Hunger

projectile.
    Caine aimed his power at the forklift.
    “Be ready, Jack,” Caine grated.
    The forklift flew. Like an invisible god had kicked it. It hurtled in a straight line. So fast, it broke the sound barrier with a loud bang that was immediately swallowed up in the far louder crash of steel and iron blowing a hole through concrete.
    “How strong you think that fuel rod is?” Caine asked.
    “Are you insane?” Diana cried.
    “Just in a hurry,” Caine said.

    Drake squeezed the trigger.
    A line of bullets chewed concrete just in front of Dekka.
    Drake fought the recoil and raised the weapon just slightly, and the impacts advanced toward Dekka, who just stared at onrushing death.
    Suddenly Drake was on his back. The gun, still in his hands, was blazing away at the ceiling.
    A wheel bounced crazily around the room then fell onto a desk with a loud crash.
    Drake let go of the trigger. He scrambled to his feet. He looked at the wheel, unable to make sense of it. How had a wheel gone flying through the air, through the hole?
    Orc.
    Drake ejected the magazine and racked in a replacement. He was bruised and shaken but not badly hurt. He crept back to the hole, cautious lest something else came flying in.
    Dekka was no longer on the ground.
    Orc was…
    A massive gravel hand reached in and missed Drake’s head by inches.
    Drake fired blindly at the hole.
    Then he turned and ran.

THIRTY-SEVEN
    01 HOUR , 6 MINUTES
    THE JEEP BLEW through the gate. Edilio drove straight to where a shaken, bruised, and seriously angry Dekka was picking herself up off the concrete.
    “What happened?” Sam demanded, leaping from the front seat.
    The adrenaline was finally kicking in. But even now he felt strangely disconnected. Even now, rushing toward trouble. Like it wasn’t really his trouble. Like it was some other part of him that was doing this.
    “I tried to fly,” Dekka said in a low growl. She shook her head and bent over to squeeze her knee. “Ow.”
    “We heard something louder than gunfire,” Edilio said. “Like thunder. Or like an explosion.”
    “Sorry, I wasn’t noticing thunder,” Dekka said.
    Orc came loping over from one direction and Howard from the other.
    “Orc, man, that was a seriously cool move,” Howardenthused. He ran to his friend and slapped the monster on the shoulder repeatedly.
    “I owe you, Orc,” Dekka said.
    “What just happened?” Sam repeated.
    Howard answered. “Drake, man. He took a shot at Dekka. Dekka goes zooming up. Then, bam, comes down hard. Orc, man, Orc snatches up this motorcycle, right? He yanks the wheel off it and throws it at Drake. Like a Frisbee.” Howard actually clapped his hands in glee. “Right through the hole you burned in the wall, Sammy. Like sinking a full-court shot.”
    “Gonna cost you,” Orc grumbled.
    “Oh yeah,” Howard seconded. “Gonna cost. Orc doesn’t save the day for free.”
    “No one else heard a really big sound?” Edilio pressed.
    “We kind of had guns going off, Edilio,” Dekka snapped.
    “You okay, Dekka?” Sam asked.
    “I’ll live,” she said.
    “Dekka: what do you think would happen to a cave or a mine shaft if you turned off gravity?” Sam asked.
    “Is this a quiz?”
    “No.”
    Dekka nodded. “Okay. I guess if I hit it a few times, on-off, on-off, like that, I guess it would start to crumble. Probably collapse.”
    “Yeah.” Sam put his hand on her shoulder. “I have to ask you to do something.”
    “I’m going to guess that you want me to crash a cave or a mine shaft. So?”
    “So it’s not just some mine shaft,” Edilio said darkly.“There’s a thing inside it. It’s…I don’t know how to explain it. It gets inside you. It makes you scared.”
    “I need you to go with Edilio. Seal this thing in,” Sam said. “Howard? I need you and Orc to get back to town. I can’t believe I’m even saying this, but I need you two to keep an eye on things in town.”
    “That’s going to cost—”
    “Yeah. I know,” Sam interrupted Howard. “How about we negotiate later?”
    Howard shrugged. “Okay, but I’m trusting you.” He pointed at his own eyes, then at Sam, making an “I’m watching you” gesture.
    “What are you going to do?” Dekka asked Sam.
    “I’m going to deal with Caine. I have to stop him here.”
    “You don’t want to go at Caine and Drake by yourself,” Edilio objected. “No way. I’m not letting you kill yourself.”
    Sam forced a laugh. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Howard,