fayz

There were dozens of theories about what it was, that dome. Every scientist in the world, it seemed, had made a pilgrimage to the site. Tests had been conducted, measurements taken.They had tried drilling through it. Under it. Had flown over it. Had dug beneath it. Had approached it by submarine.Nothing worked.Every species of doomsayer from Luddite to End Times nut had had his say. It was a judgment. On America__ technological obsession, on America__ moral failure. This. That. Something else.Then the twins had popped out. Just like that. First Emma. Then, a few minutes later, Anna. Alive and well at the exact moment of their fifteenth birthday.They told tales of life inside the bowl. What they called the FAYZ.Connie Temple__ heart had swelled with pride for what she had learned of her son, Sam. And crashed into despair with tales of her other son, her unacknowledged child, Caine.Then, nothing. No other kids arrived for a while.Black despair settled over the families as they realized that it would be only these two. Months passed. Many lost faith. How could kids survive alone?But then, the Prophetess had reached into their dreams.One night Connie Temple had a lurid, incredible dream. She__ never had such a detailed dream. It was terrifying. The power of it took her breath away. There was a girl in that

The coolly logical part of her brain noted almost sardonically that Edilio had a superpower after all: being Edilio.

Hunter__ entire body writhed and squirmed.The side of his head was partly gone. A creature, like some monstrous melding of insect and eel, protruded from Hunter__ shoulder and as they stood there rooted in horror it took a vicious bite of Hunter__ flesh.Taylor was suddenly gone.Dekka__ face was grim, her eyes wet.__ tried . . . ,_ Hunter said. He held up his hands, mimicked pressing them against his head. __t didn__ work.___ can do it,_ Sam said softly.____ scared,_ Hunter said.__ know.___t__ __ause I killed Harry. God has to punish me. I tried to be good but I__ bad.___o, Hunter,_ Sam said gently. __ou paid your dues. You fed the kids. You__e a good guy._____ a good hunter.___he best.___ don__ know what__ happening. What__ happening, Sam?___t__ just the FAYZ, Hunter,_ Sam said.__an the angels find me here so I can go to heaven?__am didn__ answer. It was Dekka who spoke. __o you still remember any prayers, Hunter?__he insectlike creature was almost completely emerged from Hunter__ shoulder. Legs were becoming visible. It had wings folded against its body. It looked like a gigantic ant, or wasp, but silver and brass and covered with a sheen of slime.It was emerging like a chicken breaking out of an egg. Being born. And as the creature was born, it fed on Hunter__ numbed body.Jerky movements beneath Hunter__ shirt testified to more of the larvae emerging.__o you remember __ow I lay me down to sleep_?_ Dekka asked.__ow I lay me down to sleep,_ Hunter said. __ pray the Lord my soul to keep.__am raised his hands, palms out.__f I should die___win beams of light hit Hunter__ chest and face. His shirt caught fire. Flesh melted. He was dead before he could feel anything.Sam played the light up and down Hunter__ body. The smell was sickening. Jack wanted to look away, but how could he?Sudden darkness as Sam terminated the light.Sam lowered his hands to his side.They stood there in the darkness. Jack breathed through his mouth, trying not to smell the burned flesh.Then they heard a sound. Many sounds.Sam raised his hands and pale light glowed.Hunter was all but gone.The things that had been inside him were still there.

Little Pete. He__ not exactly just Astrid__ autistic brother._ He explained briefly while Toto added a chorus of __am believes that__ true_ remarks.__ow do we get Little Pete to do anything?_ Dekka asked.__he last time Little Pete felt mortal danger he made the FAYZ,_ Sam said. __e needs to be in mortal danger again.__ack and Dekka exchanged a wary look, each wondering what the other had known or guessed about Little Pete.__ittle Pete?_ Jack asked. __hat little kid has that kind of power?___es,_ Sam said simply. __ext to Pete, me, Caine, all of us, we__e like . . . like popguns compared to a cannon. We don__ even know what the limits of his powers are,_ Sam said. __hat we do know is we can__ communicate with him very well. We can__ even guess what he__ thinking.___ittle Pete,_ Dekka muttered and shook her head. __ knew he was important, I got that a long time ago. But he can do that? He has that kind of power?_ She pondered for a moment, nodded, and said, __ see why you kept it secret. It__ like having a nuclear weapon in the hands of, well, a little autistic kid.

Albert had created a currency based on gold bullets and McDonald__ game pieces. He__ wanted to call the currency something else, but no one remembered what. So, __ertos they were, a play on __lbert,_ coined by Howard, of course, who had also come up with __he FAYZ_ to describe their weird little world.Sam had thought Albert was nuts with his obsession with creating money. But the evidence was in: Albert__ system was producing just enough food for kids to survive. And a lot more kids were working. Far fewer were just hanging out. It was no longer impossible to get kids to go into the fields and do the backbreaking work of picking crops. They worked for __ertos and spent __ertos, and for now at least starvation was just a bad memory.

I__ trying to help,_ Albert said.__y paying him with beer?___ paid him what he wanted, and Sam was okay with it. You were at the meeting,_ Albert said. __ook, how else do you think you get someone like Orc to spend hours in the hot sun working? Astrid seems to think people will work just because we ask them to. Maybe some will. But Orc?__ana could see his point. __kay. I shouldn__ have jumped all over you.___t__ okay. I__ getting used to it,_ Albert said. __uddenly I__ the bad guy. But you know what? I didn__ make people the way they are. If kids are going to work, they__e going to want something back.___f they don__ work, we all starve.___eah. I get that,_ Albert said with more than a tinge of sarcasm. __nly, here__ the thing: Kids know we won__ let them starve as long as there__ any food left, right? So they figure, hey, let someone else do the work. Let someone else pick cabbages and artichokes.__ana wanted to get back to her run. She needed to finish, to run to the FAYZ wall. But there was something fascinating about Albert. __kay. So how do you get people to work?__e shrugged. __ay them.___ou mean, money?___eah. Except guess who had most of the money in their wallets and purses when they disappeared? Then a few kids stole what was left in cash registers and all. So if we start back using the old money we just make a few thieves powerful. It__ kind of a problem.___hy is a kid going to work for money if they know we__l share the food, anyway?_ Lana asked.__ecause some will do different stuff for money. I mean, look, some kids have no skills, right? So they pick the food for money. Then they take the money and spend it with some kid who can maybe cook the food for them, right? And that kid maybe needs a pair of sneakers and some other kid has rounded up all the sneakers and he has a store.__ana realized her mouth was open. She laughed. The first time in a while.__ine. Laugh,_ Albert said, and turned away.__o, no, no,_ Lana hastened to say. __o, I wasn__ making fun of you. It__ just that, I mean, you__e the only kid that has any kind of a plan for anything.

Listen, Sam, and everyone, you need to know something so it won__ freak you out: Pack Leader can speak. I mean, human words. Like Smart-Girl Barbie there was saying, he__ some kind of mutant or whatever. I know you think I__ probably crazy.__he had Hermit Jim__ tin cup now and used it to scoop up another helping of wonderful, wonderful pudding. Blondie__strid__as opening a can of fruit cocktail.__hat do you know about the FAYZ?_ Astrid asked.Lana stopped eating and stared at her. __he what?__strid shrugged and looked embarrassed. __hat__ what people are calling it. The Fallout Alley Youth Zone. FAYZ.___hat does that mean?___ave you seen the barrier?__he nodded. __h, yeah. I__e seen the barrier. I touched the barrier, which, by the way, is not a good idea.__am said, __s far as we can tell, it goes clear around in a big circle. Or maybe a sphere. We think the center is the power plant. It seems like a ten-mile radius from there, you know, twenty miles across.___ircumference of 62.83 miles, with an area of 314.159 square miles,_ Astrid said.__oint 159,_ Quinn echoed from his corner. __hat__ important.___t__ basically pi,_ Astrid said. __ou know, 3.14159265_. Okay, I__l stop.__ana hadn__ stopped being hungry. She took a scoop of the fruit cocktail. __am, you think the power plant caused it?__am shrugged, and then he hesitated, surprised. Lana guessed that he felt no pain in his shoulder. __o one knows. All of a sudden every single person over the age of fourteen disappears and there__ this barrier and people_animals__ana slowly absorbed this new information. __ou mean all the adults? They__e gone?___oof,_ Quinn said. __hey ditched. They blinked out. They vacated. They took the off-ramp. They cut a hole. They emigrated. Adults and teenagers. Nothing left but kids._____e done all I can to strengthen the door,_ Edilio announced. __ut all I have is nails. Someone can break it in eventually.___aybe they didn__ all ditch,_ Lana said. __aybe we did.__strid said, __hat__ definitely one of the possibilities, not that it makes any real difference. It__ effectively the same thing.

Um, people.__t wasn__ hard to get their attention. They gathered around. Even the littlest ones toned down their giggling, at least a bit.__irst of all, thanks to Albert and his helpers for this meal. Let__ give it up for the true Mac Daddy.__ round of hearty applause and some laughter, and Albert waved sheepishly. He frowned a little too, obviously conflicted about the use of the __ac_ prefix in a way that was not approved in the McDonald__ manual.__nd we have to mention Lana and Dahra, because without them, there would be a lot fewer of us here.__ow the applause was almost reverential.__ur first Thanksgiving in the FAYZ,_ Sam said when the applause died down.__ope it__ our last,_ someone shouted.__eah. You got that right,_ Sam agreed. __ut we__e here. We__e here in this place we never wanted to be. And we__e scared. And I__ not going to lie and tell you that from here on, it will all be easy. It won__ be. It will be hard. And we__l be scared some more, I guess. And sad. And lonely. Some terrible things have happened. Some terrible things_ For a moment, he lost his way. But then he stood up straighter again. __ut, still, we are grateful, and we give thanks to God, if you believe in Him, or to fate, or to just ourselves, all of us here.___o you, Sam,_ someone shouted.__o, no, no._ He waved that off. __o. We give thanks to the nineteen kids who are buried right there._ He pointed at the six rows of three, plus the one who started a seventh row. Neat hand-painted wooden tombstones bore the names of Bette and too many others.__nd we give thanks to the heroes who are standing around here right now eating turkey. Too many names to mention, and they__ all just be embarrassed, anyway, but we all know them.__here was a wave of loud, sustained applause, and many faces turned toward Edilio and Dekka, Taylor and Brianna, and some toward Quinn.__e all hope this will end. We all hope we__l soon be back in the world with people we love. But right now, we__e here. We__e in the FAYZ. And what we__e going to do is work together, and look out for each other, and help each other._ People nodded, some high-fived.__ost of us are from Perdido Beach. Some are from Coates. Some of us are_well, a little strange._ A few titters. __nd some of us are not. But we__e all here now, we__e all in it together. We__e going to survive. If this is our world now_I mean, it is our world now. It is our world. So, let__ make it a good one.__e stepped down in silence.Then someone started clapping rhythmically and saying, __am, Sam, Sam._ Others joined in, and soon every person in the plaza, even some of the prees, was chanting his name.

He overheard the director talking to one of the cameramen. The cameraman was explaining that he couldn__ get a good long shot on the exterior because someone had set up a fake graveyard right in the plaza.__ids just playing around, I guess, but it__ morbid; we__l have to get rid of it, maybe bring in some sod to____o,_ Albert said.__e__e almost ready for you,_ the director assured him.__hat__ not a fake graveyard. Those aren__ fake graves. No one was playing around.___ou__e saying those . . . those are actually . . .___hat do you think happened here?_ Albert asked in a soft voice. __hat do you think this was?_ Absurdly, embarrassingly, he had started to cry. __hose are kids buried there. Some of them were torn apart, you know. By coyotes. By . . . by bad people. Shot. Crushed. Like that. Some of those kids in the ground there couldn__ take it, the hunger and the fear . . . some of those kids out there had to be cut down from the ropes they used to hang themselves. Early on, when we still had any animals? I had a crew go out and hunt down cats. Cats and dogs and rats. Kill them. Other kids to skin them . . . cook them up.__here were a dozen crew people in the McDonald__. None spoke or moved.Albert brushed away tears and sighed. __eah. So don__ mess with the graves. Okay? Other than that, we__e good to go.

Dear Mr. Chance and Ms. Brattle. Sorry about the mess. Great bed. Loved it. As a matter of fact, loved the whole house. Actually, I tried to kill your kids when I found them here. Yeah, funny story. Maybe not funny, hah hah.___strid heard nervous laughter from the media people, or maybe just from the hotel staff who were hovering around the edges grabbing a glimpse of the Hollywood royalty.___nyway, I missed and they got away. I don__ know what will happen to Sanjit and that stick-up-his butt Choo and the rest, but whatever happens next, it__ not on me. However . . .___strid took a dramatic pause.___owever, the rest of what happened was on me. Me, Caine Soren. You__l probably be hearing a lot of crazy stories from kids. But what they didn__ know was that it was all me. Me. Me me. See, I had a power I never told anyone about. I had the power to make people do bad things. Crimes and whatnot. Especially Diana, who never did anything wrong on her own, by her own will, I mean. She__nd the rest of them__ere under my control. The responsibility is on me. I confess. Haul me away, officers.___strid suddenly felt her throat tightening, although she__ read the letter many times already, and knew what it said. Rotten son of a . . . And then this.Redemption. Not a bad concept.Well, partial redemption.__t__ signed Caine Soren. And below that, __ing of the FAYZ.___t was a full confession. A lie: a blatant, not-very-convincing lie. But it would be just enough to make prosecutions very difficult. Caine__ role in the FAYZ, and the reality that strange powers had actually existed in that space, were widely known and accepted.Of course Caine had enjoyed writing it. It was his penultimate act of control. He was manipulating from beyond the grave.

Three hundred and thirty-two kids between the age of one month and fourteen years had been confined within the FAYZ.One hundred and ninety-six eventually emerged.One hundred and thirty-six lay dead.Dead and buried in the town plaza.Dead and floating in the lake or on its shores.Dead in the desert.In the fields.Dead of battles old and recent. Of starvation and accident, suicide and murder.It was a fatality rate of just over 40 percent.

Guilt was a fascinating thing: it seemed not to weaken over time. If anything it grew stronger as the circumstances faded from memory, as the fear and the necessity became abstract. And only her own actions stood out with crystal clarity.

Sam and Caine were left standing side by side, bruised and battered, to stare over Penny's sickening corpse, at the face of their mother.

But hey this was the FAYZ, where all you could really hope was to delay the pain.

It__ time,_ Jack said.__reeze? Count the kids,_ Sam said.Brianna was back in twenty seconds. __ighty-two, boss.___bout a third,_ Jack observed. __ third of what__ left.___ait. Make that eighty-eight,_ Brianna said. __nd a dog.__ana, looking deeply irritated__ fairly usual expression for her__nd Sanjit, looking happy__ fairly usual expression for him__nd Sanjit__ siblings were trotting along to catch up.__ don__ know if we__e staying up there or not,_ Lana said without preamble. __ want to check it out. And my room smells like crap.__ust before the time was up, Sam heard a stir. Kids were making a lane for someone, murmuring. His heart leaped.__ey, Sam.__e swallowed the lump in his throat. __iana?___ot expecting me, huh?_ She made a wry face. __here__ blondie? I didn__ see her at the big pep rally.___re you coming with us?_ Brianna demanded, obviously not happy about it.__s Caine okay with this?_ Sam asked Diana. __t__ your choice, but I need to know if he__ going to come after us to take you back.___aine has what he wants,_ Diana said.__aybe I should call Toto over,_ Sam said. The truth teller was having a conversation with Spidey. __ could ask you whether you__e coming along to spy for Caine, and see what Toto has to say.__iana sighed. __am, I have bigger problems than Caine. And so do you, I guess. Because the FAYZ is going to do something it__ never done before: grow by one.___hat__ that mean?___ou are going to be an uncle.__am stared blankly. Brianna said a very rude word. And even Dekka looked up.__ou__e having a baby?_ Dekka asked.__et__ hope so,_ Diana said bleakly. __et__ hope that__ all it is.

Sam woke to a feeling of utter, profound, incredible relief.He closed his eyes as soon as he opened them, afraid that being awake would just invite something terrible to appear.Astrid was back. And she was asleep with her head on his arm. His arm was asleep, completely numb, but as long as that blond head was right there his arm could stay numb.She smelled like pine trees and campfire smoke.He opened his eyes, cautious, almost flinching, because the FAYZ didn__ make a habit of allowing him pure, undiluted happiness. The FAYZ made a habit of stomping on anything that looked even a little bit like happiness. And this level of happiness was surely tempting retaliation. From this high up the fall could be a long, long one.