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He moved the light up in the air, ten, twelve feet, then sent it drifting across the settlement, like a weak searchlight. Burned cars, burned tents. Burned bodies.
Sam rushed to the nearest body. No, too short to be Astrid.
“You don’t want to do that, man. Because if it is her you don’t want to see it.”
It bordered on compassionate. At another time Sam might have appreciated it. Now he stared down at a kid who looked like a plastic toy soldier that had been put in the microwave.
Caine directed him to move the light out over the water. A sailboat—no, half a sailboat—rocked crazily in the gentle swell.
Suddenly, there was movement. Sam and Caine both spun toward the sound. A person, walking.
>
“Who’s that?” Caine demanded.
No answer.
“I count to three and if I reach three you die,” Caine said tersely.
“Don’t!”
There was something odd about the voice. It sounded too deep. Caine grabbed Sam’s floating light and brought it closer.
Sam and Caine both stared.
“You’re an adult!” Sam said.
“Who are you?” Caine demanded. “How did you get here? Is the barrier down?”
The man was a wreck, that much was clear. He had a stump of an arm with dangling bits of meat half healed. No surgeon had done that.
“What’s your name?” Sam asked.
“Alex.”
“Where did you come from, Alex?”
“I . . . I fell through.”
Both stared. It was weird. Both still felt some automatic deference to adults, but at the same time it was clear that they were the ones in charge here. This particular adult was not exactly ready to take charge.
“Hey, Alex, you need to start talking,” Caine said. “What do you mean you fell through?”
“The goddess . . . she drew me through the barrier so that I might feed her.” He clenched his remaining fist, but the expression on his face was almost reverential.
Sam and Caine exchanged a glance. They’d both seen their share of kids in shock, kids deranged by trauma. This was their first adult. Their first adult of any kind in a very long time, and he was crazy.
“What happened here? Did you see?” Sam asked.
The man pointed to the bluff overlooking the east end of the lake and the settlement. “She came from there. The goddess of light. She swept down upon them . . .”
“Gaia?” Caine asked.
“You know her?” Alex asked eagerly. “Do you have food?”
“Did anyone survive?” Sam asked, his voice catching, afraid to hear the answer.
“Yes, some. Children. They went off . . .” He searched around, then nodded. “That way. I saw some trying to get a body from the lake. I think maybe they drowned. Judgment day. Hey? Like judgment day.”
