Authors: Michael Grant

Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Science Fiction, #Dystopian, #Social Issues, #Adolescence

Fear (51 page)

BOOK: Fear

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“It’s getting dark out there,” Dekka said. “When night comes, we’d better get Penny out of there. Bury her. Everyone who shows up stares at—”

Dekka fell silent, because Sam was moving. He walked purposefully to the spot where Penny’s body lay, her head crushed beneath a rock, like some grotesque parody of the Wicked Witch of the East.

Cameras tracked Sam’s movement.

Eyes—many of them hostile, condemning—traced his every step.

Sam looked straight at the cameras. Then he looked at his mother. Astrid held her breath.

Then Sam systematically, thoroughly, incinerated Penny’s body. Until nothing but ash was left.

Connie Temple stood still as a statue, refusing to look away.

When Sam was finished, he nodded once at his mother, turned his back, and walked over to Astrid. “She will not be buried in the plaza with good kids who died for no good reason. If we’re looking for people to bury, we’ll find what’s left of Cigar and Taylor.”

Lana shook her head just slightly. “I can’t say for sure that Taylor is dead. Or that she’s alive.”

Sam nodded. “That’s the kind of thing all those people out there are going to have a hard time understanding. But anyway, there they are, and you know what? We still have kids to feed and a monster to kill.” He reached his hand toward Astrid. “You ready to go?”

Astrid looked past him, over his shoulder, to her mother’s worry-etched face. Then she took Sam’s hand.

“There’s a lot to do,” Sam said to the kids within earshot. His back was turned to the outside. “A lot to do, a lot to work out, and this war is a long way from over. They will be back.” He jerked his head toward the north, where Gaia had fled.

“Quinn,” Sam said. “You want to be in charge of business down here in Perdido Beach? Take over Albert’s job? I think Caine would agree.”

“Absolutely not,” Quinn said. “No. Nooo. No.”

Sam looked a little taken aback. “No? Well, I guess they’ll work something out. Caine and Lana and Edilio and Astrid.”

“I hope they do,” Quinn said fervently. He gave Sam a friendly punch on the shoulder. “Thanks for saving our butts. Again. But me? Dude: I am going fishing.”

Astrid felt she should look back at her parents. Explain that she had to leave. Make some excuse. Stay there to reassure them.

But something fundamental had changed, like a shift in the magnetic poles or a rearranging of the laws of physics. Because she no longer belonged with them. She was no longer theirs.

She was
his
.

And he was
hers
.

And this was their world.

BACK ADS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MICHAEL GRANT
has spent much of his life on the move. Raised in a military family, he attended ten schools in five states, as well as three schools in France. Even as an adult he kept moving, and in fact he became a writer in part because it was one of the few jobs that wouldn’t tie him down. His fondest dream is to spend a year circumnavigating the globe and visiting every continent. Yes, even Antarctica. He lives in California with his wife, Katherine Applegate, and their two children. You can visit him online at www.themichaelgrant.com.

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PRAISE FOR THE GONE SERIES

Gone

“This intense, marvelously plotted, paced, and characterized story will immediately garner comparisons to
Lord of the Flies
or even the long-playing world shifts of Stephen King, with just a dash of
X-Men
for good measure. A potent mix of action and thoughtfulness—centered around good and evil, courage and cowardice—renders this a tour de force that will leave readers dazed, disturbed, and utterly breathless.”

—ALA
Booklist
(starred review)

Hunger

“Readers will be unable to avoid involuntarily gasping, shuddering, or flinching while reading this suspense-filled story. The tension starts in the first chapter and does not let up until the end. The story is progressing with smart plot twists, both in actions and emotions.”

—
VOYA
(starred review)

Plague

“Grant’s science fiction-fantasy thrillers continue to be the very definition of a page-turner.”

—ALA
Booklist

OTHER WORKS

OTHER
GONE
BOOKS BY MICHAEL GRANT:

Gone

Hunger

Lies

Plague

COPYRIGHT

Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Fear: A Gone Novel
Copyright © 2012 by Michael Grant
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.epicreads.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Grant, Michael.

Fear : a Gone novel / Michael Grant.—1st ed.

p. cm.—(Gone)

Summary: As the young residents of Perdido Beach begin to better comprehend the truths of who they are and their relationships to one another, the Darkness finds a new way to be born, bringing their understanding of fear to a new level.

ISBN 978-0-06-144915-4 (trade bdg.)—ISBN 978-0-06-144916-1 (lib. bdg.)

EPub Edition © MARCH 2012 ISBN 9780062099242

[1. Supernatural—Fiction. 2. Good and evil—Fiction. 3. Fear—Fiction. 4. Survival—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.G7671Fe 2012

2011019374

[Fic]—dc23

12 13 14 15 16
LP
/
RRDH
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1