Dying Light (16 page)

He jumps, lands and starts coming
before we even have a chance to react. His face is a mask of fury
and he swings at Nikki, but she ducks, driving an uppercut into his
sternum.

“
Move!” Gloria limps
across the small patch of earth and shoves a gun under Jason’s
jaw.

He tries to yank himself free, but
Gloria grabs onto his throat and squeezes. Forcing his chin up with
her muzzle, she pulls the trigger. Brains shoot out of the top of
his skull and into the oak tree overhead. The branches and leaves
are splattered red. Jason hits the ground like a sack of
potatoes.

“
Jesus.” I swallow a wave
of nausea and stumble back on my weak ankle, my hip
throbbing.

The three of us crowd around his body.
Thankfully, his face isn’t disfigured, but I keep my eyes carefully
pointed away from the wet mess that clumps around the top of his
head.

“
Did that work?” Relief
washes over me.

“
Shit.” Nikki’s grip
tightens on my arm.

“
What?” But I don’t need
her to answer my question. The hole at the bottom of his chin is
closing.

Gloria motions toward the bridge. “We
have to go.”

We reach the boat, a little dinghy
hidden in the shadows beneath the bridge. We climb in. The three of
us will be a tight fit, but we pile in anyway, with me nestled
between Nikki’s legs and our bags. Gloria yanks on the pull
cord.

The boat roars to life.

“
How did he find us?” I
ask Gloria. “Is he using an A.M.P.?”

Like Caldwell used
Micah
. I don’t dare mention her baby
brother aloud.

“
I don’t know.” Gloria
glances behind her once more before focusing on the river ahead.
“But I’ll find out.”

She steers the boat into the middle of
the small canal and turns the motor on full blast. The little boat
lurches forward, kicking up mist and wind in our hair.

I don’t look away from the illuminated
bank, waiting for the next monster to show his face.

Jesse

C
aldwell steps from the bulbous head of The Needle and in a
heartbeat, we’re outside a brick building in some godforsaken part
of Chicago. Godforsaken because I’ve never seen a shadier, more
depressing street. Most of the lights have been busted out, with
the exception of one tangerine colored bulb that flickers about
half a block up. In the spotlight below, a mangy cat licks its
paw.

“
Where the hell are
we?”

“
You don’t recognize it?”
He spares me a glance. “I suppose your friends don’t tell you all
their secrets.”

“
Don’t imply that you’re
the god of truth.”

He gestures with his wrapped hands
toward the building directly in front of us, its front door busted
in on its hinges. I peek inside and hear people talking. A closer
look reveals a small huddle of bewildered tenants clustered
together.

“
What’s going on?” I ask
him. I don’t like the wide eyes of the woman holding a baby in her
arms.

“
We’re too late,” he says
and grabs on to me. The world disappears for a heartbeat, and we
step into a room. The kitchen table is overturned and the bed has
some crumpled sheets on it, as if someone had just woken up. With
my head out the window, I see nothing on the ground below. Caldwell
moves me again.

“
Hey—”
Stop yanking me around.
I’m about to
say. I don’t get it all out.

Now we are in the backyard, or
whatever you want to call this. A stretch of grass runs from the
back of the building to a canal, one of the many that no doubt
connects to Lake Michigan.

Caldwell is frowning at the ground. I
turn away from the canal and come to stand beside him. He’s staring
at a thick slick of something gooey.

“
Is that—?”

“
So he can even heal brain
damage. Interesting.”

“
Oh god.” I search for the
bodies of my friends, but I don’t see anything.

“
They’re not here,” he
tells me. “But he’ll catch up to them sooner or later. We would’ve
been here sooner if you hadn’t argued with me.”

I snort. “Don’t you get enough blind
followers from your congregation?” I frown. “Gloria must’ve brought
them here thinking it was safe. Guess that means you know all of
our supposedly secret places?”

“
Unless you have a sealed
underground room without windows, doors, or cameras—you can be
found.”

“
Assuming you killed
everyone who knew about the room.” My breath billows white around
my face in the icy air.

He gives me a wicked smile.

“
Of course you had your
builders killed.” I’m not even surprised. “So now what?”

“
We have to catch up to
them before Jason does. Are you ready?”

“
Oh, you’re asking my
permission to manhandle me now?”

Caldwell looks away from me for a
minute, his head cocked as if he’s listening to something. “The
police are coming.”

“
How do you
know?”

He gives me a malicious grin and taps
the side of his head. “I’m listening. Frances of 1212 Ducet street
just saw a car creep past her house. They’re coming with no lights
or sirens on. They must be canvassing for the gunman.”

“
How are we going to find
them?” I ask, unwilling to take a step toward him yet.

His fox grin grows wider. “Let me show
you how useful I can be.”

He steps toward me, his wrapped hands
raised up like little crab claws. I have to admit that I’m
surprised he wrapped his hands just to placate me. When he can use
his mind-whatever to control people and has unlimited freedom with
his teleporting thingy—I guess having your hands tied isn’t much of
a sacrifice.

I hold my hands up to stop him. “Stop
looking so creepy or I’m not going anywhere with you.”

The moment the words get out of my
mouth, several colorless forms whip around the building.

“
Police. Hands
up.”

Caldwell grabs onto me and we
disappear. There is a moment of darkness—no, darkness isn’t right.
When I’m in a dark room and there’s simply no light, the room
hasn’t disappeared. I can still see the furniture and belongings,
and after a moment, their shapes begin to come into focus. Stepping
between places with Caldwell was more like stepping into nothing
than into a dark room. A heartbeat of void, and then we are on the
Magnificent Mile, watching a single pair of skaters take a turn
about the ice.

“
What time is it?” I ask,
as a man lifts his female partner up into the air before placing
her on her skates again.

“
Almost
eleven.”

I point at the skaters. “Can they be
out here?”

“
They can do whatever they
want,” Caldwell says and points at the empty box-office. No one is
here to chase them away.

“
So where are they?” I
don’t see Ally or Gloria or even Sasquatch anywhere on the
illuminated streets stretching out around me.

Caldwell turns left and heads north. I
follow him, my breath huffing white around my head as I struggle to
keep up. We scurry past a bank, a burrito place, and a coffee shop.
A few blocks up, the canal comes into view. Caldwell stops on the
bridge and leans over so he can peer beneath. I try to do the same
but I’m too short.

“
There’s her boat.”
Caldwell straightens and turns in all directions. He squints as if
trying to see something far away, with his head slightly cocked as
if also listening. Then a grin spreads across his face.

“
There.”

I follow his finger. I don’t see
anything through the herds of people walking from one destination
to another. Some women are dressed in ridiculous heels and short
skirts that are definitely giving them vaginal hypothermia.
Whatever bar they’re heading to can’t possibly be worth it, right?
I mean, I never wear that stuff, and I’ve never had a problem
getting laid.

“
There,” Caldwell urges
again, turning my chin slightly to the left.

Now I see her. The red
coat is a dead giveaway. Not to mention Sasquatch standing
beside
her.

“
Ally.” I call her name.
She’s still talking to Sasquatch as they wait for the light to
change and the crosswalk to illuminate. I cup my hands over my
mouth. “
Ally
.”

Someone screams and several people
stagger back.

I see Gloria’s gun go up, and I’m
running.

Caldwell slips his arm under mine
mid-step. There’s a step of nothing, and then I’m almost right on
top of them.

“
Ally,” I scream again.
The shield goes up around her, knocking Sasquatch back a pace.
Gloria’s face washes with relief when she sees me, her gun
faltering for a second. Jason tackles her, slamming her into the
ground. She cries out as the two of them connect with the pavement,
knocking back a second time as they roll into Ally’s
shield.

“
Get off of her.” I bend
down and grab Jason’s head. I twist his hair in my hands and yank
him backward off of Gloria. As soon as he realizes it’s me, he
drops her and grabs onto my throat.

He starts to squeeze and I see stars.
I wrench myself out of his grip and expect for him to try again,
but his body convulses and doubles over. My eyes follow the wires
sticking out of his back to the black electroshock weapon held in
Sasquatch’s hand.

Caldwell is just standing to the side
watching us, a huge grin on his face as if this is the best show
ever.

I throw my hands up. “I thought you
said you were going to make yourself useful!”

All eyes go from me to Caldwell. Ally,
Nikki, and Gloria all take a step back from him, bumping into a few
of the closest lookie-lous. I think he likes their fear. His grin
certainly deepens.

Jason slams into my midsection and
knocks me off my feet. My head connects with the pavement and the
world spins. For a moment, I see nothing but color, smeared and
unrecognizable.

Ally screams and I force
the world into focus. Someone is pulling me to my feet, and I see
Jason dragging Ally away from Caldwell, using her as a shield, as
if Caldwell gives a damn about saving her life. The sight of Ally
being used against me,
again
, sends me into a
rage.

I power up without
thinking. Blue flames erupt around me and the crowd screams. A few
“holy shi
t”s
and
“what the fuck” exclamations ripple through the crowd. Jason shoves
Ally down onto the street.

“
About time.” Jason
launches himself at me.

“
Run.” I motion for Ally
and everyone around me to take cover.

Jason doesn’t stop coming. He sticks
his arms right into the blue flame and his flesh ignites. I take a
step back and punch him in the chest once, a poorly aimed strike.
The second blow connects with his solar plexus and he stumbles
back. The burns all along his body start to heal
themselves.

Jason grins. “I can do this all
night.”

“
Well, I haven’t the time
for that.” Caldwell shoves his taped hands into the blue flames and
lets the fire burn off the bindings. He steps back, hands in flames
and shakes off the remnants of tape.

Ally and Gloria are hiding in the
alcove of a Starbucks, using a concrete pillar as their shield. I
put the shield around Ally again, realizing it must have faltered
as my head bounced off the concrete.

I prepare myself for Jason’s second
attack.

Caldwell doesn’t let him get that far.
With his hands free of the tape, he grabs Jason and
disappears.

“
Hey,” I yell.
“
Hey
.”

My fire pulses and the few remaining
people around me run screaming.

That jerk. I should’ve known his goal
was to get ahold of Jason and kill him for his power. I should’ve
known he wanted it all for himself. What an idiot I am—

Something slams into the pavement ten
feet in front of me. Caldwell appears beside the sack of meat,
looking down at the busted mess that was Jason.

I look up and then down at the body
again. I turn to Caldwell. “You threw him off a
building?”

“
Heal
that
.” Caldwell tugs at the bottom
of his suit jacket. When Caldwell sees me staring, he starts to
laugh like he’s just made a joke. It’s infectious. Before I know
it, I’m giggling too. That is, until I see Ally giving me the most
horrified look, like she just caught me bludgeoning baby seals or
something.

“
Go on,” Caldwell
encourages me, his smile still bright. “If you scatter his brains,
he can’t regenerate. Just smear them all over the
concrete.”

I blink several times, search for the
right thing to say. “Uh, that’s a sweet offer, but I don’t really
have any interest in plunging my fingers into someone’s mushy
brains. Thanks.”