Rewriting the Apocalypse novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Rewrite

The note started low and climbed.

Jo knew it before it reached her ears.

It was the hum from Eli's wrists, the note she had heard in the last moment of her first life.

Now it came out of nine feet of steel antennas and rolled across the rooftop in waves.

Below the parapet, the city's lights flickered once.

"That's it," Kessling said. He was almost glowing. "That's the carrier. In a minute it reaches the first block."

Eli took a step toward him.

Kessling raised the tablet.

"If you touch me, I drop it, and a dropped tablet sends the pulse out unshaped. Everyone within three miles becomes what you were, Mr. Mercer."

Eli froze.

His hands began to shake.

"Eli," Jo said. "Look at me."

He looked.

The hunger had come up in his eyes, a dark flat sheen, because the pulse was calling to the burst in his blood.

"I can feel it," he said hoarsely. "It wants me back."

"I know. Don't go."

"Jo, if I turn, you'll have to..."

"I'm not killing you," Jo said. "I never would. Give me your hand."

He stared at her.

"It went through this hand," he said. "Last time. It went into me, because I was holding you."

"Last time I was dying. Now I'm not."

"You can't know that."

"I know what I am," Jo said. "Give me your hand."

He held out his bare hand.

The palm was pale and smooth, and it trembled.

She took it in her left hand and laced their fingers together.

His grip locked on hers with a painful force.

"Don't let go," she said.

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