Page 17 (1/2)

Gra out Gran (which was his aze away "What can we do for your Gran here?"

"Sa with all of them, Gramps She carunted

"So you gonna boh

Parker nodded then said, "No, not htly eles, Parker?"

He nodded "I have"

Mia raised her hand, ignoring the evidence of the battle

Bry laughed and she gave hilare Mild by Jade standards

Jade elbowed hed So Ean, looking around at the statue-like dead "You’re saying that you had a plan to what bo"

Mia nodded like itand rescuing et that pervert scientist here, to distract the Graysheet ’guard’," Nevaeh et some wackos in place to do them in"

"Yes"

"Prick," Nevaeh said with conviction

The barest smile turned the corners of Parker’s mouth up

Graht Parker had his hands full with this new girl

As if there were a cue-by-jinx a huge explosion erupted to the west of us My eyes bulged

"You did it? You destroyed their headquarters?"

Parker shook his head "My benefactors did"

Jade mouthed the word in confusion

"Who?" Gramps said "Stop the cryptic bullshit and spit it out"

The zohtly closer to Graroup that would circumvent the Graysheets That would allow us to keep our powers, or" he caught our eyes easily, dead and alive, "allow the future of our nation to be ruled by otry or prejudice"

"That’ll never happen," Randi said, Jonesy and Sophie nodding They instinctively understood that history had a way of repeating itself and hanging on to archaic precepts

Parker lifted athe last vehicle door on the new dead

The old dead followed us out of there

We drove

They ran

I kept Tiff and the new AFTD, seven kinds of crazy, in separate vehicles and we raced to the Graysheet building It was the beating and black heart of their organization

The nucleus, as Dad would say

The zo like green ribbons bisecting ce on the tail of our death power As we passed by, they followed like ere the Pied Piper

By the ti there were over a thousand zoeneral chaos of responders who had set up caan to flow into the scene

The yellow tape didn’t stop anything or anyone Our dead walked through it like dental floss

Gary Zondorae was ave a wave, soot covering him from head to toe Several hails of "Doctor" followed

Zondorae didn’t respond

Because Gary wasvery alive Joe would’ve never known had he not interacted with him

Unfortunately, he did

Joe rushed up and skidded to a stop when he saw et the sa

"I don’t know," Gary said nonchalantly Joe took a step back, his hand that’d been raised to touch Gary snapping back against his body "What’s wrong with you?" Joe asked

I knehen he got it The draining of color on his face was a tell

"You stupid brat," Joe Zondorae proclaimed in a voice that shook with emotion

I just stared at him and was proud when the crooked mouth didn’t erupt as Gary hissed at his brother

His mouth was pink and perfect

I did smile then

"Shit," Joe whispered "He’s your zo a loose circle around Gary while I appeared to ade, son"

I felt sha childish

Clyde looked at me in disappointment and I realized howforward an agenda to strip us of our abilities because we’d beco big ti the possibility of procreation along with it?

Jade grabbedon me to own it

Sometimes manhood comes with stealth; sometimes it steals your boyhood quietly like a thief

I’d saya torch and rasp I committed "Let’s do it"

"Do what?" Jonesy asked, baffled

"Just go with it Jones," Bry said, "float, dude"

"Right," Jonesy said, "Onward!" he cried raising his arging, as he tried to pluck the sleeve of his brother’s shirt, now dark broith the dried blood of his death

Gary took his palers captured Joe’s face and pushed hi us

Yeah, I thought as I glanced back to see Joe sprawled on the ground

"This way, Master," Gary Zondorae said

I nodded, following hiht, the irony of a Zondorae being on Team Dead was a flavor of surreal that was difficult to quantify

The responders stood, staring at the horde as they crowded behind us, knowing that there was no gun in the world that would save them from the human ocean of death that flowed behind the three of us

It was sheer nuain

It still stood The central vault that held the secrets of the genes It survived

It had been built like a boround

Gary placed his thu at the entrance and it pulsed open with a soft whisper He entered and we followed

A slass slide as he removed it from the stainless steel that held it inside the to it to me with a reluctance that let me know that so it; I owned him

We looked at each other and he let a breath escape that sounded like a sob

I released hi every open place where I stored my emotions