She coughed, and blood gurgled in her throat. She whispered, “It’s…okay. Creighton—”

“Shh. Shh.” I wiped the blood away from her nose and put my cheek against her face. She was barely breathing. Her eyes looked vacant, glassy.

“No, Abby, no. Don’t do this.” I opened her mouth, placed my lips against hers, and breathed into her. I breathed. I pumped her chest. I breathed.

I continued until I heard sirens in the distance. The car had stopped. I placed my cheek near Abby’s mouth. I placed my blood-soaked fingers against her neck. She was gone.

“Oh, no, Abby. God. No. Not like this.”

I cradled her in my arms and sobbed.

50

We gathered beneath a sprawling oak tree in the midst of an expansive cemetery, surrounded by blue sky overhead and the scorching Texas heat. The group was much larger than I’d expected.

Ben Steele had flown down from DC. He was shaken by Abby’s death, I could tell. It was all I could do to give him an abbreviated account of what had happened after we’d returned to Dallas.

Ben shook his head. “I never should have let her leave.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Ben. If anything…” I couldn’t bring myself to say what I had been thinking for the past three days: if only I had checked Cleary’s stream earlier.

I turned away from him. His hand caught my shoulder. “Creighton—”

I stopped.

“It wasn’t yours, either.”

Coming from anyone else, those would have been just words. Coming from Ben…Our eyes met, and we shared a silent understanding. I nodded slowly. “Thanks, Ben.”

I gazed at the people around me. Miranda, the Dallas-area student who had spoken to Abby after my class, had come, as had two dozen or so people I didn’t recognize. I heard Sabin ask several of them how they knew Abby. They didn’t. They’d seen her new message that I’d just put on the Grid, and they wanted to know more.

I hung close to Ben and avoided conversations. I wasn’t at a point yet where I could reminisce about Abby or engage in small talk. One young woman, however, made a point of introducing herself to me.

“I’m Britta.”

“How did you know Abby?” I tried to sound engaged.

“I met her at White Rock Lake. We talked a couple of times. I saw the news about her. I just…I wanted to be here.”

I nodded, my eyes burning with unshed tears. Abby liked this girl.

Sabin came over to me, a teenager walking with him. “Creighton, let me introduce you to Lauren’s daughter, Chloe.”

She smiled and extended her hand to me. It was kind of her to come since her mother was so conspicuously absent. Lauren had fallen behind in the polls and was campaigning.

“Did you get to spend much time with Abby?” I asked her.