Broken Lands (Benny Imura 6)

SILENCE SWEPT ACROSS THE FLAT plain that surrounded New Alamo.

Smoke curled upward from hundreds of smoldering corpses. Fire chewed at old flesh and leather and the handles of axes. Two figures stood in a field of death, dressed in tatters. One held a rifle by its stock because in the end that was all he had left for the fight. The other held a sword. Between them, lying on his side and panting with exhaustion and pain, was a huge dog. All three of them were covered in soot.

On the wall stood four teenagers, their shoulders sagging with exhaustion. There were no more bottles of gasoline in the basket by the short girl. There were no more arrows in the tall boy’s quiver. The boy with the staff leaned on it as if it was the only reason he had not yet fallen down. The other girl bent and placed her bat on the catwalk, then stood and straightened her tiara.

Then Gutsy climbed up to the top of the wall, followed by Lilah and Benny. The white-haired girl pushed past her, grabbed Chong roughly, studied him with a harsh and critical eye, and then crushed him in a fierce embrace. Chong winced, but smiled, too. Benny went over to Nix and bent to kiss her, but she turned and pointed. He peered through the smoke and then his whole body went rigid.

“He’s alive. . . .” He gasped. Then he leaped into the air and pumped his fists and roared out a name. “Joe!” Then all Benny’s friends were shouting and waving. Gutsy went to the edge of the wall and looked down at the two scruffy old men.

“Who are they?” she asked. Spider and Alethea joined her.

Benny turned to her. “Friends,” he said. Despite the grime and sweat and blood on his face, he was smiling.

EPILOGUE

One

GUTSY STOOD WITH ALICE, SPIDER, and alethea and watched as a tall, battered old soldier hugged the four strange teens. They were all crying. Another old soldier stood apart, watching with guarded eyes, silent and strange. It felt odd to watch this because it had nothing to do with her, her life, her friends.

Except that it did.

Without the arrival of the four teens, Gutsy would have died in the hospital. Now Dr. Morton and Captain Collins were tied up and in Karen Peak’s custody. There was no more base and the Rat Catchers were gone, their power broken. There would be so many questions Collins would not want to answer.

But answer she would. Gutsy promised her that before Karen led her away to a holding cell. Dr. Morton tried to apologize, but Gutsy turned her back on him. He would have a lot to answer for as well, and word was already spreading around town about what he had done. None of the members of the town council had so far shown their faces since the fight began. They would all be found, those who were still alive. The power in New Alamo was going through a change. Everything about the town was changing. Gutsy wondered what it would be like in a week. Or a month.

The big gray-blond soldier, Captain Ledger, finally stepped back from the teenagers and wiped his eyes. He put his hand on the shoulder of the one who had introduced himself as Benny Imura.

“Benny,” he said, “before I start yelling at you juvenile delinquents for disobeying every rule of common freaking sense and coming out here looking for me, I need to tell you something.”

Benny grinned. “What’s that?”

Ledger cleared his throat. “You know that your brother Tom and I go way back, right? We met not too long after the dead rose and I helped coach him, taught him some useful dirty tricks about how to fight and how to survive.”

Benny nodded.

“You know that Tom had an older brother?”

“Sure. Sam. He was a soldier and died during First Night,” said Benny. “I . . . never got to meet him. Why?”

“Don’t ask me how,” said Ledger, “and don’t ask me why the universe is this weird, but . . .”

“What are you saying?”

Instead of answering, Ledger glanced at the other old soldier. A Japanese man in his fifties. Benny turned to look at him, nodded a hello, started to turn away, then stopped. A frown creased his face. He turned back to the Japanese man and studied him. The other three did as well. Slow realization changed the whole pattern of Benny’s face. The hardness of a young killer seemed to fall away, leaving a kid staring in shock at something he did not, or could not, believe. Benny’s eyes were huge and his mouth hung open.

The old soldier came walking over, very slowly, uncertainly. His lips trembled and tears fell down his soot-stained cheeks.

“Benny . . . ?” he said in a choked whisper.

“I don’t . . . I don’t . . .”

And then Benny flew to the older man and grabbed him, hugging him, and was hugged back. They began laughing. So did Ledger, so did the other teens.

After a moment, so did everyone there.

Two

The fires raged.