Strangelets Read online

  “Stop talking about it,” Anat said sharply. “You’re wrong.”

  “We’ll see, won’t we? If Yosh and Zain come back, and it turns out those vents don’t lead anywhere at all, well then …” He shrugged.

  Anat turned her back on him and crossed her arms, refusing to listen to any more of his nonsense.

  All at once, there was a groan of metal hinges from down the hall. Declan and Nico leapt to their feet. Anat was already at the hook in the corridor by the time they caught up to her.

  A seam had appeared in the wall at the end of the hallway in the boys’ wing; it slowly creaked open. Anat cursed silently; she should have found that when she examined the boys’ side. Obviously she hadn’t looked closely enough.

  In spite of her irritation, a wave of profound relief swept over her. Declan had been wrong. There was a way out. They were alive.

  Yosh stood there. In addition to plaster dust, she was covered in filth and cobwebs.

  And she was alone.

  “Bloody well done!” Declan exclaimed. “How’d you get it open?” He walked forward and examined the door. “Brilliant,” he said. “Looks like just another wall panel. Lined with concrete, too, so we wouldn’t have known even if we tackled this section …”

  Anat tuned him out; she couldn’t care less about the door, as long as it stayed open. Something was off about the Japanese girl, though. She had a glazed look in her eyes, and she was clenching and releasing her fists.

  “Are you all right?” Nico lay a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t react. He exchanged a worried look with Anat.

  “What’s wrong?” Anat demanded. “Where is the Indian?”

  “He has a name, you know,” Declan said as he came back over to them. “Young Zain didn’t get stuck in the vents, did he?”

  Without responding, Yosh turned on her heel and slipped back into the darkness. They all stared after her.

  “That was bloody strange,” Declan muttered. “What do you think?”

  “We follow her,” Anat said.

  “Well, yeah,” Declan said. “But why does she look like she’s seen a ghost?”

  “Guess we’ll find out,” Nico said with a shrug, but his eyes were anxious when they met hers.

  They hesitated a second longer, then Anat decided. “I’m following her.”

  “Right. Let me get Sophie, we’ll be right behind you.” Declan turned back toward the girls’ wing and strode down the hall.

  Once he vanished around the bend, Nico turned to Anat and said, “I don’t like this.”

  “I don’t either,” she replied in a low voice. “I’ll watch your back if you watch mine.”

  “Deal.” He reached out to shake her hand. She felt old calluses on his palm. Nico gave her a broad smile in spite of the circumstances, and held the grip an instant longer than necessary. Anat frowned, hoping he wasn’t going to take watching her back too literally. “Let’s go.”

  “What is this place?” Sophie asked.

  Declan didn’t trust himself to answer. He’d practically carried her up five flights of stairs and was panting from the effort. The stairwell was long and narrow, made entirely of concrete with the floors marked off by numbers stenciled in black paint. There were doors to other levels at each landing, but they were all locked, and as long as the stairs kept going up he figured they needn’t bother checking them. It reminded him of a car-park stairwell, except it didn’t reek of piss. The air was musty and stale, though, which wasn’t much of an improvement.

  Yosh and Anat were well out of sight by the time he and Sophie reached the foot of the stairs. Nico offered to go last, a strange choice for him considering their slow progress. Declan got the sense that the lad was leery of turning his back on them. Under any other circumstances, Declan would’ve found that hilarious. But in truth, he found himself overly aware of Nico’s gaze on his back.

  You’re being paranoid, he told himself. Nico might be a bastard, but he had no reason to hurt them.

  Still, Declan did his best to keep a few risers between them during the ascent.

  There still hadn’t been any sign of Zain. Declan was praying that he’d be waiting up top, having just decided to stay there for some reason. There was something about the silence in that stairwell that was more frightening than anything else so far.

  At the top a steel door stood agape, heavy and ominous looking. They emerged from it into an enormous room, the size of an airplane hangar. It was filled with computer equipment, huge towers, and complicated-looking panels. Silent and dark as a tomb, cast in an eerie red glow by emergency lights placed at staggered intervals. It looked like a scene straight out of an old James Bond film; Declan half-expected to find a villain in a swiveling chair stroking a cat.

  “Wow,” Sophie said, staring around wide-eyed. “I feel like I stumbled onto a movie set.”

  “Or maybe mission control?” he offered.

  She issued a short laugh, but it didn’t sound very sincere. He couldn’t blame her. The place felt threatening, oppressive. Like there wasn’t enough air, despite the large open space. Even though it was clearly some sort of high-tech facility, Declan got the sense that bad things had happened here.

  After all, something had spooked Yosh. She was standing in the center of the room with Anat beside her. They weren’t talking. Anat looked impatient: her arms were crossed over her chest and she was scowling at them. “We’ve been waiting five minutes.”

  “Sorry,” Declan said. “ ’Course, you could always have lent a hand.”

  Anat tossed her curls and threw Nico a glance. Some sort of silent communication passed between them, the sight of which Declan didn’t like at all.

  Sophie groaned slightly, distracting him. Her forehead was slick with sweat, and she looked even paler than she had down below. She appeared on the verge of collapse. “All right, bird?” he asked with concern.

  “Fine,” she said faintly. “Just … a little dizzy.”

  “Hang in there, we’re almost through. I think.” He looked back at Anat and Yosh. “There is a way out, yeah?”

  “I don’t know.” Anat glared at Yosh. “She won’t talk, and stopped moving while we waited for you.”

  He stared at the girl, who gazed blankly past them as if they weren’t even there. Her chest rose and fell rapidly under the thin fabric of her shirt.

  “Which way?” Nico asked.

  Yosh abruptly turned on her heel and led them up a narrow metal stairwell. At the top, another steel door led to a long hallway. And at the end of that, a set of double doors rimmed by daylight.

  “Thank God for that,” Declan muttered. “Never thought I’d be so happy to see the sun.”

  Yosh still didn’t answer, which was starting to wreck his nerves. What was wrong with her?

  As they shuffled down the hall in silence, Declan tried to get a grip on his fear. They were aboveground now. There would be food, and people. They’d all be able to get back where they belonged. He hadn’t been kidding about the purgatory theory—it occurred to him when he kept striking cement while punching holes in the walls. He simply couldn’t come up with another explanation for how such a random assortment of kids ended up in the same place. Maybe purgatory was like prison, with everyone segregated by age and time of death. The more he’d thought about it, the more sense it made.

  But if that really was daylight up ahead …

  Yosh stepped aside after crossing the threshold. Declan helped Sophie through the doors, both of them blinking against the glare.

  It took a second for his eyes to adjust. What he saw made him gasp, “Jaysus.”

  “Where are we?” Sophie asked.

  “This is not Israel,” Anat said in a low voice. “Or Japan.”

  It wasn’t Galway, either. Declan had pictured the doors opening onto the ambulance bay of a busy hospital: the UCHG, or Bon Secours, maybe. Instead, he found himself facing a large parking lot bordered by trees. Sections of the pavement had buckled, and cars tilted crazily on th
em, like polar bears clinging to sinking ice floes. Even the air smelled foreign. Declan swallowed the lump in his throat. He tried to sound reassuring as he said, “Well, at least we’re not trapped in that dungeon anymore.”

  No one replied. As a group, they turned in a slow circle. A dense forest enveloped what remained of the parking lot and encircled the ruined building from which they’d emerged. Weeds erupted from cracks in the concrete walls, and one whole section had collapsed under the weight of a fallen tree. Heavy branches drooped low overhead. It was hot and sunny, at least thirty degrees Celsius. He immediately started to sweat.

  “Where’s Zain?” Declan asked, peering around. No sign of the slim Indian boy anywhere. Would he really have taken off without them? But that didn’t make sense; none of this would be familiar to him either, right? He was reasonably certain India looked nothing like this.

  Yosh still appeared to be in some kind of trance.

  “Where are all the people?” Anat demanded. “Someone owns these cars.”

  “Looks like there was a big quake, yeah? Maybe they were evacuated,” Declan said.

  “Maybe.” Sophie gazed doubtfully around the parking lot. She lowered her voice so that only he could hear and asked, “What do you think happened to Zain?”

  “He might’ve taken off as soon as they got up here, figuring he’d be best on his own.” Even as he said it, Declan doubted it. The way Zain had drawn his shoulders back and given his word, like it really meant something; he wasn’t the type to abandon a wee girl and head off alone, not unless Declan had misread him entirely. Maybe Yosh was just struck dumb by the fact that they were all clearly a long way from home, no denying it now.

  “But the way she’s not talking, like something really scared her …” Sophie dropped her voice lower and said, “Zain wouldn’t have done anything to … hurt her, right?”

  In spite of everything, Declan snorted and said, “Unlikely.” He considered himself an expert on spotting potential problems, human and otherwise. Even based on the short time they’d spent together, he could tell that Zain was one of the good ones.

  “So, what then?”

  Declan shrugged, wishing he had a better answer. It was hard to ignore the gut feeling that something was really off, and they might have been better off underground with all the exits sealed.

  Anat was muttering under her breath, Hebrew from the sound of it, and probably not the nicest selection of words. She glowered at their surroundings as if personally offended by the overgrowth, then turned back to face them. “This is some sort of bullshit trick.”

  “Trust me, bird, we’re no more delighted about it than you are.”

  “I told you not to call me bird,” she snapped.

  “And I told you it’s not an insult.”

  “Enough fighting,” Sophie said wearily. “We need to find Zain. Yosh? What happened to Zain?”

  Yosh was still doing her imitation of a very small, poorly dressed statue. And Declan, for one, was finding the deaf/mute routine increasingly irritating. “You want me to shake her or something?” he offered.

  “Leave her alone.” Anat stepped protectively in front of her. “Obviously Zain is gone.”

  “But gone where?” Sophie demanded. “What if he’s hurt or something?”

  “We need to find help,” Anat said impatiently. “Then they can look for Zain. Yes?”

  “I guess,” Sophie said, but she still looked apprehensive. “I’m just worried about what happened to the two of them.”

  Anat pressed on as if she hadn’t spoken. “There must be someone around. We will find them. Unless you still think this is hell?”

  “I said purgatory,” Declan said. “And I’m still not entirely certain it’s not.”

  “It’s not purgatory,” Nico said in a low voice. He ran a hand through matted blonde hair, gazing around with an odd expression.

  “No?” Declan grunted as he settled Sophie’s weight more evenly on his shoulder. “Care to venture a theory, then?”

  “This is Upton, New York,” Nico said. “On Long Island.”

  “In America? How do you know that?” Anat demanded.

  “Because I know this building.” He gestured behind them. “My father works here.”

  “Where is he, then?” Anat asked.

  Nico shrugged. “I don’t know. There are lots of buildings like this one.”

  “If you knew where we were, why the hell didn’t you say so before?” Declan demanded. Seemed odd, under the circumstances; if he’d spotted the Spanish Arch or Blake’s Castle when they emerged, he would’ve spoken up right quick. “Would’ve been especially helpful when we were trying to get out.”

  “I’d never been in the infirmary. I didn’t even know it was there.” He shrugged, looking slightly embarrassed. “I’ve never gone inside any of the buildings, except for the cafeteria. It’s forbidden.”

  “Forbidden? Why?” Sophie asked.

  “My father is a scientist working on a very important project.” Nico puffed up as he continued, “A heavy ion Collider.”

  “And what in God’s name is that?” Declan demanded. Must be purgatory, if there’s science involved, he thought to himself. Only subject I ever did worse in was maths.

  “It collides ions so that physicists can study the earliest forms of matter, like what was created after the Big Bang.” The way Nico recited the words made them sound like something he’d memorized for school, but couldn’t explain in more detail if pressed. What a gobshite, Declan thought, liking him even less.

  “This is the second largest Collider, next to CERN in Switzerland,” he continued. “That’s where my parents met.”

  “That’s weird, that we ended up here,” Sophie mused. “Do you think the Collider might have something to do with it? Maybe—”

  “Does it matter?” Anat interrupted. “We need to find food, and help. Who cares how we got here?”

  “She has a point,” Declan said in a low voice. “I’m right starved, and I’m guessing the rest of you are, too.”

  “I could eat,” Sophie acknowledged. “But I still don’t feel right about leaving without Zain.”

  “Maybe we’ll stumble across him,” Declan said, trying to sound more confident than he felt. “He probably went looking for help, yeah?”

  “I guess.” She didn’t sound convinced, though.

  “We will ask people to look for him,” Anat said decisively. “Food first.”

  “The cafeteria should be at the other end of the compound,” Nico said. “It’s open twenty-four hours a day. There will be someone there.”

  “So we head there first,” Declan said. “All in agreement on that?”

  Everyone stood around looking at each other. Although moving ahead had initially been Anat’s idea, even she appeared reluctant. Bunch of bloody sheep, Declan thought with a sigh. He squared his shoulders and tucked Sophie’s arm more securely around him. “Lead us there, Nico,” he said, trying to sound authoritative. “I’d kill for a bag of crisps right about now.”

  Sophie kept silent as Nico led them on a fifteen minute walk, occasionally stopping to check the compass on his watch. Along the way they skirted other parking lots surrounding what looked like abandoned and long-neglected buildings. All were in the same state of disrepair: the pavement in upheaval, the forest overtaking everything. They stuck to the woods, winding their way past overgrown bramble patches and enormous ferns.

  The parking lot in front of the cafeteria was in the worst shape of all. Some of the cars had pitched forward into gaping potholes. The front doors of the building hung askew from rusted hinges. Broken glass speckled the piles of dead leaves on the ground.

  “Big quake, eh?” Declan muttered in her ear.

  Sophie didn’t respond. Growing up in Northern California, she knew all about earthquakes and the level of damage they could cause. And if one had occurred on Long Island, where such a natural disaster was almost unheard of … sure, it would’ve wreaked havoc with the parking
lots and buildings. But weirdly, this damage didn’t look recent. There was a layer of filth and fungus over everything; fully grown trees and bushes sprouted between broken chunks of pavement.

  Plus, where were all the people? Based on the number of cars around, the place should be crawling with scientists. But they had yet to encounter another living soul. Would everyone have just abandoned their cars? It was seriously bizarre.

  “Nico?” she called out breathlessly.

  “Yes?” he said without turning around or pausing.

  “Was it all torn up like this when you were here?”

  “No,” he replied after a moment. “Definitely not.”

  “Must’ve been major,” Declan said. “Maybe one of those tsunami things, too, like in Japan. What do you think, Yosh? Does it look like that?”

  She glanced back at them, but didn’t say anything. Her shoulders were slumped as she trudged along. Sophie chewed her lip. It was worrisome. What could have made her draw into herself this way? Yeah, it was weird to wake up in a strange place, this far from home, but still; the rest of them were dealing with it. Kind of. Had Yosh witnessed something terrible? At the thought, she felt a prickle on her spine. Sophie stopped dead and scanned the forest surrounding them; nothing. But it was hard to suppress the sense that they were being watched.

  “What is it?” Declan asked, noticing.

  “Nothing. Just … thought I heard something.”

  “Yeah?” He cocked his head to the side. After a second, he shook his head. “Just more bloody birds. What did it sound like?”

  “I can’t describe it,” Sophie said. “I was probably just imagining it anyway.”

  “We’re all brickin’ it,” he said gravely.

  Sophie raised an eyebrow. “Brickin’ it?”

  “Scared shiteless,” he explained with a grin. “And why not? We’re in Long Island at some top-secret compound. They were probably fattening us up to feed into that Collider.”

  She laughed. “Probably.”

  “My mum always hoped I’d give myself over to science,” he said, brushing a sweaty strand of dark hair out of his eyes. “She’d be happy to know I’m doing her proud.”