Jackson Ford - Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air

“So he’s going to be in one of these four spots? That’s what you’re saying?”

“In theory…”

“Do not in theory me right now. Theories aren’t going to cut it. Where? Which spot would he go for?”

“If I had to guess, I’d say northern California around Mendocino, or in Washington. That’s where the most pressure has built up.”

Africa cuts in. “I do not understand. How does he know where these are?”

Mia closes her eyes, actually shudders. “I told him.”

Of course she did.

And why wouldn’t she? If someone asks about tectonic plates, you don’t automatically assume they’re going to end the world.

I tap the circle near Mendocino. “This is closest. He’d go for there, surely?”

“It might not be that simple,” Mia murmurs.

“Why not?”

“The San Andreas quakes went a long way up the coast. We don’t know what the roads are like up there – he might not be able to get close. That means he could go for one of the other zones.”

“Which one?”

“I don’t know!”

“And how close are we talking here? I’m guessing the border of each zone isn’t like a hard border.”

“Definitely not. But I don’t know about how his… his powers work. It might be enough for him to be at the edge of one of the ETS zones, but if he really wanted to do this, he’d probably get as close to the centre as possible – or at least, close to where we think the centre is.”

“So if he has to go for one of these zone things to set off Cascadia, did he do the same with the San Andreas? With our fault line?”

She shrugs. “It’s possible. The San Andreas and Cascadia faults are different – the whole of San Andreas is under our feet, not under the ocean, and it’s a lot smaller. Maybe he didn’t need to be right on an ETS zone to trigger it, I don’t know.”

“Why did he even go for San Andreas in the first place? If Cascadia was going to be such a disaster, then why start small?”

Mia stops, takes a calming breath. “I don’t think he knew. About Cascadia.” Her eyes go wide. “We have to tell somebody! The government, or…”

She stands up, starts looking around, as if trying to call one of her colleagues over. I pull her back down. “Not a good idea.”

“What are you talking about? Hey, Arnie! Arnie, is there—?”

“Keep your damn voice down,” I hiss, even as Arnie and a couple of the other scientists look over at us.

“Teggan,” Africa says. “I think they might have satellite phones here. We can tell Tanner.”

“Who’s Tanner?” Mia says.

I ignore her. “Dude, if we try to get hold of Tanner from here, we’ll have to let everybody know about what I can do, and about what Matthew can do, and we’ll be here until the end of time. Besides, right now, Reggie might be—”

“We’re here already!” Africa spreads his arms, gesturing to the rest of the tent. More of the occupants are looking over at us now, exchanging confused looks. “It is the quickest way.”

“Dude—”

“You already show her what you can do.” Africa jabs a finger at Mia.

“It’s not just about that.”

“We do not have time to keep things secret. It’s bigger than you.”

Argh . It’s Nic all over again – the accusation that I’m acting selfishly, refusing to help. I have to make him understand – make both of them understand.

“If we go and tell the soldiers or the other people here what we told Mia,” I say, “we’ll be running in circles for ever. They might even be hostile. By the time we get through to Tanner – if we ever get through to Tanner, because I sure as hell don’t know how to reach her – Matthew could be halfway to setting off Cascadia.”

“So what else are we supposed to—?”

“Jesus, Africa, think. Reggie . She said she’d keep trying to contact Tanner while we came down here. She might even have gotten through already. We hightail it back to Dodger, link up with her, tell her what we found out. She can get her people to every single one of these stupid zones.”

“Who’s Reggie?” Mia says. “Look, who are you guys?”

“File that under stuff that definitely doesn’t matter right now. All you need to know is, Reggie’s our boss, Tanner’s her boss, and they’re the quickest way to figuring this whole shit out.”

“Gonna take us a long time to get back to the stadium,” Africa says, looking sour. I don’t blame him – I’m not exactly excited for the hike back either. But I know my way is the right one. It makes sense.

“I’m coming,” Mia says.

“Mia,” I say with what is frankly a lot more patience than the circumstances deserve. “This isn’t a movie. You don’t get to pull the whole I’m coming with you thing here. It’s our responsibility, not yours.”

She’s rolling up the map, stuffing it under her arm. “One: I can help you figure out which zone he’s going to end up in. Two: you don’t get to show me superpowers, and then ask me to sit this one out.”

“Listen, we’re really grateful for the help, but right now—”

“Three: if you take me with you, you won’t have to walk back to Dodger Stadium.”

She marches over to Arnie, who is still staring at us, trying to work out what’s going on. “I need your keys.”

He blinks at her in astonishment.

“Don’t tell me you’ve got a helicopter stashed somewhere,” I say.

“Nope. Got something better.” She grins. It’s the mad, almost self-righteous grin of someone totally committed to the path they’ve started down. It is the grin of someone has just had the laws of physics casually broken in front of them, and who has decided they are totally fine with it.

I try one more time. “ Please listen to me. You could get hurt doing this. Maybe even killed.”

“The way I see it,” Mia says, “I gave the boy everything he needed. I answered all his questions. Well, we all kind of did, but… look, the point is, I helped cause this. I’m going to help fix it.”

“Mimi,” Arnie says. “What exactly is—?”

“Arnie, if you call me Mimi one more time I will kick you in the balls.”

“I can’t just give you keys, Mim—Mia.” Arnie draws himself up to his full height. He’s surprisingly tall. “You’re an intern. You’re not supposed to—”

Mia sticks a finger in his face. “How about this. You give me the keys, and I won’t tell anybody that I saw you watching porn on your phone in the cafeteria last week.”

Arnie goes pale. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Do you want everyone to know how much you like bukkake? Because I can—”

“OK!” I wedge myself between them. “I think the point’s been made here. Arnie, how about you be a gem and hand Mia what she wants before she has to do any more super-awkward blackmailing, m’kay?”

“All right, all right, Jesus.” Arnie glowers at me, as if he wants to demand to know who the hell we are. Then he digs in his pocket, hanging Mia a set of keys. She gives him a friendly smile as he walks off, muttering. Africa snorts.

Mia turns to us, dangling the keys. “We good?”

“Super grossed-out, but yes. What are we driving?”

Another wild grin spreads across Mia’s face.

Under normal circumstances, ATVs fucking rule.

I’ve driven them plenty of times before. We had three when I lived in Wyoming, although only one of them was usually working. After we got older, my dad taught Chloe, Adam and me how to ride them. The idea was for us to help Dad with the chores – fetching firewood, repairing fences, all that shit. But you can’t give a group of teenagers access to giant, four-wheeled motorbikes without having them go tearing off into the wilderness at the earliest opportunity.