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Back Surrender Your Sons Save as PDF
Chapters (43)
  1. Author’s Note with Content Warnings
  2. CHAPTER ONE
  3. CHAPTER TWO
  4. CHAPTER THREE
  5. CHAPTER FOUR
  6. CHAPTER FIVE
  7. CHAPTER SIX
  8. CHAPTER SEVEN
  9. CHAPTER EIGHT
  10. CHAPTER NINE
  11. CHAPTER TEN
  12. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  13. CHAPTER TWELVE
  14. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  15. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  16. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  17. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  18. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  19. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  20. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  21. CHAPTER TWENTY
  22. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  31. CHAPTER THIRTY
  32. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  41. CHAPTER FORTY
  42. EPILOGUE
  43. Acknowledgments

He risked the bunker to save me from the clinic. He bandaged my back after Briggs attacked me. And without a thought about what will happen to him when I’m gone, I’m going to leave.

Sign. And you’ll wake up in your bed. Nightlight will be just a bad dream.

As Dorothy Gale says, “Some of it was terrible and some of it was wonderful,”—okay, maybe only Marcos was wonderful—“but the whole time, I kept saying I want to go home. And they sent me home.”

I’m out of time.

It’s home…or the island.

“Now!” the Reverend barks.

“No!” I shriek and my frantic hands tear the copied birth certificate into ribbons. The little bottle of emotions in my heart shatters, releasing tears and sounds from my chest I’ve never heard before—but that I’ve felt my entire life. “No, no! It’s not true! It’s not my responsibility! He’s not mine, none of this is mine! Leave me alone! DON’T EVER ASK ME THIS AGAIN!”

I chuck the pen and the remains of the certificate into the wind, and the scraps whip around me like autumn leaves. My trembling knees strike the earth and I clutch fistfuls of soil. I have no idea why, but my little hands scrape against the ground like a dog digging a hole. Another delirious moment later, and I stop, sense returning to me in waves.

The Reverend kneels, lowering his bulldog snarl to mine. I don’t cower—I bare my teeth defiantly and hiss, “No.”

“You’re a stupid boy,” he mutters. “I gave you an out. Remember that in the end.”

With that warning, the raven orders us to stay with Bill until Archie and the gray-shirts return with the body bag for Drew, and he flies away to the bunker. In less than a minute, the campers are alone with Bill and the body. I clamber upright and dab my shoulder against my furious tears.

Everyone is stunned silent at exactly how much has happened in the last fifteen minutes. Some avert their eyes, some are crying, and some (like Marcos) are gobsmacked. Strangely, an urge to smile comes over me. I finally did the right thing. I didn’t leave them. I stayed. Whatever comes next, we’re on the same team.

But somewhere, in the dark of my mind, Ario drifts further away.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

THE UPPER HAND

The sun begins to dip beneath encroaching cloud cover, but that does nothing to guard us from its merciless heat. In the courtyard of human wreckage underneath Karaoke Bill’s watchtower, Darcy sidles next to me and mutters, “Okay, what was that about?”