Death Weeps Part 39

Finally, he pulled her against him and rested his chin on the top of her head. "It does not lessen my desire to remain with you."

She stepped away and smiled. "This I know. And it has been one of my life's greatest gifts."

John smiled and in front of his friends, the Zondoraes and G.o.d, he kissed her like he was a starving man with the last piece of fruit before him.

Elise stood on tiptoe and received the first kiss of her life. Without abuse, without condition.

She received it for the gift it was, letting the stolen moment of pa.s.sion overwhelm her.

For a long journey awaited her.

And the love that moved over her lips in a velvet press of eager and unsophisticated pa.s.sion might be the last genuine thing she could hang onto.

As the young man pulled away, he jerked her heart out of her chest with his departure.

It lay in his capable hands, throbbing and pulsing with unrequited love.

I saw John's face ache as he pulled away from Elise. Their fingers parting after a kiss so long that it had swollen her lips. Finally, she and the other women made their way across the field and towards the Clan of Ohio. A place of safety.

A place that afforded them a new life.

Before Elise slipped into the forest she turned a final time and lifted her hand.

John lifted his in return. As I studied him, I saw something in his eyes.

I wasn't sure what it was but it looked a little bit like a promise.

Maybe John wasn't done here.

But I was.

Turning, I walked back from the field, never once glancing at the brothers. They would kill themselves in the end.

A justifiable death.

The zombies moved away like a sea parting from the bow of a swift moving boat and there Jade lay, high color where an ashen pallor had been before. Gramps stood, barely. He hung, partially suspended between Clyde and Gale, Parker holding up the rear.

Randi came forward, all traces of the sedative gone, her eyes bright.

Ready.

I looked at the broken fragment that littered and stirred on the ground. Many had lived when they had been thrown through the air like so much garbage.

We needed to go before they woke up or they would have to die. And I was getting tired of the war.

The killing.

But especially, the Graysheets.

Randi closed her eyes, Alex holding onto her hand protectively.

I looked at my zombies, bidding them their last command.

They fell away, and like ducks to water, they swam through the broken planks of the auction platform, like plaque into decaying teeth.

Home again.

The icy hotness encompa.s.sed the group as the strange inter-dimensional highway of Randi's power swarmed over our bodies. As it laid claim to Jade, her eyes opened and met mine.

I was never sure of their expression in that moment, blackness descended and we were hurtling through what lay between the dimensions.

My mind clung to what I had hoped I'd seen there.

Forgiveness.

CHAPTER 22.

I drove at a frantic pace straight from the dump to the medical clinic. Gramps was in tough shape, his skin had a gray cast to it. And for him, he was feistier than ever.

"Gramps, don't be stubborn, you admitted to me when we were in the sphere world that you needed an Organic!" I half yelled at him, taking the corners too fast as the safety restraints snapped hard against our torsos.

"Pay attention to your driving and stop worrying about me," he wheezed out of his smashed nose.

Yeah, he was doing so good.

My eyes met Clyde's in the rear view mirror and he smirked. Nice to know the humor was contagious.

I'd left everyone at the dump, it seemed safer. Even with Parker there. Without his zombies. They were long gone, in pieces with my three of the Skopamish. I got a real pang of guilt over that. I hated my zombies getting Actually Dead because of me. Even the gophers having gotten the torch had been wrong on so many levels.

The clinic came into view and I screeched to a stop, parking in the emergent area. The pulse scanner read my license plate, automatically identifying the car, driver and time of day. There was no reporting stuff to the cops later. In this age of All Knowing Pulse Tech. the cops didn't have to scrounge for domestic violence or any kind of purposeful harm. If you arrived in a car and parked, you were cataloged.

I got out and jogged around to the other side, where Clyde met me. The police station was located very close to the med clinic, so when Garcia pulled up my first thought wasn't a good one.

But, he was suspended so why was he here?

Oh s.h.i.+t.

He hadn't had the antidote.

Gramps knew immediately and yelled, "Caleb, watch it!"

Too late, Garcia, who was all but frothing at the mouth like a rabid dog, jumped on me and started whaling on me like there was no tomorrow.

If he didn't stop, there wouldn't be.

Clyde tore him off and flung him casually against a nearby tree. Garcia plowed into the trunk and cracked his head a good one.

I got up, swaying, feeling like I'd just finished a whole spin cycle inside the was.h.i.+ng machine.

Nice.

I shook my head to clear it. "Hold him!" I said, ripping the top of the antidote off with my teeth, I spit it on the concrete sidewalk and strode toward Garcia. Clyde had his arms looped under and through Garcia's arms, pinning him against his chest.

"No!" he whipped his head from side to side.

Bobbi approached him and his eyes found hers and he started to yell in earnest then, "Corpse wh.o.r.e! Undead s.l.u.t!"

"May I bash him around? I could convince him of some reason," Clyde said casually.

I sighed, "No Clyde. You can open his mouth though."

Clyde did, applying bruising force.

Garcia gagged, "Argh!" m.u.f.fled.

"Open up," Clyde said with a smile like an evil dentist.

He was enjoying this far too much.

I applied the drop and Clyde forced Garcia's mouth closed, the absorption taking seconds. Clyde released Garcia slowly and Bobbi said, "Well, I guess we know what he really thinks."

Maybe, but where did that leave me with Jade? She'd said some stuff too.

Bad stuff. Things that I hadn't really known she felt so strongly about.

"Well that was handy, Caleb," Gramps croaked.

Oh s.h.i.+t. I'd totally zoned on Gramps.

He smiled crookedly at me and I saw he was missing some teeth.

Huh.

We took him inside the clinic and Jezebel the Organic was there. I bet she was thinking there was something wrong with the Hart family.

Or just me. I seemed to always be in the mix no matter what.

Gramps looked at me from the examination table, "Go Caleb. Your folks need the antidote."

Cripes-on-a-crutch, The Parents.

My mom was kinda crazy naturally.

I ran to the swinging doors, took one look at a dazed Garcia and launched myself at the Camaro. Clyde opened the door for Gale and she slid into the back seat.

Even with Clyde and Gale I felt alone in the car.

I'd never felt so lonely, or so determined in my life.

The Dog felt the Boy as he came, his intent as clear as if he had spoken. The Old Alpha had dropped the Dog off at the First Cave in which he had lived with this pack.

The Dog thought his coming was quite good.

For the Alphas in his pack were sick. The Dog did not know with what but the female was greatly affected. The Dog looked at the female Alpha now, muttering about things that made no sense. The Alpha male was playing the game with the ball that they threw into a net with holes.

Normally, he would play this game with his Boy. But today, the Alpha had been playing from the time the heat was upon the cave until it had almost gone.

He smelled of adrenaline and sweat. The Alpha male smelled of sickness.

The Alpha female had not been in the food place the entire day. His food dish stood empty.

The Dog whined, his tail pinned against his hindquarters. He stood, waiting forlornly by the hole that did not open. Standing watch for the return of his Boy.

When the thing that smelled of not good garbage rolled up outside the cave and his Boy got out, the Dog was not surprised.

The Dead One and a female who he knew from scent alone ran to the door.

The Dog wagged his tail for the first time that day. He saw his Boy give the Alpha a look of surprise and exchange a furtive glance with the Dead One.

Good.

His Boy was aware of the sickness plaguing the Alphas.

He would rectify this imbalance.

I opened my car door and saw Dad playing basketball.

By himself.

Wow, this was weird. This was a work day, he should have been long gone into some lab weirdness.

But the enhancer had changed all that, hadn't it?

But no. Here he was, almost suppertime and he had been playing ball... it looked like all day. I took in his appearance and he was wearing his pajamas.

I guessed it he was expendable to the Graysheets, so they'd given my dad the enhancer. He'd done his gig for them. They had the map for humanity, getting me out of the way was critical.