Death Weeps Part 10

And off in the distance, I felt the death jerk in response to my stress, my anxiety waking them from their slumber like an alarm clock.

They were ready.

So was I.

"Well this is like G.o.dd.a.m.ned Welcome Home Day!" Gramps said loudly.

Parker actually smiled, his eyes finding mine and I knew he felt the dead so close to us. They were practically underfoot. Hardy har-har.

I looked at his a.s.sembled group and saw that Logan Tracker was amongst the guys.

Not a suit in sight.

Plenty of zombies though.

Including the one that was mine, the warrior from two years ago. His dead stare tracked me like a lost lover. Even for me it was kinda creepy.

I stepped forward and Gramps put a hand on my shoulder. I turned and looked at him.

"Careful, son, this fella's a live wire."

Live wire. Right.

My eyes turned to Parker, his were a true hazel green. With all that black he was wearing they stood out like dull marbles in his alert face.

"What do you want, Parker?" His eyes went to the wrench, then back to my face.

"I need your help."

"Oh that's rich!" Gramps said slapping his polyester-clad knee.

Parker frowned, giving Gramps a look.

"Listen, we're all just a little skeptical of your motivations, you being all tight with the Graysheets," I said with the logic of the last two years backing me up.

He sighed. "You're right. But ask yourself this... did I ever really hurt you?"

My mind tumbled over the memories of the cemetery, shuffling them like a deck of cards. Sophie almost getting taken, the mess with Smith, then, finally... the judo instructor turned raping and murdering maniac. But not by Parker's order. Even by my tally he'd been interfering, but not attacking. Lately.

"Not really, I guess."

Gramps looked at me like I'd gone crazy in seconds and I held up my palm.

"But," I looked at his face, "you've interfered in everything I've ever done..."

"I protected you." Parker looked at me steadily.

I scoffed, giving a snort. "From what, yourself?"

Logan answered for him. "He only worked with the backing of the... Graysheets for the initial acquisition. When he found out everything that was going on, what their real motivation was..." he spread his hands out, his dark coloring emphasized with the all-black ensemble.

These guys were so matchy.

"We're all just a big experiment for them. To further their goal."

"Which is?" Gramps asked, the zombies with Parker swinging their gaze to his. Gramps didn't even twitch.

Tough-as-nails.

"Control," Parker said.

I shrugged, that was obvious and it didn't really clear things up.

Parker stepped forward and Gramps said, "Whoa pony, hold your horses, I liked ya right where you were."

Parker gave a ghost of a smile then stopped.

"We've been discussing these matters with a five-point Precognitive." He gave me his level gaze again and when I nodded my understanding of what that would mean he finished with, "She identified you as the catalyst."

"For what?" I asked, thinking: Get. To. The. d.a.m.n. Point already.

"The end of the Graysheets." When I raised my brows he nodded quickly. "What I thought was a bid to get at another AFTD, a powerful C-M, was actually them having the intel to know that you'd be a problem. Getting you to be on their roster as another five-point and having you under their thumb to derail you from doing the things you were supposed to do, well... that was a bonus."

Gramps scrubbed his face and lifted a finger, waggling it.

A point was coming, I could feel it in my bones.

"Question! How is my almost seventeen-year old grandson involved in anything here?" He threw his palm out at the zombies. "And," he gave Parker serious eyes, "if you lay a finger on him, I'll take your eyeb.a.l.l.s out with a spoon."

Parker's small smile broke into a grin. "You might at that, Mr. O'Brien. You might at that. But, that's not my objective here."

"What is?" I asked, suspicion wasn't a strong enough word for what I felt.

"We want to bring things back to rights. I've never felt more sure than I do at this moment."

We studied each other.

"You've helped greatly by getting yourself caught up in enough trouble that the Graysheets, as you refer to them, can't make a move for you right now. But," he jabbed a finger in my direction, "they will if provoked. So, what I propose for you to do will have to be done with the utmost caution."

"The Precog says..." Logan started.

"What's that again?" Gramps asked, stroking his bristly chin.

Parker trained his intense eyes on Gramps and his zombies s.h.i.+fted their weight, the one that I'd raised on the power of a human's energy and made into something else... didn't. He stood motionless, the very air around him still.

"She's a five-point."

Gramps shrugged and an expression of frustration came over his face but I explained, "Pretty much, she's a crystal ball thrower."

"Huh?" Gramps asked, more confused, not less.

I tried again, "Wherever the ball lands is where stuff's gonna go down."

Tracker spoke again, "She's never been wrong, ever."

"Yeah? What's the broad saying?" Gramps asked, skeptical as h.e.l.l.

Totally normal state of affairs.

Parker snorted, "That Caleb will stop the inoculations. He'll go to the source, put a stop to the splicing. Ruin the travel, the interference."

"What?!" I leaned forward. "What source? Tell me what the h.e.l.l is going on!" I yelled. My zombie flinched and I cast a look his way. "It's okay," I said and he relaxed.

Surreal. The story of my life.

"You're going to have to trust me, Caleb. If I tell you too much, it will alter what you're supposed to accomplish. You are so much more than just AFTD," his eyes bored into mine, "That is not the sum of what you are, who you were meant to be. She gave me what I needed to tell you, no more, no less."

I threw my hands up. "That's not enough to go on. Say I wanted to do this... save the paranormals..."

"It's not saving them, it's saving the others," Logan said.

I paused, Gramps stopped breathing. "The mundanes?"

Parker nodded. "And so much more. Everything hangs in the balance of your choices."

Tracker grinned. "No pressure, right?"

I scowled at him. "What if I don't want the job? I've got plenty of c.r.a.p to deal with..."

"Like Carson? And that pesky little death connection you established between Jade and Brett? Like your temper flaring and it ringing the dinner bell to everything dead within five miles? That?" Parker queried.

He'd pa.s.sed the football and the quarterback for the team had taken it straight to touchdown territory.

I glared at his truth, staring him down. He stared right back.

Stalemate.

"Why should he do anything you say? Why should he listen? You're so d.a.m.n consistent you take my breath away, Parker." Gramps folded his arms across his chest, his face a neutral mask, his eyes flicking to the zombie soldiers.

But Gramps was never neutral, he was just great at hiding what he was feeling. There's a difference.

I hadn't mastered that yet.

Parker let me think, my thoughts furiously driving my synapses to fire in the right direction.

Suddenly, I had a thought. "Does this have anything to do with this dome world?"

Parker smiled. "What do you think?"

I looked at him, Tracker and the a.s.sembled zombies.

"I think I'm taking a field trip sooner than expected."

He strode forward and Gramps tensed, I clutched the wrench tighter.

An involuntary reaction, I swear.

When Parker reached me, his zombie soldiers at his side, he put his palm out.

I looked at the innocuous hand.

Decision made, I fell off the cliff of my simple life. As I tumbled, I grasped the peace offering and made a deal with the devil, my hand closing around his. His zombies gasped when our hands clasped, a shot of death energy juicing them to the core.

Sometimes it was better dealing with the evil you know, than the one you didn't.

As our flesh pressed together in the age old gesture, I knew it was more than agreement, it was acceptance.

Of what I was.

Of who I was going to be. For him, for me.

For everyone.

Sometimes life was more than eating and sleeping.

Existing.

It was a machine of choice.

And mine was made.

"No s.h.i.+t, Hart!?" Jonesy asked, sucker jammed down his throat as he rolled it around in his mouth as the girls watched, fascinated by his nimble tongue dexterity.

Except Tiff, 'cuz she had one jammed down her throat too. Only because it had the promise of a wad of gum at the end. She'd get to that morsel too. Like a goal.

I smiled, answering Jonesy, my arm wrapped around Jade's shoulder, "Yeah, it was creepy-surreal. Parker showing up all, 'can ya help the cause'..."

"I don't trust him," John said.

"Me either," Mia agreed.

Jonesy shrugged. "Doesn't matter, we were gonna do the dome world anyway?" His eyes fell on us and Bry said, "There is that. But somehow, Parker knowing what we're doing puts a spin on it."

"I don't like it, but, I think I've gained enough focus to get us in and out if something goes wrong," Randi said from her perch on Alex's lap.