Gone Series Complete Collection (276 page)

AFTERMATH 3

THREE MONTHS AFTER THE FAYZ

FIRST THERE
WAS
Caine’s patently false “confession.” Then there was the fact that the FAYZ Legal Defense Fund racked up three million dollars in its first two weeks. Then there was a judicial panel that took statements from eminent scientists and concluded that the FAYZ was in fact a separate universe and thus not covered under California law.

Finally, there was a shift in public opinion following the involvement of the two popular movie stars, the McDonald’s documentary starring Albert Hillsborough, the likelihood of a major Hollywood feature film, and the kiss seen round the world. Polls now showed 68 percent of Californians wanted no criminal charges brought against the FAYZ survivors.

The kiss alone would have wrecked the career of any prosecutor or politician who had anything bad to say about Astrid Ellison or Sam Temple.

The survivors by and large went on with their lives.

Three of them committed suicide.

An unknown number found their way to alcohol and drugs.

None were unscathed.

But most found a way to survive, as they had for so long alone. They rediscovered their families; they attended school and church; they attended counseling sessions. They walked through shopping malls in wonder. They were occasionally seen to break down crying in the middle of a grocery store.

The phrase “It’s a just a phase” fell out of use.

Lana went to Las Vegas to live with her parents. They refused to let her carry a gun. She eventually got used to it. Her powers were gone. When she cut her hand while peeling carrots, she couldn’t do anything about it. This caused her to laugh for a solid five minutes, during which her parents thought she’d lost her mind.

Dekka Talent’s family took her in, still not happy about her “lifestyle,” as they called it, but unable to summon the nerve to berate her. Dekka could no longer control gravity, except by virtue of being the most impressive person in any room she entered. Dekka made contact with Brianna’s grief-stricken parents and told them about their daughter. They gave her a photo of Brianna, which Dekka framed and hung beside her bed.

Edilio Escobar was reunited with Roger. It was months before Roger recovered, but Edilio waited. During a routine traffic stop for a broken taillight a highway-patrol officer checked the IDs of Edilio’s parents and announced that he would have to report them as suspected undocumented aliens. Then he recognized Edilio and insisted on putting out a call to fellow officers. Four other patrol cars pulled up, and it was made clear that as far as the CHP was concerned, they’d be damned if they would take any action against Edilio or his family. Edilio ended up signing autographs.

It took a while to organize a public memorial for the kids of the FAYZ. By the time it was held in Pismo Beach, California, many of the kids had scattered. But Sam, Astrid, Diana, Quinn, Edilio, and Dekka, as well as dozens of others, various celebrities, politicians, and locals, were there. Lana was not. She sent word that Patrick had an important deworming scheduled. Albert said he was busy taking meetings.

Sam was asked to speak and adamantly refused. He was mortally sick of being referred to as the hero of the FAYZ. Astrid had become the unofficial spokesperson for all of them, so she gave a short speech. In it she talked about Orc, Dahra, Duck Zhang, Howard, E.Z., Jack, Brianna, and Little Pete. Others too numerous to mention.

“There were heroes in the FAYZ. My little brother was one of them, although he didn’t even understand the word ‘hero.’ And there were villains. Most of us were a bit of both.”

Orc’s parents did not attend.

Diana had been at loose ends since getting out of the hospital. She’d been taken in by parents of FAYZ kids but hadn’t really had a place of her own.

After the service they grouped together with lemonades and iced teas in their hands, all of them dressed in “nice” clothing. None of them was armed. Not even so much as a spiked baseball bat.

“Nice speech,” Diana snarked. “Are you going to play yourself in the movie?”

“The director considered it,” Astrid said. “But it turns out I’m not quite the Astrid type. It was a somewhat surreal moment.
Koyaanisqatsi.
”

That earned her a collective sigh and many rolled eyes.

“
I’m
not asking her,” Dekka said.

“It means ‘life out of balance,’” Astrid explained. “
Koyaanisqatsi.
”

“And yet no one asked,” Dekka pointed out.

“You guys hear about the camper?” Edilio asked. “Way up north of the Stefano Rey. Says he saw this girl. Golden skin. Saw her and then, poof. Not there.”

“There are going to be stories like that for years,” Astrid said. “The FAYZ will spawn a thousand legends and myths. Not to mention that it’s screwed up the study of physics pretty well.”

“It would be interesting, though, wouldn’t it?” Quinn asked.

“Just a story,” Sam said. He held up his hand. “Nothing there. All that is over.”

They talked until the talk grew too painful. Then they hugged and went their separate ways, all but Sam and Astrid. And Diana. Sam took her arm as she started to leave.

“Listen, Diana,” he said. “We have an idea. Astrid has all this Hollywood money now.”

“Great for you. Now your girlfriend is smarter and richer than you,” Diana teased. “But not quite as cute.”

“Yeah, well, um . . . here’s the thing. My mother and I . . . well. We aren’t really close anymore.”

“I’m sorry. There’s a lot of that going around.”

“And Astrid has to be down in LA a lot anyway. So . . . so my mother has emancipated me. That means I’m legally on my own. Legally an adult.”

“Can you handle the responsibility?” Diana asked.

Sam grinned. “Well, it’s tough. So much pressure deciding do I want pizza or Chinese food.”

“Yeah, you’re not good at making those life-and-death decisions.”

“We have a place. The two of us. It’s not far from Quinn’s house, in Santa Monica. The school’s not bad. The beach is right there. And it’s crazy, but it’s too big for just the two of us.”

Astrid came over and said, “Have you told her?”

“I’m in the process.”

Astrid sighed. “Come live with us, Diana. Don’t argue. Just say yes.”

Diana looked at the ground to hide her emotions. Then she said, “Would I have to be hearing you two going at it night and day?”

AFTERMATH 4

THEIR ROOM
WAS
furnished from IKEA. They had a queen-size bed, two nightstands, two dressers, and many lamps.

Sam still did not like the dark. But he no longer feared it.

They had a TV, two laptops, fast internet service, and two iPhones. Through the window came the sounds of traffic. There was a great deal of food in the refrigerator and the cupboards. The bathroom was well stocked with medicines. Enough to supply a small clinic.

Just in case.

They lay together under clean sheets and blankets having taken long, hot showers. Earlier they had gone to a Thai restaurant with Diana. Neither had eaten much Thai food before, but they were on the path now to being lifelong foodies.

Food. It was beautiful. The three of them had gone to a Ben and Jerry’s and ended up crying like idiots at all the ice cream.

Sam had still not shared everything with Astrid. He’d been holding on to the last of what his mother had told him, needing to make some sense of it in his own mind. But no matter how he turned the facts around, looking at them in this light or that, he still couldn’t accept it all.

“I love you, Astrid,” he said.

“Yes. I’m already in bed with you. You don’t have to sweet-talk me.” She put a cool palm on his chest and smiled.

“The gaiaphage,” Sam said.

Astrid pulled her hand away. “Why are we talking about that?”

“Because my mom . . .” He sighed.

“Ah.” She sat up, giving him a little room.

“I told you why she gave Caine up. She felt something was wrong with him. She felt guilty and believed he was almost a punishment on her. She gave him up for adoption to a couple who, unfortunately, also sensed something wrong. Or maybe they were just jerks, I don’t know. Anyway, my mom said when his adoptive parents came to visit Coates, there wasn’t much sign of affection.”

“That would not surprise me,” Astrid said cautiously.

“Anyway. I told you that she admitted to having an affair. I didn’t tell you all of it. I asked her. It was silly to, but I had to know. Was my father my father? Who exactly was the man who died that day in the power plant?”

“I thought you might have asked her. I’ve been waiting for you to tell me. When you were ready.”

“Stop thinking you’re always one step ahead of me.”

“Sam. Accept the fact that I’m always one step ahead of you.”

He reached an arm around her and pulled her close again.

“So, according to my mother, one of us, Caine, was the spitting image of the man who died when the meteor struck. The man I thought was my father. The man whose DNA was absorbed and became part of the gaiaphage.”

“That was the connection,” Astrid said. “That’s why your mother started to feel there was something evil in Caine. It was the gaiaphage.”

“Except that it wasn’t that simple,” Sam said. “My mom went to work at Coates once she realized Caine was there, so close to Perdido Beach. She was a nurse, so she was able to get a blood sample. And she was able to compare the two of us genetically.”

“Oh, my God,” Astrid whispered. A step ahead.

Sam sighed. “It turns out, despite her having an affair, Caine and I were true fraternal twins. The human DNA that became part of the gaiaphage wasn’t just Caine’s father. It was from
our
father.”

“You and Caine,” Astrid breathed.

“My mother sensed Caine’s connection to the gaiaphage. But not mine. We had the same connection. We had the same DNA. But Caine grew up without . . . you know. Without . . .”

“Without love,” Astrid said. “All of his life.”

“But not at the very end,” Sam said. “At the very end he found it.”

She put her hand back on his chest, then moved closer still to kiss his neck. “It’s over, Sam. Finally.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I guess it is.”

“Turn out the light, Sam.”

Sam reached for the switch and turned out the light.

THE THANKS:

ANY BOOK
, AND
certainly any book series, involves more than the writer. Thanks to my lawyer and buddy Steve Sheppard, who helped me sell the series and was my consigliere throughout. Thanks to the wise Elise Howard, who acquired it at HarperCollins, and my first editor, Michael Stearns, one of the real good guys of publishing.

Thanks to Katherine Tegen, who inherited the series and embraced it and supported it and most of all put up with me. (Not always easy.) She’s been a real friend. Love you, KT.

Thanks to all the publishers around the world who made Gone a hit in so many countries. A particular shout-out to Egmont Publishing and my many UK and ANZ fans.

As always, thanks to my wife, Katherine Applegate, for basically convincing me to be a writer, and our kids, Jake and Julia, just for being cool.

TO THE FANS:

Wow. We spent six books and three thousand pages together in the FAYZ. Kind of amazing, isn’t it? Worn out? I am.

From the start I wanted the Gone series to be like one single, long story. I wanted characters who would grow with you over time, characters who might make you mad or disappoint you, characters you might hate, and hopefully a few that you’d respect, and like, and even love. That required extra patience and devotion on your part. I hope you found it worthwhile. I hope you had fun. I did.

I’m not retiring from writing. There’s the Magnificent 12, which I think you’ll find funny—yes, even if you’re supposedly “too old.” None of my other teen series are an attempt to continue the Gone series; each is its own thing. But if you’re looking for something to read, give them a shot.

I’ve enjoyed every minute I’ve spent with Gone fans on Twitter @TheFayz, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/authormichaelgrant, and at various visits around the United States and the world. You are a very smart, very interesting, very cool bunch of humans. It’s been a pleasure entertaining you.

From me, from Sam and Astrid, Caine and Diana, Quinn, Edilio, Lana and Patrick, Dekka, Brianna, Albert, Computer Jack, Orc, Mary, Sanjit and Choo, Howard, Hunter, Little Pete, and all the rest (even Drake), thanks.

You are now free to leave the FAYZ.

PRAISE
FOR THE GONE SERIES

Gone

“This intense, marvelously plotted, paced, and characterized story will immediately garner comparisons to
Lord of the Flies
or even the long-playing world shifts of Stephen King, with just a dash of
X-Men
for good measure. A potent mix of action and thoughtfulness—centered around good and evil, courage and cowardice—renders this a tour de force that will leave readers dazed, disturbed, and utterly breathless.”

—ALA
Booklist
(starred review)

Hunger

“Readers will be unable to avoid involuntarily gasping, shuddering, or flinching while reading this suspense-filled story. The tension starts in the first chapter and does not let up until the end. The story is progressing with smart plot twists, both in actions and emotions.”

—
VOYA
(starred review)

Plague

“Grant’s sf-fantasy thrillers continue to be the very definition of a page-turner.”

—ALA
Booklist

Lies

“Grant continues to hurtle through an endlessly fascinating (and increasingly grim) story line; his chief achievement, though, is how the
X-Men
-style powers of his cast never overwhelm the mournful realization that their world is slowly degenerating.”