I was using the last of my energy to cling to consciousness, trying to stay alert enough to spot any new threats. I was the last of my friends still standing; even if the tree was dead that didn’t make our current location safe.
I had no interest in defeating this horror show only to have our sleeping bodies ravaged by a stray hellbat.
Instead, I began gently shifting people out of the pile. Davi and Lottie had been at the bottom. Both had apparently used their abilities to the point of losing consciousness. The others had honored that by using their own bodies to guard the pair from harm. John had thrown himself across the top of both girls, but he was out too, his clothing soaked in blood. Knowing John, he’d spent his own healing freely in the last few seconds, ignoring his own injuries to keep his allies alive.
Byron, Helen, and Annie were still awake, but heavily injured. None resisted me as I dragged them around.
“We… won?” Byron asked.
“Yeah. I’ve got our friends stable, so I’m gonna catch my breath and heal them up slowly. I want to stay awake.”
“Everyone else?” Helen’s voice was soft, almost too quiet to hear.
I glanced over my shoulder. People were climbing down the heartvein, and a couple were already at the bottom, checking on our injured. “It looks like healers might have come down from the upper floors?” I saw one of the newcomers help Michelle to a sitting position, an obviously broken arm straightening. “Yeah. Definitely healers.”
“All our fighters in this chamber lived?”
I took a deep breath. “No. We lost one man.”
This seemed to scare her. “Who?”
“I don’t know their names,” I said. “He was wearing-”
A voice interrupted me. “I’m okay, grandma. I’m okay.” A man I hadn’t spoken with knelt down next to the heavily injured woman, taking her hand in his.
Helen relaxed. “Thank God.”
The pair continued to speak in low voices, and I looked out at the room. I was too tired to move, but I didn’t want to intrude on a private discussion.
The heartvein was still, no longer pulsing. More people were picking their way down from the upper chambers, using the web of veinlike protrusions on the central column as a ladder.
Andy was walking across the chamber toward us. “Thank you all for your help. Colonel couldn’t watch everywhere at once, but he thinks we only had two spare Shards available at the time the tree died. If you hadn’t pitched in…”
“Happy to help,” I said. I wasn’t thrilled about being roped into their assault with such little preparation, but that wasn’t something I could hold against them. If anything, we’d been lucky to have them present. If we’d been brought down at any other time…
Well. It would have taken a miracle to get all of us to safety. This thing had been horrifying. Albuquerque would definitely be interested in the details… which I would totally send… as soon as my heart slowed down a little and I could figure out something coherent to say. “Are you sure it’s dead? I would have thought it would disappear.”
Andy nodded. “It’s dead. We’re still trying to figure out why the body doesn’t vanish. And… about a dozen other things about them. They’re… weird. In a lot of ways. But this, at least, we expected. The other ones we killed didn’t vanish either, only their summons. We’re not even sure there’s an upper limit to their growth. I hope so, because otherwise…”
I frowned, envisioning a dark Yggdrasil, a monstrous tree climbing to space and tearing apart the globe. “As I said… we were happy to help. I have people I care about in the area too.”
“Well, even so, we owe you. Colonel asked me to see if there was anything you needed or wanted. If it’s within his power, it’s yours.”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Transport,” Byron rasped.
“Hm?” Andy asked. “Transport where? If it’s someplace in northern Alabama or western Tennessee, there’s a good chance we can help out. We’re in contact with most of that area.”
“That would be wonderful,” I said. I pulsed another heal through Byron, keeping an eye on the people entering the room. It would be good to get my friends on their feet, but they were stable, and everyone seemed pretty tired. “Yeah. We’re headed to northern Alabama. Near Huntsville. We had an airship until that tree sniped us out of the sky. We’d been traveling for days and we were hours from making it home, but… if we have to travel on foot it might take us another week or more. We could really use help… either a ride or help fixing our ship.”
“That’ll be no problem. We’ll be heading to Huntsville ourselves,” Andy said. “Odds are good your people are okay if that’s where they’re located. The area’s more stable than most. Where’d you start from?”
I opened my mouth to answer, then paused. Another person had started climbing down the column, but had paused with only their lower half visible, just legs and a really nice ass. In spite of this… there was something familiar about it.
“Hello?” Andy asked.
“Sorry,” I said. “Just… long trip. Long day. Seeing things I want to see, I think. I-”
“Gavin!”
Had I just heard what I’d thought I’d heard? The voice was pitched to carry and achingly familiar… but it was muffled by distance and the floor between us.
It couldn’t be. There was no way. Even if I’d heard correctly, why would they be here? Gavin wasn’t that uncommon of a name, and-
“Gavin! Get over here! I want you to help Micah climb down.”
A minute ago, I would have said I was too tired to stand.
Suddenly, I was on my feet and halfway across the chamber.
“MEGHAN!?”
The figure at the top of the column jerked in surprise, losing her footing. She started to fall, and I caught a glimpse of familiar reddish hair.
I was across the chamber in an instant, elbowing one person aside and leaping straight over the head of another to catch her. Even as I ran, I felt like I was dreaming, but then she landed, the weight of her body in my arms undeniable.
There she was. My beautiful wife. Alive. Alive.
She stared at me, a hand reaching up to rest on my cheek.
“Vince? Is that… really you?”
“I’m not too late.” The words came out with half a sob. I clutched her close. “I’m not too late!”
“DAD! Micah, come on! It’s DAD!”
I felt panic a moment later as a vine entwined me, pressure tilting me backward.
Had the treewalkers come back to life?
Then I realized that the pressure was gentle and the limb was narrow along its entire length, even if I had to adjust my stance to support the sudden and surprising weight. A furry tail was wrapped around me, stabilizing in a long arc that ended behind the back of my six-year-old son, Gavin. Micah, my nine-year-old, was dangling from his brother's arms, eyes wide in an expression of disbelieving shock.
Gavin was grinning at me madly. “Dad! Do you see my super tail! I’m a true champion! You are pretty late getting home from your business trip.”
“Really late,” Micah agreed. His voice was soft and his eyes glistened. “Mom was really worried. We had to teach her aikido.”
Tears streamed down my face. I pressed my cheek into Meghan’s hair as Gavin slowly lowered him and his brother toward us. “The boys, too? You kept the boys…” My heart clenched. “Where’s Cassie?!”
Meghan laughed, a hysterical noise stretched under more emotion than it could carry. “She’s fine. She’s not here! She’s safe with Pointy.”
“Pointy?”
Meghan shook her head. “You’ve… missed a lot. I’m so sorry, Vince… our house is-”
I laughed, crushing her in a hug. “Who gives a shit about a house? I care about you and the kids. You’re all alive?! You’re all really alive?”
Meghan nodded.
“Then you protected everything that mattered.”
Meghan looked down, giving me a view of the top of her head, blinking the lid of an extra eye as she tried to stem her tears. “We’re all a little… different.”
“Me too,” I said. I lifted her chin, meeting her gaze with my own altered eyes. “Do you care?”
She smiled. “No.”
“Me neither. I just wanted to get back to you guys.” I reached out an arm to drag Micah and Gavin closer. “Whatever we have to face, I want to face it together.”
The end.
Want to know what happens next to Vince and his friends? Find out in Book 4 of Apocalypse Parenting.