Plague

with a slight smile, Caine raised a hand and Lance found himself pushing weakly against an invisible barrier.
    “Shall we convene a council meeting? Hold a trial? Waste everyone’s time while minute by minute the threat gets nearer and nearer? We know what should be done. Justice! Quick and sure and without a lot of meaningless delay.”
    “Hey!” Lance cried. “That’s not what you—”
    “He says a lot of things,” Diana muttered.
    With a broad, dramatic sweep of his hand Caine sent Lance hurtling through the air. Lance flew like he’d been launched from a catapult. Up into the night sky with every eye following. A thin scream floated down.
    There was something comical about it and Caine could not keep from smiling.
    The scream changed in pitch as Lance tumbled down and smashed into the ground at the far end of the plaza.
    “Justice!” Caine cried. “Not later, right now. Justice and protection and a better life for everyone!”
    Turk lost control of himself. “No, no, no, Caine, no, no.”
    “But not justice without mercy,” Caine said. “Lance paid the price in his way. Now Turk will pay by serving me. Isn’t that right, Turk?”
    He looked at Turk and in a low voice said, “Bow down.”
    Turk fell to his knees without any further urging.
    “It’s a sign of respect,” Caine said. “Not for me. It’s not about me. It’s about you, all of you. You’re the ones who need a ruler. Isn’t that true? After so much suffering, don’t you need one person to take charge? Well,” Caine said, “that’s what I’m doing. And when you bow down you’re just showing respect. Like Turk here.”
    In the mob of kids maybe half a dozen knelt. A few more executed awkward head bobs, unsure of themselves. Most did nothing.
    Good enough, Caine thought. For now.
    “The creatures are coming,” Caine said in a low voice. “In all the FAYZ, who can defeat these creatures?”
    He waited, as if he really was expecting an answer.
    “Who can defeat them?” he repeated. “Me. Only me.”
    He shook his head as if marveling at something awesome. “It is as if God himself chose me. And if I win, if I save your lives, God’s will shall be very clear.”

Chapter Thirty-Six
1 HOUR, 45 MINUTES

    SAM LEAPED INTO the open mouth of the creature.
    Head and shoulders made it in. The bug’s throat spasmed, like wet rubber, crushing the air from his lungs.
    His eyes were tightly closed, but he could not close his nostrils and nearly vomited from a wave of stench like rotten meat, seaweed, and ammonia.
    He grabbed with his hands, trying to get something to grip, had to pull his legs in before the mouthparts sliced, had to right now, right now, quick!
    Something sharp against his calves. But the bug was just reacting, choking, not yet trying to chop him apart.
    He yanked his legs in. All the way inside the wet, stinking, pulsating throat.
    Not fast enough: the mouthparts clipped his right heel. He didn’t notice the pain, too awful, stifling, squashed, skin burning, blackness, no air.
    He pushed his hands out and fired.
    He couldn’t see the light, his eyes were shut tight. But he could feel the shudder that passed through the bug’s body.
    He fired and moved his hands against the slimy insides, firing and firing, feeling his skin burn from whatever ammonia chemical was inside the creature, but then, far worse from the heat of his own killing light.
    He had to stop or else he would cook himself.
    He could feel the bug moving, like being in a car with square wheels, a violent shaking. The bug raced in mad panic as its insides bled and burned.
    But no good, not enough, and in seconds he would die from lack of oxygen.
    Ignore the pain: fire!
    He laced his fingers together blindly, turning the twin beams into one. He pushed against the seizing guts of the creature and inscribed what felt like a circle.
    Then silently screaming from the heat, the starvation of his lungs, the violent spasms of his own body rebelling, he kicked and kicked, pulled himself into a tight ball and kicked where he had burned, with all his fading strength.
    Air!
    He breathed and vomited almost at the same time. He pried open one eye. Jack stood above him.
    “Gaaahh!” Jack said, disgusted by the sight of Sam cocooned in a steaming mess of bug guts.
    Jack grabbed his hand and yanked him up and out with such force that Sam flew through the air. Sam plunged gratefully into the water.
    He surfaced, sucked in air, and dove under again. He washed the