"I didn't think about what I was doing. Don't take it personally."
She shakes her head slowly. "I don't understand you, Gabriel. I'm thanking you for saving my life, and you act like I've insulted you."
Maybe I've kind of forgotten how to accept a compliment, or how to admit I might not be a total bastard. I've spent too long fighting for my life and the lives of my friends, only to lose everything. Sarah would be better off if she slugged me and told her friends to toss me into the ocean.
Sarah wraps her arms around my neck and kisses my cheek. "Thank you, Gabriel. If you hadn't been here, I would've died."
If she says that one more time… I'll probably growl at her and act like a jerk again.
"We're all grateful," Grant says, "that you were there to help Sarah. That took guts."
I push Sarah's arms away and scramble to my feet. "I didn't do it on purpose. That was instinct, plain and simple."
Though I want to get away from these people, I have nowhere to go. So I stand here glancing around, fisting my hands and loosening them again, over and over.
Men and women pour out of the woods, where they'd been hiding. Several approach Grant and his friends, wanting to know what happened and why. Dax gets me another T-shirt, since the one I'd been wearing got scorched. There's a hole in the fabric smack in the middle of my chest, but my skin suffered no damage. Supernatural lightning has different rules.
But in the Echo, lightning like that would kill whoever got in its way.
After things calm down, I follow Grant, Dax, and Erin into the tent where they'd kept me until they decided I'm not a psycho. Sarah walks right beside me. I pull my hand away when she tries to hold it. I get that she feels grateful, and she'sprobably latched on to me because I helped her. But I wish she wouldn't do that.
Inside the tent, we all sit down to discuss the event that has everyone panicked and confused. Sarah sits on the chair I'd been tied to earlier, while Erin and Grant take the cot. Dax and I sit on the floor.
The British Hulk squints at me. "How did you survive that strike? Echo lightning can destroy a city, and it incinerates the human body."
"I know. Don't ask me how it happened, because I have no idea."
Dax keeps staring at me with his squinty, flinty gaze, like he thinks that will make me confess that I'm secretly an Echo beast who wants to eat everyone in this camp. "No one survives the lightning."
"Clearly, that's not true. How do you know that nobody else has survived it? You can't be everywhere at once, all the time."
"Perhaps not. But over the past eight months, I and my mates have visited many cities and rural towns to scavenge supplies and help anyone who might need our assistance." Dax rests one arm on his bent knee, leaning toward me. "No one has ever seen a human being survive Echo lightning."
"At least I could be the first. Maybe I'll get an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records."
"I doubt that exists anymore."
"Well, I know I'm the record-holder. That's something."
Grant shakes his head at me. "Is everything a joke to you? We're talking about the end of the world, and you're cracking wise."
"The alternative doesn't appeal to me."
Because going full-on doom and gloom would mean surrendering to the Echo. No, I'll never do that. I fought my way through that hell world once, and I can do it again if necessary.
Sarah stands up. "I should go. Everyone here has a role to play in the apocalypse, but not me."
"Of course you play a role," Grant says. "Something or someone sent you to us. That means you belong in this discussion. Besides, that lightning was meant for you."
"But all of you can fight. I can't."
"There are other ways to contribute, Sarah."
She sits back down, hands clasped on her lap.
And she keeps her gaze trained on me.
For some reason, her unwavering focus on me makes me feel the need to share information. "Aldith mentioned that the Echo has a heart and lifeblood, and a brain too."