But it was not the same time we had left, and the circumstances had changed.

Oh, had they.

****

Bodies lay around the field scattered like so much flesh and clothes.

My eyes automatically sought Jade. I couldn't find her. I tore myself up by sheer will, fighting the puke for the second time in so many minutes.

The zombies were already standing, looking at me and a point behind my left shoulder.

Parker.

I turned and faced where he was.

He hugged the ground like a lover, his head pressed against it. I ran to where he was, slipping twice, vertigo trying to claim my equilibrium. I made it, gripping his elbow and hauling him up.

We swayed together for a moment then he leaned away from me suddenly.

Parker bent over and sprayed chunks into the tall grass, the sun just rising here in this world.

"Caleb!" Randi shouted across the wide-open space.

I turned and saw my zombies squaring off with a group of dudes.

I knew these guys.

The fragment.

Shit-in-a-sack.

It hadn't taken them any time to find us. Weak, shaken and disoriented from the travel, we were vulnerable to their assault.

Parker's zombies reached for their assault rifles.

Then realized they didn't have any weapons. It was comical. They ran their large hands over the spot where they should have been and balled their empty hands into fists.

Those guys were so resourceful. No weapons, no problemo.

Clyde came to stand beside us as Parker straightened. "That sucked," he said, wiping the back of his sleeve against his mouth. His all-black ensemble had suffered with the Puke as an Accessory.

I smiled. He was right. I was getting over the effects of the travel.

I looked at Clyde, who never took his eyes off the group of fragment. "Where did the young woman take us?"

"Somewhere else," I said, my eyes sweeping the area for Jade... then, reluctantly, Brett. My eyes were flying over the bodies that were mostly standing now, some were puking, some were fine. I spotted John and breathed a little easier.

"Clearly, Master," Clyde said, peeved.

Bobbi Gale said, her stance alert and ready, "Where, Caleb? I'm not wanting the twenty questions!"

"Randi is a Dimensional."

"Great! So we're in some other world somewhere?"

I nodded. "It's a long story," I said, giving her serious eyes and continued, "but those guys," I pointed to the advancing fragment, "are the bad guys."

Bobbi looked at the ragged but tough-looking group that were making steady progress straight for them and thought Caleb might be on to something.

"How bad?" she whispered.

"Very," I replied and walked into the middle of the teens in the hopes of getting to Jade.

Brett had Jade wrapped against his body when he woke up in a strange place. His eyes cracked open, his stomach rolling around in a hot wave of gonna barf. They were in the middle of a field or something. The air was the freshest he'd ever smelled. It was somewhere between crisp forest and wheaten pasture. He forced his stomach to settle, breathing deeply. He pulled Jade closer against him and pushed the hair away from her face tenderly, kissing her temple.

She woke up and gasped. "What are you doing, Brett?"

Jade utterly undid him, her eyes were so beautiful, like emerald fire.

"Kissing you," Brett said, thinking that'd been pretty damn obvious.

"Don't," she said, shoving at him.

What the hell is this? She was crawling into his mouth five minutes before...

Yeah? What happened? He looked around, sitting up, his hand clamped around her tiny wrist. She wasn't going anywhere till he figured out what the fuck was going on.

He saw a group of freaks comin' their way and hauled Jade up, shoving her behind him protectively.

They had makeshift weapons. Some he recognized, others he didn't. His eyes searched the kids and the creepers that Hart had somehow managed to bring with him. Where was that dick hole, Frazier... where had that bastard lurked off to now?

"Are you goddamned delusional, Mason?" Jonesy asked as he moved toward him, his fist raised to deck him when Hart interrupted, "No, let me."

Then Hart was barreling into him and he was fighting for all he was worth.

For himself.

For the girl he wanted more than his own life.

All I could think of was Brett with his hands on Jade. It didn't matter that she'd dumped me, that most likely she dumped me under the influence of the enhancer.

He. Had. His. Hands. On. Her.

I pounded a good one in his face and he kicked out in a move so novice, I could've deflected it in my sleep. But I was all rage-driven and felt it graze my nuts and I grunted, my hands cupping my package.

He shoved me off and kicked me in the ribs.

I flipped over and used the instep of my foot to take out his knee. He shrieked in agony.

That move hurt like a bitch.

Clyde grabbed the back of Brett's shirt and mine and jerked us off our feet, four hundred pounds between the two of us, like we were a couple of bowling balls instead of two almost full-grown men.

Zombie strength. But his eyes blazed human pissed off at that moment.

"They come!" shake-thrash-teeth rattle, "We do not have sufficient time for fisticuffs!"

What?

I turned my head and saw that while I was all over the top of Brett, the fragment had begun to wade into our zombies, hacking at them as they came, their primitive weapons plenty effective.

And we only had five zombies here.

I recognized what the Skopamish looked like to the fragment. What had Queen Clara called them?

The Red Men.

The Chief turned and looked at me for a command. I gave him the one I knew best, my balls throbbing like I'd be sick again.

Kill them, I thought.

He turned smoothly, in a move so choreographed it looked like he was dancing, reaching for the tomahawk that was no longer there.

Oh shit.

The weapons. All the weapons had been lost to the travel.

We were completely defenseless.

Clyde lowered us to the ground and the Indians gave a shrill war cry, the three against many, their bare hands the only weapons at their disposal.

It might be enough, they were the walking dead after all.

Parker's bodyguard zombies started taking the fragment apart by hand, beating them as they came for them. The flesh of their knuckles sloughing off even as Parker's will re-knitted it to perfection before our eyes.

But there were simply too many.

Clyde asked as he rolled up his sleeves, his suit jacket folded neatly on a nearby boulder, "What do these marauders want?"

"The women. They're rare here. They'll kill every male and take the girls."

"Not this male," he stated like he was talking about the weather.

We looked at each other.

We agreed on that.

I glanced Brett's way, his chest was heaving, the weight off the leg that I'd abused. Hell... I needed him and I'd incapacitated him.

I was gettin' an F for sure in Reactive Management.

"Where's Howie?" I yelled at Brett over the noise.

"Don't know!"

Great.

Jade came to me like we'd never been apart, her large green eyes filled with apprehension, she opened her mouth to speak but I had to shove her behind me as the first of the fragment came within range, his eyes pinned on her with greed.

With lust.

Screw that blowhard.

Gale began beating the hell out of the one that came closest to her, Clyde slammed two heads together and they split apart, brain matter splattering everything within a meter from the force of the blow. He heaved their bodies to the side like so much trash and snarled as one of the men of the fragment grabbed hold of Gale's hair and she screamed like it was being torn out of her scalp.

She brought her elbow up and swung it with precision at the one who advanced on her, breaking his nose at the same time she rammed her head into hair-puller who was behind. Clyde took both hands and latched onto the male who had his hands laced in Gale's hair. He jerked down with every ounce of the undead strength that he possessed and I felt the pull of it through our connection and grunted.

Clyde separated the dude's arm from the socket. Blood burst out of the open hole where his arm had been attached and sprayed another of the fragment as he moved in to maim. Clyde turned smoothly and plugged him in the jaw with the severed arm, using the ball joints like a sledgehammer, causing the fragment to pinwheel backwards into two more that bore down right behind him.

"Righteous, Clyde!" I heard Jonesy shriek as he got clocked by a fragment who looked like he was going to bring down a weapon that looked suspiciously like a crowbar on his head.

Not to worry, Tiff spit out a wad of gum, biting the guy who had the crowbar in the forearm. He shrieked and dropped the weapon. Jonesy was stunned for a moment but the guy backhanded Tiff and that woke Jonesy up. She hung on, tears and snot leaking out of her from the blow, her arms hanging on for dear life.

Jonesy drove his fist like a hammer in the guy's beak and he folded. It'd been a direct hit.

Tiff fell away from him like a perfect leaf off a tree.

John caught her and gently lowered her to the ground. Jade screamed, "Caleb!"

I turned and in an intuitive move I didn't know I possessed, I ducked and a small sword sailed over my head, the breeze of it passing through my hair. I punched out without thinking at whatever was in front of me and connected with a lean gut, toughened by the life of Outside. A great whoosh of breath came out and then the males were all over us like ants.

They dragged the girls into a circle, kicking and screaming. Alex roared when one of them cuffed Randi and her small body fell to the ground. He ran toward them but one put a knife to her neck, the point of it drawing a crimson drop, the essence running down her neck to pool at the hollow in her throat. She gave him wide eyes, her hair knotted in the fist of the one who held the blade at her throat.

"Don't come to her aid, Band," he said, eyeing Alex.

Alex looked at me in confusion and I responded, "Remember?"

They mistook him for Band. Rightfully so, as he was somehow related to them. Minus the gills.

His shoulders slumped in defeat. They were using the girls against us.

Gramps, Clyde and the zombies came to stand behind me. The fragment grabbed the rest of the girls, knives or other sharpened weapons of brutality jammed at the tender spot under their chins. Identical expressions gazed back at us.

Fear.

Ours were worse. If I'd had a mirror, I would have seen my expression and recognized it immediately for it what it was.

Mine had moved smoothly over into terror.

Then as the group of fragment parted, I saw who came to stand amongst them.

The Zondorae brothers.

Wasn't this special?

Should've killed them when I had the chance, I thought without a drop of mercy.

*

Joe stepped forward, his grim face beginning a slow smile that overtook his face instantly.

He was so pleased with himself.

The self-satisfied prick.

He had eyes only for Parker. "Parker," he said.

"Joe," Parker responded neutrally.

He looked over the group, his eyes resting briefly on the captured girls: Mia, Randi, Jade, Tiff and Sophie. Their eyes were wide and frightened.

Check that, Tiff's eyes were narrowed and pissed. I gave a small smile.

His gaze passed over the zombies; both Parker's and mine. He missed Clyde and then his eyes briefly traveled over Gale and Clyde hissed, giving himself away neatly.

Humans didn't usually do that.

Zombies did. It was second nature. Like eating brains.

Yum-yum.

Joe Zondorae's eyes narrowed when he caught sight of Gramps and the guys from the group. Brett limped over to stand beside the rest of my friends.

Howie was still a no-show. That kinda nagged at me, I wasn't gonna self-delude on that. I wanted that asswipe in my sights.

Gary Zondorae looked at Randi and her eyes got even bigger in her small face. He palmed his chin and said to Joe, "She needs to sleep."

"Yes, she does." His eyes flicked to Alex and he said something to five males of the fragment and they sprinted to where Alex stood.

They'd underestimated him.

It took ten.

Ten men of the fragment to hold a berserk Alex down while they shot Randi up with something. Some kind of sedative.

Her eyes rolled back in her head, her coal black hair falling away from her face like a fragile curtain.

Alex roared into the sky while the fragment struggled to contain him.

"We took your supplies," I said to them.

"Do you seriously believe that we had everything we would ever need on our person?" Joe asked, jabbing a thumb in his chest for emphasis.

Gary cocked an arrogant brow above hard eyes. "Who do you think Tucker received his ideas from? His whispered principles? The raw material necessary to eradicate the genetic problem of the spheres?"