“Sometimes I think they’ve given up on finding a cure, and now they’re just operating on… I don’t know, something like spite. “You can’t mess with these people,” he said, trying to sort his mind with reason. Newt was ashamed again, this time from the relief that flooded his body after the most recent surge of the Flare’s assaulting madness. “What on Earth are you talking about?” She sounded more hurt than angry.
All of these thoughts went through his mind like a prayer. He sighed, wondering why his decisions always had to break his heart. And the clearest thought he’d ever had flowed into his mind like clean water from a mountain stream. He felt as if someone had lifted a curtain, freeing his mind to see and think freely. When he opened his eyes again, no mist obscured his vision. His nerves calmed, the noise faded, his heart slowed. Then he closed his eyes and took several deep breaths without saying anything. Newt gave his best attempt at his own smile. But her face lit up with a smile, a beaming smile, like something from the days before the apocalypse, surely. He looked at her, in disbelief she could say something so cruel. “I don’t know how you just pulled that off back there, but my guess is it’s because you’ve lost your damn mind. Keisha reached up and turned on the little interior truck light, a beacon against the darkness. The storm inside Newt continued to recede he could hear her, actually hear her words clearly. “Thattaboy,” Keisha said, patting him on the shoulder. Newt had no memory of sunset, of fading light. As if the sun had been hurled to the other side of the planet. The night settled around them like an ocean of black air, as if they’d sunk to the bottom of an alien sea.
But somehow he had known enough from his prior life, watching his parents drive, memories leaking like water from old pipes, to get them away from the horde of Cranks. Since the Swipe inflicted by WICKED, he had, of course, never driven. Amidst the pulse of his entire body, thumping like a giant heart, he put the car into park. The car slammed to a stop, vaulting his body into the steering wheel. Newt lifted his foot and pressed down on the brake.
Keisha was screaming in his ear, even though it sounded like a whisper. He looked in the rear view mirror on some instinct, but he couldn’t see anything. He forced himself to ease up on the accelerator, felt the force of the engines lessen as the tunnel of vision zooming past his senses slowed, slowed. Newt understood on some level how lucky they were that he was on a relatively straight road, because he was barely holding onto his wits.
0 kommentar(er)
