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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

Briggs steps out of the shadows, hunched and sloppy looking, like a remorseful, hungover prom date. Tears and snot stream down his weathered face. “Darcy…” he says, sniffing in a vain attempt to control the fluids racing out of his orifices. “Darcy said if I help you lot get home, you’ll”—he implodes on another swell of devastation—“you’ll let me come with. I can’t stay here anymore. I have to find my son. I need to bring Drew home. I promised him.”

My jaw fully unhinges to the floor. Briggs asking for our permission like a guilty little boy. Permission to finally do the right thing.

There is still time after all, Ricky.

“That’s the plan, Benji,” Darcy says, hopping to her feet. She passes Briggs into the hallway and continues to bark orders. “Pick Bill’s ass up off the floor. We got a boat to catch!”

Guess that means Bill’s also coming. We’ve got our man—Nightlight campers, one; FBI, zero. Before I can deliver Darcy a hearty “Well done!” for saving our lives, she disappears, off to rejoin Lacrishia and the other campers outside the bunker. With Briggs at our side, the trek past the gray-shirts will be substantially easier—either way, camp’s out. Briggs hauls a handcuffed Bill Hannigan over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes—exactly how he hauled me out of my house two nights ago.

Or was it three? I need my damn phone back and an enormous nap (preferably with Marcos as the big spoon). “Ready to come home with me?” I ask, facing him.

“Home,” he chuckles, as wrung out as a sponge. “Where’s that?”

I try to smile, but Reverend Packard’s bleeding, empty carcass at our feet won’t let me. The man who brought me boomerangs and snow globes—and almost killed me on this remote jungle island—is dead. Unfortunately, he’ll have to stay in the bunker a little while longer. We’ll make sure someone finds him. I tap the cold pottery holding Ricky’s remains and enjoy one more fleece-warm hug with Marcos (with only a faint moment of nausea) before we embark on our final journey out of Nightlight.

Where’s home? he asked.

“Not here,” I say.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

DEPARTURES