Hunger (Gone 2)

“Petey. Is…” She barely knew how to ask the question. Her brain was fried. She was beyond exhausted. She lay down beside her brother and cuddled close to his indifferent body. “Tell me, Petey. Tell me about Nestor.”

But Little Pete was already asleep. And in seconds, so was Astrid.

It was in sleep that she began to fit together the pieces

of the puzzle.

THIRTY-FIVE

02 HOURS, 53 MINUTES

TWENTY-ONE HOURS WITH no food. Not a bite.

No likelihood of food suddenly appearing.

Jack’s stomach no longer growled or rumbled. It cramped. The pains would come in waves. Each pain would last a minute or so, and stretch out over the course of an hour. Then there would be a reprieve of an hour, sometimes an hour and a half. But when the pain came back, it was worse than before. And lasted longer.

It had started in earnest after about twelve hours. He’d been hungry before that, hungry for a long, long time, but this was different. This wasn’t his body saying, “Hey, let’s eat.” This was his body saying, “Do something: we’re starving.”

A new round of pains was just beginning. Jack dreaded it. He wasn’t good with pain. And this pain was worse, somehow, than the pain in his leg. That pain was outside. This pain was inside.

“Have you figured it out yet?” Caine demanded. “Have you got it, Jack?”

Jack hesitated. If he said yes, then the next round of this nightmare would begin.

If he said no, they would sit here and sit here and sit here until they all starved.

He didn’t want to say yes. He knew now what Caine planned. He didn’t want to say yes.

“I can do it,” Jack said.

“You can do it now?”

“I can withdraw a single-fuel rod from the pile,” Jack said.

Caine stared at him. Almost as if this wasn’t the answer he wanted.

“Okay,” Caine said softly.

“But I have to start by lowering the control rods all the way. This will stop the reaction, which means it turns off all electricity.”

Caine nodded.

Diana said, “You mean, there won’t be any power for anyone. Not just Perdido Beach.”

“Unless someone restarts the reactor,” Jack said.

“Yeah,” Caine said, but distracted, like his head was somewhere else.

“I can lift out a power rod. It’s twelve feet long. Actually it contains pellets of uranium 235. It’s like a very long, thin can filled with pebbles. It’s extremely radioactive.”

“So your plan is to kill us all?” Diana said.

“No. There are lead-lined sheaths they use to carry the rods. They aren’t totally effective, but they should shield us for the time we need. Unless…”

“Unless?” Caine demanded.

“Unless the sheath is damaged. Like if you drop it.”