Plague

helpless under his whip. And yet he would not kill Sam Temple, no, not until Sam had watched him reduce Astrid to a hideous skinless monster.
    The vision was so clear in his head, so wonderful, it filled him with light and joy and a pleasure he could not even describe.
    Nemesis!
    “I’ll get your Nemesis,” Drake muttered. “But first . . .”
    Drake’s army rushed at breakneck speed away from the lake, scampering up the long slope that led from the lake to the dry lands beyond.
    He felt a wave of fury directed at him. A wave of rage that shook him to his core. The dark tendril was wrapped around his brain, filling his thoughts, demanding, threatening. Nemesis!
    “No!” Drake shouted.
    The reaction was immediate. The swarm stopped dead in its tracks.
    “They’re my army. My army!” Drake bellowed. His own hatreds were too strong to be denied. And he might even have defied the gaiaphage. But as Drake stood agonizing, hatred contending with fear, he lost the ability to make the decision.
    The choice of whether to pursue Nemesis or terrorize Per-dido Beach would be Brittney’s to make.

Chapter Thirty-Seven
1 HOUR, 39 MINUTES

    SAM HOBBLED ALONG more quickly than he had hoped. He leaned on Toto and benefited as well from Dekka walking behind him and lessening gravity beneath them.
    He felt low. All the lower because he’d actually managed just a little bit of hope earlier. He’d actually allowed himself to believe that things might be better now that they’d found the lake and the train.
    But this was the FAYZ. And just because they were due for some good news didn’t mean any was coming. In the space of a very few hours he had gone from the heights of optimism to utter despair.
    Over and over again in his mind he played out the likely scenarios. Edilio would have his guys, plus Brianna, Taylor, hopefully Orc. If Jack reached town in time he would fight as well; Jack had really stepped up.
    But it wasn’t enough. Even if he and Dekka were there, it might not be enough. So instead of saving the town and showing them salvation in the form of water, noodles, and Nutella, Sam knew he would arrive back at a town devastated.
    Some were sure to survive. Surely, some.
    Maybe Little Pete would save Astrid. He had the power. But was he aware? Did any of this penetrate to wherever his mind was?
    “Do you think he’ll do it?” Dekka asked. “Jack, I mean.”
    “No,” Sam said.
    “No,” Dekka agreed.
    “True,” Toto said, although whether he was agreeing with them or just automatically certifying that they believed what they were saying, Sam could not say.
    “He’s not that guy,” Sam said. “He’s not ruthless. Anyway, what are the odds he could even get to town and find Little Pete? And then, who knows if even that would shock Pete into doing anything.”
    “You would do it, Sam.”
    “Yeah. I would do it,” Sam said.
    “He would,” Toto agreed.
    “It’s your gift, Sam,” Dekka said. “It has been right from the start.”
    “Ruthlessness?”
    “I guess that doesn’t sound so good,” Dekka said wearily. “But someone has to do it. We each contribute what we have.”
    Sam winced as his heel brushed a stone. “Probably wouldn’t work anyway. The Pete thing, I mean.”
    “The train,” Dekka said. “Those missiles.”
    “I thought about that,” Sam said. “But how would we get them to town? How would we even figure out how to use them?”
    Sam stopped limping.
    Dekka stopped, too, after a few steps. Toto kept walking, oblivious.
    “Dekka?”
    “Yeah?”
    “How high does your power go? I mean, you cancel gravity, right? So things float upward.”
    “Yeah. So?”
    “I’ve seen you levitate yourself. I mean, you cancel gravity right beneath you and you float upward, right? Well, how high can you go?”
    “I don’t know,” she admitted. “If I’m projecting it, you know, like I want to make it happen somewhere else, I can only reach maybe fifty feet or so. Maybe a little more.”
    “Okay, but that’s you hitting it at kind of an angle, right? I mean, you’re sort of shooting across gravity because gravity goes straight down.”
    Dekka looked at him strangely. She spread her hands by her side. Immediately she began to rise, along with dirt and rock, a pillar of it.
    Sam watched as she rose, staying well back from the swirl of debris.
    In the dark he quickly lost sight of her.
    “Dekka!” He tilted his head back, trying to make her out against the background of black velvet