The Others have loosed more than one kind of Silencer on the world, more than one kind of infested. I feel him inside me, the one who would rip my soul in two. And they didn’t need to come a gazillion light-years to bring him here. He’s always been there, inside, the Silencer Within.
“What’s happening to us, Ringer?”
She nods: She knows exactly where I’m coming from. Always has.
“We still have a choice,” she answers. “They want us to believe we don’t, but it’s a lie, Zombie. Their biggest one.”
Behind her, Constance whimpers, “I am human.”
That’s how it’ll go down. Those will be the last words of the last one left. I am human.
“I don’t even know what that means anymore,” I say to Ringer, to myself, to nobody at all.
But I drop the gun into Ringer’s open hand.
37
SAM
THE FRONT DOOR flew open and Cassie lunged in from the porch, holding her rifle.
“Sam! Quick, go wake up Evan. Someone’s—”
He didn’t wait for the rest. He raced down the hall to Evan’s room. Zombie had come back; Sam was sure of it.
Evan wasn’t asleep. He was sitting up in bed, staring at the ceiling.
“What is it, Sam?”
“Zombie’s back.”
Evan shook his head. How could that be? Then he slid from the bed, grabbed his rifle, and followed Sam down the hall and into the living room.
And Cassie was saying, “What do you mean, Dumbo’s gone?”
There was Zombie and Ringer and a stranger in the room with Cassie. Dumbo wasn’t there. Teacup wasn’t there.
“He’s dead,” Ringer answered, and Sam asked, “Teacup, too?” And Ringer nodded. Teacup, too.
Behind him, Evan Walker asked, “Who is this?” He was talking about the stranger, a blond older lady with a nice face, about the age of Sam’s mother when she died.
“She’s with me,” Ringer said. “She’s okay.”
The lady was looking at Sam. She was smiling. “My name is Constance. And you must be Sam. Private Nugget. It’s very nice to meet you.”
She held out her hand. His daddy taught him to always shake hands firmly. A good, strong grip, Sam my man, but don’t squeeze too hard.
The smiling lady did, though—very hard. She yanked Sam into her chest, wrapping an arm around his neck, and then he felt the end of a gun pressing against his temple.
38
“THIS IS GOING to go smooth and easy,” the lady yelled over the jumbled-up shouts of Zombie and Cassie. “Smooth and easy.”
Zombie was looking at Ringer, who was looking at Evan Walker, and Cassie was looking at Ringer, too, and then his sister said, “You bitch.”
“Weapons, over there,” the lady said. Her voice still had a smile in it. “Stack ’em by the fireplace. Now.”
They disarmed, one by one. Cassie said, “Don’t hurt him.”