Ling crawled, centimeter by centimeter, away from him, and towards the injector. When she had it, she came back to him. She crawled, and then she grabbed the bed and used it to pull herself up, up so she was above her seated father. He turned his head and looked at her, his eyes wide with fear, his mind a riot of dread and horror. He tried to struggle, to control his body, and she pushed against his mind, holding him in place.

“No,” he said, struggling still to get control of his body. “Please.” Tears fell from his eyes. She was huge in his mind, a monster, an alien thing, a posthuman looming over him, a creature that had surpassed him. Doom permeated his thoughts where Ling could see them.

“Please,” he said again. “Daughter…”

Ling Shu pressed the injector against the side of her father’s neck, and fired the rest of its contents into him.

Chapter 84: All Together Now

84

ALL TOGETHER NOW

Saturday November 3rd

Breece watched as the Mayor of Houston took the stage, began to praise Daniel Chandler.

Less than fifteen minutes to go. Josiah Shepherd would take the stage next. He’d warm up the crowd for a while, lead them in prayer, then invite Daniel Chandler to the podium. As Shepherd finished and Chandler stepped forward, the two men would shake hands. For the last time ever.

Kade fell, tumbling. Someone gripped him, a guard, as they spun through the air. There was no sound, no sensation beyond a burning heat, a chaos of images flipping around him too fast to track. He closed his eyes to stop the chaos, held them shut tight.

Then they crashed to a stop and his body exploded in pain.

There were flames around him. Smoke. Dust.

Minds! Minds! He could feel minds!

Terror. Fear. Chaos. The children.

Kade opened his eyes.

He was in the courtyard, atop something soft and angular and broken. A body. The dark-skinned security guard. The man’s neck was broken at an unnatural angle. His eyes were wide open, staring. Half of the dead man was burned to a crisp.

Kade rolled, and on the other side was the other guard, face down, his back a blackened mass. The explosion had killed them both, even as their bodies had shielded him from the worst.

He turned and looked up. He was in the courtyard. The wall above him was gone. A jagged hole was all that remained of the apartment he’d been housed in. Something had blown it to bits, thrown him and the guards out. The dead man he’d fallen atop of and the one to his other side were all that had saved his life.

He tried to move, tried to sit up, felt excruciating pain in his abdomen. His ears were ringing so loudly he couldn’t hear anything around him.