Locked Tight by Susan Kaye Quinn

Author:Susan Kaye Quinn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: young adult, science fiction, paranormal, young adult, science fiction, paranormal, teen
Publisher: Susan Kaye Quinn
Published: 2018-09-16T16:00:00+00:00

I’m in a daze, but my hearing is better.

Not that I want to hear anything that’s happening right now.

The screams have settled into hysterical sobs. Which just means I can hear the moans of the injured. It’s a horror show come to life. I’m choking on the dust and the acrid taste of burnt electronics. All of it has to be toxic, and I keep thinking, we have to get out of here, but everyone seems to be stumbling and numb. Which I understand because my body’s barely functional, like the concussive shock of the blast has shorted out my entire nervous system.

I’ve got Juliette by the arm, holding her up, even though my legs feel like mush. Sammi’s got her other side. Hinckley’s already gone up front, helping out. It took me half a minute to get the three of us upright.

“Okay,” I say, my voice cracking. My mouth is coated in dust. I try not to swallow. “We’re going to… go to the front.”

Juliette doesn’t answer. Her face is bloodless, whiter-than-white even under the gray-burnt dust. Her eyes are wide but unseeing, staring straight forward. I’m not broadcasting—the mental misery must be worse than the audible one, so I don’t need to add more noise. Juliette doesn’t seem to notice. Sammi’s face is grim, set in the kind of anger I wish I could muster. I just feel… empty.

I think I’m in shock.

We stagger toward the front. Our way is blocked by knocked-over game machines. People are picking themselves up off the ground, just like we have. Everyone’s a mess—singed hair, scorched faces, and everywhere the dust that’s incinerated debris. One guy’s bleeding from a gash in his hair. A girl is cradling her hand, and her gamer suit is torn at the knees. The seriously injured are closer to the blast, by the game board.

As we shuffle forward, I keep thinking, Why? Why would someone do this? Why set off a bomb to blow up a game? My mind can’t even grapple with it. I just hold Juliette a little tighter when she whimpers. We’re edging past a dead body—it’s a girl in a slick blue gamer suit and long blonde hair whose blood is a pool all around her head.

It’s obvious she’s dead. We don’t have to stop to check. It’s the eyes.

I can’t help swallowing down some of the dust.

“Don’t look,” Sammi says. Her arm is around Juliette’s waist. But it’s no use. There’s no possibility of not seeing the twenty or so bodies that surround the game board, broken and torn apart. The smell of burnt things—flesh and wood and electronics—assaults us.

With my free hand, I lift my t-shirt over my mouth and nose.

Hinckley is tending to the wounded, checking with one then moving to another. The not-wounded are mostly in a daze like us, standing or wandering, but a few are helping Hinckley—in my daze, I realize they’re the bouncers. The front door is strangely undamaged like the blast didn’t quite reach it.

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