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"Hello Jeffrey," Joe Zondorae said, his head hanging at an odd angle

Wait a second, hadn’t he lost his head? Hadn’t there been a brain fest?

That answered the question about brains once and for all: zombies didn’t need much

"Get away from her," Parker said in a low voice as the zombies mewled all around him Then his eyes slid to Nevaeh "What Is This," Parker asked Nevaeh, sweeping his hand out at Zondorae

"Poetic justice," she replied, her eyes glittering her hate at hi out well

Clyde and I h the sea of dead, their arear and sliding off with only a trail of zombie slime as evidence

Zondorae watched our approach and Clyde didn’t hold back, hissing Joe s into a puddle that had for

"Put hi a piece of invisible lint off his shredded clothing

Parker hung his head

I could see him deliberate Finally he blew us aith raw sincerity "I love you," he proclaimed in a voice that was at once troubled and deadly sincere

Nevaeh visibly started It had been utterly unexpected She had been prepared to pull us apart lie like a s of neat whiskey

Instead, her presuotten through when her lip quivered

They stood there for a swollen

Then she softly called out, "Rest"

And with a sigh, the dead fell, sinking into the sodden ground Their bodies were reabsorbed in the earth like they’d never been

Only Joe Zondorae fought the return to death

His hands were the last thing to disappear as they were sucked under thepop

Then Nevaeh was sliding down the post on the porch, her eyes rolling back in her head

Parker was there to catch her

CHAPTER 22

so 2030

I decided I ay more old-fashioned than I knew I carried Jade across the threshold without being asked, without really knowing it was a centuries-old practice Her bright white dress catching the door as I kicked it shut with my fancy shoes

That eternity band was so beautiful on her s like captured ice in a narrow band of white gold It was perfect, like her

I set her down carefully and we looked around at the house that see, yet we’d fill it with our happiness

Our future children

Jade looked up at me, her black hair swept up and artfully knotted at the lowest part of her neck I bent down, kissing her right beside the heaviness of that knot and pulled the stick that held it out with my teeth I let it drop and it clattered loudly on the wood floor

"Caleb!" she squealed as her hair tue of her stomach hidden by a dress Sophie had found on one of theirtrips

I covered her belly,from one hipbone to the other and said, "Let’s christen the duave up

Jade wasn’t heavy enough to worry about picking up

I took her upstairs and kicked shut my second door of the day

su myself into the booth across fro around then giving up "He’ll be here when he gets here"

"So how goes it?"

John’s eyebrows lifted and he gave a little srinned, tried unsuccessfully to hide it and gave up,wider

I nodded, thinking about all the sheer ti, for sure I flopped s under the table John, as three inches taller, took the other side and we sat in coet picked up by that free-lance group?" John asked, sipping a pop the waitress had brought

"They wantdown the h my hair that needed a cut We had to eat and Bry’s landscaping business was just barelyends meet

"What about Bry?"

"Yeah, Weller’s the ot his own thing going"

"Hied John with a stare "Shit, with all this pressure for people to hump like bunnies and spit out kids"

"I heard the word hu hi John in the shin underneath the table

"Hey!" John said, curling his long legs up underneath hiirl" Jonesy rolled his eyes and shoved a Blow Pop in his mouth

It was eleven am Never too early for candy

"What’s all this noise about screwing, Hart?"

Yeah "I was just talking about the societal shift to ’everyone hump everyone’ for babies mentality"

The Js looked at me, I’d sorta pulled out the intellectual card but at almost twenty, I could speak like an adult if the reat, Hart," Jonesy said slowly, "but I never felt like they needed to give me the nod to enjoy the ladies If ya knohat I mean" His eyebrows rose in a comical arch, the Blow Pop stick a white exclamation point out of his dark lips

I did know exactly what he meant Sophie walked up on that note and John and I stifled laughter Her sparkly fingertips landed on hips encased in bright red pants "What ladies are you enjoying, Mark Jones?"

Busted So busted

Jonesy tore out his Blow Pop and defended himself "That was before, baby"

Her sea-colored eyes narrowed on his face and he gave a nervous laugh

"Got a nutsack, Jones?" Terran couldn’t help but ask and Jonesy gave him the bird