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“Pansy?”
“No,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. I can’t. ”
That left the four of them. The infected.
“No,” Riley said, unprompted. “Not at that price. ”
“You mean, at the price of your life?”
“That’s exactly what I mean,” she said, and Bryn thought she saw the same flat, predatory expression in her eyes that Jane had so often flashed. We’ve changed, she thought, and felt a chill. We’ll keep changing. He’s right. We might still be human, but it won’t last.
Joe just shook his head when Manny’s gaze flicked to him. That left Bryn and Annie.
Bryn held out her hand. Annie took it.
“Together?” she asked.
“Bryn!” Patrick grabbed her. “No. No, you can’t do this. ”
“Yes, I can,” she said. “You don’t see it. You’ve never seen it. ”
“Seen what?”
“The monster,” she said. “And I don’t want you to ever see that. ”
She reached for the button.
Riley hit her from behind and sent her crashing face-first onto the corner of the desk; bone shattered, blood splattered. Bryn rolled, throwing her off balance, and managed to get her arm up in time to stop Riley’s knife from punching into her eye. It went through the meat of her forearm, and caught between the bones; she used that, and twisted, yanking it out of Riley’s fingers. She punched Riley, punched her again, tossed her into the wall, and buried the knife in the other woman’s chest, low and center, cutting her diaphragm. Riley screamed, lost air, and clawed at Bryn desperately, opening gouges and drawing blood.
“This,” Bryn managed to gasp out. “This is what we are now. No future, no family, no children coming after us. Just the monsters, until we’re gone, and we’ll get worse. This is the future. Push the button!”
Patrick had forgotten her sister, riveted by the horrifying violence she and Riley were inflicting on each other.
Nobody thought to stop her as Annie, weeping, walked to the desk and pressed ENTER.
Patrick screamed out a raw, wordless scream of denial and horror and loss, but it was too late. Her hand was steady and calm, and in the aftermath, Bryn went limp and sat back, waiting. They were all waiting.
Patrick rushed to her and took her in his arms, rocking her. “No,” he whispered. “No, no, God, no, don’t do this, don’t do this. . . . ”
“I never should have come back in the first place,” she said. “I’m sorry. I love you. ”
Annie sat down next to her and crossed her long, elegant legs, sitting Indian-style like the little girl she’d been, not so long ago. “Do you remember what happened to Sharon?” she asked Bryn.
“Sharon . . . ” She walked away from home. She never came back.
“Brynnie, I swear—I swear it was an accident. I never meant it—we were just arguing, the way we always did. She pushed me and I was in the kitchen cutting an apple, and I fell down. Then she slipped and fell on the knife, and it cut her on the thigh, and the blood—there was so much blood. I didn’t try to do it—I didn’t. I wouldn’t. Dad tried to save her. He used that belt, you know, the one in the bathroom? He tied it up in a tourniquet around her leg, right here. ” She traced the spot with her fingertips on her own leg. “But she died. And they didn’t want anyone to know. Dad took her away, and Mom and I cleaned it all up. I don’t know where he took her. But I’m a monster, too, Bryn. From that moment, I was a monster. I never told anybody, but—I wanted you to know before we go. I’m so sorry. ”
Bryn hugged her, and held on to Patrick. Riley was still bleeding, and although the wound seemed to be knitting closed, it was taking longer than usual.
Joe let out a slow, trembling sigh. “I feel—” He lurched, caught himself, and slid down into a chair. He ran both hands over his bald head. “Can I talk to Kylie and the kids?”
Pansy, tears coursing down her face, took out her cell phone and dialed a number. She held the phone up to him.
Bryn felt it, then. A lurch inside, as if something had started to glitch. A bad part in a smooth-running machine.
Annie’s breath caught, as if she felt it, too. Then she let out a slow sigh, and her head slid over to rest on Bryn’s shoulder.
There wasn’t any pain. She was just . . . gone.
