Bits & Pieces (Benny Imura 5)

Of the world, of the night.

Please.

How many other voices had said that, screamed that, begged that? How many people had clung to that word as the darkness and the deadness and the hunger came for them?

How many?

The math was simple.

Everyone he knew.

Except him. Except Benny.

Please.

He touched Benny’s face. His brother’s cheeks were cool.

Cool or cold?

He couldn’t tell.

Then he placed his palm flat on Benny’s chest. Trying to feel something. Anything. A breath. A beat.

He waited.

And around him the night seemed to scream.

He waited.

This time he said it aloud.

“Please.”

In the backseat, Benny Imura heard his brother’s voice and woke up.

Began to cry.

Not moan.

Cry.

Tom laid his forehead on the seat back, held his hand against his brother’s trembling chest, and wept.

FROM NIX’S JOURNAL

ON TOM IMURA

(BEFORE ROT & RUIN)

Tom hated it when anyone said that he was a hero.

He was a hero, but he always said he wasn’t.

My mom thinks he is. I think Mom is in love with him. So is Mrs. Murphy, who runs the Wash-N-Soak over on Cranberry Street. So is Jenn, the librarian at school. And Lupita and her sister. They make knives and tools, and Tom is in their store all the time. They stand at the window and stare at him when he leaves. I mean total googly-eyed stare.

Even the mayor’s wife, Mrs. Kirsch, stares at him a lot. I’ve seen it when I go over to the Imura place to hang out with Benny. Mrs. Kirsch seems to find a lot of reasons to come out in the yard whenever Tom’s out there working in his garden or just coming back from a run. And don’t get me started on what happens when Tom’s out back with his swords.

Tom uses swords. It’s a thing with him. He calls it kenjutsu, which is a Japanese word (I looked it up) that means “the art of the sword.” It’s what the samurai, the warriors of ancient Japan, used to practice. Tom started studying it, and some unarmed stuff called jujutsu and karate, way back before First Night. He started when he was a little kid. His dad was born in Japan, and so was his older brother, Sam. They’re both dead now. Sam went missing during First Night, and Tom and Benny’s dad died during the outbreak. Benny’s mom, too. She wasn’t Tom’s mom, though. Both of Tom’s parents were Japanese, but his real mom died of cancer. His dad married an Irish-American lady, so that makes Benny his stepbrother. Or half brother. Not sure which is right. (NOTE: Look that up.)