This Is the Way the World Ends by Jen Wilde

Author:Jen Wilde
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

CHAPTER TWELVE

“This is when we panic.” Frank gulps hard. “Right?”

The music starts blaring again, like the dean is trying to hype up the student body into a sense of normalcy—and it’s working. They get back to dancing the night away. But after what I’ve seen tonight, I know there’s absolutely nothing normal about any of this.

“What the…?” Frank says, looking at his Apple Watch. The screen flashes on and off, and he taps it. “Ugh. My watch is glitching.”

“How did you get that past the guards?”

Frank adjusts his collar. “Pari isn’t the only one with skills. That goon was too busy muttering orders into his old-school walkie-talkie to notice my watch was still on. Who uses those dollar-store walkies, anyway? Dean Webber can afford those high-tech earbuds or James Bond–style nanotech devices, and he’s got his guys using battery-operated bricks.”

I tug on his sleeve. “Frank. Focus.”

He shakes off his rant. “Sorry.” He looks down at his watch, and then his gaze snaps back to mine. “Wait! Pari has her phone, right?”

I nod. “Yeah. She’s got way too much sensitive fanfic on there to give it up at the door like we did.”

He taps something on his watch, then holds it up to his mouth. “Where are you?” Then he taps the screen again. “Okay. Just texted her.”

Well, that was easy.

But then Frank taps his watch again, his brow pinched together. “It says it wasn’t delivered.” He tries to open different apps on his watch, but it’s not cooperating. “That’s weird. Blackouts don’t usually affect cell phone towers, do they?”

I shrug. “How the hell should I know? Maybe the cell towers are overloaded from everyone in the city trying to call each other because of the blackout.”

“I’ll try Find My Phone,” Frank says. He opens the app, and the little red pin pops up. It shows that the phones are being stored in the building, but all the way on the other side. His screen glitches again, and the app shuts down.

I think of my parents and hope this blackout doesn’t reach across the river to Queens. They’ll be so worried about me. Shit. I need to get to my phone, let them know I’m okay. They think I’m tutoring on the Upper West Side. My mom can’t handle this kind of stress. It will cause her chronic pain to flare up even more than it already has been.

“If we can get to our phones,” I think out loud, “we can call Pari and find out where she is.”

Frank nods. “Yeah, but how do we—?”

“Give me your watch.”

He cocks his head, but does what I asked and hands me his watch. Then I take it over to the nearest guard.

“Excuse me, sir?” I say in my best helpless-little-girl voice. “I found this smart watch, and I know these are supposed to be locked away so I thought I’d better give it to you.”

The guard nods, takes the watch, and turns on his heels like a soldier. Frank and I watch as he moves through the crowd, then slips through an unmarked door.

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