Read Ashes for Free Online

know how to tell time, and she sure wasn’t going to get into that . So, 9:11 would be 9:55, and that seemed right. Which meant that Ellie’s watch … “Your watch still works?”
    Ellie nearly sneered. “Of course. It’s Mickey Mouse. It used to be my daddy’s. I wind it every day like Grandpa taught me.”
    A wind-up. So are we talking just the batteries? No, Dad’s Swiss Army flashlight works. It’s got to be something else. Even with all that blood, she made out the watch on Jack’s right wrist, but she was too far away to be certain. She didn’t want to touch Jack again. Mina might not let her get close anyway. “Does your grandpa’s watch still work?”
    â€œI don’t know. Why are you asking all these questions?”
    â€œEllie, could you check, please? I don’t think Mina will let me—”
    â€œI don’t want to touch him,” Ellie blurted.
    â€œOh.” She understood that. “Well, can you hold Mina? I don’t want her to freak out, but I have to check something.” For a moment, she thought Ellie might refuse, but then the girl’s hand snaked around Mina’s collar.
    Alex slid forward, one eye on the dog, the other on Jack’s watch. The Seiko’s hour hand was locked on nine. The minute hand said it was three minutes after the hour, and the second sweep hand was notched between twenty and a hash mark—and it wasn’t moving. Alex stared at that watch face so hard that if she’d been Cyclops, she could’ve burned a hole right through it. She stared so long, her eyes watered. But that second hand didn’t budge.
    Her watch and Jack’s, the iPods, the radio, and her LEDs—all dead, and Jack … Her gaze drifted up to his face. Something he’d said was important: I’m a tough old bird, all except my ticker.
    Of course. Jack had a pacer. That was the only explanation for why Jack was dead and they weren’t. She knew pacers had tiny computer chips that synchronized the heartbeat to what a body required at any given moment. Jack’s pacer had shorted out and that’s what killed him. But how? What could reach inside Jack’s chest, fry his pacer, kill all their electronics—and grab them ? They’d all felt it: Ellie, with her nosebleed and headache; the dog, which had yowled in pain; and the birds and the deer, which had all gone insane.
    And she could smell again—things like blood and the tang of resin from the evergreens and her sweat. She smelled the dog, too: not just its fur but something nameless steaming from somewhere deep inside the animal.
    Yet Ellie was back to normal, which for her seemed to be somewhere between whiny and nasty. The dog … well, who knew? It wasn’t attacking her, at least. She threw a quick look into the sky, eyed a hawk floating by on an updraft and then, still higher, a trio of turkey vultures turning a slow, looping spiral. The birds seemed back to normal, too.
    So, if her sense of smell didn’t evaporate, then only her brain had altered in some way. Out of all of them, only she had changed.
    But how? And was she done changing? Was that the end of it?
    Or was this just the beginning?

9
    The good news was that Ellie cooperated just long enough to dig out a blue rain poncho that Alex used to cover up Jack. The bad news was that Ellie decided she was done being helpful and Mina wouldn’t let Alex anywhere near Jack’s pack. Every time she got close, the dog’s teeth showed, and finally, Alex gave it up. They’d just have to leave whatever food and water Jack had. That was okay. Ellie could have most of her food. If she could get the kid to lay down some distance, they wouldn’t be on the trail more than two days. Three, if they were really unlucky. She’d get by.
    As she broke down her tent, she again flirted with the idea of going back to her car. With the electronics on the fritz,