Lies (Gone #3)(72)

Lana almost smiled. “The Artful Roger? He’ll live, probably. But all I had time to do was keep him from dying right away. I’ll have to spend a lot more time with him before he’s going to be drawing any more pictures.”

“Z’anyone know what happened?” Mary’s lips and tongue felt thick.

Lana shrugged. She lit a second cigarette from the butt of the first. It was a sign of wealth, in a way. Cigarettes were in short supply in the FAYZ. Of course the Healer could have whatever she wanted. Who was going to say no?

“Well, it depends on who you believe,” Lana said. “Some kids are saying it was Zil and his idiots. Others are saying it was Caine.”

“Caine? That’s crazy, isn’t it?”

“Not so crazy. I heard crazier from kids.” Lana laughed humorlessly.

Mary waited for Lana to add something. She didn’t want to ask, but she had to. “Crazier?”

“Remember Brittney? Girl who died in the big fight at the power plant? Buried right over there?” Lana pointed with her cigarette. “I have kids saying they saw her walking around.”

Mary started to speak, but her clumsy mouth was dry.

“And even crazier stuff than that,” Lana said.

Mary felt a chill deep inside her.

“Brittney?” Mary said.

“Dead things don’t always stay dead, I guess,” Lana said.

“Lana…what do you know?” Mary asked.

“Me? What do I know? I’m not the one with a brother on the council.”

“John?” Mary was surprised. “What are you talking about?”

There was a loud groan of pain from the basement. Lana didn’t flinch. But she noticed Mary’s concerned expression. “He’ll live.”

“What are you getting at, Lana? Are you, um, saying something?”

“This kid tells me Astrid told him to spread the word that Orsay is full of crap. Then, same kid says, a couple hours later, Howard tells him to spread the word that anyone who sees anything crazy is full of crap. So the kid says to Howard, what are you talking about ‘crazy?’ Because everything is crazy in the FAYZ.”

Mary wondered if she was supposed to laugh. She couldn’t. Her heart was pounding and her head was banging, banging.

“Meanwhile, guess what Sam’s doing a couple of days ago? He’s over at Clifftop asking me if I happen to have gotten a telephone call from the gaiaphage.”

Mary stood very still. She wanted desperately for Lana to explain what she meant about Orsay. Focus, Mary, she told herself.

Lana went on after a moment. “See, what Sam really wanted, was to know whether it’s dead. The gaiaphage. Whether it’s really gone. And guess what?”

“I don’t know, Lana.”

“Well, it’s not. You know? It’s not gone. It’s not dead.” Lana took a deep breath and stared at the blood dried on her hands like it was the first time she’d noticed. She peeled some off with a thumbnail.

“I don’t understand…”

“Me neither,” Lana said. “It was there with me. In my mind. I could feel it…using…me.” She looked ashamed. Embarrassed. And then her eyes flashed angrily. “Ask your brother, he’s in with all of them, Sam and Astrid and Albert. At the same time Sam is asking me whether the gaiaphage is still its old lovable self and council kids are asking other kids to run around dissing Orsay and making sure no one thinks anything’s wrong.”

“John would never lie to me,” Mary said, but with a lack of conviction even she could hear.

“Uh-huh. Something’s going wrong. Something’s going really, really wrong,” Lana said. “And now? The town is half burned and Caine’s stealing a boat and heading out to sea. What does that tell you?”

Mary sighed. “I’m too tired for guessing games, Lana.”

Lana stood up. She flicked her cigarette away. “Just remember: the FAYZ is working out fine for some people. You ever think about what would happen if the walls came down tomorrow? That would be good news for you. Good for most people. But would it be good for Sam and Astrid and Albert? Here they’re big deals. Back in the world they’re just kids.”

Lana waited, watching Mary closely. Like she was waiting for her to say something or react. Or deny. Something.

All Mary could think to do was say, “John is on the council.”

“Exactly. So, maybe you should ask him what’s really going on. Because, me? I don’t know.”

Mary had no answer to that.

Lana squared her shoulders and headed back toward the hell of the basement. She turned halfway down and said, “One other thing I almost forgot: this one kid? He said Brittney wasn’t the only officially dead person walking around in the fire.”

Mary waited. She tried not to show anything, but Lana had already seen it in her eyes.

“Ah,” Lana said. “So you saw him, too.”

Lana nodded once and was gone down the stairs.

The Darkness. Mary had only heard of it from others. Like stories of a boogeyman. Lana said it had used her.

Did Lana not see? Or did she simply refuse to see? If it were true that Brittney was somehow alive, that Drake was alive, too, then Mary could guess just how the gaiaphage had used Lana’s power.