Chapter 6
“Go, go, go, go, go!” Tara yells, dashing toward the office. I follow her. Another giant foot smashes the hallway behind us. Then another.
It’s running up the warehouse after us.
We burst through the office door and run past a man hiding under his desk who doesn’t move no matter how much Tara shouts, and we get out a back exit in time for the whole building to collapse behind us.
I risk one little glance behind, and the god is there, screaming like a hurricane, reaching down for us–
Tara pushes me to one side, changing our route.
I stumble but keep going. The hand of the god misses us by only a few feet.
Tara is screaming, I’d be screaming, too, if I could, and all the world is madness.
We run into a small shop, but the god walks into the building like the walls and roof aren’t even there.
Flames swoop over the top of us and we barely get out the back.
We hook a quick left up what seems to be an alley.
It leads to another big walkway where people are looking over our heads behind us and screaming, which isn’t helpful.
We reach the walkway, the god on our heels, and I look back to see it reaching down again, and there’s no way we’ll be able to outrun it–
But another god steps in front of it and pushes it out of the way, as if it wants to get to us first. They scream at each other, and I’m not sure what happens next because we’re running away as fast as we can, putting some distance between us and them.
Then a different god entirely rears up ahead on the walkway, so we take a dash to the right.
It’s a dead end, only a farmer’s cart against a wall. There’s nothing we can do but roll under it.
“They are coming after young people, aren’t they?” Tara says, gasping for breath. “They took Taper, they took Arrow, they took Arrow’s sister.” She looks at me. “They’re after us, Ben. Anyone our age.”
I nod in agreement, and I think, at least Max isn’t here. I’m still worried he’s the odd one out in the story, and I’m terrified to find out what that means.
“Why, though?” Tara asks. “What sense does this make?”
I shrug. I don’t know either.
She frowns. “Do you think they killed him?”
She means Taper. I shake my head, though of course I don’t know. They sure as hell killed Professor Kilfoyle. And anyone who might have been in those houses. I don’t know what to say or write down.
All I can do is take her hand.
She’s not even surprised. She takes mine and squeezes it, crying for a second.
It seems crazy to stop when the world is falling down around us, but it feels like we’ve been running forever, and here, in this moment, under this stupid cart that smells of corn going bad, it’s not quiet, not at all, but it feels like a hiding place, one I’d be grateful to stay in for the rest of my life.
“Taper was a prick,” she says, her voice thick, “and even I know my mother is crazy.” She looks at me ferociously. “But they’re mine, Ben, you understand? They’re mine. And I don’t care if no one else likes them, they’re still mine.”
I nod. I understand this. I really, really understand this.
I take out the paper and pencil I somehow still have shoved in my pocket, and I use the hand she’s not holding to write: We’ll find him, if he can be found.
“Damn right, we will,” she says, and there’s determination in her voice even with all the ways she knows how empty a promise this is. She looks at me again. “You’re all right, Ben, you know that?”
I smile, like this is a very stupid thing to hear.
“I know, I know,” she says. “People think I’m this nightmare because of Taper and my mom, and I’ve got to defend them all the time, so yeah, I’m probably a little bit of a nightmare.
” She takes a deep breath. “But one thing my mother always says that I actually agree with is that nightmares get things done.”
I smile at this, too, but in a different way. I’ll bet my mom and pop seem like nightmares to some people. Which kind of makes me feel proud again.
“Shhh, shhh, shhh,” Tara says, even though I literally can’t make a sound.
A god is walking by the cart. We can see its burning feet.
We see it stop beside us.
The world seems to fall even more silent.
Then it tips over the cart and reaches down for us with its burning hands.