Ex-Purgatory by Peter Clines (best book club books TXT) 📕

been repressed. Barry’s transformation into Zzzap. St. George’s flight and fire breath.”

“Makes sense, kind of,” said Danielle.

St. George cleared his throat. “I think we can still make it to the Mount before dark if we don’t get slowed down.”

“You mean, if the world doesn’t go all kablooey on us again?” Barry said.

“Yeah.”

“I still think we should just hop on a bus,” said Danielle. “Having Cesar drive us cut an hour off our walking time.”

“And got me thrown through a windshield,” said St. George. “What if it’d been you?”

Stealth turned and headed back up the street.

“Great,” muttered Danielle.

THE STREETLIGHT CHANGED, the walk signal appeared, and they crossed Fairfax. A half-dozen other people shared the crosswalk with them. A few of them glanced at the giant Army officer carrying two people, one of them a pale-skinned girl, but he didn’t hold their attention for long.

“This is just weird,” said Barry. He looked up at a sign for CBS studios. “I mean, walking around LA with people everywhere.”

“You’re not doing the walking,” said Danielle.

“Don’t nitpick,” he said. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah,” she said, “I do.” The light changed and traffic surged into life around them. “You think Cesar’s back?”

“Maybe,” said St. George. He looked at the cars. “Don’t know how he’ll find us if he is.”

“We’re heading for the Mount,” said Madelyn. “He’s smart. He’ll find us.”

St. George glanced at Barry cradled in Freedom’s arm, then up at the officer. “Want me to carry him for a while?”

“Hey,” said Barry. “Him is right here in front of you.”

“Sorry.”

“And you’ve got skinny arms. It’d be uncomfortable as hell.”

Madelyn and Danielle both chuckled.

Freedom shook his head. “It’s better to just have one of us dealing with the wounded, sir.”

“We’re not wounded,” said Madelyn.

The huge officer glanced up at her. “The principle’s the same,” he said. “Wounding one man takes out two, because someone else has to help the wounded man. If we’re each helping one of you, we’re both hampered as fighters.” He looked at St. George. “It’s better for me to help both and leave you free to fight if we need to.”

“Okay.”

“Besides, you’re looking pretty beat, sir.”

“I’ve been up for about thirty hours,” said St. George. “I’m not even sure when I ate last.”

Danielle glanced at a bagel shop and Subway sitting next to each other across the street. “We could grab some food. Eat on the go.”

“There is still a chance this is the real world which we are viewing through altered perceptions,” said Stealth. She didn’t look back when she spoke.

“So?”

“There is no way to know what we might be eating.”

Madelyn’s face wrinkled up. “Oh, gross.”

“There is also the chance we will be eating nothing at all. In which case we would gain no benefit from stopping.”

“Okay, I get it,” said Danielle. She shoved her hands in her pockets. “No food.”

“Please explain again how you found Barry.”

The redhead looked up from the sidewalk. “Sorry, what?”

Stealth turned around, but continued to walk backward in firm, even strides. It struck St. George that she somehow made walking backward in an oversized fleece jacket look very no-nonsense. “Explain again how you found him. In detail.”

“A shift happened while you were in the hotel,” said Freedom. “We heard a yell, investigated, and found Mr. Burke in a cab with an ex.”

“He didn’t yell,” smirked Danielle. “He screamed like a little girl.”

“Hey,” snapped Madelyn.

“No offense,” Danielle said.

“You’re not that little,” said Freedom.

Stealth raised a finger. “What condition was the cab in?”

“What do you mean?” asked the huge officer.

“Was it damaged in any way? Exterior or interior?”

Freedom looked at Danielle. She shrugged. “It looked like it might’ve been sideswiped,” he said. “The driver’s side was pretty banged up. The tires were flat, but I think that was just from dry rot.”

“Nothing else?”

He shook his head.

Stealth closed her eyes for a moment, as if she’d been struck with sudden pain. She looked at Barry. “Explain from your point of view,” she told him. “Use as much detail as you can.”

He looked at St. George. The hero shrugged.

“I got a cab from the airport, like you said,” Barry explained. “I asked the driver how far out of the way Universal Studios was. He said not far—which turned out to be a big lie—and I asked if we could drive past it. We came down the freeway and he was pointing all sorts of stuff out to me. Then he got off in Hollywood and we were going along the streets and all of a sudden there was this … I don’t know. It was like the world switched channels.”

Stealth glanced at St. George. “For how long?”

“Half an hour,” he said. “Maybe forty-five minutes. I wasn’t checking my watch for any of it.”

“That’s not right,” said Freedom. “It was ten minutes at the most.”

Barry shook his head. “Half an hour at least.”

“In high-stress situations, it’s not unusual for time to seem to slow down,” the captain explained. “It may have felt like half an hour, but—”

“Half an hour at least,” repeated Barry. “I don’t know what you guys saw, but I know what I saw.”

Stealth focused on St. George. “You still insist there was no shift at all?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

“Inside the hotel,” she said, “the shift was at least ninety seconds. I am not sure it continued after I left the room.”

“After you dove out the window, you mean,” said St. George.

“Yes.”

“That was so cool,” Madelyn said.

Stealth came to a stop as the light changed to red. A row of cars turned in and drove through the crosswalk behind her toward a towering parking structure. Madelyn looked back and forth from Stealth, still facing backward, and the stoplight. “How did you—”

“On the opposite corner the crosswalk signal has a beeper for sightless pedestrians. The sound is distinct, even beneath the traffic noises.”

“But you couldn’t know which way the light was changing off the sound.”

“She can’t,” said St. George, “but she can see the flow of traffic on this—”

The road flickered and the cars slammed to a