How It All Goes Down
- Suddenly Jed grasps her waist, and luckily for him, Mary realizes he's not a zombie before she slits his throat.
- He's weak, but he tells her they have to get to the river.
- Off they go, and then Jed stops her, and just in time, too. They scoot forward on the ground and see a massive canyon with the river in its center; to their right is a humongous waterfall gushing into the flow.
- Jed throws his leg over the side and tells Mary they have to climb down. Mary is terrified. He tells her to hold on to the roots, not the rocks. They climb and huddle under an overhang as zombie bodies hurtle over them into space.
- Mary realizes Jed is saying something; he tells her he's sorry.
- She asks why he came after her, and he says it's because he's her big brother. Plus, he kind of has a thing for hope.
- She thanks him and they bask in a moment of brotherly (is it still brotherly if there's a sister involved?) love.
- Then, of course, a zombie smacks into Jed and knocks him out into the void. Figures. No, seriously—that's really what happens.
- Mary rushes down the cliff to look for him, but the river is a body-and-bubbles smoothie, all frothy and not very delicious, hurtling past.
- She crawls out on a fallen tree to look for him in the water, but nada. Then an arm reaches out and yanks her into the water.
- She can't breathe and fights for the surface, and suddenly another arm yanks her head up. She thinks it's Jed, but nope. It's a crazy zombie lady. She keeps fighting all the bodies and nastiness.
- And then she blacks out.
- She dreams that she's hanging out in the clearing Sister Creepy took her to, way back in the day. Everything is quiet, and then… it's not.
- Red-vested zombies come tearing out of the Forest on all sides, and every one of them is her mom, Jacob, Cass, Harry, or Jed. She's scared out of her mind.
- The tunnel inside is gone, and the fences hold the nasty Unconsecrated back. Until the fence dissolves that is.
- They all crawl at her like Gabby when she was about to kick the bucket, and then they scrabble on top of her and she can't breathe anymore.