"Come on, Onyx," I hit my thigh with my hand and he pressed a little closer to Gramps then finally came.
Gramps laughed. "Looks like I've got myself a friend!"
Kinda a bad dog, I thought, liking Gramps better, the traitor. His tail went between his legs and I felt bad. "It's okay boy, you're a good dog."
His tail started to wag again. I had to be careful not to think bad thoughts around Onyx. After all, we were connected.
Death Connection.
Gramps looked at the assembled group. "I know I didn't have a definite resolution for you kids tonight. But everyone's coming tomorrow for Caleb's shindig, right?"
Everyone nodded.
"I'll think of something by then. And, we'll do a little look-see underneath the hood," Gramps said, touching a finger to the Camaro. "There were more pressing matters tonight." He walked over to Sophie and gave her shoulder an awkward pat.
Gramps wasn't much for affection.
But, he did care.
It was in his eyes, the tight way he watched us pile into the cars, his large hands mangling the greasy towel with Archer's blood all over it.
I watched him watch us until Bry's car turned the bend and we were out of sight.
If Gramps couldn't figure it out we were up a creek.
A shit creek, he would've said.
Without a paddle.
****
We were quiet as we drove back to Kent. On the way home there was this long, ten-minute stretch where there were no street lights and woods flanked the road, making it feel narrow.
I had my hand buried in Onyx's fur, giving him a pet while Jade and I were squished together in the back. My eyes flicked to Bry's rear view mirror, noticing it had a spiderweb crack in it. I could still make out Mia's toaster back there, Sophie, Tiff, Lewis and Mia packed inside. Just as my eyes shifted away I caught a second set of headlights, they flicked back. Later I was never sure why those headlights mattered but unease awoke inside me and Jade turned to look at me.
"What?" she asked. I could just make out her eyes in the gloom, twilight had edged into night and there was the barest hint of the day left.
"I don't know exactly."
"Hey," she squeezed my arm, "I'm the Empath, remember?"
I nodded, trying to shake if off.
John turned around, shoehorned into the front between Bry and Alex.
"What did you say?"
"Oh shit!" Bry exclaimed and I felt the jerk to our left when he over corrected to the right.
The car glanced onto the shoulder, gravel kicking up and spraying noisily underneath the wheel wells. The steering column jerked out of his hands, the car sliding, lifting on two wheels then righting itself as it came to a skidding stop in the middle of the street.
A car stood, blocking our way. My unease flared, burning brightly now. I watched as the engine ran and the warm vapor from the exhaust pipe made lazy steam in the cooling night air. Guys in suits exited the vehicle.
Graysheets.
I knew this right off because Parker was with them. Ya know, that guy that's a five-point AFTD and pops up to either kidnap me or save me. I never knew which.
Great.
I whipped my head around, my neck sore from the fun of the car episode and saw that Mia had stopped the tin can and they'd already gotten out. Another government vehicle behind them.
We were boxed in.
That's what the plan had been all along.
Onyx growled, picking up on my anxiety. Jade just stared at the group outside our car. No need for words, her hand clenched in mine.
Jonesy said, "Caleb, someday you're gonna just have to kill him. Really."
I sighed.
Maybe.
We got out of the car. Jonesy, Alex, Bry, Jade, John and me. Jonesy and Bry looked at the girls behind us and they walked over to where we stood, Tiff in the lead.
Parker and his losers spread out in a loose circle around our group.
"John."
He looked at me. "Yes?"
"This may get exciting, I'm gonna need you." He nodded and I turned to Tiff. She came to my side.
I looked at Parker and he stared back.
"It's not what you're thinking, Caleb," he began. His suits stood behind him, the buttons on their black blazers undone so they could shoot a bunch of teenagers if the need arose.
Yeah, so nonthreatening.
"You wouldn't know what I was thinking if it bit you on the ass," I replied levelly, ready.
He smiled. "We know that a certain individual has been infiltrating the AP girls' realm state and wanted you to know that we were aware."
"Well great, that gives me a whole ass-load of relief guys!" Jonesy said, doing a mock forehead wipe.
The guy behind Parker moved up beside him and the headlights from Bry's car revealed him to us.
Skinny-Smoker. I'd know that guy anywhere. Wonder how his head was doing after the Indian Chief took care of him last year? He was like a bad penny, cropping up time after time. He should have been Carson's ring leader, they of the Slow Learner Battalion. Yeah.
"Stay out of it, smart ass," Skinny said.
Jonesy smiled, he was so genuinely not freaked out about them. It would've been funny if it wasn't so serious.
"Make me, nicotine slut." His teeth were a white crescent that flashed in the murk and were gone.
Skinny-Smoker's hands balled into fists. "Let me teach this snot nose some goddamn manners, Parker."
Parker nodded and they moved forward together.
Crap.I took stock of where the girls were. Tiff was on board, defiant as always. Jade was behind me with Sophie and Mia standing behind Alex and Bry.
Parker talked conversationally as he came nearer. "We hate to take care of things like this but it seems its the only way you get the message."
"Beating up teenagers doesn't give me any message except that you guys are losers and I don't trust you. I got that message loud and clear."
Skinny-Smoker was almost on top of Jonesy when Alex took him by the back of the collar and flung him toward the forest border, just ten feet or so outside of where the gravel shoulder had been.
We watched his body arc and land with a thud on the slope beneath the trees.
They charged us and Onyx sprang forward, going after Skinny-Smoker's partner.
Stocky.
They came from behind us as Parker and Stocky advanced.
John screamed, "Caleb!" as I yelled, "Tune-up Terran!"
Tiff grabbed me, Jade latching on to the back of my shirt, Onyx' teeth buried in Stocky's thigh. His high keening was bad. The ass-end of the gun readying to brain my dog was worse.
I held my hands up and called what was close, the swirling death energy surged through my fingertips as my arms lifted above my head. I let it all go with a great mental shove, that feeling of emptiness filling me in its absence.
I didn't know what I was calling until the night was filled with a thousand bugs, evacuating the forest like a gray shroud of death.
That's what they would be for the Graysheets, death in the air, on wings.
A great cloud descended toward me and I whispered the command in my mind: throat, ears, nose, mouth...
I could feel them, their will as a unit, swarming to follow my command. They hovered above Stocky, his arm swinging down to strike Onyx's head. They infiltrated his nose, choking off his airway. The gun fell away, clattering on the pebbled asphalt. They swarmed over Onyx, making a halo around his head but not entering any of his airways or other orifices. Unfortunately, they did the same with Parker. I could see him smiling through the shadowed net of the insects. But they slowed his progress and that was all I needed to keep him at bay.
I turned and John was concentrating for all he was worth. He was facing off against a Graysheet, the bugs were swirling around his head but couldn't pierce the invisible shield that he'd erected.
The agent was a Null. I watched as John began sweating, rivulets of moisture running from his hairline to jaw. The other guy was having a tough time too. But knowing the government, they'd recruited a five-point.
I watched as the other Graysheets fell to their knees, choking on bugs, flailing and spinning their arms around, guns forgotten as they struggled to breathe.
To survive.
Archer inched towards their cars, his hand gliding along the pulse locks of their car. I heard the locks snap in compliance. I smiled. Another fun thing for them to figure out.
"Caleb!" Jade shrieked.
I turned as the first zombie enforcer reached out and grabbed me by the hair, jerking me off my feet.
Having a zombie's incredible strength used against me was awesome (in a bad way).
And it hurt like a bitch.
I could feel Parker's connection to the zombie and I used mine to control the one that was squeezing me against him.
"Don't bother, Caleb. They won't answer you. Besides, you can't control your swarm of insects and handle my soldiers. You're going to sit still and listen to what I have to say."
I struggled, frantically looking for Jade.
What I saw stopped my breath in my throat. Zombie enforcer two had corralled Mia, Jade and Sophie up against Bry's car.
"No he's not you asswipe," Tiff said, latching on to my arm, the only piece of flesh revealed. Her fierce bravery drove her to stand perilously close to Parker's zombie.
It snarled, lifting its lips off its teeth and I used what Tiff gave me like a pump at the gas station, recharging my Death Battery. A surge of energy filled me and I flung it into the zombie.
"Release me!" I screamed into its brain like a jackhammer.
It staggered backward, dropping its bone crushing hold and I fell forward into Tiff.
"No!" Parker screamed, zombie two's dead gaze breaking from the girls and meeting mine.
"Get him!" Parker roared.
Jonesy barked out, "Make the bugs go up their asses, Hart! Up. Their. Asses!"
Really? Terrific idea.
The zombie was almost on me and my juice was sorta low when Alex stepped in, grabbing the zombie and halting his progress. Without breaking stride or grip, Alex said, his glasses long gone, "You owe me Hart."
Right.
It was like that old Terminator movie where the two terminators square off. The zombie wanted to get to me and that was as far as his thought process went. He latched onto Alex's forearms, the same height as Alex. Alex mirrored his actions and they struggled against each other. Finally, Alex bent down and swung the zombie over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, sprinting in the direction of the woods. He got sufficient momentum and heaved the zombie into a tree. There was a dull crunch and snap, the zombie slithered down the tree trunk like a puppet whose strings were severed, disconnected.
"That oughta do him!" Alex said pridefully.
He just didn't understand zombie determination.
The zombie soldier sat up, back broken. Using its arms, he came forward in a halting crawl that was so fast it took our breath away.
"What the fuck?" Jonesy screamed, running to Sophie. "It's like a zombie spider. Terran, do something!"
John was busy trying to let us do our stuff while the Graysheet Null was powering all over the top of him. As a point of fact, John was as pale as a ghost.
Not funny.
I turned too late and Parker had grabbed me from behind. I took my left hand, wrapping it in the fist of my right and drove my elbow into his torso. I was rewarded with a release and a grunt.
But zombie two had reached my feet and jerked me off them. I landed on my back, the wind knocked out of me as the asphalt bit into me painfully, my teeth snapping together on a rattle. He used his arms to heave himself on top of me, pinning me with his weight. His breath was like old coffin in my face.
Bry had his hands buried in the zombie's back and was pulling for all he was worth but the directive from the AFTD, one as powerful as Parker, was going to be a challenge to break.
My breath was coming too fast, I was trying to look around the zombie to see what was happening with the girls.
Jade.
It was then that I felt a familiar connection.
"Mr. Weller, please, allow me," Clyde said as his fingers sunk into the clothing of the zombie. He wrenched him off of me and flung him behind his body in a high arc, the zombie landing with a deafening crunch on top of the Graysheets' hood. The engine shrieking steam on impact.
I looked up at Clyde, his hands planted on his hips, every hair in place, looking like he'd just stepped off his day job.
"That was very well done, Clyde," feeling relieved and nonplussed in a confusing slush.
He inclined his head but then his face changed, became empty.
I jerked up into a sitting position and turned around, looking at Parker. "I can get to him, Caleb. He's not all yours. Don't make me," he said through the wall of bugs that swirled just above the surface of his face.
Tiff looked at me in horror, could he take Clyde?