them or what I healed. Broken-Arm and Pinned-Under-Car look concerned, scared.
A woman, Jumped-from-Window, puts her hand on my shoulder, checking on me. I nod to tell her Iâm all right and she looks relieved.
Right in front of me, Sam talks with a uniformed cop in his fifties. The cop has dried blood all over one side of his face from a cut on top of his head that I healed. I forget his name or where we found him. Their voices sound far away, like theyâre echoing down a mile-long tunnel. I have to focus my hearing to understand the words, and even that takes a colossal effort. My head feels wrapped in cotton.
âWord came in over the radio that weâve got a foothold on the Brooklyn Bridge,â the cop says. âNYPD, National Guard, army . . . hell, everyone. Theyâre holding the bridge. Evacuating survivors from there. Itâs only a few blocks away and they say the Mogs are concentrated uptown. We can make it.â
âThen you should go,â Sam answers. âGo now while the coast is clear, before another of their patrols comes through.â
âYou should come with us, kid.â
âWe canât,â Sam replies. âOne of our friends is still out there. We have to find him.â
Nine. Thatâs who we have to find. The last we saw him, he was battling Five in front of the United Nations. Through the United Nations. We have to find him before we can leave New York. We have to find him and save as many people as we can. Iâm starting to come to my senses, but Iâm still too exhausted to move. I open my mouth to speak, but all I manage to do is groan.
âHeâs had it,â says the cop, and I know heâs talking about me. âYou two have done enough. Get out with us now, while you can.â
âHeâll be fine,â Sam says. The doubt in his voice makes me grit my teeth and focus. I need to press on, to dig down and keep fighting.
âHe passed out.â
âHe just needs to rest for a minute.â
â Iâm fine ,â I mumble, but I donât think they hear me.
âYouâre gonna get killed if you stay, kid,â the cop tells Sam, sternly shaking his head. âYou canât keep this up. Thereâs too many for just you two to fight. Leave it to the army, or . . .â
He trails off. We all know the army already made their attempt. Manhattan is lost.
âWeâll get out as soon as we can,â Sam replies.
âYou hear me down there?â The cop is talking tome now. Lecturing me in the same way Henri used to. I wonder if heâs got kids somewhere. âThereâs nothing left for you to do here. You got us this far, let us do the rest. Weâll carry you to the bridge if we have to.â
The survivors assembled around the cop nod, murmuring in agreement. Sam looks at me, his eyebrows raised in question. His face is smeared with dirt and ash. He looks hollowed out and weak, like heâs barely standing himself. A Mog blaster hangs from his hip, hooked there by a chopped piece of electric cord, and itâs like Samâs entire body slumps in that direction, the extra weight threatening to pull him over.
I force myself to stand up. My muscles are limp and almost useless, though. Iâm trying to show the police officer and the others that Iâve got some fight left in me but I can tell by the pitying way theyâre staring at me that I donât look very inspiring. I can barely keep my knees from shaking. For a moment, it feels like Iâm going to crash down to the floor. But then something happensâI feel like a force is lifting and pulling me, supporting some of my weight, straightening my back and squaring my shoulders. I donât know how Iâm doing this, where Iâm finding the strength. Itâs almost supernatural.
No, actually, itâs not supernatural at all. Itâs Sam. Telekinetic Sam, concentrating on me, making it look like
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