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“You heard her,” he said.
“What’s this all about?” gasped Jenny, fear igniting in her eyes.
“Hands on your heads,” repeated Nix. “Fingers laced. I won’t ask again.”
They did as she ordered. Jenny was visibly trembling and Chas looked ready to kill. But he was no fool.
Benny resheathed his sword and removed a ball of strong hairy twine from his pocket, pulled their hands down behind their backs, and very quickly but efficiently tied their wrists, looping the line through their belts. He ordered them to sit down, and bound their ankles. Then he produced rags from another pocket. He balled some of the rag and stuffed it into their mouths, then wound more cloth around their heads to keep it secure. Once he was sure they could breathe, he straightened, then leaned over and scanned the field. It was completely empty. He waved his arm to Lilah and Morgie, who removed the bar from the gates. Lilah pushed the gate open as Riot and Chong came out of hiding, pushing the first two quads. Lilah and Morgie ran to get two more. When all six machines were outside the gate and the trailers hooked up, Morgie signaled Benny. It all took less than four minutes.
“They’re done,” said Benny quietly. He turned and looked down at Jenny and Chas. “Okay, here’s the deal. We’re leaving, and we don’t want anyone to stop us. The next shift starts in an hour. We’ll bar the gate again from outside, so don’t worry about zoms getting in or anything. Sorry for all this, but you know you’d have tried to stop us.”
Chas said something very obscene, but the rags muffled most of it.
Nix smiled at him as she released the magazine from her pistol and showed it to them. It was empty. She dropped it on the floor between the captives, then slapped a fully loaded magazine into the weapon and pulled back the slide to load a live round into the chamber.
They started to go, but then Benny paused and turned. He bent over Chas and very quietly said, “Chong’s my friend. What happened to him isn’t his fault. He takes his meds and he’s fine. You have no idea what he went through to save this town, including you and your whole family. If I ever see you again, and if you ever say or do anything to him, you and me are going to have a problem. Sure, I’m only sixteen, but do you think that’s going to matter?”
Chas glared defiantly up at him.
“Chong’s worth ten of you,” Benny said. He straightened, turned, and followed Nix down the ladder.
Before joining the others, Benny touched Nix’s arm and bent close to her.
“We’re in trouble now,” he said. “Solomon and Mayor Kirsch are never going to understand why we did this. Why we had to do this.”
“It’s done,” said Nix. “Can’t go back now.”
“I know, but . . . we are doing the right thing,” Benny said. “Right?”
Nix took two handfuls of his shirt and used the grip to pull him down a bit as she stood on her toes. She kissed Benny very sweetly on the lips. He wrapped one arm around her waist and tangled his fingers in her wild hair, and the kiss deepened.
Finally they stood for a moment, touching foreheads, leaning into each other’s energy.
“Last year,” he murmured, “after the fight with Saint John . . . I thought I’d lost you, Nix. I thought I wasn’t ever going to be enough for you.”
“I guess we kind of lost each other out there,” said Nix. “We got so busy fighting that we stopped paying attention.”
“To what? To us?”
“No, to the people we were turning into,” said Nix. “I’m not the little girl from town anymore. You’re not that boy who complained about everything and hated your brother. Let’s face it, Benny, the world hasn’t been very nice to us. We’ve almost died more times than I can count. So . . . falling in love and all that romantic stuff, that ‘being a couple’ stuff almost didn’t survive.” She paused and stepped back, glancing at the night-shrouded town behind them and out through the open gate. “And now we’re leaving again and maybe we’ll get hurt out there. Or die. Or whatever. We’ll change, though, I know that much. We’ll change for sure.”
Benny licked his lips. “Then we’ll change.”
She started to go, stopped, turned back. “Benny, I don’t know how to tell the future, so I don’t know what will happen to us. Not just all six of us, but us. You and me. I don’t know. All I do know is that you gave me some time and some distance after we got back last year, and if you had pushed me, you’d have pushed me all the way away.” She smiled, and it was a little sad. “I love you, Benny. Maybe I don’t say it enough, but it’s how I feel. I love you, and one way or another, you’re always going to be in my life. Always.”
He felt a knife turn slowly in his heart. “I love you, too, Nix. Always will.”
He was keenly aware that they were not saying exactly the same thing.
“Hey,” called Morgie in a harsh whisper, “are you two monkey-bangers coming or not?”
Nix gave Benny another kiss. Quicker, lighter, but still real.
Benny adjusted the kami katana strap that slanted diagonally across his chest, reached up over his shoulder to touch the handle of the weapon for good luck, then followed Nix.
There were heavy iron sockets on both sides of the doors. Once they were outside, Morgie helped Benny lift the ten-foot oak beam and slide it into place. It had been put there in case the town became overrun and fleeing survivors needed to trap the zoms inside. The next shift of tower guards would have to exit through a key-locked access door to get out here and remove it. That would take time. For now, it would slow down pursuit. Benny smiled. The exterior bar was one of a hundred new precautions Captain Ledger had recommended. One of a hundred ways the old soldier had made life safer for the people of the Nine Towns. It galled Benny that Ledger had risked his own life, over and over again, for the people behind those gates; and now they were being too slow about doing as much for him.
Morgie patted the beam, nodded, and then punched Benny on the shoulder. “We’re good,” he said.
