I got a bunch of ideas for Light, the next gone book, and I started to type them up.


One/ 52 hours, 23 minutes

Gaia had enough waiting the time to act was now, the entire story of the “FAYZ” was coming into the light and her bunch of dweebs couldn’t be more useless. Diana was sitting down watching Gaia intently, it was a little unsettling but she had bigger problems, “we need to kill Sam” the conclusion came to her, it had been there all along. “We need to kill Sam Temple” Gaia Laughed, it was so simple; “He is the only one who can stop us, him and father.” The memory of being burnt alive was still fresh even though she was healed. “I can take Caine, he’s become soft” Drake put in, you would almost expect him to giggle maniacally but this wasn’t the cartoons Gaia had seen in Diana’s head, this was reality and in reality people got hurt; she laughed some more, it won’t be long Sam not long at all.


A storm moved in from across the mountains, the rain beat down on the barrier and on the camp that was just visible outside. Astrid Ellison had never been more upset. The media was eating the little Pete story up, Astrid knew she had to get the story off her chest and so she did, communicating through what paper they had in the FAYZ. Astrid had known her parents wouldn’t forgive her and when the story came out they had showed up at the barrier mom pounded at it until her hands were raw while dad stood looking at Astrid like he was trying to read her thoughts, mom broke down crying and dad picked her up and carried her to the car without looking back. Now the storm was here and everyone had either gone home or went back to the camp. Two weeks ago the FAYZ broke revealing the outside world, of course it was just a taunt, a transparent layer was still up and it let the people on the outside-parents, media, friends, relatives, pretty much everyone- see into the life of the FAYZ. Astrid sighed this wasn’t how she imagined it would be, “Oh Astrid, what have you done?” she asked herself, “I know what I’ve done, I let everyone outside the FAYZ think that I’m a monster” Astrid laughed, there were real monsters in the FAYZ and what they had done was just as bad if not worse than Astrid’s killing of little Pete. Petey wasn’t really dead no one knew what he really was but he was gone and it was Astrid’s fault that’s what matters.

The rain slid down the FAYZ wall and the sun was still out, it created a shadow on the ground and the dark drops of water slid down a path black and gold. It reminded Astrid of times when she had enough of little Pete before the FAYZ and she would go to her room and look out her window, sometimes it would rain and the sun would still be out it was always a wonder and that wonder brought her to this place. Astrid thought about the Q & A session this afternoon, it would be rough but it would be a relief and was everyone needed right now, they needed to communicate.

Astrid stood up, a year in the FAYZ wasn’t something she would recommend, she had more than a dozen scrapes and bruises and she knew that she looked malnourished but things had definitely gotten better. Lake Tramonto had plenty of fish and Pete’s raincloud was still pumping water, Quinn and his fishermen set our early every day to come back with catch by Lunch and sometimes Sam would come out of his boathouse and go with them, things were definitely getting better. Astrid started walking, Sam wouldn’t think to look half presentable for the public in fact he probably wouldn’t want to go at all. When the barrier opened we had been in the midst of a serious battle, against Drake, Penny, and the Giaphage who had taken over Diana’s baby and made it grow at an accelerated rate so when the barrier opened, the public saw Caine break a piece of concrete over Penny’s head and they had seen Sam set a two year old on fire, their mom had been right in front watching when it happened so Sam or Caine wasn’t too enthusiastic about their public appearance.

Perdido Beach came into focus and instead of going straight through the town Astrid decided to go around it, who knows what kind of mood Caine would be in.


Jason was adamant that Caine should be at the Q&A today but Caine wouldn’t have any of it instead Caine decided that he should go into the woods where helicopters couldn’t fly over and see him and kids wouldn’t bother looking for him. Jason watched Caine gather some clothes into a beaten backpack. Jason wasn’t a normal person, he was a freak and until less than two weeks ago Caine hadn’t heard of him and neither had anyone else actually most still don’t but news doesn’t take long to spread in the FAYZ. Caine respected Jason but didn’t say it after all Jason had whopped Caine’s ass using his own powers, that’s pretty embarrassing, the only person to know about Caine’s defeat was Lana who came to heal him. Lana had become more isolated and nowadays rarely came out of the cliff top; Sanjit was the only person aloud to come in or out of Lana’s room unless they wanted their head blown off.

Jason thought about his adventures in getting here. First of all he was an orphan who lived anywhere but Perdido Beach although he was born here he didn’t come from here. From what Jason remembered, his parents had moved away from here after the asteroid hit. Jason didn’t know what between them moving and him being born but that’s the way things were; he ended up in a foster home in Los Angeles apparently he arrived with a note saying to be anywhere but Perdido Beach. Jason went through six different homes before he finally ran away, the best mistake he had ever made. Jason was about seven at the time and he had recently begun to experience strange things like when he touched someone he would see their reflection instead of his or he would suddenly find himself in a cocoon of ice and sometime he would be on fire. Five years passed out on the street, living like a bum and begging for food until he saw the sign: Perdido Beach eight miles, of course not thinking he headed toward Perdido Beach.

Jason thought about his triumph over the Giaphage just three months ago, Jason was normally a quiet person so he saw everything that happened to everyone if they happened to be near him, it was probably just him but no one ever seemed to notice when he was there. The fight between Sam and Caine and the coyotes had been scary but he still managed not to be seen by anyone, from there he hid at Coates until Diana came then he bustled off to a dumpster behind Zil’s and finally he had enough especially when the houses were set on fire. Jason had marched to the Giaphage’s mine shaft while everyone had been on the cliff for Mary’s big jump, he climbed down the drop and landed in front of a mass of black and green, “You’re going down” was what Jason remembered saying and then he jumped at the monster fist first, amazingly his fist connected with something, it drew back as if in pain and then it happened. A claw reached out and Jason reached for its hand they touched and he felt such power. Jason’s skin broke apart and he felt free, he was a cloud of gold brining the light, “that’s right you had better fear me” the Giaphage made a feeble attempt to attack Jason but he was too powerful and when the fists collided you could almost hear the beast scream.

Jason smiled at so many of those memories and of course the power he had made him the most powerful person in the FAYZ so of course Caine respected him especially for the cheap shot at the Giaphage. “Please don’t go, Caine. You’d be wimping out of a time to set the story straight.” Caine sat down in his mayor’s chair, “how many times have you faced Sam or maybe an actual bad guy and felt scared?” Caine bowed his head, “I have been scared, Jason, I just don’t think my stories will do anything but tie a noose around my neck.” Caine looked up and for the first time ever I saw him cry. “Dude. Caine. You’re making me feel sad but this is something that every politician, rock star, or celebrity has to do, they have to face the cameras and so do you. No matter what happens you will always have a friend to talk to” Caine wiped the tears from his eyes and started to fix his composure, “You?” Jason shook his head, “Sam”

Pete looked into the bubble and saw a change, he had been asleep for a while but now he was awake, two entities had entered. There was a gold one and a black one, each of them was new. The gold one suddenly blew a spark and the bubble shook. Pete had done his best to bring the barrier down, to please his sister, but something stopped it right at that moment and what was left was something like soundproof glass which was at least an improvement maybe he had done good but it still puzzled him. The avatars were changing, inside and out; two of them were changing particularly fast both of them were turning green. The end was coming and everyone had to be ready for it.


Sam woke groggily; he saw an outline of a shape. “Astrid” he said aloud. “Sam.” She moved closer and without warning punched him in the stomach, “you should have been up hours ago, you’re not even dressed yet” she was so great at pushing people around. Sam sat up, his eyes still weren’t focused but from what he could make out she was wearing Sunday cloths, a nice faded blue dress and some heels without the heels which wasn’t very practical in the FAYZ but she could do what she wanted to, and if Astrid wanted to look overdressed then she could go right on ahead but Sam didn’t really care about looking nice mostly because he wasn’t going to the Q&A. Sam received another punch, some of that must have slipped out of his mouth, “You. Are. Going.” Astrid said very forcefully. Sam and Astrid went on like this for a while but as they say, you really can’t win a fight against a woman.

Sam got dressed in jeans and a recently washed tee. Astrid threw her head back and forth in absolute dis-approval, “seriously Sam, you want to show up on television looking like that, they saw you fry a two year old girl, if you can call it that. They need to respect you, you should treat this like a…” Astrid froze catching herself before she said trial, “I should treat this like a trial” Sam finished, Astrid hung her head and an unnatural silence ensued in which neither of them spoke. Sam moved close to Astrid and held her hand; she tilted her head to meet his and they kissed. Sam loved Astrid and Astrid loved Sam and that would never change. Never.