Suddenly, I wanted very much for the world not to end. I wanted it to keep going, more than anything.
My father set Muffit down and scratched his silvery muzzle. “You got old, didn’t you, buddy? That’s okay. I did, too.”
My mother examined the cut on my father’s forehead and winced.
“Help me get him inside,” she said. “Christ, what did you give him? Bourbon?”
“The med computer in his escape pod dosed him with some sort of painkiller,” I explained. “Will he be okay?”
My father burst out singing—some old song I didn’t recognize.
“ ‘I haven’t got time for the pain!’ ” he bellowed.
My mother let out a laugh, then nodded at me.
“He’s definitely suffered a concussion, but yes—he’ll live.” She let out another laugh, which turned into a sob halfway through. “That’s funny, considering he’s been dead for seventeen years.” She gave me an unsteady smile. Her lower lip was trembling.
“It’s gonna be okay, Mom,” I said, just to have something to say.
We got my father into the living room and lowered him onto the couch. Then I turned to my mother and hugged her as hard as I ever had in my life.
“I need to run over to Diehl’s house, Ma,” I told her, breaking off the embrace. “There’s something I promised Dad I’d do.”
“He didn’t promise me anything!” my father shouted—but his face was buried in the couch cushions, and Muffit was sitting on his head, so I may have misheard him.
“Zackary Ulysses Lightman, you are not going back out there!” my mother said, pointing her finger at me. “I’ve been worried to death! You can’t do that to me again!”
“It’s okay now,” I told her as I headed for the door. “The first wave of the invasion is over. Nearly all of the alien drones from the vanguard have been destroyed.”
My mother smiled with relief, clearly mistaking my meaning.
“But that was just the first wave, Mom,” I said. “A lot more are on their way.”
“Two more whole waves of them,” my father mumbled, lifting his head long enough to dethrone Muffit, then dropping it facefirst into the cushion again.
Her eyes shifted back and forth between the two of us uncertainly. I went over and hugged her a last time.
“I’ll be back before then,” I told her. “I promise.” I glanced at my father. “Try and sober him up, will you?”
The drive to Diehl’s house was easier than I’d feared—I had to use some sidewalks and lawns to avoid pileups and downed power lines, but with the streets and sidewalks empty of traffic, the detours didn’t take long.
When I reached Diehl’s house, I saw over a dozen dormant ATHIDs standing guard around the perimeter of his lawn like robotic sentinels. I saw the omnidirectional camera eyes swivel to follow me as I approached, but they made no move to stop me. I scaled Diehl’s backyard fence, climbed up onto his roof, and then tiptoed over to his second-story bedroom window to peer inside.
To my relief, Diehl was in there, he was alive, and he was doing exactly what I’d expected to find him doing—sitting at his computer, talking to Cruz via a video window on his computer.
Diehl had the soles of his feet propped against the edge of his desk, and he was leaning his metal chair back, balancing it on its two rear legs—an old habit of his. When I tapped on the windowpane and he looked over to see me standing outside in my EDA uniform, he jerked backward in surprise, the chair tipped over, and he fell to the floor with a thud. But he recovered quickly, scrambled back to his feet, and ran over to throw open the window.
“Zack!” he said, leaning out the window to give me a hug before pulling me inside. “Jesus, man!”
We hugged each other; then I turned to wave at Cruz in his monitor. He was sitting at his computer in his own cluttered suburban bedroom, just a few miles away.
“Holy shit,” I said. “It’s really good to see both of you guys.”
“Yeah! We had no idea what happened to you!” Cruz said. “Sweet EDA uniform!”
“Thanks,” I said, collapsing into a beanbag chair in the corner, suddenly feeling the heaviness of my exhaustion weighing me down like a suit of medieval armor.
“We weren’t sure we’d ever see you again, after you flew off in that shuttle!” Diehl said, sitting back down at his desk.
“School was canceled right after you left and they sent everyone home,” Cruz added. “That’s where we were when the news hit earlier this afternoon. So we jumped online and helped fight off the first wave.”