Pulse

upward, yelling for Dylan to wait more than once. She was having fun though, so much fun in fact that it didn’t occur to her that the situation wasn’t that dissimilar from her night with Wade Quinn. She was only fifteen minutes into her date with Dylan and already she was climbing up the side of a building.
    “Okay, now you’re impressing me,” Dylan said as Faith arrived on the tenth platform with him.
    “I bet you say that to all the girls,” Faith said, catching her breath as she looked up the side of the building. “That part looks scary.”
    Getting to the roof required a final ascent on a ladder with at least thirty rungs, and this time, Dylan wasn’t going to leave her behind.
    “You go first. I’ll catch you if you fall.”
    “Why am I not comforted?”
    Dylan flashed a smile at Faith, his eyes sparkling like little diamonds in the soft light. Maybe it was the altitude or the cool air, but Faith definitely felt light-headed for a moment as she looked at this mystifying boy.
    “How did you get me all the way up here?” she asked, not expecting an answer.
    “Keep going; it will be worth it.”
    Faith smiled back at Dylan, turned to the remaining ladder, and decided to take the rungs as fast as she could. If she was going to go first, she was going to get there in time to really check things out before he got there. She climbed fast, finding herself halfway up the wall in no time. If she had looked down at that point, Faith might have lost her nerve. The stars and the moon left everything behind her on the ground in shades of gloomy gray and black. There were very few lights as far as the eye could see, but one thing was for sure: it was a long way down.
    “You keeping up down there or am I too fast for you?” Faith said, hoping to find that he was still standing on the platform below her. Dylan didn’t answer, so she kept going, faster still, until she had her hand on the roof of the building, the cold, concrete rail slick on her palm. Faith pulled herself up and looked at the roof. There was a table set for two, a gas barbecue, and candles. But those weren’t the most surprising things about the roof of the old Nordstrom.
    The most surprising thing was that Dylan Gilmore was lighting the candles.

Chapter 12
It’s Not Just a Burger
    “How’d you do that?” Faith asked. She was starting to feel afraid, like she’d been given another Wire Code or something worse and the whole experience was a trick of her imagination. Dylan, the ladders, the landing, the table—was any of it even real?
    Having lit the candles, Dylan opened the grill and struck another match. When he turned to Faith, the orange light of the flames was dancing on his face.
    “There’s another way up is all,” he began. “I’m making hamburgers; I hope that’s okay. I’m afraid the patties were frozen hockey pucks an hour ago. Best I could do was raid the Old Park Hill cafeteria freezer.”
    “What do you mean, another way up?” Faith asked. She was still standing on the ladder.
    “I promise I’ll tell you after dinner. It’s just another way, not a big deal.”
    The hamburger patties had thawed out before Dylan put them on the grill, and they sizzled when he placed them over the flames. White smoke billowed softly into the night air, and Faith was suddenly aware of the lights off in the distance. She wasn’t sure if it was the lights or the smell of the food or the fact that her legs were getting tired that finally led her to climb off the ladder and onto the roof, but it didn’t really matter. She was on the roof with Dylan now whether she liked it or not.
    “The lights are the first thing I wanted to show you,” Dylan said. He flipped the burgers and closed the grill, then looked toward the far edge of the rooftop. There, a glowing orange filtered through the distant trees. Whatever its source was, it looked massive, like the sun were about to rise over the horizon and light the world on fire.
    “Is that what I think it is?” Faith asked, awestruck at the size and shape of the soft light.
    “The Western State. It’s only a hundred miles away now, give or take.”
    “It’s closer than I thought,” Faith said. The fear rose in her voice.
    “They don’t mess around,” Dylan said. He went back to cooking the patties in silence, adding thick slabs of cheddar cheese to each one and watching them melt. Faith kept staring at the light. There were no mountains or high places near Old Park Hill, which