The Inexplicables (The Clockwork Century 4)

Neither Zeke nor Rector brought this up, even when they hiked through the fog-shrouded streets and sometimes kicked a gun, or noticed a nearly new gas mask lying beside a body.

Not all of the bodies became rotters. Most of them, yes. But nothing on earth is any use without its head. Few things are any use when they’re cut or blown or chewed in half. Whatever the cause, no rotters reached out with rickety, grasping fingers as they slogged up the hills and between the narrow blocks of the time-blasted city. So instead of talking about it, the two boys only considered it as they walked side by side. They were careful to stick to the walls for shelter and cover, and they guided each other away from any debris that made them wonder, even in the slightest.

The prison itself was as they’d left it, quiet and squat. Missing its front door and still as clogged with Blight as ever, it was the very picture of someplace unloved and unused, and almost certainly forgotten.

Inside, Seattle’s second city jail felt like the tomb it’d almost become seventeen years ago and change. Not a sound. Not a motion. Not a breath to stir the dusty beams of light that cut inside halfheartedly and none too efficiently. Not until Rector and Zeke came inside. Their filters gusted as they exhaled, and sparkling motes of yellow-brown dust eddied in the puddles of ill-formed illumination.

But then, listening and walking with exaggerated care, they heard the faint, rhythmic sounds of something large drawing steady breaths and pushing them out again. The barest hint of a filter’s hiss underscored the sound, and then the slow, sad scrape of some fur-covered body part sliding along the floor.

Past the empty cells, with their leaning doors and rusting bars, they walked. Down the corridor of legend, where Maynard Wilkes had set the prisoners free and then raced to outrun the Blight.

It felt far away, same as the night before, and same as the silence after the fire.

And here was the great peacekeeper’s descendant—a spindly thing, smallish and slender. A kind boy, if not the imposing man his grandfather was alleged to be. But his mother was a little woman, and come to think of it, Rector didn’t know anything about Leviticus Blue. So this was what you got when you stirred up people and made families. Unexpected combinations. Unlikely weaknesses. Uncommon strengths.

Ezekiel Wilkes was not a bad sort. He’d worked so hard to save that fox, and he’d held his own on the top of the governor’s mansion with the mirrors and lights. Perhaps Rector needed to rethink the things he thought.

The inexplicable was seated on the ground, wedged in the corner in his absurd glass helmet that fit too closely. But he was no longer tangled in Angeline’s net. The net was discarded in pieces, shoved to the side.

Sasquatch looked up at them. His gaze sharpened. And it was probably Rector’s imagination, but the creature looked … clearer. Not healthy, but aware in a way he hadn’t previously.

Zeke began talking, because that’s what Zeke did. “Hey there, Mister Sasquatch. ”

“He doesn’t know his name. Angeline said so. ”

“I don’t care,” Zeke said. He didn’t look back at Rector. Then, to the seated animal that was neither an animal nor a person so far as either one of the boys could tell, he added, “You’re looking better. I see you looking at me, and I think your eyes are better. I know it’s only been a little while, but the cleaner air will help you, if you let it. ”

He kept his voice level and smooth, and was careful to not make any sudden movements. It took Rector a moment to notice that he was copying Zeke’s posture and methods.

“You know what you’re risking,” Rector breathed. “You open that door and turn that thing loose…”

Zeke took out a key—had he taken the key with him? Why did everyone but Rector have keys?—and jammed it into the vintage lock with its rusty edges and squeaking mechanisms. He turned it, jerked the body, and the fastener popped and came away. The door opened. Inside Zeke stepped—still cautious, but with a curious confidence Rector wasn’t sure he’d ever seen before.

(But he had. With the fox, back in the Vaults. )

And the world was full of surprises.

The inexplicable did not move except to track Zeke with his eyes, sparing a slashing look of curiosity toward Rector. But since Rector was hanging back, he kept most of his attention on the scruffy, brown-haired boy in the weird mask. His gaze drew circles on the mask, as if trying his damnedest to understand what it was, and what was underneath it. Not looking at Zeke’s face, but trying to figure out if Zeke had a face.

“It’s a mask,” Zeke told him, as though he were reading the creature’s mind. “Does the same thing as yours. ” He pointed at his filters, at the visor. And then he very, very slowly crept forward until he was well within grabbing distance, then crouched down just far enough to be at eye level with the sasquatch. He held up one finger, moved it slowly to the bulbous glass helmet, and gently tapped its nearest filter.

The inexplicable cringed.

Zeke didn’t. “See? Same as mine. And I bet you’re thirsty as can be inside that thing, but you can’t take it off quite yet. ”

“I said, he don’t understand you. Everyone says he don’t understand you,” Rector told him from his position of relative safety, back behind the door. He was already working out the mental ballet—the emergency measures that would surely force him to shut the door with Zeke inside, buying himself the minute and a half necessary for a head start before the creature yanked it clean out of the wall and came after him.

Zeke ignored him. “Mister Sasquatch, I’m going to take this cuff off you now, all right? Please don’t … please don’t pull my head off, or anything. I’m only trying to help. ”

“You’re insane. ”

“Here, like this. I’m taking your arm now. Don’t hurt me or nothing, ’cause I’m not trying to hurt you. ”

The chain rattled dully in Zeke’s gloved grip as he wrestled with the key and did his best to keep from hurting the manacled thing on the floor. The sasquatch studied his every move, either waiting for an opportunity or only trying to figure out what the hell was going on, Rector didn’t know. When the cuff came off, it dropped with a heavy clank and kicked up a tiny cloud of angry dust.

Immediately, but slowly, the creature reached his hand up and touched the filtered helmet.

As if it hadn’t occurred to him that it was a bad idea, Zeke shot his hand out and took the thing’s wrist. “No!” he said quickly, then withdrew just as fast as he’d objected. Rector knew that look—it was a gesture he’d seen a hundred times on the outside, when other kids had picked on Zeke and he’d ducked back, waiting to get hit.