yeah, I sure reckon they’re gone now. I reckon they don’t wanna screw with ol’ Jopek—GODDAMN YOU—”
This time, the captain’s bullets were not random: Jopek hollered like a fury of thunder, accompanied by lightning from his own hands, shooting out the chain that held the chandelier within the dome. The chandelier plummeted past the balcony by which they stood, shattering in the well of the lower level.
“Sore loser,” Michael whispered huskily to Patrick. But suddenly this rotunda felt very small.
Holly stood from her cot, moving closer to where the rest of them stood, in front of their panting protector.
“You think they took all our other guns?” she said.
“What’d I say?” the captain replied petulantly.
“So . . .” Hank said, a question in his voice.
So is it safe here? So when do we leave? But Michael said nothing. He didn’t want any attention on himself right now. Or any questions about Bobbie.
“So . . . do we need to do anything with Bobbie?” Holly asked when Hank didn’t go on.
The captain shook his head. “She’s in the Kanawha, now.”
The image of Bobbie’s body, floating in the Kanawha River among six-pack rings and coal-dirty water, sent grippy rolls of nausea through Michael. He felt Patrick’s arms tighten on his waist, questioning. He felt it, but ignored it, trying to think of what to say, what to do.
“So we should go,” Patrick said.
The captain looked at Patrick. Michael looked at Patrick.
“The bad guys are coming. And Bellows’re . . . bein’ jerks. We should go, duh.”
“No, boy, ain’t nowhere we’re goin’. Ain’t nowhere but bed.”
“Sleep?” said Hank, a little incredulous, even angry. It was the first time Michael had heard him speak to Jopek with anything other than absolute respect. “Here?”
“Hankzilla, cool down,” Holly said. She touched his shoulder, and there was real care on her face as she calmed her brother. “The captain’s right. We are all shaky right now. And we aren’t sure what’s going on yet, with anything.”
“We know the frickin’ maniacs are stealing our shit!” Hank said. “And we know They’re starting to tear out their damn eyes and move around in the day now!”
“But we don’t know why,” Holly said. “We’re safer here than anywhere; we can put new locks on the gates for tonight, and—Look, I am burnt. I am tired, and I want to lie down. And I want to cry. The morning is when we can figure things out.” She looked to the captain. “Right?” she said, then added, “Sir?”
The captain held her gaze.
“Absolutely,” he said simply.
They stood there, their remade halls rising into new darkness around them and ringing with sounds of the Bellows approaching in the night, and it was a moment Michael would remember for a long time: when he looked back on that night among the wicked graffiti, the night before so much changed, it was the moment that seemed to sum it up.
Because Hank said, “You’re right.”
Patrick said, forlorn but cooperating, “I’m hungry.”
No objections. No fights.
“So y’all best get on to bed. Me, I got some securin’ of the perimeter to do.”
No one is asking why the Rapture are attacking now.
Or why Jopek made us go out.
“I just got one question,” said Jopek. “You helped Bobbie down, yeah, Mike?”
Michael’s pulse butterflied in his throat. Slowly, he nodded.
“Did you know she was bit?” the captain said.
They watched him. And what Michael realized was, there would be no good in telling them the truth. The words would leave him and become theirs, and everyone would put together the wrong puzzle. They would only see a reckless, skinny kid who’d grabbed the captain’s gun. A kid who’d put them all in danger by trying to save Bobbie, and to what end?
Michael shook his head. “No clue.”
“None? Genius,” Hank scoffed. Hank was going to apologize for questioning the captain by being mean to Michael.
But to Michael’s shock, Jopek only said, “Take the man at his word, Henry.” He rubbed the back of his neck, his forehead crinkled in what looked like pain. “Shit, we got a lot ahead of us now, but I’ll guarantee somethin’ we ain’t gonna do: rip our platoon apart, not trust each other. Now y’all get to sleep. Things’ll look brighter tomorrow, guarantee you that.
“Anyhow. Like Michael said. The soldiers will be here soon.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Soldiers will be here soon. The words, clanging and swooping inside his head. Like Michael said.
Patrick lay down on a cot in the Senate chambers later that night, the tips of his hair sharp with water