her,” Edilio said softly, but Dekka knew better. Lana healed the injured; she did not raise the dead. Brianna’s lioness heart had burned from her body.

So he just stood, awkward, bearing silent witness. “Me?” Caine said. He sounded exhausted. Defeated. He was staring at Brianna. “We fought side by side once, me and Breeze. Against the bugs. She was badass.”

“What happened to you?” Gaia demanded of the head. “You were supposed to feed me.” “Brianna happened,” Drake whispered. “Ah. Then you’ll be happy to learn she’s dead.” Drake’s shark mouth twisted into a ghastly grin. For some reason there was a lizard’s tail protruding between his eyes.