thing is to Run Very Far, and Not Look Back. Those who fail to Run will not be seen again.”
I looked around. “I don’t see any cuckoos.”
“I haven’t seen any since we got here,” said Annie. “Assuming Sarah couldn’t control the rift well enough to put us somewhere different—which is a big assumption, but it’s one that maybe leads to us having a world tomorrow, so I’m going to make it—she must be somewhere nearby.”
“A week would give the other cuckoos time to come and find her, if they knew this was where she was going to wind up,” I said. “And we have no way of knowing she came out the same time as we did. Maybe she’s been here the whole time, getting ready. What’s so special about Ames?”
“I don’t know, but they’re all definitely here.”
I turned. James was jogging down the street toward us. He didn’t look at all bothered by the chill in the morning air, despite his lack of a jacket. Stupid sorcerers, with their stupid elemental alignments.
“The people are here, but they’re not moving,” he said. “The shops are full. The restaurants, too. I saw a woman walk through a diner, filling all the water glasses, then go back to standing perfectly still behind the counter. I think the cuckoos have put them into a sort of sleep mode. They’ll do what they must to stay alive, but that’s their limit.”
“So we know the cuckoos are here,” said Annie. “That’s a start.”
“Where is harder,” said James.
“Ames,” I said. “Ames, Iowa. We’re in Ames, Iowa.”
“Yes,” said Annie. “Look, Artie, this is not a good time for you to fall apart on me. I’m sorry, but I need you to hold it together. Okay?”
“I’m not falling apart,” I said. “Your phone. How much battery do you have?”
“Not enough.”
“There’s a major university here. Cuckoos are math addicts. They’ll head for the school if they have any choice in the matter. How far away are we?”
Annie’s eyes lit up with sudden understanding. She began poking at the screen of her phone, announcing a minute later, “About three miles.”
“Great.” I looked back to the mouse. “What else do you know?”
“Only that the Heartless Ones are Not Of This World, and that one day they must Leave it.”
“Peachy.” I grabbed a rock off the road and started walking toward an old Camaro parked in front of a store that either sold rocks or decorative soaps intentionally made to look like rocks. It can be hard to tell.
“What are you doing?” asked James.
“Getting us to school,” I said, and threw the rock through the car window.
The shattering sound was remarkably loud on the quiet, cuckoo-snared street. There was a pressure at the back of my head that I recognized as the cuckoos trying to influence me, whether they knew they were doing it or not. I shunted it aside. I’m a Price. We don’t take well to being mentally controlled. Great-Grandma’s gift to us, even if we still don’t understand it.
“Annie, your cousin is stealing a car,” said James, in a carefully neutral tone. I ignored him in favor of reaching through the broken window, unlocking the door, and using a McDonald’s bag from the passenger footwell to shovel the glass out into the street.
“My cousin’s a genius,” said Annie. “You know how to hotwire that thing?”
“I don’t need to,” I said. “My old Camaro never met a screwdriver it didn’t want to be friends with, before you went and torched it. Which is why—ah!” I held up the long, narrow-headed screwdriver that had just dropped from the glove compartment. “Your chariot awaits.”
“I’m quite sure this is illegal,” muttered James, as he and Annie started toward the car.
“Pretty sure destroying the entire world is worse than a little minor car theft,” said Annie.
I slid into the driver’s seat, leaning over to unlock the doors on the other side of the car. Annie and James climbed in, and I shoved the tip of the screwdriver into the ignition, wiggling it until I felt that essential, comfortingly familiar catch. When I twisted it, the engine rumbled on.
“Next stop, the end of the goddamn world,” I said, and hit the gas.
* * *
Nothing moved except for the wind as we drove through Ames. Somehow, the little waves of motion in the grass and the trees made it more obvious how frozen everything else was. There were no cats, no dogs, no squirrels or birds . . . and no people.