Hunger (Gone 2)

“Jack, you traitor!” Taylor yelled, and bounced out of the room.

Taylor popped back, right in Dekka’s face. “They’re freaking out in there. We should hit them now!”

Dekka came to a stop. She added quickly in her mind. She had Orc and Taylor and herself. She had three of Edilio’s guys. The hostages were no longer an issue.

But Caine and Drake were still alive. Still very, very dangerous. Plus at least two gunmen, maybe more.

“No,” she said, feeling deflated. “Not without Sam.”

“We should go now, right now!” Taylor yelled. She pointed at the bloody mess on the ground. “Look what they did. Look what they did! Look at what those animals did!”

Dekka put a calming hand on the girl’s shoulder. “We go in now, we’ll lose,” she said. And even if Sam were there…She’d never seen Sam acting the way he had earlier. Like the fire had gone out in him.

“You’re just scared,” Taylor said.

“Don’t be up in my face, Taylor,” Dekka warned. “We don’t have the power. Simple as that. We attack now, we’ll lose. Sam will have more bodies for Edilio to bury. I don’t know if Sam can…” She stopped herself. Too late.

“What about Sam?” Taylor demanded.

Dekka shrugged. “Nothing. Boy’s just tired, is all. I think maybe he doesn’t need another fight tonight.”

Taylor looked like she might argue some more. Then her shoulders sagged. “Yeah. Whatever.”

“You head back to town. Tell Sam what went down. Tell him what you saw inside there.”

“It’ll take me a few minutes. I can’t do it all in one bounce,” Taylor said.

“Then get going.”

Taylor disappeared and Dekka kicked furiously at the dirt. It had all happened too fast for her to do much more than watch.

Mike Farmer was creeping from behind the truck where he’d hidden. Mickey was facedown and terribly still. The remains of Brittney were a nightmare.

Dekka felt a flash of anger at Sam. He had run off and left her in charge. Well, she didn’t want to be in charge. Sam wasn’t the only one who was hanging on by his fingernails.

Brianna…The thought was like a knife to the stomach, twisting, twisting.

She had never even told Brianna how she felt. And now it was too late.

Something landed on the pavement next to Dekka. She stared at what looked a great deal like chicken bones. Cooked chicken bones.

Dekka looked up. She moved back and back to get a clear view.

Ten stories up, eerie in the blazing light atop the turbine building, someone was waving her arms. Very fast.

Time seemed to stand still. Dekka couldn’t breathe. She stared hard, not wanting to be wrong, not willing to believe until she was sure.

“Breeze?” Dekka whispered, amazed.

Dekka lowered her head for just a moment and thanked God. Brianna. Alive.

Alive and as impatient as ever, by the look of it.

No way Brianna could hear her over the noise of the plant. How Brianna had managed to get herself up there was a mystery, but judging from her frantic semaphore of waving arms, she wanted to get down.

Dekka waved. She even displayed a rare smile. Brianna, alive.

Brianna stuck her hands on her hips as if to say, “What’s keeping you?”