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It’s real, she thought. Her last thought. The darkness is real.
93
WHEN BENNY OPENED HIS EYES ONCE MORE, THE WORLD HAD CHANGED.
It wasn’t the inside of the plane. It was daytime.
There was a motor roar, and even though he could not turn his head, he could cut his eyes left and right. There were quads. Riot and Chong on one. Nix and Eve on another. A big dog galloping along with them.
Is that a dog barking? wondered Benny. The dog was all in armor, and Benny thought that was cool.
He heard the motors slow.
“Sanctuary,” said a voice.
Nix?
He thought so.
“We have to hurry,” said another voice. Joe. “He’s slipping fast.”
Benny wondered if they were talking about him.
Or Chong?
The quads moved forward, and Benny looked up to see a big chain-link fence.
We’re home, he thought. We made it all the way back to Mountainside.
But there was a sign beside the gate he’d never seen on the fence back home. It read:
SANCTUARY
GIVE ME YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR
YOUR HUDDLED MASSES YEARNING TO BREATHE FREE
But below that the original words were still visible, though sand-blasted to pale ghosts of letters by the unrelenting desert winds. As Benny passed the sign he read it:
AREA 51
UNITED STATES AIR FORCE
THIS IS A RESTRICTED AREA
TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED
He closed his eyes again and the world went away, taking all its puzzles and mysteries with it.
EPILOGUE
-1-
BENNY SAW TOM THERE IN THE DARKNESS.
His brother stood halfway down a long hallway that vanished into soft gray light. Tom was dressed for the Ruin, with his leather jacket and the kami katana slung over his shoulder.
“Tom?”
