Deluge: The Conqueror Worms II

CHAPTER 69

“What’s your idea?” Henry asked.

Ignoring him, Sarah pushed past the teen and ran back into the ranger station. Her wet shoes squeaked on the floor. She clutched the empty gas can with one hand. Henry trailed after her, frowning in confusion. Water dripped from them both, pooling at their feet. A blast of thunder rumbled overhead.

“It will work,” Sarah yelled, her tone excited and frantic. “I know it will! This is our way out, Henry. We don’t have to die.”

“What is? I don’t understand.”

Again, she acted as if she hadn’t heard him. Henry’s frown deepened. He stood watching as Sarah rushed from corner to corner, obviously looking for something.

“It’s here somewhere, damn it. Did you grab it all?”

“Did I use all of what? The gasoline? I did just like you said, Sarah. I got that can in the corner next to the radio. Is it empty?”

She turned to look at him and rolled her eyes. Then she held up the can and jiggled it.

“Does it sound full to you?”

Henry lowered his head. “Well, I reckon that’s because you just dumped it all on Earl and his friends.”

“Right. So we’ve got to get more. That’s all. We just get a bunch more gasoline and fight our way out of here. You saw what it does to them!”

“But, Sarah…” Henry paused. “There is no more gasoline. That’s all there is. I mean, maybe there’s some on the storage shed down below, but that thing is covered in white fuzz. It’s already starting to melt. We can’t get in there.”

“You’re lying.”

Sarah moaned—a mournful, terrible sound that scared Henry worse than their attackers had. Her wet eyes seemed black, and her lips turned pale as she grimaced.

“Sarah,” Henry said softly. “Are you okay? What’s wrong with—”

“You’re lying, Henry! You’re wrong. You have to be. There’s more gas here. We just have to look. That’s all. We just need to find some more gasoline. Then we can go home. Don’t you want to go home? D-don’t y-you… you… want… don’t you w-w-wan…”

She backed into the wall and slid slowly to the floor. Her speech dissolved into sobs. Henry wondered if she’d suffered some sort of stroke. Or maybe she’d just snapped? He prayed not, even though none of his other prayers had recently been answered.

“It’s okay, Sarah. I ain’t sure what’s happened to you, but it will be all right.”

When Henry approached her, Sarah began to scream. Her cries were so loud that he almost didn’t notice the second round of thunder until the tower began to tremble.

That’s not thunder, he thought. That’s us! The damn building is shaking…