Plague

said.
    He flipped a second bug over, lifted the battered Maytag and smashed it down. This time the bug did not spray its guts immediately so he hit it again.
    A huge crash and a sound of rending, twisting, ripping wood. The entire house jerked. Shuddered. And to Caine’s horror the wall before him started to fall away.
    The entire house was collapsing.
    Brianna blurred and was gone. Caine tried to run but the floor was tilted crazily as it fell beneath his feet. The ceiling came crashing down and Caine landed on his back as the house collapsed atop him in a wild tornado of destruction.
    Something crushed his stomach. Plasterboard pressed down on his face. His hands were pinned. He gasped for air and breathed dust. He could see nothing in his immediate field of vision but wallboard and part of a framed Weezer poster.
    But he could feel his legs and arms. Nothing broken. Nothing punctured.
    He had the power to lift the debris off himself. But if he did, then the creatures would be on him in a heartbeat.
    Whereas if he stayed under the wreckage, he might be safe.
    The creatures would finally give up on him and go in search of easier victims. Then, when they were gone, he could emerge and take them by surprise.
    Caine took a shaky, dusty breath.
    Playing dead meant letting some kids die so that he could live. Caine decided he was probably fine with that.

Chapter Thirty-Nine
38 MINUTES

    EDILIO LAY ON the steps of town hall feeling as weak as a kitten. He had barely heard Caine’s big speech. He couldn’t have cared less. There was nothing he could do, not with delirium spinning his head.
    He coughed hard, too hard. It wracked his body each time he did it so that he dreaded the next cough. His stomach was clenched in knots. Every muscle in his body ached.
    He was vaguely aware that he was saying something in between coughs.
    “ Mamá. Mamá. Sálvame .”
    Save me, mother .
    “Santa María, sálvame,” he begged, and coughed so hard he smashed his head against the steps.
    Death was near, he felt it. Death reached through his swimming, disordered mind and he felt its cold hand clutching his heart.
    Santa María, Madre de Dios, ruega por nosotros pecadores, ahora y en la hora de nuestra muerte.
    And then in the swirling darkness he saw her. A figure dressed in a flowing white and blue dress. She had sad, dark eyes, and a golden glow came from her head.
    She held up one hand as if blessing him.
    He heard her voice. He was surprised that she spoke in English. He’d always thought of God’s mother as speaking Spanish.
    “Run, Edilio,” she said.
    He started to repeat the prayer. Santa María, Madre de Dios . . .
    But she grabbed him by his outstretched arm and said, “I know you’re sick but run. RUN! I can’t save you!”
    For some reason the Virgin Mary had Brianna’s voice.
    Edilio stood up. The sudden movement sent jagged bolts of pain into his head. For a moment he couldn’t even see, but he plowed ahead on leaden feet. Fell and rolled and got back up, blind, staggering. He ran and ran and coughed until he doubled up on the ground.
    He sat there for a while. Waiting to find the strength to follow Brianna’s orders, to run.
    He looked up and saw that he was across the plaza. He saw the desperate sick and the peaceful dead on the steps.
    And he saw demons, huge monsters, armored cockroaches with impossible red devil eyes.
    They swarmed onto the steps.
    • • •
    Brianna saw Lana come charging out of the so-called hospital with Sanjit. The bugs were swarming.
    Edilio had run, thankfully, now here was Lana. Brianna cursed and yelled, “Lana, run! Run. Out the back of the building!”
    Lana drew her pistol. “No way,” she said. She took aim at the first bug she saw and fired three times. One of the ruby eyes drooled white and red pus, but the bug never stopped eating a girl who, Brianna could only pray, had already died.
    “Don’t be an idiot. We need you alive. Get out! Get out! You”—she grabbed Sanjit by the neck—“get her out of here; we need her alive!”
    Brianna had seen the most effective way to kill the bugs, but she wasn’t Caine. She didn’t have his powers.
    But she had her own.
    Brianna stuck out her chin. Caine had been crushed beneath the collapsing house. It was on her now.
    The knife flashed in her hand. She was not going to win this fight, but she wasn’t going to run, either.
    Dekka had seen the beasts within her.
    Death, oh God, let me die.
    Too much to bear. Death, she