CHUB HAD FALLEN ASLEEP in the cab of Rattler’s truck, curled up with his fist pressed to his cheek. He woke when I opened the door. Then he yawned and held up his arms. Prairie picked him up and held him close, and he wrapped his arms around her neck and went back to sleep as she kissed him.
“I’ll ride up front,” Prairie said.
She had directed her words to Rattler, who was stowing his firearms in a metal box behind the seat, but there was a note of uncertainty in her voice.
She was asking his permission.
My heart constricted. This was her new life, then; Rattler was now her mate and her master, and she would have to beg for every favor and freedom.
She’d done it for me. And Kaz and Anna and Chub.
I wanted to protest, to tell her that she and I would take our chances together. I had survived too much to be afraid, and I’d go anywhere with Prairie, face anything. And I knew Kaz would too. But the problem was that it wasn’t just us.
Rattler snapped the lid of the box and spun the padlock, then put a hand on the driver door and considered Prairie, who was shivering in the cool of the evening.
“You ride next to me. Put the boy on your lap. You two, in back.”
Prairie complied without a word, settling Chub onto her lap, where he snuggled in and fell back asleep. Kaz shut her door gently.
Then it was just me and Kaz. Out on the road I saw the first of the cars peeling out of the garage. County fire and emergency would not be here for a while, I guessed, since Prentiss had no doubt paid them handsomely to keep their distance. Eventually, though, they would come, and they would find the place deserted except for the bodies in the atrium. Bryce and the zombies would wash up on the edges of the pond. Depending how long it took, maybe their decomposition would be chalked up to the time in the water.
One thing was sure: no one would ever know what had really happened here.
Bryce and Prentiss were dead. The research was finally destroyed. The Banished, once again, would be free to live their lives in peace.
Kaz offered me a hand, and we scrambled up the bumper into the truck bed. The cold wind whipped our faces, but Kaz wrapped his arms around me and I closed my eyes and held on.