The Grays

got to get that kid to safety or we’re gonna have another dead body on our hands right away.”

At that moment, the base siren sounded and the guards began closing the gates. Rob turned the car around and headed back toward town.

“What in the world is going on?”

“It seems that Wilton is rioting.”

“You’re kidding.”

“They’re killing each other.”

She closed her eyes, playing move after move, and came to a conclusion: “Wilkes couldn’t identify exactly which child, so he did something that would turn the whole place violent, in hopes that all the children would be killed.”

“One possibility. Another is that he did identify him but was scared to take direct action because of the grays, and is using this as a diversion.”

“But the family—they’re miles out of town.”

“They came to the fire, I know that, I identified the car. They are not there at this time, however.”

“Oh, boy.”

“Yeah, we’re in trouble.”

“And you’re certain about Mr. Crew?”

“He’s in a bag on his way to Wright-Pat.”

“Was he really from another world? Is that true?”

He glanced at her. “You might as well accept that there is no final truth in this thing. Not ever. This reality, more than any other, changes depending on the way you look at it. As far as I know, the man could be from Chicago or Denver or anywhere. But he was a good man and a useful man, which is the bottom line on Lewis damn Crew.”

Rob stopped the car. They had come around the curve in the highway which opened onto Main Street. Smoke rose from at least four different fires. A man shot a rifle from the roof of a store. Groups of people ran through the streets, most of them armed with hunting rifles. Sirens howled, and, as they watched, a garbage truck backed at full speed into the front of the First Church of Christ. Its steeple, bells pealing, tumbled over the truck and into the street.

Rob flipped open his cell phone, speed-dialed a number. “The situation in the town is deteriorating fast. You’d better get the governor on the horn, General, because the place is gone. He needs the National Guard out here, the state cops won’t be enough.”

A Buick packed with kids snarled toward them, its tires leaving smoke in the street.

Rob turned the wheel full right and jammed the gas pedal to the floor. A second later, the Buick passed behind them and raged on, swerving to snap fireplugs. Screaming laughter could be heard, full of terror.

Rob pulled over to the side of the road. “We can’t drive through that.”

“No.”

“We’re going to have to cross the town by helicopter, locate the child on the other side. And I think we need to just move him. Get him out of here.”

“What about Mike? What about the group? Won’t they keep trying?”

Rob looked at her for a long moment. “I never said this would be easy.”

DAN DROVE HARD, TRYING TO get back to Oak Road before the craziness spread there if it was going to. He would defend his family with his pistol until they could leave this place. For the Callaghans, Wilton and Bell College were history, and to hell with his precious tenure. Bell would probably fall apart now anyway. Who would send their children to a place like this?

“Conner,” Katelyn said, “do you have any idea what’s happened to these people?”

Dan thought it was a fair question to ask this child who had changed so much. You could see it in his face, a new steadiness in his eyes.

“It has to do with me.”

At that moment there was a snap and the car shook.

“What was that?”

Conner knew that it was a bullet, he’d felt the hate of the person who’d fired the gun. He pressed himself down below the level of the windows.

“Conner?”

“It hit the left fender just above the tire.”

“What did?” Mom asked.

“A bullet.”

Dan increased their speed. “Conner,” Katelyn screamed, “why?”

That wasn’t the right question, he knew. They needed a different energy to survive this. Fear would not save them.

He needed the Three Thieves. Now that they were gone, he saw how they’d been his link to the collective, and how important the collective would be to him in the future. He also saw how they helped him now, watching over him, doing the small, essential things that had saved him.

Giving their lives for him.

There was a bang in the front, and the car swerved over to the side of the road. Dan tried to keep it going, but it slurried all over the place.

“That’s a shot-out tire,” Conner said.

“I know it,” Dan snapped.

Mom turned around, and he had never seen her look like that. Her eyes were like shattered glass.

Mom and Dad were panicked. He had to get away from them, he could not let the bad decisions they were going to make kill him.

“Stop the car, Dad.”

“I can’t do that, my God we’re being fired on!”

Conner breathed hard, bit his lips to keep the sobs in, then opened the door and threw himself out into a snowbank. He rolled like you’re supposed to, and proceeded to hit Mr. Niederdorfer’s fence so hard he saw stars. He heard the car growling, and as he got up he saw it skidding around in the snowy road, its right front tire now also in shreds.

A whisper flashed past his face, followed by an echoing crack. Far down the road, he could see a car with somebody standing on it. That person had a rifle, and he was lifting it to aim again.

He needed to get to the trees on the Niederdorfer land. He hopped the fence and trudged off in snow up to his waist.

Mom burst out of the car. “No, come back! Conner, no!” She leaped the fence, surged ahead like some kind of raging lioness. Then Dan came plunging through the snow behind her. He closed the distance even faster than she did.

“You’ve got to get back in the car! In the car, Conner, it’s our only hope.”

“Trust me,” he said, reaching for her hand. He looked to his father. “Trust me, Dad.”

Then he heard somebody else coming fast, their breath whistling.

A glance over his shoulder revealed Jimbo Kelton surging through the snow with superhuman power. In his right hand was a big axe.

Conner ran. He could only hope his parents would do the same. There were thousands of acres of forest out here that would significantly improve the odds. Staying with a disabled car was obviously not the best move.

Then the trees were around Conner and he could dart and twist and turn and get through them fast. But Jimbo was bigger and faster, and Conner knew that it would not be long before he caught up.

He got to a clear space and ran for all he was worth, then veered off, trying as much as possible to avoid dislodging snow from the branches of the pines all around him, and stepping in places where the snow on the ground was lightest.

LAUREN SAT BEHIND ROB AND the pilot as the chopper moved quickly over the mad town. There was a sharp snap, then a ping, then another.