Fear: A Gone Novel

single flame and the edges of that fire ate at her forehead and cheeks.
    “Astrid!” Sam cried, and ran to her. He was already whipping off his shirt to smother the flames when she suddenly ballooned, like a marshmallow dropped into a fire. She swelled and her skin turned charcoal and her eyes were just smears and…
    The vision was gone.
    Sam was in the dark. Panting. Staring.
    He turned and saw the glow of the child in Diana’s arms. They were marching calmly toward Quinn.
    Caine? Where was he?
    Sam heard the sound of a whip. He ran toward that sound, but now the darkness had closed in and he had to toss Sammy suns profligately in order to see.
    “Quinn! Run! Get out of there!” Sam yelled.
    He watched as Quinn started to make a brave show of it, then he realized it wasn’t so much brave as stupid.
    It was several minutes before Sam found Caine. He was breathing, but just now returning to consciousness. There was a livid red mark around Caine’s throat.
    He sat up, then accepted Sam’s extended hand.
    “Drake?”
    Caine nodded and rubbed his neck. “But it was Penny who distracted me. You?”
    “Penny,” Sam confirmed.
    “Okay, next time we have to take Penny out before we do anything else,” Caine said.
    The little procession—Drake, Penny, and Diana, with a baby in her arms—kept walking on down the road.
    “So she had the baby,” Sam said. “Congratulations?”
    “We lost the element of surprise,” Caine said. “They’ll be ready.”
    As if to make the point, Drake, now even with the next Sammy sun, turned to look back at them, laughed, and snapped his whip. The laugh carried. So did the crack.
    “Why didn’t they finish us?” Sam wondered.
    “If I tell you something crazy, will you just accept it?” Caine said.
    “It’s the FAYZ.”
    “It was the baby. The baby stopped Drake. I was choking and he was behind me so I couldn’t get at him. Anyway, as good a hold as he had on me, if I’d thrown him or pushed him I’d have ripped my own head off. I saw the baby. Looked right at me. And Drake let me go.”
    Sam wasn’t sure if he believed it or not. But the days of doubting a story just because it sounded crazy were over.
    “They’re heading for the barrier.”
    “Maybe it really will open?”
    “Maybe,” Sam said. “But they’re going through town. Tearing up your people, King Caine.”
    A scream reached their ears.
    “Well, I guess we’d better give Quinn a good story,” Caine said dryly. “My legacy and all.”
    “Penny first,” Sam said, and started running.

THIRTY-SEVEN
3 M INUTES
    GAIA LAUGHED AND Diana couldn’t help laughing, too. They’d passed a burning house with kids lurking as near as they could get to the light without burning.
    Penny had done something to make them run into the burning house.
    Diana was horrified until Gaia laughed. And then Diana couldn’t help but laugh, too. It was funny, in a way.
    Gaia had a sense of humor. How amazing to see it in an infant. Diana credited herself, her genes. Gaia had gotten that from her mommy.
    Down the street, and the light that shone from Gaia was enough to draw people like moths to the flame. They would come creeping or cavorting, needing that light, needing it after so long in the hopeless pitch-black.
    They came, and when they did Drake would whip them until they ran away again, or danced just out of his range.
    Gaia laughed and clapped her hands. Amazing how fast she learned.
    The barrier would be broken and Diana and her baby girl would be free. They could go to the zoo. Or what was that place kids went for pizza and games? Chuck E. Cheese’s! Yes, they could play the games and eat pizza. And watch TV in… They would find a house. Who could stop them, really? With Drake and Penny as their servants. Hah! Servants.
    Who could stand against them? They had brushed Caine and Sam aside like they were nothing.
    And Gaia had yet to even reveal the extent of her own power.
    Diana wanted to laugh aloud and dance around with her baby. But even as the high of joy washed through her, Diana felt the falseness of it. The strained edginess of it. She wanted to shout for joy and scream for joy and then stab the baby, her baby, her beloved little daughter, stab her with a knife. For joy.
    Gaia was looking at her. Her eyes held her. Diana couldn’t look away. They cut right through her and saw the truth. Gaia could see the fear inside Diana, the fear of Gaia.
    Gaia laughed and clapped her hands and her blue eyes shone