Eat the Ones You Love (The Thirteen Book 2) (33 page)

“Those kids are going to eat their parents.”

“Like you ate yours?” said Mercer.

“I didn’t eat them,” said Jenny.

“Then there is hope for the children.”

“Faron really was the hero,” said Jenny.

“No, no,” said Mercer impatiently. “That’s where you’re wrong. I am the hero of this story. And we’re only just at the beginning.”

“He’s even crazier than you are,” said Trix.

“Shut up, Trix,” muttered Jenny.

“Who was that?” Mercer said quickly. Jenny looked at him, his jowls shaking with excitement.

“My fairy godmother,” said Jenny. Mercer’s face scrunched into a scowl.
 

“
Look at him! Now!
” he said, pointing a bloated finger at the bed. Jenny did look this time, unable to avoid it any longer.
 

“Jesus Christ,” said Jenny. “What did you do to him?”

Zeke's skin was gray, like a dying fish. Most of his hair had fallen out. As Jenny lowered the sheet, she saw a glow beneath him, the lighted display of a timer counting down to zero. Mercer smiled. Four minutes and sixteen seconds remained on the timer. And under the bomb strapped to her friend, was a ribcage. A spine. Organs. With no skin.

“We tried to make him like you,” said Mercer. “But he was too old. We’re all too old, aren’t we? Too old and frail. But now we’ll be born anew. Born into fresh bodies. I’m going to live forever.”

Zeke’s eyes were opening. He focused on Jenny.
 

“No,” he groaned. “Run.” His eyes rolled up and he lost consciousness.

“I’m going to live forever,” said Mercer, grinning. “Forever. All because of you. He said you’d come. Zeke said to send you away with the children, but you were the first. You and Sarah. Our little prototypes. We’ll all be born again together.”

“Fucking run, you stupid bitch,” Jenny screamed at Warnken. “Run, Sarah. Go find your son. Just fucking run!”
 

“Oh, rapture is coming…” said Mercer, but then he couldn’t say anything else because Jenny lurched across the room and grabbed the pistol in Warnken’s hand. The doctor held it loosely, as if she wanted Jenny to take it. Jenny turned and squeezed the trigger over and over and over until Mercer stopped moving and Warnken and Sarah were covered in bits of him.
 

“Shut the fuck up, you crazy old man,” Jenny yelled.

“Jenny, time to go!” Sarah said, already at the door. Warnken was running, running in the direction of a set of stairs. Toward the helicopter landing.

Jenny looked at her. She looked at Zeke. She’d just left Sarah all those years ago. Just left her to rot.

“Go find Rafi,” said Jenny. “Tell Faron I understand. I forgive him.”

“No, come on!”

Jenny looked down at Zeke. The only human friend she had left. The only friend who never had an agenda. He just wanted to be good. He just wanted to help.

“I’m going to stay with my friend,” said Jenny. “Run. Go find Rafi. Faron has him, he’s safe. This thing’s about to go off. Follow Warnken, she knows the way. I love you, Sarah.”

“Jenny…”

“FUCKING GO!”

Sarah ran. Jenny reached down to touch the vest that wrapped around Zeke’s insides and his eyes fluttered open. He slowly reached a hand to cover hers.

“Don’t take it off,” he said. “It’s holding me together.”

“Zeke,” Jenny said. “Jesus Christ.”

“It’s okay.”

“I left you,” Jenny said. “I should have come right away. I should have come here first. I just didn’t think…”

“You didn’t know,” said Zeke, and his hand fell away. “You didn’t know any of it.”

Jenny shook her head, trying not to cry and failing.
 

“It didn’t have anything to do with you,” Zeke said, his voice so soft and weak that Jenny had to strain to hear. “Me, Declan, Trix. People just die and it doesn’t have anything to do with you. But you saved her, Jen. You saved Sarah and the angel.”

“Rafael,” Jenny said.

“Yes.”

Jenny suddenly felt weak. She swayed and tried to will the weakness away, but it stayed.

“I’m so tired.”

“I know.”

Jenny crawled into the bed with Zeke, hugging her friend.

“I just want to sleep,” she said.

“I know.”

“Will I ever die, Zeke?”

“Yes,” he whispered. “But not today.”

“When?”

He hesitated. “I don’t know. I can’t see it. You’re going to be needed, though. All of you: You and Rafi and Sarah. Faron. I told you the two of you were chained. You’ll need each other. You’re the same.”

“He kept saying that to me.”

“It’s true. You’ll know in the end. But this isn’t the end.”

“But I’ll sleep.”

“You’ll sleep.”

“I’ll miss you, Zeke.”

Jenny lit the last cigarette. She put it to Zeke's lips and he inhaled, blowing out a cloud of smoke that hovered over them. Jenny put it to her own lips.

“I’ll stay with you,” he said. “We’ll all stay with you.”

“How will I know what’s real?”

Zeke started to answer, but she couldn't hear him over the sound of a helicopter above them. A helicopter coming back.

The timer chimed.

And the world exploded.

FORTY-TWO

Jenny floated, but this time, nothing dragged her down. They were all floating, bobbing in the blue, blue sea.
 

“It’s not red,” Jenny said.

“It will be,” said Casey.

“But it’s not right now,” said Declan.

Jenny floated. She thought of her mother and father, gone now. Everyone was gone. Everyone but Sarah. Sarah and Rafi. And Zeke had told her that they were important. They would be needed. Jenny closed her eyes.

“I love you, Sarah,” she said.

Somewhere, someone answered. Someone who sounded like her sister.

“I love you, too,” said the voice, and Jenny swore she heard sobbing.

Jenny opened her eyes, looking back to the sea again.

“Is this Heaven?” she said.

“I don’t know,” said Declan. “But you’re here.”

“Am I here forever?”

“Maybe,” said Trix.

“No,” said Zeke.

“No, probably not,” said Declan.

“I want to stay.”

“You’re never alone,” said Declan.

“Sleep,” said Trix.

“Sleep,” said Casey.

There would be pain. She knew that she was being put back together, piece by piece. She knew that she would heal on the outside. There would be a hard road ahead. But for now, all she wanted to do was sleep.

She slept.

She didn’t dream.

She let herself sink back into the cool, blissful darkness. Some day she would stay. Some day she would keep sinking until nothing was left. Some day she would finally die and she would sleep forever.

Someday.

But not today.