Pulse

up where we’re going.”
    “I put it where Dylan told me to.”
    “Who’s Dylan?” Clooger asked, but Faith was having none of that.
    “Nice try, Sasquatch.”
    “Ouch.”
    Faith looked up at Clooger as they began to walk. As tall as she was, Clooger still towered over her by close to a foot. The trench coat draped over him in a way that squared off his whole body like a refrigerator.
    “My parents okay?” Faith asked as they walked along the sidewalk. She had no idea where they were going, but she assumed it would be a long way on a dark night. Clooger set his face like it were made of stone and kept on, unwilling to engage in any further conversation, at least for the moment. This left Faith to think of her parents more than she usually did. It wasn’t that she didn’t care for them; she wasn’t as coldhearted as that. But Faith had always been so independent, so hell-bent on taking on the world by herself. It had been years since she’d felt anything approaching the need for someone to take care of her. When they’d come to her and told her their plan, she’d taken it in stride, knowing that as always, they’d be out there if she needed them.
    “I actually sort of miss them a little bit,” Faith said, her voice betraying a happiness she hadn’t intended to show. “Even if they are wackos. It’ll be good to see them again.”
    Clooger took offense in a way Faith hadn’t expected. “You shouldn’t talk about them that way.”
    He turned around the side of a building, heading down a narrow alleyway that cut into the mall.
    “You can’t be serious,” Faith said. “No way the encampment is in the mall.”
    “Unexpected. That’s the way we like it.”
    Faith had assumed all along that her parents and all the other Drifters were hiding somewhere in the woods outside of town; but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense that they’d be using a fortified structure such as an empty mall as a place to hole up and not be seen. The fact that it was so close to where she’d been living all this time made her feel like her parents really had been watching over her, even if she’d assumed they weren’t.
    Clooger halted at a door and took a set of keys out of one of his many pockets.
    “There will be some surprises in here. Better take a deep breath and prepare for a long night.”
    Faith did as she was told, sucking in a giant breath of fresh air and closing her eyes for a moment. She hadn’t seen her parents in almost four months. It would be good to see them. She was determined not to get into a fight about their views versus her own. She would let them hug her; it would be fine.
    “Take me to your leader,” she half joked when her eyes were open again, and Clooger unlocked the door. He invited Faith to go first, and she stepped into darkness.
     
    Clooger had a flashlight that performed like the batteries were about to die, so Faith’s initial introduction to the inside of the mall was dim and half seen. They passed through what must have been the immense space of a department store, where clothing racks sat empty or tipped over on their sides. It was like walking through a forest of metal limbs reaching out to touch her, piles of abandoned clothes tripping her up as they went.
    “Watch your step through here,” Clooger said when she balanced herself on his arm. “Best if we leave no trace.”
    He shined his light on a cash register, which struck Faith as an ancient and useless item. She had read about them but had never seen one up close and tried to imagine inserting paper money into a drawer in exchange for a pair of underwear. Weird was the word that came to mind, but it also made her think specifically of her mother. Faith had fought with her endlessly in their last days together.
    “We didn’t always have Coin, you know. That’s part of how they control us,” she had been fond of saying.
    “You just don’t get it,” Faith would respond. “Who wants to carry money around? It makes no sense. It’s dumb.”
    “The Tablets are dangerous. I’m only trying to protect you.”
    But Faith knew better than that. Her mother and her father hadn’t been trying to protect her. They had been holding her back. They wouldn’t even touch their Tablets, and they’d often hide Faith’s in the house to keep her away from it. It made her so angry that she would scream at them, telling them they were out of touch and didn’t know anything.
    “I’m fine by myself. I