"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 him.

This was not working out well.

Clyde and I made our way through the sea of dead, their arms and nubs trying to claim purchase to our slick rain gear and sliding off with only a trail of zombie slime as evidence.

Zondorae watched our approach and Clyde didn't hold back, hissing. Joe smiled and I watched a tooth fall out, plopping into a puddle that had formed in a low spot in the ground.

Disgusting.

"Put him to rest, Nevaeh," Parker said.

"No," she said, plucking a piece of invisible lint off his shredded clothing.

Parker hung his head.

I could see him deliberate. Finally he blew us away with 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 limb by limb and have her revenge like a swallow of neat whiskey.

Instead, her presumptions had been turned on their ear and I knew Parker had gotten through when her lip quivered.

They stood there for a swollen moment in the sands of time, Parker waiting and Nevaeh reeling.

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 the muddy and wet ground with a slurping pop.

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

something borrowed, something blue

late spring 2030

I decided I was way 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 small finger, glittering 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 seemed so big, 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 tumbled all around her, the slight bulge of her stomach hidden by a dress Sophie had found on one of their million shopping trips.

I covered her belly, my hand almost going from one hipbone to the other and said, "Let's christen the dump." I tackled her with kisses until she gave up.

Jade wasn't heavy enough to worry about picking up.

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

*

summer

"Hey Terran," I said, heaving myself into the booth across from him. "Where's Jones?"

John shrugged, looking 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 smirk. "How's married life?"

I grinned, tried unsuccessfully to hide it and gave up, my smile widening.

"That good, huh?" John said, smiling wider.

I nodded, thinking about all the sheer time I had with Jade now. It was some kind of amazing, for sure. I flopped my arm across the booth, kicking my legs under the table. John, who was three inches taller, took the other side and we sat in companionable silence for a time.

"Did you get picked up by that free-lance group?" John asked, sipping a pop the waitress had brought.

"They want me and I'm not much for turning down the money," I said, spearing a hand through my hair that needed a cut. We had to eat and Bry's landscaping business was just barely making ends meet.

"What about Bry?"

"Yeah, Weller's the man but..."

"Overhead."

"Yeah, man, he's got his own thing going."

"Him and Mia serious?"

"Seem to be." I pegged John with a stare. "Shit, with all this pressure for people to hump like bunnies and spit out kids..."

"I heard the word hump," Jonesy said, throwing himself into the booth and promptly kicking John in the shin underneath the table.

"Hey!" John said, curling his long legs up underneath him.

"Sorry, ya girl." Jonesy rolled his eyes and shoved a Blow Pop in his mouth.

It was eleven a.m. 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 mood struck.

"That's great, Hart," Jonesy said slowly, "but I never felt like they needed to give me the nod to enjoy the ladies. If ya know what 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.

"Piss off Terran."

"Sure," John said, "just as soon as you justify our differences."

Jonesy gave him a withering look and then the rest of the gang poured in and we jerked a center table over against the booth and the noise and conversation really began.

It'd been months since the downfall of the Helix Complex. The Zondoraes, the brains of the thing, were now dead and only Randoms remained: those left with abilities. Though we were few and far between.

I asked my friends at large if they missed their abilities.

"Not, really," Archer said. then he thought about it, running a hand through his blond hair, disturbing not a strand. How did he do that? "I would have made a fine criminal," he said randomly.

John looked at him. "Because criminals are stupid." They smiled in complete understanding at each other.

Jonesy rolled his eyes, crushing his sucker and leaning back in his chair, his hand clasped on the back of Alex's chair. "You're butt hurt because you thought someday you could, what? Unlock Fort Knox?"

"There was no thinking, Mark. I could have."

Randi said from her perch on Alex's lap, "Mine wasn't good for anything but exploration." She looked at us. "And after seeing how the Zondorae's screwed up Clara's world," she gave a little shiver and Alex wrapped his beefy arms around her, "I don't want to be a part of that."

I looked at Alex and he smiled. "The 'experts'," he made airquotes, "swear I have some residual 'muscle memory'." He shrugged like it didn't matter.

John looked thoughtful then elaborated, "I'm not sure that they know the full extent of how entrenched everyone's abilities became." He had our attention and went on, pausing when our waitress set down drinks and appetizers. "I postulate," he smiled when Jonesy rolled his eyes for the third time. "That we are all human and basically the same. However, I believe that there are subtle biological differences amongst one another. The scientific community can't dismiss these nuances. There will be some retention, there certainly will be a manifestation of an infinite number of offspring abilities...."

"That's not true, John," Tiff said and John looked at her, sighing.

"You can't possibly want linoleum lizards," Bry said. "I mean, that's all we've been doing is helping our parents raise the brood, sis."

"You're not a girl, Bry," Tiff said with the venom of the vindicated.

Bry sighed, raking a hand over his buzzed skull. "What I mean is, you might still be able to have kids. And I don't look at you... like a girl."

Every female's eyes were on him.

Bry backpedaled before they strung him up by his gonads.

"I mean...," He looked at Mia for help and she glared at him. "Tiff is my sister. Hell," he looked at the dudes helplessly, "I've wrestled her!"

"She's definitely a girl," John said softly and Bry winced. I could tell that was not what he'd been wanting to hear.

"You go, Terran!" Jonesy said with a laugh.

Our food came and I was very happy it did. Got us out of all kinds of male versus female discussions; saved by grub.

I was halfway done and already eyeing the dessert menu when Randi asked where Jade was.

"My parents. My mom's busy suffocating Jade with baby clothes."

"No shit?" Jonesy asked and Sophie gave a little smile.

"No man, they want to talk about shopping and all that boring stuff."

"So not boring," Mia said.

"I think he's going to be so cute!" Sophie said.

"Is it a boy?" Archer asked, scooping the soup of the day into his mouth then blotting it with his napkin.

"Yeah, the docs know but we don't," I answered, dipping my fry in mustard and popping it in my mouth.

"Hell, I'd have to know," Tiff said.

I nodded. "Yeah, Jade really wants to know."

They all watched me. I added with reluctance, "I think it ruins it."

"It's that old-fashioned bullshit again, right Hart?" Jonesy asked.

"Guilty," I put up my palms and ordered my dessert.

"Hart's leaving me guys," Bry said as a conversation changer.

I threw my napkin on my plate and leaned back, checking my watch to make sure I had time before I needed to pick Jade up. We had somewhere we needed to be this evening.

Somewhere important.

I explained what my new job was. It was created just for me and I was happy to do it. Because the dead were still mine. Even sitting there in the diner I could feel the beat of everything dead within a one mile radius. If I'd been concentrating, it'd be five.

"So you're gonna be a dead-hunter?" Jonesy asked after listening to my new job details.

I nodded. "Kind of. I'll be finding people and most importantly, with them not making dirt anymore, well... they gotta know where the graves are."

"The indians?" Alex asked and I nodded.

"The Skopamish are just a local tribe, but their dead are scattered everywhere and with the Native American Reparation Act of 2027..."

"They brought your skulking dead ass on board," Jonesy said, slurping the last of his milkshake through the straw.

"Jones, ya slob, quit it," Tiff said.

"Chill, sweetheart," Jonesy said, now with a pink tongue.

John frowned and I laughed.

"Anyway, I don't think it's in my job description to 'skulk', Jones, but I will be locating and moving disrupted burial grounds."

"Show me the money, man. If ya can't skulk you better get cash," Jonesy said.

"He does have a small point," Archer said, setting his spoon upside down alongside the plate that held his empty bowl.

"Ya greedy boys," Sophie clucked and Mia grinned.

"Hard workers are sexy," Mia said, giving Bry a peck that turned his face red.

Ah... the females, here to put us in our place with their wiles.

Speaking of wiles, I glance at my watch and saw it was already noon thirty. Hell, I better get home, I had to get on the fancy shit again.

*

I hated ties. In fact, I think they were just nooses disguised as ties. Someone who sat in a dark, windowless room had invented them as a subtle torture device.

"Stop," Jade batted my hand away when I made the knot crooked trying to secretly loosen it. "It's only for a few hours, you can last..." she said, adjusting it against my Adam's apple again.

I didn't know that I could, I stewed, the knot strangling me again.