Rot & Ruin (Rot & Ruin, #1)(105)

their personalities. They yelled to him in mocking voices, calling him “Little Benny” and promising to do terrible things to him. In his dream Benny ran as fast as the wind, and somehow

the surrounding landscape barely moved, as if he was almost running in place. The zombie bounty hunters shuffled along behind him, almost close enough to grab him.

The roaring sound grew steadily louder, and Benny thought that maybe he was making some distance, that he was nearing the waterfall, but when he looked around, all he saw was the plateau on

which the bounty hunters had their camp. Something brushed him, and he turned to see that Nix was running next to him. She was screaming, but Benny could not hear her voice. The roar of the

waterfall kept getting louder and louder. And it was deeper in tone now, more of a loud drone than the splash of water.

“Benny!” Nix called his name, but it didn’t match the shape her mouth made.

The roar was huge.

“BENNY!”

With a start, Benny realized that Nix’s voice was not coming from the girl running beside him, and just as quickly he understood that he was dreaming and that the real-world Nix was yelling

at him. He snapped his eyes open. The camp and the zombies vanished. The roar, however, was still there. Deep and loud, and getting louder.

“Benny!” Nix yelled.

“What … what is it?”

“You have to come and look!”

Nix grabbed his hands and fairly hauled him to his feet and then pulled him out from under the shelter of the trees. Not toward the promontory that looked down on the camp. Instead, she

pulled him toward the trail that led back into the woods. She was running, and her grip was so tight and insistent that Benny ran too.

“What is it? What’s that sound?”

“You have to come see!”

They raced along the path to a clearing, and there, Nix stopped and pointed. She need not have bothered, because Benny saw it. His eyes bugged wide, and his mouth fell open as he stared up

at the roaring thing.

It was silver and white, with vast wings that lifted it high above the mountains. Benny raised his hand, as if he could touch it. The thing appeared to move slowly, but that was an illusion.

It was just so far away. Higher than the tallest of the surrounding mountains, skimming just below the ceiling of gray storm clouds. In another hour there wouldn’t have been enough light to

see it. If the storm had started, it would have been both invisible and unheard.

But they stood there, holding hands, staring up as it roared above them, soaring with alien majesty from one horizon to the other. Coming from the west, heading east; far, far above the Rot

and Ruin.

“I don’t understand,” he said.

Nix just shook her head.

“Where did it come from?”

“From the east.”

“No, it’s heading east,” he said, but Nix shook her head.

“It came from the east and turned around. I saw it and ran to get you.”

They watched it go, diminishing in size from a giant to a gnat and then to nothing, taking its roar with it. When it was gone, there was at least five minutes of silence before the birds

began to sing again. They stood in the clearing for ten minutes more, hoping it would come back. Willing it to come back.

Benny said, “Nix … did we just see that? I mean, tell me we actually saw that.”

Nix’s green eyes were filled with magic, and her smile was bright enough to hold back the storm. “It’s real, Benny. We saw it.”

“But how? It doesn’t make sense.”

She shook her head, and they stared off to the east. The thing they had just seen belonged to another age, to the days before First Night. They knew about them from the history books, but

neither had ever seen one. Never expected to. They kept looking into the distance.

But the slow, lumbering jumbo jet did not return.





50


THEY DID NOT KNOW HOW TO TALK ABOUT WHAT THEY HAD JUST SEEN. It was strange and wonderful, but it seemed more like a dream than a part of what they were about to do.

“I wish I could tell Tom,” Benny said.

“I wish I could tell Mom,” said Nix, then she said, “Benny, if we get out of this—”

“When we get out of this,” he corrected.

She gave only a tiny nod to acknowledge that possibility. “After this is over,” she said, “we need to find out about that jet.”

“Sure, I mean we let everyone know—”

“No,” she said firmly. “We have to find out about it. Lilah was right. We don’t have a home anymore. We’ve been—I don’t know how to say it. Cut loose? We’re no longer connected to

anything, and certainly not to Mountainside.”

“There’s Morgie and Chong.”

She shrugged. “If you want, we can go back for them, Benny. But then I want to follow that plane.”

“Where? All we know is that it went east.”

“It came from the east and turned around and went back. Why? Was it exploring to see what was out here? Or was it sending a message.”

“What message?”

“’Follow me’?” she suggested. “I don’t believe in much anymore, Benny … but I believe that was a sign.”