Hunger

could see it fly past his head. He saw the moment it reached its apogee. And then he watched it drop back toward the ground.
    Duck threw up as he drifted over the church. Sacrilege, probably. But his stomach was empty, so not much rained down on the shattered building below.
    Duck floated on. Away from the horror unfolding in the plaza. They were going to kill Hunter. Hunter, who had begged for his help.
    Nothing he could do: he went where the wind blew. And nothing he could have done—except get shot—if the wind blew him the other way.
    “Superpowers,” he said to himself, “don’t always make you a superhero.”

    She had lost herself again.
    She kept coming and going. One minute there, the next gone.
    Sometimes she was inside herself. Inside her own brain. Other times she was somewhere else, looking at herself from a distance.
    It was so sad seeing what had become of Lana Arwen Lazar.
    Then she would be there, right inside her own lolling head,looking out through her own red-rimmed eyes.
    She walked now. Two feet. Walking.
    Seeing the stone walls beside her.
    Danger ahead—the gaiaphage felt it, and so did she. So did she. Had to be stopped.
    Something Lana was supposed to get. Something she had dropped.
    She stopped. The gaiaphage didn’t know what to call it. And for a moment Lana couldn’t make sense of the images in her head. The flat-steel surfaces. The cross-hatched grip.
    “No,” she begged the creature.
    “No, I don’t want to,” she cried as she knelt.
    Her hand groped for it. Fingers touched it. It was cold. Her index finger curled around the trigger. If she could just raise it to her own head, if she could…
    But now she was walking, and the weight was in her hand, so heavy. So terribly heavy.
    She reached the truck, still locking the mine shaft entrance. She crawled onto the hood, sobbing. Slid through the shattered window, indifferent to the glass as it cut her palms and knees.
    Why couldn’t she stop herself? Why couldn’t she stop this hand, that foot?
    The light of the stars overhead was blinding as she stepped into the mouth of the mine shaft.
    The enemy there, the danger.
    Lana knew the enemy’s name. She knew what the enemy would do. When the gaiaphage had fed, he would be readyfor Dekka. More than ready.
    But not yet.
    “Don’t,” Lana said to Dekka. “Don’t.”
    Dekka froze. There was a look of horror on her face.
    The other one stood to one side. He carried a gun. Lana knew his name, too. Edilio. But he was not the danger.
    “It’s Lana,” Dekka said.
    “Lana, run to us,” Edilio said. He held out his hand.
    Lana felt an overwhelming feeling of sadness. A sob that filled the world. It was as if that outstretched hand was all she could see, all she could feel.
    She wanted so badly to reach for it.
    “Come on, Lana,” Edilio urged.
    Tears filled Lana’s eyes. Her head moved slowly, side to side. “I don’t want to,” her voice said.
    Lana lifted the gun.
    “I don’t…,” Lana whispered.
    She took aim. Inside her head a scream a scream a scream.
    “Lana, no!” Dekka cried.
    Lana didn’t hear the shot. But she felt the gun buck in her hand. She saw the jet of flame.
    And she saw Edilio fall straight back.
    She saw him land on his back.
    His head bounced as he hit.
    Lana shifted her aim. Sights lined up on Dekka who seemed paralyzed in shock.
    Lana squeezed the trigger.
    Click.
    Click.
    Dekka raised her hands. Her expression was furious, determined. But she did not use her power. Her eyes flickered. She lowered her hands and rushed to Edilio.
    Dekka knelt over Edilio. She gasped. Pressed her hand against the wound in his chest. Trying to hold the blood in.
    “Lana. Lana,” Dekka pleaded with tears running down her cheeks. “Help him.”
    Lana stood confused. The gun wasn’t working. Why wasn’t it working? The question was not hers, the thought not her thought.
    The gaiaphage was confused. Why did the weapon not kill? It did not understand. So much it knew. But not everything.
    The gun slipped from Lana’s fingers. She heard it clatter on stone.
    “Lana, you can save him,” Dekka pleaded.
    I can save no one, Lana thought. Least of all myself.
    Lana took two steps back.
    The last thing she saw was Dekka rushing to Edilio.
    Lana returned to her master.

FORTY
    38 MINUTES
    THE SUN WAS sinking into the sea. Shadows were lengthening in Perdido Beach. The plaza was full of kids, far more kids than Zil could possibly feed with one deer.
    It worried him