Alethea’s smile flickered, and she shook her head. Gutsy felt like she’d been punched. “Where are the Chess Players?”
Tears broke from the corners of Alethea’s eyes. “Mr. Ford… and Mr. Urrea…”
This was worse. Now Gutsy felt like she’d been shot through the heart. Her knees began to buckle, but Spider caught her.
“Have… have you seen Alice… ?”
Alethea did not look away. Her love for Gutsy was too real for that. But she could not speak the words. Instead she bent at the waist and crumpled slowly to the ground. Rainbow Smite fell from her hand and rolled a few feet away.
Gutsy felt the world tilt and the ground collapse under her. She screamed as she fell. Spider grabbed her and knelt with her, holding her. Alethea crawled to them, and they wrapped one another up, sobbing and screaming.
“Please,” Gutsy begged, but there was no answer. Some prayers cannot be answered.
Not for so many. Not for Alice. Not for Karen or Urrea or Ford, or for Sergeant Holly or Sunny-Day Ray. Because this was war, and war was hungry. It was unfair, and it loved to hurt.
Gutsy buried her face in the hollow of Alethea’s neck and wept.
EPILOGUE
One
The winds, so fierce the night before, faded, and a sky of absurd and tranquil blue owned the day.
Medics came to apply dressings, set bones, save lives. Sombra received eighteen stitches, and Gutsy was given twenty in a straight line from left hip bone to right. Benny had a bunch of his own, as did the two older soldiers. Only Grimm was unharmed, thanks to his armor. The big hound looked tired and seemed older, though, as if deeply weary with war.
Maybe, thought Gutsy, this would be the last war for all of them. But she didn’t think that was really true.
Two
Gutsy’s plan for using the windstorm to spread the Dòmi was never put into practice.
At least, not that night.
Over the next days, helicopters chased packs of wild men and seeded them with the Dòmi-laced stabilizer. The wind of the rotor wash spread the treatment over them, and the wild men stopped running. Stopped fighting. Stopped howling.
They stopped entirely.
Those who had been shamblers before the Wodewose corrupted them stood silent and then fell. Without the parasite driving their motor cortexes and other functions, their bodies simply died.
More helicopters arrived from the American Nation. Monstrous Chinooks and Ospreys came and brought doctors, medicines, and help. It was as if the past had invaded the present with mercy. Once they’d breached Site B, Ledger and Sam found a communications room and made contact with California—only to find that Nix had already gotten through and that help was coming. Then Ledger called Asheville, and once more found that the military was mobilized, with every available chopper already on the way to New Alamo, thanks to Morgie Mitchell and Riot. The two fleets of choppers flew fast, moving from refueling point to refueling point, racing to get to New Alamo in time.
Only just in time…
Three
There were reunions at Site B.
One of the helicopters—painted with the sunrise symbol of the Nine Towns of Central California—landed, and two slender figures emerged. One was tall and had hair as white as snow. The other was shorter and rounder and had fiery red hair and a lot of freckles. They saw Benny and Chong at the same time the boys saw them.
“Nix!” yelled Benny, and he ran as fast as he could toward her.
“Lilah!” cried Chong, and pelted after him. For once in his life, Chong outran Benny. Lilah and Nix met them halfway, and they collided with hugs and kisses and laughter and tears.
Gutsy and her friends sat on a picnic table, watching the reunion. Despite everything, Gutsy smiled to see their joy. Alethea took her hand and squeezed it.
The four California kids came over, and there were more hugs and tears.
“Hey,” asked Benny brightly, “I guess that monkey-banger Morgie actually made it to Asheville. Riot, too.”