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11:49 PM

THE BOMB

Rex threw hi the horror that treht, unrusted steel As his shoulder hit, the door pushed outward another few inches

"Can you fit through there yet?" he asked

Dess looked at the narrow gap between the door and its frah his teeth He and Jonathan had been up here just the night before to dump off most of the fireworks, and this door had been unlocked Noas secured with a chain an inch wide and a padlock as big as his fist

Rex hit the door again, his shoulder banging against steel with a dull thud, pulling the chain tauter and winning another inch of space

"Still too small," Dess said

Rex cursed The fireworks show at Jenks wouldn&039;t keep the darklings at bay for a whole twenty-five hours They couldn&039;t afford for this part of the plan to fail

They&039;d chosen an eh that it could be seen from pretty much everywhere in Bixby Once the rip reached don, anyone ake would notice that their TVs, radios, and phones weren&039;t working Hopefully when they stumbled out of their houses and into the blue ti up from this roof Anyone who made it here could shelter under the protection of the flaht ended

But the first trick was to ht And to do that, they had to get out to the roof, where Dess&039;s makeshift bomb lay hidden

Thunder rolled overhead, and Rex se in the air

"Oh, crap" He thrust his hand out through the crack in the door, and a few drops struck his paluys covered the fireworks with plastic, didn&039;t you?" Dess asked

Rex just looked at her There&039;d been sothat had slipped his mind The fireworks were on the other side of the door, outside, hidden under soy, useless et out there soon

"Didn&039;t you hear the weather report?" Dess cried "They&039;ve been predicting rain all week!"

"I can&039;t watch TV any part of hisbox in his father&039;s house gave hiroaned

Rex took a few steps back, as et in the sain It budged outward another inch against the chain Still not enough gap between door and frame to squeeze out onto the roof

The rain outside was falling harder now

Rex noticed that theoutward from the center, where the chain held it Maybe if he focused on pounding the bottoh rooh

He drew his foot back and kicked thedown the stairwell

Dess looked down the stairs "Jeez, Rex Make some more noise, why don&039;t you?"

"I didn&039;t smell anyone on the way in"

"But if soht still be around"

"So?" he said "At least they un too"

"Huave the metal another kick; it scraped outward a little farther Inside his cowboy boot Rex&039;s foot stung, but he ignored the pain, focusing on raising up the darkness inside himself

Black spots appeared in the corners of his eyes, and he felt his body shifting within his skin Pain turned to anger, and he began to thrash at the door harder and harder, ignoring the dahts eclipsed his human mind: the flat metal expanse was his enemy, the clever alloys inside it an aboet out under the open sky

The door buckled and twisted under his assault, its botto from the wall Flakes of paint flew from the batteredthat held the chain snapped off, and the entire door tu out cold

"What the hell, Rex," Dess said softly "Are you okay?"

Rex got hi deep breaths and feeling the pain swell in his right foot

"Ow," he said softly, turning to the stair rail to peer down If anyone was in the building, theyfeet met his ears

"Come on," she said "We&039;re behind schedule"

He followed Dess out onto the roof, every liony The cold rain fell on his face and hands, stronger now

The fireworks were still there under the rain-spattered boxes, still dry Ignoring his foot, Rex helped Dess drag the whole pile across the black tar and through the door into the shelter of the stairwell

He checked his watch: fourthe boxes down the stairs, clearing some room in the tiny stairwell shed The bomb sat atop the other fireworks, a paint can with a three-foot fuse protruding from its top

"There&039;s my baby," Dess said with a s s hiunpowder ees of M-8Os Its purpose was simple: to create as loud a boom as possible Dess had calculated that its shock ould set off car alar people up all over this side of town

Of course, for that to work, they had to set it off in the next four ht fell

"I&039;ll take it from here," he said

"No way My toy"

She lifted it with both hands and carefully carried it out into the rain Still li, Rex followed her to one corner of the roof, where a cell phone repeater sat, a five-foot-tall antenna that faced out toward the suburbs Dess balanced the boo up high so the roof wouldn&039;t muffle the shock wave before it could travel out across Bixby

"Okay Let me do this part," he said

Dess looked at the bo moment, then nodded "Fine by me But if that fuse starts to burn too fast, run like hell" She paused "You knohat? Run like hell no matter what" She stepped back

Rex took a deep breath and pulled out his lighter His foot was throbbing dully now, keeping ti heartbeat

He reached down and lit the long, dangling fuse It sputtered to life and began crawling slowly upward toward the paint can

"Okay, let&039;s go," Dess said

He watched the fire clihimself fascinated by the shower of sparks that were carried off in a little trail by the wind

"Rex!" she called from the other end of the roof "Come on!"

Then thunder booht the boone off He stu at the pain, turned to liainst the far side of the stairwell shed

"Are you sure we&039;ll be okay back here?" he asked

"According to my research, Rex, bo stuff, which this shed is solid enough to protect us froh to crush our heads, but o deaf" To reinforce this point, she placed her own palainst her head

Rex checked his watch Only a little ht occurred to hi fuse they could find, three feet of it for the h the door had already put the did you say that fuse would take?" he asked

"About two and a half o before ht"

"Really?" She looked at Geostationary "Sixty seconds? Crap, Rex, we took too long!"