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  "Says the liar," David said. He eyed the ground and faced me again. "What are we going to do with you?"

  "I told you," I said. I was shaking. "We'll leave and we won't bother you again. We aren't even going to stay on this side of the country. Do any of you have people on the eastern half?" I asked, facing the group by the Cat.

  Tony shifted. "My aunt's in North Carolina."

  "We're not going over there," David said. "There's going to be a food shortage and probably a war. We're better off over here with less competition. You heard what they said. Five to ten percent of us are going to survive, and I plan on being one of them. If any of you want to go off and die, go ahead."

  He'd heard the broadcasts, too. Now I knew why he was staying out here.

  "Well, let me and Alana go off and die, then," I said.

  "There's no telling when you'll come back to Colton," David said. "Sorry, Laney, but there isn't going to be enough food to go around."

  "I won't come back to this town," I said.

  "That's right," David said, drawing closer. He held the gun up a bit more. "That's because you're not leaving Colton in the first place."

  Chapter Fifteen

  I hadn't expected David to show an ounce of kindness. I had expected him to shoot us after a long speech about how terrible we were and that was exactly what was happening here. I wondered how long it would take me to die and if I'd have time for the others to count how far apart my breaths came. If Alana could count anymore. Then David would tow the truck and discover the others still in the back. We'd had bad luck, hitting that light pole. That was all.

  I'd never get a chance to help bring Alana back after all.

  It might not matter anyway. I'd take this without any whining or crying. It was all I had left. Maybe I'd get lucky and it wouldn't be a void after all.

  But who knew?

  I knew better than to hope.

  David drew closer. "I think we'll need to put you away," he said. "Tony. Eric. Open the that sewer cover."

  Sheer terror rose in me again. Tony and Eric walked across the parking lot, towards the manhole in the middle of the street. We didn't have a lot of manhole covers, but once, when we were kids, Alana and I had peeked down one that was open with workers inside. It was dark. Small. Tiny. I'd heard from one of our teachers that the sewers all led down to an underground tank. A kid had drowned in that tank back in the eighties when he'd gone down on a dare. The schools even hung his obituary outside the office every year, to remind all us kids never to try that.

  Why wouldn't David just shoot me? It would be easier.

  Tony and Eric worked on prying the manhole cover off with a crowbar. "Is this really what we have to do?" Tony asked. "Guns are a lot cleaner."

  "You want another body in the street?" David asked him.

  "No," Tony said, putting all he had into prying the cover open. I hoped, prayed that it would stay stuck. He wouldn't look at me. Even Tony was freaked out. David had these people under his foot and he knew.

  But the cover did not stay stuck. It came free and slid to the side, revealing darkness. Water trickled somewhere down there--water that would head right for that underground tank. I wondered if that boy's remains were still down there. They must have recovered him somehow. I'd heard from Mom and Dad that the city workers had blocked all the entrances and exits to the sewer system years ago to keep any more kids from getting out.

  It would be tight and dark and close in there.

  I couldn't go down there.

  "Laney," David ordered. "Get down there."

  I glanced at Alana and saw her standing there, frozen by the truck, silent tears running down her cheeks. I was the last thing she had. Jerome and Gina remained silent in the back of the truck. It was angled so that I couldn't see them in the bed, covered by the blankets they'd stolen from the old woman.

  "No," I said.

  David smiled. It was the most sick, horrible smile I'd ever seen. He was doing this so that I would suffer, maybe even for days. I thought about that boy and how it must have felt, being trapped in that underground tank with water up to his chin. Once I was down there, David would put something heavy over the manhole cover. He'd block them all.

  "Get down," he ordered. "You're right that you won't bother us again."

  My chin trembled. I was about to lose it in front of all of them. "Just shoot me," I begged. "It's better that way."

  "Ammo is precious," David said. "Get down."

  Tony backed away. Eric stood back and watched. None of them were doing anything to help me. They didn't want to be the ones to stand up to David--and each other. None of them did. Everyone was scared to be the rebel. Even Christina stood back with Jasmine and Mina, pressing against the Cat.

  Someone had to be the brave one.

  I let the tears start flowing. David smiled even wider. He was hurting me in every way and he was happy about it. An image flashed in my mind of that little girl, scared and curling up in her bed while the monsters tried to grab at her. I watched her morph into the Grim Reaper like I feared, but this time I grabbed onto that. I was going to die anyway. I wasn't going to make it easy for David.

  I let out a sob and he lowered the gun.

  And then I jumped at him.

  He raised the gun and fired, but not before I plowed into him and knocked him backwards. The bullet whizzed past my ear, taking off some of my hair, but I ignored it. A gunshot would be a better way to go.

  Unless he put me in the sewer before I died.

  I raised one fist and punched David in the shoulder, but he was bigger than me and managed to throw me off. He rubbed his arm, sitting up, and raised the gun at me again. His cheeks flushed red with rage. Tony and Eric watched and backed away as I stared down the dark barrel of the weapon. It was a void, just like what I feared.

  I closed my eyes.

  Someone let out a war cry and David yelled out in pain.

  I opened my eyes. Jerome roared and raised one fist, bringing it down on David's face. David dropped the gun. I blinked, crawled over, and picked it up. It was cold and dead. Heavy. Tony and Eric raised their guns towards me and I pointed mine back.

  "I don't want to shoot you!" I shouted. "I don't want to hurt you!" I would if I had to. I was outnumbered. Tony and I faced each other, weapons raised, not moving while Jerome and David wrestled on the ground. They were close to the manhole cover. Eric backed away a bit again. He shook his head and closed his eyes. He didn't want to shoot me either.

  Jerome punched David again. Blood spewed out of his nose. "Kill him!" Jerome shouted at me. "Shoot him now."

  David growled and turned redder. He clawed at Jerome's arms and managed to roll him to the side. I couldn't get a shot off. I wasn't even sure the gun was loaded. But then Jerome got the upper hand again and David was face-up on the ground.

  "Get him off me!" he shouted at Tony and Eric. "What are you standing there for?"

  "He'll turn against you!" I shouted at them. I held the gun, pointing at David's head. "He'll be against you next." I didn't want to do this but we had to.

  I pulled the trigger.

  The gun clicked.

  No ammo.

  "I told you!" David yelled. "Kill her! Just kill them and get it over with!"

  Tony shook. The gun did with him. “I can’t,” he said. “I can’t do it and watch.”

  Jerome plowed his fist into David’s face again, making a horrible cracking sound. They were close to the manhole cover. Gina had gotten out of the truck. She stood nearby. Eric and Tony didn’t even realize she was there. Alana stayed right behind her. There was nothing they could do about Eric and Tony.

  “The sewer!” I yelled to Jerome and Gina. Jerome was busy fighting David, trying to keep the raging animal down. “Throw him in the sewer!”

  David must have heard, because he fought harder, gritting his teeth and reaching for Jerome’s throat. I moved and kicked David in the side. His grip loosened. I waited for the shot to ring out, but nothing cam
e. The whole world was this fight. Gina ran to the other side of it. She kicked too. David gasped and looked up towards the sky. His eyes widened and more blood streaked out of his nose. I wanted to throw up but went to my numb place. This was a monster lying here. We had to get rid of him. He wasn’t like the others I had seen die.

  Jerome got off David, and he kept lying there, breathing heavily.

  “We can’t let him get up again,” I said. I grabbed his arm. Gina got the other and Jerome grabbed his legs. But David came to all the way and thrashed. “No!” he shouted. “You can’t put me down there. This group needs me. You’re all going to die without me. See how long you last.”

  His pupils were dilated in terror as we dragged him closer to the manhole. Tony and Eric backed off. I hated that look. David was terrified. I knew how it felt and I almost let go. But I couldn’t let him get to me. It was how he worked.

  I really, really wished Tony or Eric would shoot him.

  Jerome nearly tripped over the open manhole. He dropped David’s legs in and he screamed. Gina and I strained, lifting up his limp weight, and let go.

  David reached for the ladder and struggled to grab on as he fell. Water splashed. The top of his head vanished into the dark. Jerome grunted and threw the manhole cover over the hole, sealing David’s fate.

  “The truck!” he shouted. “Alana—back it over the cover.”

  Inside the manhole, David screamed.

  Alana snapped out of her trance and rushed for the truck. She climbed over the boulders and inside, starting it up again. The lights blazed back to life, illuminating the tree, the dead buildings…everything. The gears clicked and ground and at last, as if she wanted to just get this over with, Alana backed the truck over the manhole cover.

  Tony and Eric’s mouths fell open. Eric let the gun fall to his jeans. His shoulders sagged. The guy was relieved. It was that kind of relief you felt after the worst happened and you didn’t have to deal with it anymore.

  David screamed again and went silent.

  I turned away from the cover, facing the dark wall that used to be the stores on Main Street. I could see my reflection in the windows, backlit by the truck’s headlights. My hair was scraggly. My tank top, torn and covered in black soot. I was one of the monsters in my drawings now.

  I leaned over and I threw up while Jerome challenged David’s gang to try something. I wasn’t paying attention to anything as I retched, but the one thing that stuck out to me was that no shots went off.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I was right in that everyone was too scared to stand up to David.

  His screams didn’t return from under the manhole cover. I hated that we’d thrown him down there. I knew what that suffocating feeling was like, and with water…I didn’t want to imagine.

  I wondered if he had reached that underground tank yet and if the exits and entrances really were blocked off like everyone said.

  Jasmine was crying, leaning against the Cat and just bawling her eyes out. Christina had dropped her gun like she didn’t want to handle it anymore. Alana stood next to the truck, staring at the row of dark stores and the Ice Scream place we spent so many good memories in.

  I did not just help kill David.

  If he was even dead yet.

  I did not pull the trigger, expecting to kill him.

  “You had to do that,” Gina said, appearing next to me as I sat there on the boulder, facing the dark where I knew many bodies were lying.

  “I know,” I said.

  “Everyone’s better off.”

  “I’m just glad they’re not trying to kill us.”

  “David was dangerous. He had to go. He was going to kill someone else if we weren’t here. All these people knew it.”

  “It was my idea,” I muttered. I stood up. “It was my idea to put him in the sewer.” I thought of him down there in the dark. It would follow me into sleep.

  “It’s like you said,” Alana told me. I hadn’t realized she was standing behind me. “Kindness and compassion don’t exist anymore, do they?”

  “Unless you count getting rid of David for these people,” Gina said.

  I looked behind me. I had forgotten that the gang was armed. Christina was hugging Jasmine. Eric and Tony were milling around by the Cat like they weren’t sure where to go. The truck remained over the manhole cover, blocking the way out. There was always a chance David could get free, but what could we do about that?

  He was the odd one out now. That helped.

  And scared.

  Like me.

  Gina and Alana sat next to me. Jerome was over talking to Eric and the others, but at least the conversation wasn't heated. "I told you this thing came from space," Jerome said. "David's hated me from the start."

  Jasmine coughed. "He was freaking me out. Really, really freaking me out."

  "I didn't want to say anything," Christina said. Even she was repulsed by David. All the girls left standing had seen what he was. "He would have thrown one of us down the sewer instead. He threatened to do that to Jasmine, so I had to get close to him to stop him from doing that. I kept having to tell him what a great guy he was." Then she paused. "Please say none of you were in the gas station when he threw the match."

  The air got colder and I wrapped my arms around myself. These people had just been trying to preserve themselves. It was instinct. I couldn't blame them, but at the same time I wanted to get up and murder them all for leaving us in that station. They outnumbered David.

  Maybe he made each and every one of them feel like they were alone.

  Divide and conquer. That could be David's strategy.

  Jerome and the others pulled away and kept talking. The death smell was still in the air, but I was getting used to it. It was like what Mom said about the pickle factory. The brine was always there and you could smell it if you tried, but most of the time you could tune it out. I'd have to do that now. It was the only way to keep my sanity.

  "What were you saying about Florida?" Alana asked Gina.

  "We should head there first," she said. "Maybe Laney's right that we should all split up and find our people."

  "No," I said. If I had come to Colton alone, I would be dying in a sewer right now. It was Jerome who had saved my hide. "Maybe we can try this sticking together thing. We've got this truck. It still moves. We're not getting far without it." The thought of taking any longer to reach Dad was terrifying, but at the same time reassuring. If he was gone, I would go longer without seeing the truth. It was a horrible thought, but after what Alana had gone through, I couldn't help but have it.

  "Then we can go," Alana said. She was flat. Numb. Her eyes were somewhere else. I wondered when the full horror would hit. I'd be there for her when it did. "But we have to take care of things here first."

  I knew what she meant.

  Everyone's families.

  No one wanted to leave them out in the open like this. Tomorrow night was going to be hard. There would be a lot of crying. Eight people would have to mourn. I'd be the only one out. Our situations were reversed. I was lucky. I still had hope after all.

  "I get it," I said, dread filling my insides.

  "And after that, we all leave," Gina said. "Who knows what's going to happen after that?"

  I thought of Dad on the other side of the country, mourning when he didn't have to mourn. Getting to him would take priority.

  "Okay," I said. "I'll come with you guys. And I'll try to have hope."

  Thank you for reading The Pulse. It is different than any other book I have written to date and was certainly an adventure for me! If you liked this book, please consider writing a review on one of the Amazon sites as this helps me reach new readers. Also, if you'd like to know when I release the second book of this series, you can sign up for my newsletter HERE (hint: there might also be some free stuff involved.)

  The sequel to The Pulse, The Storm, will be released on Feb. 15, 2017!

  ly Hook, The Pulse