Paolo Bacigalupi - The Doubt Factory

Widener’s doors had been blown wide, and then…

Nothing.

Everyone waited with bated breath, expecting whatever they were supposed to expect when SWAT blew open a door in the movies. Gunfire. Dragons. A nuclear apocalypse… Something, at least.

Instead, there was silence.

The SWAT team dashed inside, assault rifles pointed ahead, ready to fire.

“Wait for it,” the stranger whispered in her ear. His hands were on her shoulders, lightly holding her, keeping her looking at the events unfolding.

Wait for what? Alix wanted to ask.

She wanted to turn around and see him fully, ask him who the hell he thought he was—

A dull thud echoed from Widener Hall.

Alix gasped as blood splattered up against the windows.

It was a massacre. There was so much blood that it looked like every single SWAT guy had been run through a blender and splattered on the windows.

Shrieks of shock and terror rose up from the crowd, and suddenly everyone was trying to get away. Alix tried to run, but the stranger’s fingers dug into her shoulders, holding her in place. His lips pressed against her ear.

“Don’t panic!” he whispered. “Read! You see it, right?”

And even as everyone was shoving and pulling back and screaming about all the blood, Alix did see. Right there in the windows, a message inscribed in red, now dripping down.

Suddenly all the SWAT guys who had disappeared into the building came barreling back out, shouting and hollering, wordless and panicked, their rifles held carelessly, stumbling down the front steps in their heavy armor.

Behind them, a seething wave of snowy motion erupted from the doors, a tumbling rush pouring out in a river. White fur, twisting-clawing-thrashing bodies, a tidal wave exploding through the open doors and cascading down the school steps.

“ No way! ” Jonah exclaimed from somewhere in the crowd, delighted.

Rats.

Thousands and thousands and thousands of rats, gushing out of the building and down the steps. More and more of them coming every second. They swarmed the cops and the SWAT team. They surged across the lawns. They scattered every which way. The people watching up front tried to run, but everyone was too jammed together. People were scrambling up on Seitz’s wall. Police were standing in the middle of the rodent horde, kicking and shaking the rats that ran up their legs. The TV crew was balanced up on the wall, recording the whole weird thing.

Alix caught a glimpse of Jonah laughing and pointing at how all the cops were running, and then everyone was running and shoving and fleeing as the rats came scrambling through. Someone smashed into Alix and she stumbled, barely catching herself before she fell. A white furry streak bolted past, followed by another and another.

Alix spun, trying to find the guy who’d been standing right behind her, but the stranger was gone. Lost in the scrum. Gone entirely except for the rats and the word that he’d left dripping in red paint from the windows of the science building:

Alix dodged another surge of rats coming her way and scanned the crowd, frantically trying to spot the stranger again.

There!

He was striding away, moving confidently through the chaos. The same careless, arrogant stride she’d seen after he’d punched Mulroy.

He could be dangerous. You shouldn’t—oh, fuck it .

Alix went after him.

Behind her, she thought she heard Jonah shout, but she kept her eyes on the stranger, fighting to keep him in sight as people fled in every direction.

Later, she couldn’t even really say why she went after him. She was angry, sure. Pissed that he was so smug and that he thought he could just come up on her like that. She did it because she was angry; that was what she told herself later.

She caught up to him as he was pulling open the rear door to a black town car.

“Wait!” She grabbed his sleeve.

He turned so fast she flinched. She took a step back, suddenly reminded that this was the guy who’d punched Mulroy. She took another step back, swallowing uncertainly.

“Who are you?” she asked. “How do you know my name?”

She could see herself reflected in his mirrored lenses. It made her feel small. More like a little girl than a grown woman: brown hair French-braided, Seitz school uniform with its prim blazer and skirt. He’s tall , she thought inanely.

“You want to know who I am?” he asked, and there was so much sadness in the words that she was struck nearly speechless. She felt even more horribly aware of her school uniform. It was as if she was looking at someone who had seen the entire world. Not like she’d seen Paris or Barcelona on vacation, but more like the Bastille or the slums of India. And here she was, in all her naïveté, trying to grab hold of that. It took all her will to press him again.

“What’s all this about?” she asked. “What’s 2.0?”

The guy’s expression was so different that she almost wondered if she’d grabbed the wrong black guy in the crowd. It reminded her of how Cynthia complained about people not being able to tell her and Alice Kim apart. Improbably, Alix heard Cynthia’s voice in her head— Alice is Korean, for Christ’s sake .

“You’ve got questions now, don’t you?” he said, and abruptly the heavy sadness disappeared and the brilliant smile was back. The same boisterous, knowing smile that she’d seen twice before.

A new explosion went off, right among the parked cars. Alix ducked instinctively. Smoke enveloped her, wild and thick and yellow, hiding everything from sight. Suddenly the stranger grabbed her. Hard and tight.

“Hey!” Alix tried to knee him in the balls, but he must have turned away because all she hit was thigh. She struggled against him for another second, then changed tactics and let herself be pulled close.

She bit him.

She heard a satisfying yelp of pain, but to her surprise the stranger didn’t let go. Instead, he spun her around and wrapped his strong arms around her, pulling her into a tighter embrace.

“Should have known you’d have some bite to you,” he murmured in her ear.

The amusement and play were back in his voice.

“You want to see how much bite I’ve got?” she asked. She tried to twist free again, but he was ready for her now. He had her pinned against his chest. She rested, gathering strength. Looking for a chance to hurt him again.

The stranger chuckled. His breath was hot on her cheek. “How about we call a little truce?”

“Why? So we can go for coffee?” If she threw her head back fast, she could hit his face with the back of her skull. She might crush his nose if she was lucky.

“You want to know what this is all about?”

Alix stilled, suddenly alert.

“Are you going to tell me?”

The smoke was thick around them. Alix could hear cops shouting and people running, but all of it was distant. She and the stranger were in a bubble of smoke, separate from everything around them.

She was suddenly acutely aware of how closely he held her. She could feel the rise and fall of his chest as he panted, the exertion she’d put him through. He was holding her so tightly she could feel his heart beating.

“What’s this all about?” she asked.

“Ask your father.”

“What?”

“Ask your father. He’s the one who knows all the secrets.” He shoved her away abruptly.

Alix spun to pursue, but he was lost in the smoke. Everything was shadow forms.

By the time the smoke cleared, he was gone, as if he’d blown away in the wind.