Hunger

kiss him on his forehead. Of course he gave no response. He didn’t hug her or ask her to read him a story, or say, “Hey, thanks for taking care of me, sis.”
    When he spoke, it was only about the things in his head. The world outside meant little or nothing to him. That included Astrid.
    “Love you, Petey,” she said.
    “He has her,” Little Pete said.
    She was already out of the door when that last statement registered. “What?”
    Pete’s eyes closed.
    “Petey. Petey.” Astrid sat down beside him and put her hand on his cheek. “Petey…is Nestor talking to you?”
    “He likes my monsters.”
    “Petey. Is…” She barely knew how to ask the question. Her brain was fried. She was beyond exhausted. She lay down beside her brother and cuddled close to his indifferent body. “Tell me, Petey. Tell me about Nestor.”
    But Little Pete was already asleep. And in seconds, so was Astrid.
    It was in sleep that she began to fit together the pieces of the puzzle.

THIRTY-FIVE
    02 HOURS , 53 MINUTES
    TWENTY-ONE HOURS WITH no food. Not a bite.
    No likelihood of food suddenly appearing.
    Jack’s stomach no longer growled or rumbled. It cramped. The pains would come in waves. Each pain would last a minute or so, and stretch out over the course of an hour. Then there would be a reprieve of an hour, sometimes an hour and a half. But when the pain came back, it was worse than before. And lasted longer.
    It had started in earnest after about twelve hours. He’d been hungry before that, hungry for a long, long time, but this was different. This wasn’t his body saying, “Hey, let’s eat.” This was his body saying, “Do something: we’re starving.”
    A new round of pains was just beginning. Jack dreaded it. He wasn’t good with pain. And this pain was worse, somehow, than the pain in his leg. That pain was outside. This pain was inside.
    “Have you figured it out yet?” Caine demanded. “Have you got it, Jack?”
    Jack hesitated. If he said yes, then the next round of this nightmare would begin.
    If he said no, they would sit here and sit here and sit here until they all starved.
    He didn’t want to say yes. He knew now what Caine planned. He didn’t want to say yes.
    “I can do it,” Jack said.
    “You can do it now?”
    “I can withdraw a single-fuel rod from the pile,” Jack said.
    Caine stared at him. Almost as if this wasn’t the answer he wanted.
    “Okay,” Caine said softly.
    “But I have to start by lowering the control rods all the way. This will stop the reaction, which means it turns off all electricity.”
    Caine nodded.
    Diana said, “You mean, there won’t be any power for anyone. Not just Perdido Beach.”
    “Unless someone restarts the reactor,” Jack said.
    “Yeah,” Caine said, but distracted, like his head was somewhere else.
    “I can lift out a power rod. It’s twelve feet long. Actually it contains pellets of uranium 235. It’s like a very long, thin can filled with pebbles. It’s extremely radioactive.”
    “So your plan is to kill us all?” Diana said.
    “No. There are lead-lined sheaths they use to carry the rods. They aren’t totally effective, but they should shield us for the time we need. Unless…”
    “Unless?” Caine demanded.
    “Unless the sheath is damaged. Like if you drop it.”
    “Then what happens?” Diana demanded.
    “Then we’re hit with massive doses of radiation. It’s invisible, but it’s like someone is shooting tiny bullets at you. They blow millions of tiny holes through your body. You get sick. Your hair falls out. You vomit. You swell up. You die.”
    No one said anything.
    “So we don’t drop it,” Drake said finally.
    “Yeah. We carry it for miles and we don’t drop it,” Diana said. “While Sam and Dekka and Brianna are coming at us. I can’t see how that would be a problem.”
    Jack said, “The closer you are, the deadlier it is. So if you’re a couple feet away, you’re dead real quickly. If you’re farther away, you die slowly. If you’re far enough away, maybe you don’t die until you develop cancer. And if you’re even farther away, you’re safe.”
    “I choose farther away,” Diana said dryly.
    “How long to get ready?” Caine asked.
    “Thirty minutes.”
    “It’s late enough now we should wait for dark,” Caine said. “How do we get out?”
    Jack shrugged. “There’s a loading dock behind the reactor.”
    Caine sagged into a chair. He bit savagely at a thumbnail. Drake watched, making no