Flesh-&-Bone(15)

Benny looked down at the child clutched in Nix’s warm arms. He was far less certain about that.

He wasn’t certain about anything. He thought about the sheer number of zoms that had come out of the forest.

Don’t forget the first rule about the Ruin, whispered Tom’s voice. Out here everything wants to kill you.

Benny closed his eyes, and even now, separated from the madness of the ravine, he wasn’t at all sure if the voice was a memory or a ghost.

Or something worse than both.

Please don’t let this be me, Benny thought. Please don’t let me be going crazy.

The sun shone and the birds sang in the trees and Benny tried hard not to scream.





11

IN A QUIET TONE SO THAT ONLY BENNY COULD HEAR HIM, CHONG MURMURED, “Some day, huh?”

Benny jumped, and Chong shot him a puzzled look.

“What are you so twitchy about?”

For a moment Benny wondered if Chong could read his thoughts.

“Sorry,” said Benny when he was sure his words wouldn’t come out choked and twisted. “Yeah. Weird day.”

Chong sneaked a glance over at Lilah and sighed softly. “You know, I think I liked being down in that hole better. All the zoms wanted to do was eat me. I think Lilah would enjoy skinning me alive.”

Benny followed his gaze and half smiled. “It’s not you, man.”

“What?”

“She’s not mad at you. I mean, she is . . . but not any more than usual.”

“I fell in, and you know how she is with the whole thing about me being a clumsy town boy and—” began Chong, but Benny cut him off.

“It’s the kid. I . . . think she looks like Annie.”

Chong winced as if Benny had punched him in the stomach. “Oh, man . . .”

“Yeah.”

Benny understood Lilah’s pain. He and Tom had quieted the zombies that had once been their parents. Tom had helped him through it, though; and later, when Tom passed, Benny had been spared the horror of quieting him. Tom never reanimated. However, Lilah had been all alone with Annie. She had no older sibling to help her through it. Benny was wise enough to understand that no matter how bad his own experiences were, there were some people who had it worse.

As if reading his thoughts, Chong said, “I’d give a lot, you know? To make it different for her.”

“Yeah, man. I know.”

It was something Benny deeply understood, and he wondered if there was anything he wouldn’t give to change some of the things that had happened. To Nix’s mom. To Nix. To Tom.

To his parents.

He and Chong each drifted down the silent corridors of their personal pain as the sun burned its way through the hard blue sky. A pair of spider monkeys chattered in the trees. Benny looked at them because it was easier than looking at Eve, who still wept in Nix’s arms. He sighed, feeling immensely useless.

In town there was always someone around to help with children. The whole town looked after everyone’s kids. It was the way it had always been, at least in Benny’s experience. No one would ever let a little kid go wandering off on their own.

Nix kept stroking the sobbing child’s hair and murmuring words that Benny could not hear.

Eve was a little girl. Five years old. Helpless.

As Annie had been helpless.

Benny felt the weight of the sword slung over his shoulder. Tom’s sword. His sword now. The sword he had very nearly lost.

He felt his face flush as he thought about how Nix had chased him out of the ravine and Lilah had recovered the sword. That was wrong. It wasn’t the way things were supposed to work.

He felt eyes on him and turned to see Chong giving him a considering appraisal.

“What?” Benny demanded.

“What’s on your mind? You look like you’re trying to squeeze out a thought.”

“Nothing,” said Benny.

Chong sighed.

“Actually, there is something,” Benny said tentatively.

“What?”

“When I was in the ravine, I thought I heard something.”

“Like the sound of you peeing your pants?”

“Hilarious. Like a motor, like the hand-crank generator at the hospital. Did—did you guys hear that?”

Chong shook his head. “I didn’t. I was asleep.” Then, without meaning to, he said something very unkind. “Maybe you imagined it. You know, stress and all.”