The Fall of Crazy House (Crazy House 2)

“What the hell is that?” Bunny asked, pulling herself up onto the platform.

“It’s an anti-aircraft gun,” I said slowly, brushing a pile of dried leaves off the metal seat. We’d all been drilled on every kind of weapon Strepp could find out about, everything from nunchucks to the big tank-mounted 150-millimeter war cannons. So I’d seen pictures of things like this.

I sat down on the metal seat and looked at the scope. It was crusted with dirt and rusted into place but I scrubbed the gunk off and peered through it. With effort I turned various dials and finally fuzzy blobs in the distance merged into focus. I sat up and looked at Bunny.

“What?” she asked.

“It’s pointed right at a cell,” I said, looking again. I scanned along the boundary until I spotted a sign near the road. “Cell B-24-23.”

“Huh,” Bunny said. “How far away? Likely to be friendly?”

“Can’t tell about the friendly part—maybe… four miles?” I sat back, somewhat relieved. They’d have real medical facilities—maybe we could get Nate patched up better. Plus, it felt good to have a concrete destination instead of just heading east.

“Can I see?” Bunny asked.

“Yeah, just a sec,” I said, moving the gun’s barrel with effort. It showed more wooded plains, more hills, more…

“What the almighty hell?” I muttered in shock.

“What? What?” Bunny asked.

“Holy shit,” I said, feeling like I couldn’t take a breath. “It’s a… I think that’s a city.”

51

“A CITY?” BUNNY SAID. “YOU mean a cell?”

“No,” I murmured, unable to believe what I was seeing. “It’s so much bigger than a cell.” I moved the barrel back and forth, my mouth hanging open. The city never seemed to end.

“Get up, goddamnit,” Bunny said, hitting my shoulder.

I stood, my brain reeling. Bunny sat down, put her eye to the scope, and I was gratified to see her mouth drop open, too.

“Oh, my freaking God,” she said. “Those buildings are way too big! Like fifty, sixty stories tall. There are lights on. How could there be that many people in one place?”

I tapped my comm so I wouldn’t have to yell. “Guys, come up here and see this. Not you, Nate. Don’t you dare.”

?

??I’m fi—” he started, but I cut him off.

“You. Will. Stay. There,” I spit out. “Keep watch or something.” I clicked my comm off as he started to swear.

Jolie and Mills joined us on the small platform. Bunny got up, looking shocked, and Jolie sat down and focused the scope. Her blue eyes widened and she stared at me. I nodded. She reached for my hand and spelled out B-I-G-C-I-T-Y-T-H-A-T-G-U-Y- T-O-L-D-U-S-A-B-O-U-T-?

“Yeah,” I said. “I won’t lie—I am freaking.”

Mills nudged Jolie and she got up.

“It can’t be that big,” Mills said, moving the barrel back and forth like I had. “It’s like… twenty-five, thirty miles across? That’s impossible!”

“But you see lights, right?” I asked. “It’s inhabited.”

“So are we headed there?” Bunny demanded.

“Yep,” I said, then thought about Nate. “I think the city is about twelve to fifteen miles away. We’re all fried. So first we’ll head to the cell, which is much closer. Rest up there for a night, then make a line for the city.”

I knew they wanted to argue—we were all dying to see it up close. But yeah, we were all fried. One more time I sat down and put my eye to the scope. From this distance the city was a huge, lit-up blob compared to the tidy, ordinary outlines of the cell. What kind of cell, I wondered, moving the scope back and forth. And what… what is that other thing?