Broken Lands (Benny Imura 6)

—DAVID “DAVY” CROCKETT, “KING OF THE WILD FRONTIER” FRONTIERSMAN, SOLDIER, AND POLITICIAN BORN IN LIMESTONE, NORTH CAROLINA (NOW PART OF TENNESSEE), AUGUST 17, 1786 DIED IN SOUTH TEXAS, THE BATTLE OF THE ALAMO, MARCH 6, 1836

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“I’M SHOT,” CRIED BENNY, AND he toppled off his quad into the reaching hands of Lilah and Chong. They lowered him to the grass, and Nix immediately began tearing at his clothes, checking him over, looking for the wound that was going to break her heart.

“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” Nix said.

Chong’s worried face filled Benny’s. “I don’t see anything.”

“B-back . . . ,” gasped Benny.

“Turn him over,” ordered Nix. “Careful—careful!”

“I see it,” said Lilah.

“No exit wound,” whispered Chong. “Oh no.”

“How . . . bad . . . ?” begged Benny.

Nix pushed him roughly onto his back. Her face seemed to swell with emotion. Not concern, but . . . anger? For a weird moment, he thought she was going to punch him.

“You big dummy,” she growled.

“Wh-what?”

“You’re wearing Kevlar, genius,” said Chong, sagging back and shaking his head. He looked up at the moon and laughed.

“What?”

“It’s called a bulletproof vest for a reason, you monkey-banger. Probably bruised your ribs, knocked the air out of you.”

“I’m not going to die?”

Nix slapped the front of his vest. “I may kill you for scaring me.”

Lilah became immediately disinterested and stood up. She crept to the top of a small hill and peered back the way they’d come. Benny sat up very slowly. Kevlar or not, he felt shot. The pain was horrible, and he still had trouble breathing.

“Look at this,” said the Lost Girl.

Chong and Nix helped Benny stand.

“We seem to be making a habit of scraping you up off the floor,” said Chong.

“You can go right ahead and bite me,” Benny told him.

“Not even if I was a full zom.”

They looked at each other for a moment and then they both cracked up.

“Boys are idiots,” said Nix to the air, the moon, or anyone who would listen. She went and stood next to Lilah. Then she snapped, “Benny, Chong, get over here.”

They hurried over.

The hill offered a magnificent panorama, and far behind them they could see the ravagers trudging back to rejoin their group, having given up trying to chase motorized vehicles.

“No,” said Lilah in her ghostly voice, “not there. Over here.”

They looked. Chong went back to the quads and fetched their binoculars, and they all stood looking to the northeast.