I shivered when I realized what he was saying. “You think it might be replacing my brain?”
“I think it’s possible,” Kell said. “Which is why I want an MRI. As a scientist it’s utterly fascinating. As a friend, the idea scares the shit out of me.”
Yeah. Me too.
The last stop of my day was at the surgical clinic. Over the course of years, Haven had expanded the areas it controlled to include the abandoned hospital. The place was basically a fortress, and everyone agreed it would be pretty stupid not to use the huge space for its intended purpose.
It was there I found Hannah, the little girl I’d hauled to Jo for treatment. I knew Smoke was in the building somewhere under heavy guard. So was Greg, though without the protective detail. His head injury was worse than we could diagnose in the field. I’d see him after this visit.
“Hello, Hannah,” I said as I walked up to her doorway. “Remember me?”
Bobby sat in the chair next to her bed, a pile of children’s books stacked on the low bedside table. He held on in his big mitts, a thick finger marking where he’d been reading until a moment earlier.
“You’re Mason,” Hannah said. “You saved me.”
I smiled at her and nodded. “I did. Did Bobby tell you all of it? Everything that happened on the road that day?”
She frowned a little girl frown, which is to say one that came with dimples and lacking the gravity the expression would carry in an adult. The young rarely had the sort of learned body language grown-ups hauled around with them. It was refreshing. For me, the constant and automatic reading of all those mannerisms was an assault I couldn’t escape. So much information and interpretations to sort through in real time. Kids were a wonderful change of pace.
“He said you saw me get shot but couldn’t come help me,” Hannah intoned seriously. “Not without you getting shot too.”
“That’s right,” I said. “I wanted you to know the truth, because I think the truth is really important. I had a chance to run out and try to save you, though it probably would have killed me. I’m sorry I didn’t.”
Hannah’s brow wrinkled. “Why? You did save me. I’m little, but I’m not dumb. Momma taught me about how I shouldn’t do anything to save someone else if it would kill me, too.”
“She was a smart lady,” I said, caught off guard again by how practical and drearily realistic parents were forced to be nowadays.
“Mason wanted to ask you a question,” Bobby said. “Then I’ll finish reading your book.”
Hannah nodded. “Okay.”
I saw the bit of nerves in Bobby, then. The hope. The fear. The longing to see a part of him long dead brought back to a semblance of life. “Well, Bobby and I know you’re going to be in the hospital for a while. He’s going to come see you all the time, and I’ll come visit when I can. I’ll be very busy. But you’re here without parents. You’ll need someone to take care of you. Bobby decided he’s not going out on missions from now on, so we talked about it and wanted to know if you’d come live with us when you’re better.”
And in that way all children have of simplifying the terribly complex emotions of infinitely complex situations down to their essential points, Hannah gave a shy little smile and repeated herself. “Okay. That sounds nice.”
Bobby grinned like an idiot. I gave the girl a wink. “Yeah, I think so too.”
Author's Note
It was always my intention to write at least one sequel series to The Fall. As my long time readers know, the Living With the Dead/The Fall universe was meant to be a long, long term story about the zombie apocalypse. I wanted to show the slow changes over time, telling stories across decades to play out the many small shifts in culture and society I imagined would follow such a catastrophic series of events.
Mason has become one of my most loved and divisive characters. The decision to 'kill' him during LWtD was a long-term one. Originally I planned to write a companion series of books about his survival from that supposed death, which would have existed alongside the first few books in The Fall chronologically.
Life has a way of taking a torch to our plans, though. Mason was someone I wanted to give everyone a deeper look at, and any sequel series to The Fall would need to have much smaller stakes. No saving the world here, no finding a cure after years of trying. Just a story about a fight that would let Mason shine as a character. Give him room to breathe.
This book kicks off what I think of as phase 3 of this fictional universe. Beyond The Fall will serve as a transitional series between major ages within the chronology of the world. It's also just meant to be a fun time. I certainly enjoyed writing it, even when it was difficult.
I hope you liked it, and if the ending didn't make it clear, there is more to come.
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Joshua Guess, Author
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Also by Joshua Guess
The Fall (Completed Series)
Victim Zero
Dead Will Rise
War of the Living
Genesis Game
Exodus in Black
Revelation Day
Beyond The Fall
Relentless Sons
Cassidy Freeman
Chosen
The Ghost Fleet
Cascade Point
Borderlander
Carter Ash
The Saint
The Next Chronicle
Next
Damage
Living With the Dead
With Spring Comes The Fall
The Bitter Seasons
Year One (With Spring Comes The Fall, The Bitter Seasons, bonus material)
The Hungry Land
The Wild Country
This New Disease
American Recovery
Ever After
Black Sand
Earthfall
Ran
Apocalyptica
This Broken Veil
Misc
Beautiful (An Urban Fantasy)(Novel)
Soldier Lost (Short Story)
Dog Dreams In Color (Short Story)
With James Cook
The Passenger (Surviving The Dead)
Beyond The Fall (Book 1): Relentless Sons Page 20
