Midnight on Strange Street, page 25
“I’m…fine,” he said hoarsely, looking at the gathered Sardines. “It’s all right. He missed. I’m okay.”
“Lola,” Avery said, and the others looked to where Lola was still slumped over a fallen Mr. Jensen—in shock, it seemed. “She used the flame to knock him out.”
As Zander put the pieces together, he heard more engines rumbling closer, more car doors slamming. He tensed, but before he could move, a woman’s voice called out, “Jones! Nando, it’s us!”
Nando struggled to stand as a woman rushed toward them. She was dressed in a gray pantsuit, and her dark curly hair whipped around in the night wind. She reached Nando, helping him to his feet and speaking too low for the others to hear. Then both of them turned toward the Sardines.
“Come on,” Nando said, waving to the car. “We’re getting you out.”
But Bastian was already in the car.
He had taken the driver’s seat.
None of the Sardines spoke; they didn’t have to. Somehow even Zander knew, on instinct, what to do. He scrambled into the back of the car, alongside Lola, whom Avery had helped up from her shocked state. Dani slammed herself into the passenger seat, pressing the power lock and sealing them in.
“Hey!” came Nando’s muffled voice. He pulled on the driver’s side handle, then banged on the window, looking in, bewildered.
“Hazard Hill!” Dani shouted.
“Midnight!” Zander added, pointing to the clock on the car’s dash, which read 11:54. “C’mon! We have to go.”
Then a remarkable thing happened.
The vehicle began to rumble and shake, even though there were no keys in the ignition. Nando’s car lurched—not forward, but up.
The blue flame heaved among the Sardines, shooting out tendrils, blue strands that curled beneath their seats, drawing them up into the sky, tugging the tires off the ground.
Then they were airborne, climbing upward. Nando’s beating fists fell away from the window, and Zander looked out to see the earth expanding fast beneath them. The silver suits looked as small as action figures on the ground. They passed the shining sign that read, THE FUEL OF THE FUTURE.
The Sardines pushed the car forward, and they were no longer rising but flying, high above Callaway.
Beneath them, roads wound out and crisscrossed in long black ribbons. The car soared over rooftops into the light of a full moon. Zander knew exactly where they were headed. The blue column’s message was clear, made complete in their shared thoughts. The five of them had an appointment tonight, at midnight, on Hazard Hill. The car flew on, and Bastian guided the wheel, but really, all five of them did the steering, charting a course to their destination.
At last, Zander let out a sigh of relief.
That’s when the car shuddered, dropping a few feet. Zander and Avery let out startled screams. Something was wrong. The connection the Sardines had formed outside Gloworks had frayed somewhere, and there was a plucking sensation behind Zander’s eyes.
“Lola?” Avery said, touching Lola’s shoulder. Then louder, “Lola?”
Again, the car shuddered, and Zander looked across the backseat.
Lola was huddled against the window, her eyes glazed and distant. Slowly, she held out her hands.
They were covered in blood.
Avery watched in horror as more blood emerged from Lola’s side. The bullet must have gone deep for there to be so much of it, and though Avery was pressing her hand against the wound as hard as she could, it wasn’t enough to stop the bleeding.
“It didn’t miss Nando,” Avery whispered. “You jumped in front of him.”
Lola smiled weakly, her eyelids drooping. “I wasn’t afraid.”
“We have to do something!” Avery shouted to the others. “We have to get her to a hospital!”
But Bastian was shaking his head. “There isn’t time!” he shouted back. “The light beings—they can help us. They can fix her. Don’t you feel that?”
Avery did feel it; the blue flame was urging her toward Hazard Hill. The light had faded from the Sardines’ eyes, but Avery still saw the determination in their faces. Somehow, they all understood what had to happen next, where they needed to go. And it wasn’t to a hospital. It was to Hazard Hill.
They just had to make it there in time.
Lola was trying to say something, but Avery couldn’t make it out. The car shuddered and dropped several more feet.
Then Lola closed her eyes.
“No.” Avery pressed more firmly against the wound. “No, Lola. Stay awake!”
In her head, Avery felt a telltale snip. As Lola was growing weaker, so was her tether. The little threads connecting her to Avery were pulling loose, one by one. The familiar hue of Lola’s thoughts was fading from lavender to lifeless gray.
Just hang on. Avery pushed the words over the damaged connection. She dragged Lola into her lap, trying to prop her up. She’d heard once that when someone was injured, you had to keep their heart raised over the wound. Or was it that you had to keep the wound raised over the heart? And what did you do when the wound and the heart were so close together?
The car jolted violently, losing more altitude. Avery felt weak, deep inside. She was too weak to think straight, let alone keep a car aloft. She couldn’t even form a thought to send to the other Sardines, and though they remained tethered, none of them reached out to her. Avery wondered if they felt the way she did: that their tele-whatevers were ebbing away.
“We’re close to the hill!” Bastian shouted. “We’re almost there!”
Zander leaned over the console, pointing out the windshield. “Steer it toward the road,” he said. “Watch out for those boulders!”
“Yeah, great advice, man, thanks,” Bastian growled.
“Stop fighting!” Avery screamed.
Snip, snip. More threads cut her loose from Lola. But that couldn’t happen. Not now, after everything—their victory at Glow in the Park, their escape from the silver suits. And Hazard Hill was close. They couldn’t lose Lola now.
“We’re gonna make it!” Bastian yelled.
But, thought Avery, what if Lola can’t?
“Please,” she whispered, wondering if Lola was beyond hearing now. “Please, Lols. We need you. We love you.”
She looked out the window to the moon-drenched terrain below. They had reached the base of Hazard Hill, but the car was descending rapidly, now only yards off the ground. As they juddered over the dusty, boulder-lined road, Avery saw the red-and-white police barriers ahead.
The car swerved as Bastian and Dani shouted over one another: “Stop, stop!” and “I’m going for it!” The next moment, they were crashing through the barriers, knocking them over in a great wham.
“Brace yourselves!” Bastian shouted as the car slammed into solid ground, sending Avery sprawling.
The car clunked and skidded to a stop. Then all was silent.
“She’s fading,” Avery whispered, watching the rattling rise and fall of Lola’s chest.
Bastian shook his head fiercely. “She won’t. We’ll take her to them. If anyone can help us, it’s them.”
Everyone knew who Bastian meant by “them,” just as everyone knew that they had to reach the top of the hill. It was time.
It was midnight.
On the summer solstice.
And they were on Hazard Hill—all five of them.
The others got out of the car, circling to where Avery sat with Lola in her lap.
“We shouldn’t move her!” Avery cried, but Dani and Zander were already lifting Lola into their arms. She floated up between them, their blue flame keeping her aloft.
“H-how are you doing that?” Avery asked, feeling so weak.
Dani and Zander shared a look. Then, softly, Zander said, “Avery, you have to break the link with her.”
“She’s letting go,” Dani said. “If you don’t break your connection, she’s going to keep draining your powers. I know you can feel it, Vee. We all can. It’s why we crashed.”
“I’m not doing that!” Avery shouted, even as more snip, snips echoed in her ears. “Maybe I’m how she’s hanging on. Maybe she needs our powers to live, and that’s why she’s draining them!”
“I’m not breaking mine, either,” Bastian said, his eyes wide. “We can’t shut her out. She needs us. I won’t shut her out.”
“Okay,” Dani said as she and Zander stepped away, drawing out Lola between them. “But we have to get her up there. We have to reach them in time.”
A storm was brewing overhead. Dark clouds crowded across the big Texan sky, eating away the light of the moon. Hard rain began to pelt Bastian’s face, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was reaching the top of the hill. What mattered was his sister’s hand in his.
Bastian walked alongside Zander and Dani, who were moving Lola on the invisible stretcher they’d formed with their linked minds. Avery held Lola’s left hand, and Bastian held her right. Lola’s skin was far too cool, her fingers limp.
Bastian’s flame was diminishing. He knew that was Lola’s doing, but he couldn’t cut his tether any more than Avery could hers. This was his sister, his twin. Lola would always be his closest connection of all.
The light beings can save her, he thought. We just have to walk faster.
He reached his thoughts outward, trying to find Lola, but she was hidden somewhere in a swirling white mist that muddled his mind. He stumbled once, then righted himself, still gripping Lola’s hand.
Then the mist was no longer in Bastian’s mind, but all around him. Along the path were the blackened, smoking remains of trees and shrubs. The fire—their fire—had made its mark on Hazard Hill.
Bastian knew, was sure, that someone was waiting for them at the summit.
The wind picked up, causing Bastian’s shirt to billow and ripple.
He kept walking.
He kept holding Lola’s hand.
Minutes passed. The incline began to flatten, little by little, then more and more. The wind blew into Bastian, rougher than before. Then he saw it through the mist, glowing the faintest green: the starting line.
They had reached the top of Hazard Hill.
Bastian knew, by instinct, what to do. He knelt as Dani and Zander lowered Lola to the earth. All of them gathered, kneeling, forming a circle around her. Bastian began to form a memory—so familiar, so vibrant in his head. A memory of beauty, of the good there could be in life. He was ready to speak to the aliens. He only hoped they were ready to listen to him.
The world was quiet for one moment. There was no sound but the wind.
Then the light appeared, and the darkness around them scattered.
Lola was bathed in a haze of blue. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t move. But she knew she was where she was supposed to be.
A bright blue column appeared above her head, gently pulsing, and from it a form emerged. It stepped down from the light to Lola’s side and embraced her in its many arms. It spoke tenderly in her mind, with a voice that was several but one.
Rest, child of ours. Rest.
Lola no longer felt scared or pained. The vision of Avery’s worried face drifted away, replaced by a cooling sensation. The air around smelled of mint and newly budded flowers, and the coolness drifted from Lola’s eyes to her wound. It settled there, intensifying, working through muscle. Lola felt a stitching sensation, as though she had been torn before and was now being woven whole.
The voice returned to her mind.
Rise, it said.
Energy shot through Lola’s legs and, no longer tired, she found she could rise. She beamed at the sight of the other Sardines. They were all there—Bastian, Dani, and Avery. Even Zander stood in their circle, and somehow Lola knew he belonged there, too. All their heads were tilted upward, toward the column shooting down the very center of the hill’s crest. There were stars shining in their eyes.
More figures emerged from the column. Their hair floated down in thick, long strands. Their many arms stretched out in a gesture of welcome. And inside each of the figures, blue light burned beneath their transparent skin.
Greetings, children of Earth, their voices spoke in unison. We have come to rescue you from this place.
The blue column began to transform. Colors appeared on its surface—greens and oranges and reds, projected there by an unseen source. The column rotated clockwise, faster and faster, like a spinning top. The colors on its surface blurred, disorganized and dizzying. Eventually the spinning slowed, and the blurs distinguished themselves, forming shapes—images. Then the spinning stopped utterly, and the images sharpened, so clear that they now looked like a broadcast on a TV screen. There was news footage of the war, shattered buildings, crying children, bloodied soldiers. Then there was Dani, taking a bad fall off her glowboard, Bastian in bed with a fever, and Zander placing flowers at a tombstone marked Celeste Kwon Poxleitner.
Lola felt more memories being siphoned from her mind: the unfeeling look in Mitchell Jensen’s eyes, the day she’d fallen down the stairs and fractured a bone in her left arm, the overheard shouts between Nando and her parents.
Such pain, said the beautiful figures. Senseless suffering. It extends over all this planet and has affected each one of you.
The figure who had touched Lola stepped forward, reaching out its arms, turning a deliberate circle, facing each one of them. When it spoke, there was no static obscuring its words.
We are the source of what your kind call Component G. We deposited it in many planets less developed than our own, intending that your civilizations would, over time, evolve to the level of existence we have long enjoyed. We had hoped that our gift of elixir would raise this Earth’s civilization to new heights. Instead, your world continues to war, and to bring you—a new generation—into that war’s crosshairs. Humans have chosen to capture others of your kind and use them for evil, violent purposes. We were wrong to believe this planet would prove a hospitable environment for gifted creatures like you. And so we have come to remove you from this planet, and to destroy what remains of its unenlightened inhabitants.
Come now. Come with us.
Lola felt the cooling sensation again—like a splash of water, drenching her mind. The light beings’ words had awakened her. She saw now the sense of their message. In so many ways, Earth was a terrible place, filled with people who wanted to hurt Lola: silver suits, who would tie her down to a table and take away her power. Bullies like Mitchell Jensen and his Grackles. Unknown faces on the other side of the war, who would hurt Nando if given the chance.
Maybe, Lola thought, the light beings had been right all along.
Maybe it would be best to leave.
NO!
Bastian’s shout broke into Lola’s head.
REMEMBER, Bastian cried. Her brother was staring wildly at her, gripping her hand. REMEMBER WHAT WE CAME HERE TO DO.
And with difficulty, as though dredging out a heavy box from under water, Lola began to remember: Remembering. That’s what they were here to do. They had practiced, they had prepared. They had made mistakes, but now it was time for the Sardines to share their message.
Bastian looked afraid, though.
Lola, he said, his thoughts quieter. I’ve been trying to share my memories, but it’s like they’re bouncing back. They’re not going through. I don’t think I’m strong enough to do it on my own.
Lola! cried another voice. Dani. She stood opposite Lola, her face cast in a bright, blue glow. Lola, I can’t get through to them. We have to try something else. You have to try.
Lola didn’t need Bastian or Dani to explain. She knew. Here, on Hazard Hill, she had tethered them together. Together, the Sardines were more powerful. Together, they’d set this place ablaze. Now it was up to Lola to bind the Sardines again, and together, they would try to reach the light beings.
She began the tether as she always did, hooking a steady link in Bastian’s mind. Then she turned to Avery, who was clasping her other hand.
You can do it, Lols, Avery told her, eyes shining. I know you can.
Avery’s tether caught hold in an instant.
Then Lola turned to Dani and cast another link. Dani grabbed hold with so much force, Lola stumbled a step, tightening her grip on Bastian’s and Avery’s hands.
And then there was Zander.
Lola frowned, suddenly uncertain. The first time she had reached Zander had been outside Gloworks. Until that moment, she hadn’t known she could. This connection was new, uncertain. But she would try.
Lola shut her eyes. She concentrated on the flame inside—so familiar, so volatile.
I can do this, she told herself, and herself alone. I’m in control.
She unraveled her newest tether and, opening her eyes, she threw it out to Zander, hoping that he would sense it and take hold, as he’d known to do before. She saw the moment it happened: Zander’s eyes widened, his lips parting in slight shock. And then the link found its place in his mind.
Bastian’s memories were the first to shoot down the tether, vivid and fierce: the day he’d shown Avery how to skate, gripping her hand for balance as she wobbled down Cedar Lane; family car rides with Lola, the twins laughing at knock-knock jokes they passed between their minds; talks with Dani atop Hazard Hill, the setting sun in their eyes.
Memories of people, of friends—the best kind of memories. They trembled along the threads that bound the Sardines together, and Lola saw, with gasping delight, that the images were not merely in her mind, but outside of it, projected onto the column of light.
Lola’s heart warmed as new scenes filled her mind: Avery’s memories. She saw herself and Avery on Sardines Night, sitting on the branch of the big oak tree, so close that their knees were touching. She saw Avery eating strawberry ice cream with the team at the Frozen Spoon, after a racing victory, giggling at something Dani had said. Then the images shifted again, and memories flooded in from another source: Dani. She saw the Sardines gathered at the May Day Draft Train Bonanza, piling their hands and cheering. She saw the sunny day when Avery and Dani had first met, talking over the fence between their backyards. She watched in surprise as Zander and Dani looked over glowboards in a shop, and Dani picked up one, joy flooding her face.
