Chapter 34
CHAPTER
CHARLEY
We were back on black as noon approached. I felt weird because everyone this morning had looked at my charts like they meant something, and for all I knew, they were just chicken scratch. But I wanted them to mean something: I wanted them to mean a gate was coming for Natalie.
“Showtime,” Jason remarked, his eyes dancing across the dark field.
Even without Jason’s warning, I sensed noon was close.
It was like the longer I was here, the more I understood the island.
Or maybe I just wanted to think I was getting a clue, because so much was unknown.
I stopped thinking about all I didn’t know, because my charts were on that list, full of holes.
And yet here we were, riding the hope they offered. It was totally stressing me out.
Natalie’s face was anxious, making me forget about me.
I squeezed her hand. “Run fast, sweet friend.” To say good-bye felt so final—plus I was afraid to jinx it. Like if I said good-bye, a gate wouldn’t show.
Trees spread to our right, black stretched before us, and chunky red curved to the left. Everyone’s eyes scoured the ground. The air crackled with waiting, and wanting. The intensity gave me chills, and with a start, I realized everyone was looking south. I shivered.
At the precise moment I noticed the air was slack, Jason shouted.
“There!” he hollered, pointing right. Near the tree line, the ground was rippling, then stretching, into a shimmering wall reaching for the sky.
The edges grew dark and defined; the air inside writhed with translucent color and no color at all.
No longer rising, now the gate was rolling. North, like we expected.
Natalie was already running. The gate glittered a football field away.
We dropped back, pacing Natalie, giving her space as she chased the gate. She was sixty yards out and sprinting. Thad and I kept quiet while Jason barked directions.
Please make it, I thought, watching Natalie race against noon. Please catch this shimmer. Please let this be the last noon you have to see.
Thirty yards to go.
Then, like a bad B movie, two figures darted from the trees. A pair of girls, naked and screaming, running side by side as they streaked—literally—straight for the gate. For Natalie’s gate.
“Not good,” Thad murmured.
“Run, Natalie!” I yelled.
But I knew it was over. She was too far away, with too much competition. The girls’ trajectory would intercept the gate well before Natalie could.
The scene slowed but didn’t. The naked girls flying over the black rock, their four legs like two as they converged on the gate; Natalie on her own, too far behind. Natalie was still a good fifteen yards away when the two girls hit the gate as one.
The air flashed blinding white, like a mirror reflecting the sun. Instinctively, I shielded my eyes, and when I looked back, the gate was gone. The air was clear, unwavering blue; the island breeze was back. One girl lay on the ground, as still as the rocks.
And the other girl was gone.
“Did you see that?” Jason said as the three of us broke into a sprint. “She flew back, like she was shocked.”
“Or repelled,” Thad said, his face hard.
“Have y’all ever seen that before?” I asked.
“Never,” Thad said. “But I’ve never seen two people try to catch the same gate either.”
We caught up with Natalie as she kneeled beside the motionless girl. With practiced ease, Natalie pressed her fingers to the girl’s wrist, checking for a pulse.
“Is she breathing?” Thad asked.
“Barely. I’m not sure what happened to her.”
“Me either, but I think it’s pretty clear that two peeps shouldn’t go for the same gate.” Jason looked at the girl, who looked Indian, or maybe Pakistani. Naked as a jaybird, she was stick-thin. “Man, I never thought I’d say this, but I’m getting sick of naked women.”
“Just when they look like corpses,” Thad said grimly. “But she’s not dead. And we’ve got to help her.” He was already pulling objects from his magic pack.
“Totally.” Natalie covered the girl with her extra wrap. “Even if she did crash my party.” But she didn’t sound upset; she sounded weirdly upbeat, which seemed odd given the circumstances.
“Are you okay?” I asked Natalie. “I mean, that gate. You could’ve made it.”
“Not my gate. And unlike her, I’m totally fine.” She glanced at the girl, worried.
“Still, I’m glad you’re not upset.”
“Upset? I’m not upset, at least not about the gate.” She laughed. “Don’t you see? Your charts work, Charley! A gate was just where you thought it would be!”
Her praise made me uncomfortable. “Natalie, it could’ve been pure luck. Let’s not get too excited, okay?”
“Nope,” she kept grinning. “They work. Because there’s no such thing as luck on Nil.”