Free The Undertakers: End of the World by Ty Drago Page A

silence followed. Then he said, “There are no Angels. Not anymore.”
    I remembered how lousy Emily, Amy and Steve had been in combat. Back in my day, last night’s mission would have been all about Angels, the Undertakers crew that did direct battle with the Corpses. My crew.
    “All of the Angels are … dead?” I asked, horrified.
    He nodded. “One by one. The sad fact is that there are only a half-dozen Undertakers left. And, aside from myself, none of them is trained to execute a rescue.”
    A half-dozen. There were more’n three hundred in my Haven.
    “What about Sharyn?” I asked.
    “She … can’t help us.”
    “Why not?”
    He didn’t answer.
    “Okay,” I said, feeling my anger rise. “Then you do it! You know she’s in Independence Hall somewhere, right? Go get her!”
    “We are planning a raid on Independence Hall,” he said, miserably. “But not to rescue Helene.”
    “Why not?” I demanded.
    His expression hardened. “All right. Suppose we do put our plans at risk for my wife’s sake. Who knows, maybe I’ll even find her, somehow wake her up, and miraculously succeed in bringing her back here. But what then ? What would I be bringing her back to ? You don’t get it! We’re all dead. We know it. We’ve known it for a long time. We’re fighting back because … well … that’s what Undertakers do. I absolutely intend to go down swinging. But I’m not kidding myself. Swinging or not, mankind is over. Tonight, by the look of things.”
    I stared at him, unable to make words come out of my mouth.
    William turned away. “So, I can’t help thinking that it would be better … kinder … to let my wife sleep. Let her sleep through the end of the world.”
    Without thinking, I slammed my hand down on the railing hard enough to hurt. “Why did you even bring me here?” I demanded. “Amy told me you needed my help. That’s the only reason I came! Is showing me all of this supposed to be some kind of warning? Have I become so twisted that I think it’s better to know in advance that I’ll grow up and lose everything when the world comes to an end?”
    “Will—” he began.
    But I cut him off. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re not me! If you were, you’d be running to Helene’s rescue! Corpses be damned! You want to go down swinging? Then go down bringing the fight to them!”
    “You don’t understand,” he said.
    “You’re right! I don’t understand! I don’t understand you at all!”
    I fell silent then. My face burned and my stomach felt like it had flipped over on its side. I was suddenly tired, maybe more tired than I’d ever been in my life.
    William said, “You’ve got it wrong. We didn’t bring you here to warn you.”
    “Then why ?” I demanded. “Enough with the bleak future history lesson! Why am I here?”
    “I’ll show you,” he said.

Chapter 10
     
    Shards
     
     
    Without another word, William headed for the elevator.
    Angry and so frustrated that I felt like kicking his ass—my own ass—I followed.
    As we rode down past the eighteenth floor, I spotted Amy. She was moving purposefully along the Undertakers dormitory floor. As the elevator rumbled by, I noticed that she wore a stethoscope around her neck.
    I wondered if she’d heard Corpse Helene’s threat about tonight.
    “She became a doctor, you know,” Maxi Me remarked as we continued downward. “Amy, I mean. She did it to honor Ian’s memory. So many years ago.”
    I didn’t reply. To be honest, I couldn’t reply. Ian’s death was still pretty fresh for me, though not as fresh as the Burgermeister’s.
    I’d buried too many friends.
    At the thirteenth floor, we stopped and William pushed aside the elevator’s gated door.
    “Welcome to our version of the Brain Factory,” he said, without much enthusiasm. “Though nobody calls it that.”
    It was smaller than the Factory from my time. This wasn’t surprising, since even the biggest floor in City Hall Tower—the