The Echo Room by Parker Peevyhouse

Author:Parker Peevyhouse
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

5:37 A.M.

Someone is calling to me …

But I don’t want to wake …

I …

Rett opened his eyes to blue morning light filtering into a metal room. His skull felt as if it had been put in a vise. He moved his fingers carefully through his hair and found a long scar running along his scalp.

“Rett?”

He rolled his head toward the sound. A girl with short brown hair peered at him, worry etched into her dirt-streaked face.

“Rett?” she said again. “Are you okay?”

His head throbbed. He closed his eyes and opened them again, took in the sight of striped metal walls. “Where am I?”

“Inside the depot.” The girl handed him a Mylar pouch. “Drink this. I found it in the medical room with the backpack and everything—right where we first found it.”

Rett squinted at the label: DRINKING WATER. But why was it in a pouch? He didn’t care—he was so thirsty. He pulled the tab and drained the pouch in one go. “Got any more?” he croaked.

“We should save it.” The girl gave him a pitying look. “But the backpack—”

“What happened to my head?” Pain pulsed through Rett’s skull.

The girl studied him for a moment. She seemed worried about something. A shock of dark red caught the edge of his vision and he looked down to find blood on his jumpsuit. Am I bleeding? He pushed himself upright with a surge of alarm and probed at the stain with careful fingers.

“It’s not your blood,” the girl said.

Rett struggled to his feet. He almost didn’t want to know—Whose blood is it? Did I do something bad? He looked around for some clue that would tell him where he was. Doorway to the left, corridor to the right. He stepped toward the short corridor and saw a heavy door at the end, bolted shut. He turned back to the girl. “What is this place?”

She hesitated. “You don’t remember?”

Rett limped to the heavy door. He tugged at the bolt but it didn’t budge. It was bent at one end, jammed into the housing. On the floor lay a fire extinguisher that must have dealt the damage.

“I didn’t know what was happening,” the girl said behind him. “You were outside and then you came in. I only knew something had hurt you—was hurting you.”

Rett tried to make sense of what she was saying. But all he could think was, The door is jammed. He turned to face the girl, who was padding down the hallway toward him on dirty bare feet.

“At first I thought that guy was hurting you.” The girl pointed at the door. “There’s a man out there. He had a gun.”

His gaze went to her hip pocket, to a bulge there and a glimpse of metal. Alarm rang through his body. A gun, she has a gun.

“But I think it was something else,” she went on. “Something to do with an electrical signal or … I don’t know. Whatever caused that aurora. I think being inside shielded me from the effects of whatever it was.

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