“I’m here. Where do I find her?”
Dylan quickly maneuvered around all the nearby houses, searching for signs of life.
“Door is dead bolted,” Clooger said, pressing his sound ring. “The window on the left has a latch you can turn. She’s upstairs, farthest door on the right.”
“Unless she got up and started scouting the neighborhood,” Hawk said. “I wouldn’t put it past her.”
Clooger had moved Faith farther away from the Western State and locked her away, and then he’d fled to find Hawk. The clock was ticking, and Hawk had been stranded in the HumGee all alone. Without Clooger he had no protection, and officials from the Western State would almost certainly discover the missing prison before long. It would be one of the first places they would look once the pieces started falling together.
“We’ve moved about twenty miles up into the middle of nowhere,” Clooger said. “Way up into the forest. Soon as it gets dark we’ll put some miles behind us.”
“When are you telling me where we’re going?” Dylan asked, pressing his sound ring as he came around to the front of the house again, satisfied that no one was nearby.
“For tonight you’re not going anywhere. Just stay put once you find Faith.”
“Lucky.” Hawk pressed into the sound ring. “I’m stuck with Clooger. But we’re watching Modern Family, so I’m surviving.”
“Let me know if she’s okay,” Clooger said. “Other than that we’re going silent on the sound ring for the night. You two need some peace and quiet.”
Dylan had a familiar feeling as he landed on the front porch of a two-story house in a zeroed town a hundred miles outside the Western State. Faith’s second pulse should have put an end to situations where he sat by her side, waiting for her to wake up from an injury he felt somehow responsible for.
He found the window and, turning the latch with his mind, raised the glass out of the way. Inside it was cold and silent. A few birds and some mice had found their way in over the years, but it was surprisingly well kept for having been vacant for such a long time. Whoever had lived in the house had taken down all the personal stuff and left behind the furniture. The last light of day fell upon the stairs as Dylan quietly scaled them one at a time. His nerves were shot, and he was more exhausted than he’d ever been in his life; but his adrenaline was pumping from a combination of excitement about seeing Faith and the fear of an intruder having beaten him there.
He arrived at the door and ran both hands through his hair. It had turned thick and wavy from hours in flight without the advantage of a bullet suit to protect him. He was suddenly aware of how cold he was—chilled to the bone.
He opened the door to a small, dark room with the curtains drawn. A small shaft of light split the curtains in two, the last remains of the daylight leaking into a secret space. There were so many comforters and blankets layered on top of the bed that it was hard to tell if anyone lay beneath them. He moved in, closing the door behind him.
“Faith?” he whispered as he knelt down near the sleeping figure. He leaned in close and felt her warm breath. She was alive, this much he knew, and that was enough to close the sound ring for the night.
He pressed in and turned away from the bed.
“She’s okay. We’re safe. Signing off until tomorrow.”
Clooger pressed in: “We promise not to bother you. Get some sleep, both of you.”
“Talk tomorrow, buddy,” Hawk said. “I’m looking forward to seeing you both.”
“Me, too,” Dylan said, pressing his sound ring for the last time that day.
He took a deep breath and walked around to the other side of the bed. Shoes were removed, and he slid in under the heavy coat of blankets. The sheets were cold on his side, but as he inched closer, the warmth of Faith’s body comforted him. She stirred, rolling her head toward him.
“Dylan?” she asked, dreamy.
“Yes, it’s me. I’m here.”
“Come closer, just be gentle,” she said. “The wound is on my side, here.”
She took his icy hand in hers and guided it toward her. Faith’s hand was warm and soft, and as he felt the place along her side where the damage had been done, she flinched.
“It’s okay,” she said, smiling but tearful. The wounds of loss and the happiness of being together again were swirling her emotions into something she couldn’t begin to control. She felt doubt and regret and love and triumph.
Faith pulled Dylan’s arm around her as she slowly rolled toward him. Dylan’s eyes had adjusted to the softness of the waning light. She was the most beautiful person he’d ever seen, and touching her face with his cold hand, her eyes brightened.
“We’re going to need to warm those up before you touch anything else.”
He kissed her and she drew him near, Dylan’s body beginning to warm. Faith felt the coolness of his lips and the soft, dark stubble that had filled in his face. Her senses stirred as she looked into his dark eyes—he was her one and only, come back to take her in his arms.
Dylan held her as tightly as he could without hurting her, and he thought of all the things he could say. He could start down the long road strewn with doubts and losses, but instead he chose not to say anything at all. He touched her soft hair and wiped a tear from her face, and then he kissed her again. They settled into a cup, he behind, and he smelled the flowery blossom of her hair.
“I’m never leaving you again,” he said.
Dylan lay awake as he felt Faith drift back into a deep sleep, the sedative working its magic once more. It felt to him like the safest place on Earth, there in the cold house in the zeroed town under all those blankets, holding her close. He took comfort in more than just Faith. It had been a very bad day, the worst one of his life. He’d lost both parents, one he’d never known. They’d lost their entire army, meager as it was. But he had Faith, and he had his closest friends: Clooger and Hawk. It was the four of them now, and that would have to be enough.
There needed to be moments of silence in a journey this difficult. This would be one of them. Soon enough they would come together again. They were moving toward a time when they would regain their strength and formulate their plans. They would go to a secret place so far into the wild even Hotspur Chance couldn’t find them. They would have a few weeks to recover, maybe a month.
After that, one way or another, the end would be upon them all.
About the Author
PATRICK CARMAN is the New York Times bestselling author of such acclaimed series as the Land of Elyon and Atherton, the teen superhero novel Thirteen Days to Midnight, and the first book in the Pulse series. A multimedia pioneer, Patrick authored The Black Circle, the fifth title in the 39 Clues series, and the groundbreaking Dark Eden, Skeleton Creek, and Trackers books. An enthusiastic reading advocate, Patrick has visited more than one thousand schools, developed village library projects in Central America, and created author outreach programs for communities. He lives in Walla Walla, Washington, with his family. You can visit him online at www.patrickcarman.com.
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Praise for Pulse
“Compelling and original, with pulse-pounding action and a poignant love story.”—PITTACUS LORE, #1 New York Times bestselling author of I Am Number Four
“Impressive! Fascinating and thought-provoking.”—JAMES DASHNER, New York Times bestselling author of the Maze Runner trilogy
“The successful mix of suspense and romance combines with unexpected twists to keep readers engrossed from the start and begging for more.”—Kirkus Reviews
“[An] impressive take on the postapocalyptic novel.”—Publishers Weekly
“Engrossing and suspense-filled.”—School Library Journal
Books by Patrick Carman
PULSE
DARK EDEN
DARK EDEN: PHANTOM FILE
DARK EDEN: EVE OF DESTRUCTION
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Credits
Cover illustration © 2014 by vimark/Max Mitenkov
Cover design by Joel Tippie
Copyright
Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Tremor
Copyright © 2014 by Patrick Carman
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Carman, Patrick.
Tremor / Patrick Carman. — First edition.
pages cm
Sequel to: Pulse.
Summary: “In the year 2051, one group of telekinesis masters attempts to use their powers to stop another group of telekinesis masters from destroying the world”— Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-06-208580-1 (hardcover bdg.)
EPUB Edition JANUARY 2014 ISBN 9780062085825
[1. Science fiction. 2. Psychic ability—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.C21694Ts 2014
2013015453
[Fic]—dc23
CIP
AC
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13 14 15 16 17 LP/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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Patrick Carman, Tremor
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