Pulse (30 page)

“You felt a second pulse. Are you sure?”

Faith nodded, smiling, and pulled him into a hug.

“Pick me up again,” she said. “I like when you hold me.”

Dylan lifted her off the bed and wished she weighed more than she did. She’d need time to gain back her strength.

“My kisses are kind of amazing,” Dylan said. “Are you sure you felt a second pulse? Might have been me.”

Faith thought about what a second pulse meant: nothing the world could throw at her could do any damage. She looked into Dylan’s eyes and wondered if that included a kiss. She took his hand and placed it on her neck, pressing his fingers firmly into the seam under her chin. And then she thought about her second pulse, which was growing stronger inside her. Dylan felt the first pulse, strong and steady, and right behind it, a shadow pulse, softer but definitely there.

“Meredith is going to be very pleased,” he said.

“Let’s not tell her just yet. Can we get back in bed?”

Dylan shut the door to the room with his mind and let Faith float free out in front of him, laying her gently on the small bed. He turned and lay down beside her, and Faith placed her fingers on the soft part of his neck, searching for a pulse.

A time of trouble was coming. It would test their devotion and push them to the very limits of their strength. But for the moment it was just the two of them alone, thinking only of each other at the edge of the battered world.

A week later Faith was sitting on the very same cot on a bright, early morning. She was not alone, as the needle stabbed her over and over again. It had run two circles around her forearm already, and now they’d come to the hardest part.

Faith was glad Glory was one of them, glad she’d made the move with the Drifters.

“Come to the end of the chain,” Glory said. “Last part’s gonna hurt the most.”

The needle was busy humming, doing its work on the palm side of Faith’s wrist. It was a sensitive area, like the skin on the back side of her legs.

“It all hurts, Glory. That’s why I do it.”

“You keep talking like that and it’ll get under your skin, do some real damage.”

Without even realizing it, Faith had discovered her own weakness. The fact that the needle could penetrate her skin at all was a mystery. She had a second pulse. It should have been protecting her from anything that could harm her, but the needle was going in and out; the million little shocks of pain were real. She wondered if, in the end, the sharp tip of a knife would find its way to her heart.

“Those other two, they were for different reasons, weren’t they?” Glory asked. It was the first time Glory had tattooed a part of Faith’s body that was in full view. A chain wound around Faith’s forearm, tangled with ivy. They’d come to the heavy part of the hammer, the metal ball. Glory kept applying the black color, running the needle around in circles and wiping away the excess ink.

“Why didn’t you go to the State?” Faith asked, ignoring Glory’s question.

Glory had a story of her own, but that was for another time. “They wouldn’t know what to do with me in there.”

Faith laughed softly, wincing as Glory worked the needle. She stopped for a moment, turned off the machine, stared at Faith.

“You gonna hold this hammer, you better be ready to use it.”

“I’m ready,” Faith said, extending her arm out and squeezing her hand into a fist, feeling the lingering pain of the needle shoot up and down her skin. “And I know what it’s for.”

“What’s it for?” Glory asked, though she knew the answer.

“It’s for killing. The hammer is for killing.”

The thought of being able to take as many blows as Clara Quinn could dish out was intoxicating.

They both grew quiet after that, listening to the buzzing sound of the tattoo being applied.

An hour later, Faith’s arm was bandaged up and she was walking. The Six Flags wasn’t very far, and seeing all the roller coaster tracks saddened her. Water sloshed at her feet until she came to the ride she wanted to find. It was called Apocalypse, an old wooden relic that had once thrilled teenagers on sunbaked California weekends. Now it was falling apart. One entire section had collapsed, but the highest point of the ride remained intact. She flew up and sat down on the iron track, letting her legs dangle free in the air over the edge.

The thought crossed her mind to simply throw away the letter. What good would it do to dredge up more feelings she didn’t want to deal with? She was healing, she was getting stronger. Going backward never struck her as a useful endeavor. But in the end she couldn’t do it. She was honor bound to at least read whatever her parents had left behind, no matter how much it might hurt. And so she tore open the envelope, stuffing it into her back pocket and unfolding the paper. She read fast so it would be over quickly.

Faith,

Do you know why we called you that? It was because we believed, against all odds, that you’d be okay. You were our happy accident. We would not have chosen to bring a baby into the world we lived in. But once you arrived, we loved everything about you. We wanted nothing more than to keep you safe and make you happy.

This was not to be, and for that we’re very sorry. We knew what we were, and we knew what was coming; and we kept these things from you for as long as we could. Maybe we shouldn’t have, but we did. It’s something we’ll have to live with.

By now you know most of what we would have told you if we’d been brave enough to say the words. But in case you don’t know everything, know this:

There is a great evil in the world. It comes to destroy. We aren’t strong enough to stop it. But in time you will be. Find love, for love in a broken world will comfort you. Hold on to hope; it will sustain you. Have faith, for in the end it will save you. Remember these things, always.

With all our love,

Mom and Dad

Faith folded up the letter and found it a little bit surprising that she wasn’t crying. She’d already cried so much for so many things, there weren’t any tears left. She looked out over the ocean and thought of her parents and Liz. She thought of the broken world she’d been born into and all the mysteries she didn’t understand.

And then she let the letter go, watching it bend and flutter on the wind as it was carried out to sea on the power of her own thoughts.

The past was gone, and a new strength welled up inside her. The future would be a fight.

“Bring it on,” Faith Daniels said.

And then she flew home.

Postscript
The Prison

“This isn’t going exactly as planned.”

Andre had known there would be risks, but he couldn’t have imagined his own daughter disobeying him the way she had. He’d let himself believe she was ready when she was not.

“I’ll handle Clara,” Gretchen said. “You just make sure Wade is ready when we need him.”

“I hate having to regroup. It goes against my better judgment.”

Gretchen wasn’t so sure. “They weren’t ready. It would have been a disaster if we’d set things in motion now. Her choice helped us see that.”

Andre had to admit that Gretchen was right. Still, he’d never liked hiding out, and there had been far too much of it lately. What he really wanted was to knock down a few buildings, to really wreak some havoc. Inflicting damage on the Western State was high on his priority list. He wanted the world the way it had been before the States, and he understood that this goal would require a certain level of force.

Gretchen touched his hand, looking at the gray coming in around his temples. She understood his motives and the complicated past they shared.

“Patience is a virtue,” Gretchen said. “It won’t be long now.”

Wade and Clara came through a doorway on the far end of the facility. They both had a swagger that told Gretchen everything she needed to know. “At least we understand what they’re capable of. That question has been answered.”

“Agreed.”

Andre tapped a message into his Tablet and waited. He was standing with Gretchen on the concrete floor of an abandoned prison. A long, open hallway with prison cells on each side ran the length of the space.

By the time Wade and Clara were standing in front of him, the catwalk that ran a circle around the space was filled with people. All at once, they jumped over the rail, gliding down to the floor as an army of one. Faith, Dylan, and Hawk had their first-pulse Drifters for some of the help they’d need. But the Quinns would have help in the coming fight, too, and plenty of it.

Andre surveyed his team and smiled, a low growl in his voice.

“Let’s get busy.”

ALSO BY PATRICK CARMAN

DARK EDEN

DARK EDEN:
PHANTOM FILE

DARK EDEN:
EVE OF DESTRUCTION

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Credits

Cover illustration © 2013 by vimark/Max Mitenkov

Cover design by Joel Tippie

Copyright

Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Pulse

Copyright © 2013 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.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Carman, Patrick.

   Pulse / Patrick Carman. — 1st ed.

      p. cm.

   Summary: In the year 2051, when most Americans live in one of two gigantic, modern States, Faith Daniels, part of a dwindling group that lives between, learns that she has unusual abilities that could help when the inevitable war begins.

   ISBN 978-0-06-208576-4 (hardcover bdg.)

   EPub Edition © JANUARY 2013 ISBN: 9780062085788

   [1. Science fiction. 2. Psychic ability—Fiction. 3. Technology—Fiction. 4. High schools—Fiction. 5. Schools—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.C21694Pul 2013

[Fic]—dc23

2012026745

13  14  15  16  17    LP/RRDH    10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

FIRST EDITION