Beautiful City of the Dead by Leander Watts

Author:Leander Watts [Watts, Leander Dane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Smoking Man had us trapped. We had to get past him to escape. And his stinking cloud made a kind of barrier too.

I was pretty useless now. I mean, I wasn't screaming in hysterics. But I was paralyzed, staring at Smoking Man's plastic corpse face.

It was Relly who got us out of there.

He was fire. And he was strong when it counted. Relly came across as kind of flimsy and frail. But when he had to, onstage in front of a thousand kids or now up against Smoking Man, he didn't back down.

He was a god of fire, and figured that was exactly what it would take to defeat Smoking Man. So he lunged at him, threw himself at the shuffling cowboy. And his hands caught fire, I'm sure of it, as soon as he grappled with Smoking Man. They kind of wrestled there in slow motion, bitter billows swirling around them. Relly cursed as he fought with burning hands. Smoking Man groaned. I clutched my notebook and thought of rain.

This might seem strange. But that's what filled my head as I watched Smoking Man pushing Relly to the floor. My friend, my only real friend, was being strangled by a filthy plastic dummy and I thought of rain.

Relly's fires were snuffed out. His voice, too. Smoking Man had him by the neck, squeezing.

And then the sprinkler right over them burst and poured down a steady stream.

I watched the water fall, a silvery jet from above. I focused everything on that wet, saving blast. The fire sprinklers are supposed to come on in zones. A whole wing or hallway is supposed to get drenched if any of them come on. That night it was just one, right above Relly and our enemy.

In a minute it was over. Smoking Man lay broken and lifeless, black mud running out of his mouth. Relly pulled out from under him and grabbed my hand. "Let's go, let's go!" he hissed.

And we went, out the open window and across the wet grass of the soccer field.

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