Gone (Gone #1)(96)



Astrid saw that Sam was in no condition to talk, so she said, "We'll head back to Perdido 3each. We'll go back, and we'll make things right."

"And Caine will just step aside," Quinn said. "No problem, la di da."

Astrid flared. "Pm not saying it will be easy. It will be a test for us."

Edilio shook his head. "Isn't going to be a test. It's going to be a war"

"Sun will be up soon. Well be able to see something," Drake said.

"See what?" Panda whined. "There's nothing but desert out there."

"Caine says he's probably staying close to the barrier, to find his way back."

Panda sounded nervous when he said, "Caine thinks Sam is coming back?"

Panda was still sulking about his sprained ankle and almost useless, so Drake had grabbed two other Coates kids. The first was a fat Chinese-American kid called Chunk-Chunk was a low-level bully, not someone Drake would normally have hung out with. Plus, he would not shut Up but chattered away, mostly bragging about what bands he'd seen in concert and what movie stars he'd met. Chunk's lather was a talent agent in Hollywood. If there still was a Hollywood.

The other kid was a girl, skinny little black girl named Louise, one of the drivers. With Panda semiuseless, Drake needed a driver.

After the Andrew poof, Caine and Diana, along with the creepy little nerd, Jack, had gone to deal with Frederico and try to get things back under control at Coates. Caine had sent Drake off with orders to see if he could find Sam-Drake didn't like having to follow this order. He was sleepy and, as he pointed out to Caine, :here was a lot of emptiness out there* let alone at night, so how was he supposed to find Sam, even if he was still following the barrier?

"There's a road goes up Piggyback Mountain," Caine said, "Remember? The field trip? You can see for miles."

So despite it still being dark, and despite the fact that Louise was a much crazier driver than cautious Panda* and despite Panda's whining and Chunk's babble, they had driven up Piggyback Mountain and after a time found the lookout.

They had been there for a while, listening to coyote howls from down in the valley, Drake threatening to punch Chunk if he didn't shut up about how he had met Christina Aguilera onetime.

Drake was steaming, unhappy to be up here in the middle of nowhere, with no food or sodas or anything, just a bottle of water and these idiots.

"So what happened with Andrew?" Louise asked during one of Chunk's rare silences.

"He ditched, man. He cut a hole," Panda said.

"I still got more than a year, I'm only thirteen " Louise said, like anyone cared. "Someone will come rescue us in a year, right?"

"Sooner would be better," Drake drawled, "what With me having a month"

"I got till June," Chunk said. "You know what that makes me? I'm a Cancer"

"Got that right" Drake muttered.

"Sign of the crab" Chunk added.

"I have to go" Drake said. He climbed down out of the SUV they were in and walked to the edge of the lookout, up to the railing. He started peeing over the side and that's when he saw it. It looked like a match being carried through the night. Impossible to tell distances.

"Chunk! Get the binoculars"

Chunk came hustling up a few seconds later. Drake had watched as the tiny, flickering light went racing in zigzags far below.

Chunk said, "This is like being up in the Hollywood Hills, you know? Up on Mulholland Drive, which is where all these famous actors and stuff live. One time I went to this guy's house, he was, like, a director that my dad reps, right? And—"

Drake yanked the binoculars from Chunk's hands and tried to capture the spark in his field of vision. Almost impossible. He would catch it and then lose i:. Even when he managed to follow it for a few seconds, he couldn't make anything out, it was just an orange flame wandering through a featureless void. But it was almost surely moving too fast to be carried by a person, even a fast person.

Then the spark stopped moving. And gradually Drake realized the flame was growing.

He peered intently and thought he could make out some kind of structure, like a house or something in the spreading glow.

Panda had limped over to join them. Drake handed him the binoculars. "What do you think that is?"

Panda peered through the binoculars and at that moment there was a flash of light and he tore the binoculars away and yelled.

The second flash was even clearer, and now there were sparklers making light trails through the darkness of early morning.

Panda looked again. "There's some kind of house ... and a tower or something. And there's, like,... like dogs or something,"

A third blinding light and now even more of the number of crazily weaving sparklers.

"I don't know, man," Panda said.

"I think maybe we just found what we were looking for" Drake said.

Chunk, scared, said, "You think that's this kid you're trying to catch? Dude's got the power, man. Like in that movie—"

Drake yanked the gun from his belt and said,"No, Chunk: this is the power. And I've got it"

That shut Chunk up for a few seconds.

"The fire is spreading," Louise pointed out. "It's probably ail dry down there and bushes and stuff catching fire."

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