Gone (Gone #1)(112)

And it's just another bad dream...

SAM SANG ALONG to the Agent Orange tune on his iPod, feeling as if the familiar lyrics had crossed the line from being just another self-consciously disturbing song to being too close to describing his life.

He was in the fire station not exactly enjoying a lonely lunch. Quinn was ... well, he never seemed to know where Quinn was anymore. His friend—was that word even appro* priate? His friend Quinn was a shadow who came and went, sometimes joking like his old self, sometimes sitting sullen and watching DVDs he'd seen a million times before.

In any case, he wasn't there for lunch at the fire station, despite the fact that Sam had made enough soup for extra mouths.

Edilio materialized silently in the doorway. He looked discouraged. Sam realized he'd been singing aloud and, embarrassed, dialed down the music and pulled out the earbuds.

"What did you find, Edilio?"

"If she's anywhere in Perdido Beach, she's doing a good job of hiding, Sam," Edilio said. "We've looked. WeVe talked to everyone, tana's gone. Her dog is gone. She was in Elwood's house, then she was gone"

Sam tossed his music player on;o the table. "I have soup. Want some?"

Edilio sagged into a chair. "What's the song?"

"What? Oh. It's called 'A Cry For Help In A World Gone Mad.'"

They shared a mordant laugh.

"Next Pll dial up that old song, what's it called?" Sam searched his memory. "Yeah. REM. 'It's the End of the World as We Know It/"

"It is that," Edilio commented. "I been searching lor a girl who can heal people with magic, and taking some time to learn how* to shoot a machine gun.'

"How'd that go, by the way?"

"I got four boys can more or less handle it, counting Quinn. But, man, we aren't exactly the marines, you know?

Kid named Tom starts shooting and he almost shoots me. I had to dive into a pile of dog poop"

Sam tried not to laugh, but neither of them could stop once it started.

"Yeah, you think it's lunny. Wait till it's you," Edilio said.

Sam was serious again*"] don'l know what's holding Caine back. It's been two days. What's keeping him?"

"What's the hurry? The more time we have, the more we're prepared."

"Dude, tomorrow night I'm o:it of here," Sam said. "You don't know that for sure, man," Edilio said, embarrassed.

"I just wish I knew what was going on up at Coates" Edilio caught on immediately. "You talking about spying them out?"

Sam pushed his soup away. "I don't know what I'm talking about, man. I'm halfway thinking we should take it to them, you know? Go up there and do this/'

"We have guns. We have guys who can drive. We got, in addition to you, four other mutants with powers that might be useful. You know, powers you can fight with, not like this one girl where she can disappear but only if she's really embarrassed."

Sam smiled despite himself. "You're kidding"

"No man, she's really bashful and all, so you say something like, 'you have nice hair,' and suddenly she's invisible. But she's still there. You touch her, but you can't see her"

"That's not exactly going to stop Caine."

"Taylor is working on her teleporting. She can go a couple of blocks now" Edilio shrugged. "Bui in terms of useful, we got that kid, he's nine, he can do like you do with the light, but not as much "

"Nine. We can't make a nine-year-old hurt someone," Sam protested.

"How about an eleven-year-old who can move so fast, you can barelv see her?" "That girl Brianna?"

"She calls herself the Breeze now. Like, as fast as the breeze."

"The Breeze? Like a superhero rame?" He shook his head ruefully. "Great. That's all we need" Sam said. It was one of his mother's favorite phrases, "that's all we need " He felt a sharp pang in his chest, but it passed quickly. "What do we have the Breeze do when she's zipping around?"

Edilio looked uncomfortable. "I guess we give her a gun. She shoots and zooms away and shoots again."

"Oh, God." Sam hung his head."Eleven years old and we're giving her a gun? To shoot at people? At human beings? It's sick."

Edilio didn't have anything to say to that-

"Sorry, man, I'm not laying this off on you, Edilio. It's just... I mean, this is nuts. It's wrong. Bad enough kids our age, but fourth graders and fifth graders?"

There came the clattering of feet on the stairs, and both Sam and Edilio leaped to their teet, expecting the worst.

Dekka, one of the Coates refugees, came barreling into the room and skidded on the waxed floor. Her forehead had been injured, a two-inch gash, and she had refused to let Lana heal il.

"I got that from Drake's shoe when he kicked me " she had said. "Heal up my hands from the plastering, but leave my head. I want something to remember it by"

Sam reflected that that was only the second-most interesting thing about Dekka. Number one would probably be the fact that she seemed to have the power to suspend the force of gravity within a small area.

"What is it, Dekka?" Sam askei