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Becks squeezedit "Don’t," she whispered "We have e need The recorders were running the whole ti we need"

I nodded curtly as I pulled my hand away Then I sa plane to land "Good to see you made it out! What happened, dude?"

"Mr Mason--Ms Atherton," said the director He’d ed to compose his face, but there was still a quaver in his voice The bastard really didn’t think we’d lad to see you both I was so afraid you wouldn’t realize what had happened in time to make it to an exit" His eyes flickered toward the door that we’d eh "I had no idea that you knew about the evacuation tunnels"

Which explains why he didn’t have thee She sounded furious No one threatened ot aith it

"We’ve done our ho It was that or punch him in the face, and that seemed a hell of a lot less productive, if a hell of a lot more fun "So seriously, dude, what happened? Was it pit bulls again? Another illegal breeding program like the one in Oakland?"

"I--we’re not quite sure yet" Director Swenson’s eyes darted toward the door again He clearly hadn’t prepared a cover story Why should he have bothered? We weren’t intended to survive "There will be a press release as soon as we have a better idea of rong"

"Cool Make sure we get a copy Oh, and also, that docuia’s research? I’ll expect copies, since we couldn’t, y’know, go over it together I guess if I don’t get it, I’ to hide" I turned, still s area

"Wait--where are you going?"

I turned back to Director Swenson long enough to flash hirin I couldmy teeth Maybe it looked that way, too; he took an involuntary step backward, eyes going wide "We’re going to do e’re paid to do," I said "We’re going to go and tell everybody the news" I waved to the rest of the survivors of the Portland CDC and kept on walking, with Becks following close behind ot to the bike, stowed our gear, put on our helmets, and drove away

Fuck you all If that’s the way you want to play things… If that’s the way you want things to go… Then fk you all You have no idea what you’re dealing with You have no idea what I’m capable of And you have no idea how little I have left to lose

You’re about to be sorrier than you could possibly believe, and I arave

--Fro of Shaun Mason, April 18, 2041 Unpublished

Fourteen

A ccording to the bike’s GPS, the drive froie’s place should have taken a little over five hours on the ht Since the chances that ere being tracked by the CDC had just gone ay up, we stuck to the back roads, keeping our ca checkpoints whenever we could I won’t say we drove through the ass-end of nowhere, exactly, but we had to stop twice to gun down the zoh the fence between the road and the undeveloped land around us

"I wish to God I could post this," be another infected herbivore squarely between the antlers

"Yeah, well, I wish to God I had a cup of coffee," I replied, and gunned the bike’s engine "Coe was paranoid for asking Buffy to build a ja system I’m over it, especially since that jahway three ti through the newsfeeds as I drove, listening for reports of the outbreak in Portland "We can’t be too careful," she said e stopped for drinks and enough greasy snack food to get us to Maggie’s without crashing I agreed with her We’d co attention to the news

None of the initial reports ic, and carefully sanitized We’d been on the road for about two hours when the "official record" began ad that perhaps some journalists had been present for the outbreak, but they didn’t identify us by naood That er before we needed to kill the the drive She wasn’t gone--that would’ve leftthat had happened since Kelly’s arrival--but she wasn’t talking, either She was just quiet, sitting at the back of ured she’d tellit out for herself Maybe it says so about my e We were too far away fro anyo-colored sky w turned onto Maggie’s driveway I had to keep one foot on the ground to keep the bike upright while we navigated the various security gates, untiland I started to feel like ould have made better time if we’d ditched the bike on the street and made the rest of the trip to the house on foot Becks clearly shared my frustration By the ti with the anxious need to be back in the safety of friendly walls