Kiss of Life (40 page)

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"If that were ...true," he whispered, "you would come ...with me."

Tak stood, offering hand. Two gray-white knuckles where Tak was missing a patch of skin, and a row of long tarsal bones, like the bars of a prison in hell.

Took it. Rose.

And then heard her voice on the wind.
Adam.

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CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

"ADAM," PHOEBE SAID.

The dead boys turned. She was standing at the crest of the hill, just above the long trench Adam's body made when he'd slid down. She was shivering in black sweatpants and her heavy faux fur--lined coat, a gray scarf trailing from her neck. "You weren't planning on leaving me, were you?" She didn't need telepathetic powers to read his mind. Something woke her in the dead of night, a feeling that compelled her to go to her window where she'd sometimes watch him as he tried to master the poses and exercises that Master Griffin had set before him. She'd looked down and saw the long slashes of his footprints in the porch light, already half filled with snow.

Once she realized what Adam was planning to do, she'd pulled on her boots and warm clothes and rushed out the door with her flashlight. At first, his tracks, his dragging feet

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cutting long runnels in the snow, were easy to follow, but as the snowfall increased, the trail became harder to discern in the poor illumination. Eventually she stopped trying entirely and moved to where she thought he was going, which was the lake.

Just follow your heart, she'd thought.

"Phoebe," Adam said, "it...is ...freezing."

She started down the hill, choosing her steps with care, not sure if she wanted to hug him or determinate him.

"You think?" Her teeth chattered and she hugged herself for warmth.

"You have ...to go ...back."

"I'm not going anywhere without you." She slipped a little but caught herself, and soon was at the bottom of the hill with the snow-covered boys. The flakes fell on Adam's cheeks and hair and didn't melt. She looked up at him and saw what she needed to see in his eyes, something that drove the chill out of her body.

"Phoebe," Adam said, drawing out both syllables, "things have ...changed."

She clapped her mittens together, telling herself that her fingers weren't tingling and her face wasn't numb. "Have they changed, Adam? Have your feelings changed?"

He couldn't meet her gaze. "No ...never."

"Then why are you planning on leaving me?"

"You are ... in danger."

"When have I
not
been in danger, Adam? Do you think I entered into our relationship lightly?" "No."

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"Why would you leave me then? Without even saying good-bye?"

Adam looked back at Tak, who brushed his frozen hair back, an almost sympathetic look on his asymmetrical face.

"My ...anger ...with you ... is spent," Tak said. "I really ...don't want ...any more ... of my people ...hurt."

"They aren't your people," Phoebe said. "That thinking is exactly the problem. They're just
people."

Tak raised his shoulder, which Phoebe saw was missing one of its metal spikes. "Semantics. If everyone ...agreed ...there would be ... no issue. I'm bringing my ...the zombies ...underground. Somewhere ...safe. I thought... we thought...you would be safer ... if Adam ...came with ...us."

She turned back to Adam. "Is that what you thought?"

He raised his arms skyward. "Yes. I...want you ...to ...be ...safe. Is ...that...so ...wrong?"

Phoebe noticed that the pauses between his words were longer than usual, which meant that he was getting upset--or that the cold was affecting him. But then again, she was freezing, and at the same time her blood was boiling.

"I don't want to be safe! I want to be with you!"

"Phoebe ...I'm ...dead ...or ...hadn't ...you ...noticed?"

He might speak slowly, but Adam had no problem with volume. Tak looked skyward and then sat back down on the fallen tree.

Phoebe was so angry she stamped her booted heel. "I thought we'd been through this already? You're still here, aren't

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you? Why do you still keep bringing something up that I don't care about?"

"You ...should ...care."

"No, I shouldn't! I care about
you.
Don't you care about me?"

"You ...know ...that ... I do."

"Then why do you want to leave me?" She held out her hands. "Again."

"I don't...want ... to leave ...you ...Phoebe. I ..."

She held up her hand, cutting him off. "Then don't.
Don't.
Don't go 'underground' or wherever else Tak is taking our friends. Don't do it."

Tak looked up at the sound of his name and stopped picking at the entry wound just above his left knee.

"Not everybody can run and hide, Adam. Some people need to stay and fight. The strongest, the bravest, the best and brightest--whoever--some people need to stand and fight. They need to fight for what's right, and they need to do it for all of those that can't."

Phoebe walked to him and took the frozen lumps of his hands. "Tommy. Karen.
You,
Adam. You don't really have a choice. You are the strongest, bravest person I know."

"Not ...the bravest," Adam said, looking into her eyes.

But she wouldn't be sidetracked. "You're the most dependable, the most responsible, the most admirable ...and you're getting stronger every day. Every day. Will that continue if you go underground? Without your example, I don't think the zombies have a chance. Let Tak lead the others for now. They

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don't need you for that. But they will need you when it's time for them to come up again. Let Tak do his job, and you do yours."

She looked back at Tak, defying him to contradict her, but he kept his own counsel. She'd like to think that it was because he could hear the truth in her words, but she rarely could figure out what Tak was thinking.

"You think ...they need ...me ...above ...ground." Phoebe knew Adam believed her, regardless of what Tak was thinking.

"I do, Adam. I do. But it's more than that," she said, stepping into him, pressing her cold cheek into his chest,

"I need you. I really, really need you."

She felt his arms go around her, gently, as though he were afraid he would break her if he held too tight. It made her feel safer than her own words ever could.

"It...will be ...difficult," he said.

"I know. I know it will." She squeezed him more tightly. "But we'll face it together."

The stood like that for some time, and Phoebe felt as though she were warmer even though Adam generated no heat. She heard the creak of leather as Tak slid off the tree, and she braced herself for whatever snarky comment or mocking rebuttal he would surely throw at them.

"I have ...to ...go," was all he said.

She saw that she had been wrong, because he didn't say anything else but instead headed to the frozen surface of Lake Oxoboxo.

"Tak." Phoebe could feel the vibration of the word

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rumbling up from Adam's chest. The dead boy, already ten feet onto the ice, stopped and looked over his shoulder. "Take care ... of them."

Tak nodded, and the rasp of his voice reached them over the quiet ticking of the falling snow.

"Good luck," he said. "To you ...both."

They watched as he walked farther out, until he was a dark blot on the bluish landscape. When he was a fair distance out she saw him lift his foot and stomp on the ice, the sound of his boot heels echoing back to them across the distance.

"What is" don't...worry, "he doing?"

Tak continued his stomping until finally he leaped straight into the air and came down heavily with both feet. There was a crack like thunder splitting the sky open, and he went down through the hard surface of the lake in an icy spray.

A cry rose up in Phoebe's throat, but Adam, still watching the spot where Takayuki disappeared, pulled her closer to him.

"We have ...to ...go," he said.

"But Tak ..."

"He's ...fine. But you ...you ...are ...cold."

She
was
cold, no matter how much his words warmed her. And it wasn't going to be easy getting back up that hill.

"You're right, I'm cold," she said, teeth chattering. Then she laughed as they started moving.

The going was slow, but they managed to crest the hill by leaning on each other for support. They stopped for one last look at the Oxoboxo, the dark circle where Tak had gone through like a freckle on the blue-white disk of ice. Phoebe

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turned back and looked up at Adam. When she spoke, she managed to do so without chattering. "I love you, Adam."

His smile touched his eyes with real expression "I love you ...too ...Phoebe."

The sky clouded over and soon she could no longer see more than a few feet in front of her, but Adam took her hand and led her through the darkening forest.

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CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

From:
[email protected]

To:
[email protected]

SUBJECT: Updates

Dear Tommy,

By the time you see this e-mail, you should have already heard the news about what has happened here in Oakvale and in Winford. I'm sorry that I didn't e-mail you sooner than this, but it has been a crazy couple of days trying to check on everybody.

Where do I even start? There's just so much. The worst thing is that we still don't know where Karen is. We know she was with Tak on the night the police came, but we don't know if she got away or taken or what. The television stations like to run video of incarcerated zombies, but she's never in the shots. No one wants to think the worst, but Tak did say they were shooting at her. I pray every night that she escaped and that

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she's out there somewhere, maybe looking to catch up with you.

The Hunter Foundation closed its doors, but you probably know that already, just like you know that Sylvia is being fought over in court right now. What you might not know is that Oakvale High went further than disbanding the Undead Studies program---they went as far as to ban zombies from attending school. Principal Kim was crying when she made the announcement.

Not that there are many of them left to go to school. The Haunted House is quiet now. Everyone there left with Tak and Popeye to go "underground." Sick pun I know but those were his words. I don't know exactly where "underground" is, but even if I did, I don't think I'd write it in an e-mail because who knows whether or not our e-mails are being monitored. But Cooper went, and Mai, and just about every other zombie we know except for George and Kevin and a few others who are in prison or worse. Melissa is still at St. Jude's, and that's become a huge controversy too because Father Fitzpatrick refuses to turn her over.

I hope some of the things that have happened are useful to you as you look for help in Washington, but I guess after the Guttridge family murder that's wishful thinking.

BTW, Tak swears he and the old-schoolers had nothing to do with the murders, or the grave digging of a few weeks ago. For what it's worth, I believe him. He's one of the strangest people I know, but he has a sort of moral code, if that makes sense. I heard that he's on the FBI's Most Wanted list. They're calling him a terrorist.

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I'm glad Colette escaped all of this turmoil. I don't know if Karen told you, but Colette stayed with DeCayce and the Skeleton Crew. She's going to go on tour with them and maybe try to locate her brother. Margi says she might even try to find her parents.

So now it s just me and Margi and the other trads here.

And Adam. Adam the rock. Strong Adam, Adam who is always there for me. Adam, my love.

Yes, Adam and I are "together" now. It's really weird, because in some ways it feels as if we've been together forever, but on the other hand, everything--everything--is brand new. It's going to be super weird now that he isn't allowed to go to school anymore, but well manage. We'll have to.

I also wanted to apologize to you, Tommy, for all the things I wrote in the e-mail I sent you. It was wrong of me, and I didn't really mean it; I was just hurt and confused because I didn't know how I felt about you, and I didn't know how Adam felt about me, and everything else that was going on. And of course I was jealous because you'd found somebody else, and I have no right to be. You deserve to be happy, Tommy. You're a really great guy and what you do is important, and it might end up being the most important thing for zombies everywhere. Don't stop trying.

Sometimes it's the little things that make the difference in this world, little things like writing a poem or picking up a football when everyone says you can't. Or giving someone you love a kiss.