Eventually the storm passed, as all storms pass.
Nix gradually straightened and pulled away. Riot sat down on her side of the table. Everyone used the napkins to wipe their streaming noses and eyes.
“Nix, I—,” Benny began, but she touched her fingers to his chest.
“Please, Benny, let me say something first.”
“Okay.”
She dabbed at her eyes. “What I said yesterday about Chong . . .”
Benny nodded but said nothing.
“Please, don’t ever think—”
“No,” he cut her off. “Listen to me, Nix, you don’t need to say this, and I don’t need to hear it. We . . . kind of just said it all anyway.”
Riot said, “See, I was right about you, Benny. You are smarter than you look.”
It was a lame joke, but it broke the bubble of tension that had been expanding to crowd the moment.
“I’m sorry,” Nix said. “I needed to say that much. I really am.”
Benny kissed her.
Nix kissed him back.
Riot made gagging sounds. “Y’all better get a room or name the baby after me.”
Benny made a covert and very rude gesture.
Then he leaned back to catch his breath. “Listen,” he
said, “I need to tell you a bunch of things, but first I want to hear everything about yesterday. All I really heard, Nix, was that you and Lilah got jumped by some zoms. . . .”
Nix told him the full story. Benny’s heart sank.
“Fast zoms? Four of them?”
“Three fast ones and one that might not have been,” corrected Nix.
“Even so,” said Riot, “that’s crooked math. Y’all were lucky to walk out of there with skin still on your bones.”
“Tell me about it,” Nix said, rolling her eyes.
“What was that bit with the red powder?” asked Benny.
“I don’t know,” Nix admitted. “I showed Joe and he kind of freaked. I haven’t seen him since.”
“Wonder what it is,” said Riot.
“Listen,” Benny said, changing the subject. “I had a crazy day too. I need to tell you guys, and then I need your help with something. I’d ask Joe, but nobody knows where he is and we’re running out of time. So . . . I need both of you to help me do something incredibly dangerous and incredibly stupid.”
“Dangerous and stupid?” asked Nix, and her pretty face wore its first smile in over a day. “Sounds like one of your plans.”
“I’m on the hook already,” said Riot. “I haven’t done anything dangerous or stupid in weeks. I’m about due.”
He explained everything that had happened yesterday. The story of the fight with the reaper wiped the smiles away. The account of the Teambook raised their eyebrows. The tally of the reaper forces stole the color from their faces. But the thing that filled their eyes with fear was when Benny explained where he had seen Sergeant Ortega.