Parents were reuniting with their children everywhere he looked. Terry’s parents came up to thank David for giving them back their son. He saw Sam’s father off in the distance, running around like a madman, trying to wrangle all of the kids.
Lucy ran up to him. The look she gave him threw David. He had been looked at like that before, but never by Lucy. It was how Hilary used to look at him when she’d jumped into his arms after winning a football game. It was how girls used to look at him at parties when they wanted to steal him from Hilary. It was aggressive. Charged with desire. She threw her arms around him. David forgot the rest of the world around him. She kissed his neck. He closed his eye. He melted into her.
“That was amazing,” she said.
Kiss my neck again, he wanted to say.
“Easy,” Will said.
David opened his eye. His brother was behind Lucy now, frowning underneath his mask.
Lucy broke away. Will’s face transformed when she turned to face him. He smiled for her. It looked pretty convincing, but David could tell he was pissed.
“I’m so glad you’re alive,” Lucy said. David grinned. It relieved him that she knew intuitively to be gentle with Will’s ego.
“I missed you,” Will said. He was brimming with energy, barely containing himself.
“Me too,” Lucy said.
Will placed both his hands on her stomach.
“We’re going to be okay now,” Will said.
Startled, Lucy pushed his hand away.
“Don’t—” Lucy said.
Will stumbled back, and Lucy’s eyes went wide with regret. She took up both of Will’s hands.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“It’s—it’s okay. I understand,” Will said. “I know I’ve been a fuckup in the past and I’ve acted immature, but I’ve changed, Lucy. You’ve made me want to be someone better. I’m going to take care of you. And provide for you. Provide for our family. Lucy, I love you so much.”
“Will, I …” She didn’t continue. She looked to David.
“What?” Will said. “Why do you keep looking at him?”
“You need to know something,” David said.
“This isn’t about you, David,” Will said, whipping a finger at David. He turned back to Lucy with open, yearning eyes. “What—what’s going on?”
A Geek reached in and slapped David on the shoulder, hooted, and ran on. Will’s eyes stayed locked on Lucy.
“The pregnancy didn’t take,” she said.
Will shook his head. “What are you talking about? Belinda said …”
“I lost it, Will. There was a baby, there was, and it was ours, and I tried to keep it safe but—” Lucy shuddered. “It’s gone.”
Will opened his mouth to speak, but stopped short. He didn’t move. Like a VHS tape on pause—he was frozen, but still fidgeting. He stared at the ground. Through the ground. Lucy looked to David in a panic. He had no idea what to do either. He was afraid anything he said would set Will off. He wanted to tell him it would be all right. That this happens to couples a lot in the real world. That life goes on, and the important thing was that the three of them had survived. But he feared that Will would twist even those comforting words into malicious attempts to rub salt in his wounds.
“It’s going to be okay,” David said anyway. He couldn’t not.
“WOOO HOO!” a Skater cried out as he raced past them.
Lucy went in for a hug, but not with all her heart like she’d hugged David. This was more tentative, like she feared Will was about to sprout thorns. He shook her off, and she backed away.
“You told him?” Will said, pointing at David. “He already knew?”
Lucy looked to David for the right answer.
“Will … yes, it was the first thing I asked her about. Just like you did. It’s not some conspiracy—”
“No,” Will said, sarcastic and vicious. “Of course not. Where would I get that idea? You two can barely keep your hands off each other. I guess this is the best thing that could’a happened, huh, Dave?”
“Will!” Lucy said.
“Choose,” he said to Lucy. “You have to choose, right now. Is it him or me?”
Lucy gasped.
“Will, come on,” David said.
“Shut up, David,” Will said without looking at him. Will’s eyes were locked on Lucy’s. She couldn’t look at him. Her eyes danced around, but she kept glancing at David.
“I should have known, right?” Will shouted. “Nothing ever changes.”
“Will, don’t say that,” Lucy said.
“Then tell me I’m wrong. Tell me you love me and not David. And don’t lie. Don’t you dare lie to me now.”
“I don’t want to lie to you,” Lucy said.
“So don’t,” Will said. His voice cracked as he said it, and his face flickered with anger right afterward, like he was mad at his throat for betraying him.
“We had our time, and it was good,” Lucy said.
“Oh my God,” Will said.
“It’s not like those feelings weren’t real—”
“Fuck you both,” Will said.
“Will!” David cried.
Will stormed off. Lucy started crying. Will was cruising across the farm, straight for the front gate of the tractor-trailer wall.
“Stay here,” David said.
David ran and caught up with Will, twenty feet from the exit. He tried to grab Will’s arm, but Will threw him off.
“Come on, will you grow up?” David said.
Will stopped and faced him. “Go ahead. Take her. Take the glory, it’s all for you, David.”
“Nobody’s out to get you, Will. Least of all me.”
Will laughed, but it was short-lived, like a flower that wilted as it bloomed. His cheeks slackened, his eyes dulled. His stare became absent of feeling.
“I liked it better when you were dead,” Will said.
Will walked to the exit, and David didn’t stop him.
26
WILL HATED EVERYTHING. DAVID AND LUCY, McKinley, the virus, the world.
The motorcycle he was riding was the only exception, because it was getting him out of Pale Ridge. He’d found it in the garage of an old couple who had lived down the street from him. It was exactly the kind of bike you’d expect an old person to ride—a bulky, maroon Honda Gold Wing with tons of storage compartments and room for two. To fill it, Will had siphoned gas out of a wrecked Subaru that had been wrapped around a tree. A motorcycle seemed perfect. It was the last thing David would want him to ride. His last motorcycle ride through the quad had made Lucy turn up her nose. Good. They could both go to hell. He cruised through the husk of Pale Ridge, and got used to how the hulking cycle turned. Before this, he’d only ridden a motorcycle in a straight line.