Dedrus soared through the air.

“Fuckers! Fuckers! Fuckers!” Maggie screamed out as she hyperventilated, her arms strangling Dedrus. Her face was nearly as white as Kinzer’s.

Dedrus had been flying for some time. He wanted to get as far from the bookstore as possible, so when Vera discovered that she had the wrong Maggie, she would have a difficult time finding them. By now, they were flying over industrial warehouses, well outside the city perimeter. Dedrus, his energy waning from carrying Kinzer and the ample-sized Maggie, had begun his descent.

As they neared the ground, Kinzer dropped his sword and released Dedrus’s chest. Bending his knees as he hit the asphalt, he rolled across the ground.

Dedrus’s wings reared back, catching the wind so it propped him and Maggie upright. Concerned about the landing and the safety of Maggie and the unborn Antichrist, he tossed his sword aside.

“Get ready for a little bump,” he warned.

Their feet hit the ground. Maggie’s foot didn’t land right, and she dragged Dedrus to the ground with her.

“Fucker! Fucker! Fucker!” she wailed. She kicked him in the stomach and punched him repeatedly in the arm.

“Ow! What the fuck?”

She pulled back and ran her hands up and down her body, spasming in a fit of shivers.

“Oh my fucking God!” she exclaimed. “Oh my fucking God!”

Crazy bitch, Dedrus thought.

He pressed off the asphalt, starting to his feet. A kick from his side, much stronger than the one Maggie had given him, sent him rolling onto his back.

Kinzer’s face was fire red, his sword at Dedrus’s throat.

“What the fuck?” Dedrus asked.

“What are you doing?” Maggie’s gaze vacillated between them.

“You’re the fucking rat!” Kinzer exclaimed.

“What?”

Dedrus was bewildered. They’d just fought the Raze together. How could Kinzer possibly think that he was in league with them?

“I didn’t tell anyone about where we were, and I’m sure as fuck that Fie didn’t, considering they’re probably chopping him up as we speak. And we’re the only ones who knew we were gonna be there, so that narrows it down to you and you.”

Dedrus could see his point. It didn’t make it hurt any less.

Had Kinzer forgotten their past? Did he really have no clue how much he still adored him?

“You came to me—remember?”

“That doesn’t mean shit.”

“There are a million ways that they could have found us. For all we know, they could have a Tracker.”

Kinzer’s sword pressed even tighter against Dedrus’s flesh. “You know as well as I do how hard it is to find a Tracker, especially now.”

Kinzer was right. Janka was one of the few Trackers to survive the war. The Leader had sent Morarkes to destroy them first because their gift made it easy for the Almighty to hunt and kill their greatest warriors.

“I don’t know how they found us. Maybe they tapped Fie’s phone. Maybe they’ve been keeping an eye on him. Fuck if I know. I get if you want to kill me right now. But Kinzer, I swear to our Leader that I have never sided with the Raze. I’m on your side, and I want to help. You need help. We both do.”

He wanted to say so much more. He wanted to tell Kinzer that he worshipped the ground he walked on and would never have done anything to hurt him. Now wasn’t the time for that.

Kinzer stared into his eyes.

Dedrus reared his head back, giving Kinzer permission to slice his throat open if that was what he thought he needed to do.

Kinzer ground his teeth, groaning as he tossed his sword aside.

“Fuck!” He stomped to the side of a nearby building and smashed his fists against the wall, his sleeve appearing as if it were straining to contain his flexing biceps. “Fuck, fuck!”

Maggie helped Dedrus to his feet. He made his way to Kinzer.

“Kinzer.” He rested his hand on his shoulder. “I would never betray you. Please believe that.”

“I know,” Kinzer said, his chin quivering as he spoke. “With all this going on, it’s just hard to know who to trust. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’m sorry.”

Dedrus wrapped his arms around him.

They embraced.

“You assholes need to get your shit together!” Maggie fussed.

Dedrus chuckled. “So where we gonna take this bitch?”

“I know a place.”

***

Kid pushed through the brush.

Since his last jungle fuck session with Treycore, he hadn’t bothered to put his shirt back on. Sweat flowed like a waterfall down his rigid rock-wall-of-an-abdomen. His legs convulsed. It still felt as if Treycore was inside him.

“You…think…I’m gonna die out here?” he asked, panting heavily.

Treycore snickered as he pushed a branch out of his path. “I’m not gonna let you die,” he said. For a moment, Kid imagined he was saying it because he actually had feelings for him, but he knew better. It was just because Kinzer had asked him to protect him.

“Well, it’ll be nice when we finally get out of here,” Kid said, exasperated.

Treycore threw a glance over his shoulder.

“It hasn’t been that bad,” he said with a cocky smile.

A rush of excitement welled in him. He liked that, despite being a mortal, Treycore had thought they’d had a good time. Maybe that meant he did like him.

No. Shut up! That’s ridiculous, he thought, mentally chastising himself.

“In fact,” Treycore said, whirling around, picking Kid up, and slamming him against a nearby tree. “I wouldn’t mind being stuck out here a little longer.”

Kid blushed. His heart skipped a beat.

Treycore moved in to kiss him, when a sound caught their attention.

A rumbling. Like a car engine.

Just a few yards ahead, what looked like a bus moved between the cracks in a cluster of fronds.

There must be a road, Kid thought.

Treycore and Kid broke away from each other and bolted toward the bus.

We’re saved!

***

Kinzer hit the gas in a compact car he’d stolen from a garage near where Dedrus had landed.

Branches and saplings slapped against either side of the windshield as the car bumped and jerked down an overgrown path that had been overtaken by the neighboring forestation. The car bounced into a clearing, where a cabin emerged from a cluster of woods, as if growing from them.

Trees hung over the roof. Kudzu hooked around the rails and steps on the front porch. Patches of stray boards and shingles lay at the foot of the cabin.

“Cute,” Maggie muttered facetiously. She sat in the backseat, her hand on her belly, as if preventing it from bouncing with the rest of the car.

“We sure those crazies aren't gonna find us?” she asked.

“This was one of Janka's hideaways,” Kinzer replied. “We always said that if there was an emergency, this is where we'd go. No one knows about this place. Not even the Leader’s Allies.”

“Hold up,” Maggie said. “I'm not having my baby in some cabin in the woods! I want to have it in a hospital. Doped up, eating good food, watching soaps.”

Dedrus chuckled. “We'll take care of you, Maggie.”

Kinzer pulled the car up alongside the cabin, and he, Dedrus, and Maggie headed inside.

It was a mess of dust and cobwebs. On a wooden beam just below the ceiling, a squirrel chewed on an acorn. As Kinzer shut the door, it scurried across the beam and hopped through a crack in the wall. In the opposite corner, a brown bat was affixed to the wall, clearly having decided it’d found the perfect place to take its daylight rest.

Dedrus flicked a light switch by the door. “No electricity.”

“Generator's out back,” Kinzer said.

He scanned the debris, recklessly spread across the floor—newspapers, magazines, table legs, and toppled bookshelves. Shitty as it looked, it only evoked good memories in Kinzer. He and Janka had spent several romantic nights in this cabin, groping each other by the fire, tearing through walls and furniture during their lovemaking, penetrating each other until the pain was too great for either to keep going.

They worked to clean up the pigsty, piling the garbage on the front porch and scavenging anything they could make use of.

Kinzer took the one mattress in the cabin and set it up in a bedroom for Maggie. Attempting to make the room a little more livable, he put a side table beside the bed and stacked magazines on it so she'd at least have something to read. It wasn't going to be easy being in the middle of nowhere, but Kinzer knew it was what they had to do.

***

“Y'all about ready to eat?” Dedrus asked.

He stood at the kitchen stove, a slab of meat sizzling in a skillet.

Behind him, Kinzer and Maggie sat at a table that had a chunk taken out of its side. It'd also had a broken leg, which Kinzer had repaired with two chair legs.

“Hell yeah,” Kinzer replied.

Dedrus lifted the skillet and walked over to the table, emptying the meat onto a chipped china plate between Kinzer and Maggie.

They didn't have any more dishes or silverware, so they were going to have to make do.

“What is it?” Maggie asked.

“Deer,” Dedrus replied.

“When did you get a deer?” she asked, bewildered.

“About two hours ago.”

After they'd straightened up the house, he'd grabbed his sword out of the back of the car and trekked into the woods to find them something to eat.

Maggie eyed it with apprehension.

Kinzer shoved a bite in his mouth. “It's perfectly healthy,” he assured her.

Reluctantly, she grabbed a piece and tore it off, nibbling at the edge.

“You're eating for two,” Kinzer said. “Remember?”

“I know.” She chewed on it. Her expression transformed from concerned to impressed. “Not too bad.”

“Thanks,” Dedrus said with that adorable smile.

Kinzer loved that smile. So innocent, so fun, so dorky.

This was the life that he’d wanted with Dedrus. These simple, magical moments.

Why hadn’t Dedrus wanted these sorts of moments with him?

Bzzz. Bzzz.

Kinzer and Dedrus leapt out of their chairs. They grabbed their swords, which had been lying at their feet, and scanned the room.

Bzzz. Bzzz.

Dedrus gasped. “Oh, shit!”

He reached into his pocket, pulled out his cell, and pressed it to his ear.

“Treycore? You fucking ass. I've been worried as fuck!”

***

Kid was giddy with excitement.

A web of telephone lines zigzagged between orange, red, and blue buildings on either side of a street, which bustled with cyclists and yellow, SUV-looking taxis.

So this is what it’s like to be in another country, Kid thought.

Judging by the sidewalk, littered with trash and construction debris, they weren’t in the best part of Peru, but it was still thrilling to Kid, who’d never been anywhere outside of the U.S. And more importantly, he was glad that he got to share the experience with Treycore.

“Yeah, yeah,” Treycore said, a payphone receiver pressed to his ear. “Okay, Dedrus. I’ll be there as fast as I can…You don’t worry about how…”

He may not have to worry about how, but I sure as fuck do, Kid thought.

He didn’t have a passport or any money for an airplane ticket. What was he supposed to do? He wondered if Treycore was just going to ditch him. He supposed that since the fate of the world was at stake, that was very likely.

“…I will be,” Treycore continued. “Let Kinzer know Kid’s fine…Uh huh…yeah…okay. Bye.”

He hung up, picked the phone back up again, and mashed his thumb on the dials.

Who’s he calling now? Kid wondered.

“Lero, it’s Trey. Yeah. Got a favor to ask.”