Plague (Gone 4)

The entire house was like a drum pounded by dozens of drumsticks.

“You know, I’m kind of disappointed,” Brianna said. “Situation like this? Sam would come up with a plan.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

59 MINUTES

SAM HAD COME up with a plan.

Three, actually. One involved the very faint hope that Jack would reach Little Pete and do something awful.

The second involved something purely insane. Flying a huge container of missiles through the air, dropping them in just the right place, finding a vehicle with gas and a functioning battery, then figuring out how to fire the missiles in time to save the town.

That was insane.

The third plan involved Dekka. He wasn’t even going to tell her about that. Because it wasn’t just insane, it was monstrous.

None of the plans had a chance of working. Sam knew that.

Sam’s foot was beyond pain. It was agony. Dekka was doing all she could for him by lessening gravity somewhat but he still had to move forward, and he had to move as fast as he could.

“How are you doing, Dekka?” he gasped as he hobble-trotted.

“Stop asking, Sam,” she said.

“You have to—,” he began.

“What? What do I have to do, Sam? They’re eating me from the inside, what do you want me to say?”

“She’s telling the truth—”

“Shut your stupid mouth, you freak!” Dekka snapped at Toto.

They were close, Sam could feel it. They had to be. They had to reach the train before the bugs finally burst from Dekka and ate her alive.

He needed her to live a while longer. To the bitter, bitter end, he needed her and she was spending her last minutes running and trying to help him and he was helpless, could do nothing but keep hoping she would stay alive, suffer some more, conquer her fear, all for a stupid, pointless, doomed plan.

“There!” Toto said. “I see the train.”

The light was faint, gray, watery, and inadequate. But yes, Sam could see the train.

He gritted his teeth and ran now, full out, every step like a knife plunged into his foot with the pain radiating all the way up his leg.

“I can’t even see which container it was, Spidey.”

Sam cupped his hands and grew a ball of sickly greenish-tinged light. It swelled until he could see the two faces of his companions. To his horror the light showed a bug had eaten its way through the front of Dekka’s blouse. She was trembling.

“Dekka,” he said. “You don’t have to . . . I can . . .”

She grabbed his arm with a painfully hard grip. “I’m with you, Sam. I guess I don’t get to take the easy way out.”

“This is the container with the weapons,” Toto called. Then, as an afterthought he added, “That’s true.”

“Sam,” Dekka said. “If I die . . .”

“Then we fall,” Sam said. “You and me, Dekka. If I have to go, it’ll be an honor to be with you.”

Sam slammed the container shut and the three of them climbed to the top. The container was not perfectly flat on top, it was ribbed for strength. But the steel ribs were no more than six inches high. They flattened themselves down on their backs, facing up.