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The next few deliveries went smoothly, which made Jack a little nervous. It was like waiting for the other shoe to drop. And when it finally did, it always dropped hard.

He knocked on the door, stepped back and started recording. The door opened and Jack's eyebrows raised.

A naked blond woman ran past him.

Clark gasped. "What the hell?"

Well, I've seen weirder things. Jack shrugged and kept recording.

The naked woman sprinted past Clark, almost hitting him, and ran across the yard. Barely a second later, a naked man launched out the door, pursuing the woman.

The guy held a steak knife, waving it over his head.

Clark screamed and stumbled backward.

Jack stuck his right foot out, catching the guy's ankle and tripping him. As he fell, Jack drew his Glock. He dropped the delivery box and aimed at the guy's back. "Stop right there!"

The guy had sat up and turned around, but froze when he saw what Jack was pointing at him.

The woman stopped in her tracks and turned slowly to face him.

The guy had a raging hard-on and the woman's tits were pointy. Both of them blushed.

Clark stood off to the side and looked as if he were trying not to faint.

"Drop the knife," Jack said, and took his phone from his trenchcoat pocket.

"Uh, w-wait," the guy stammered as he tossed the knife aside. "What're you gonna do?"

"I'm calling the cops. What the hell do you think I'm gonna do?"

"Wait!" the woman squealed. "He wasn't gonna hurt me! He was...I mean, we were just..."

Jack realized what was actually going on and narrowed his eyes. "Oh, you've got to be fuckin' kidding me."

Both of them blushed even more. Jack grimaced and shook his head.

"Whatever tickles your fancy. I don't care, as long as you pay for your pizza. That'll be thirty-five ninety-five, by the way."

Clearly wishing they could crawl into a hole and bury themselves alive, the couple shuffled toward the door.

"Hold on a minute," the guy mumbled.

Jack nodded, recording the couple's every movement as they went into the apartment and came back a moment later, the man now wearing a pair of boxer shorts and the woman wrapped in a robe. The guy's erection stuck through the opening in his shorts. Both were still blushing, and by this point Clark seemed to have turned a light shade of green.

"You're not gonna tell anybody about this, are you?" the guy said, holding the money in his trembling right hand.

"You're kidding, right?" Jack chuckled. "This one is too good to keep to myself."

Their blushes went into reverse and their faces paled. The woman shook her head frantically. The man began to stutter.

"But...but...b-b-b...oh G-God..."

"Don't worry. I won't mention any names or anything like that." Jack smiled, deciding that these two didn't need to know that they'd be on Otto and Shakira's podcast later. The more he could play this out, the more money he'd get for the clip.

"Thank God!" Sighing with relief, the guy handed over the money. "Just keep the change." He closed the door and locked it.

Well, so much for playing it out. Jack shrugged and walked back to his hearse, and Clark trudged after him. No matter; there would be plenty more weirdness. There always was.

At least this is my last day on this miserable job. Just gotta keep that in mind and maybe I'll make it through the rest of the night.

"So," he said to Clark as he started the engine, "how ya liking the job so far?"

#

Several seconds passed before Boiler could draw a breath. Her whole body ached and she felt as if she'd been turned inside out and back again.

"Sledge?" she grunted as she sat up. "Quentin? You okay?"

"I guess," her brother's voice echoed somewhere behind her. After a moment he added, "Ugh, I take that back. I feel like I got hit by a train."

"Me, too." She found Quentin sprawled on the floor a few feet away. "Hey, you okay, kid?" She reached over and touched his shoulder.

He twitched and then turned to look up at her. He'd always been something of a runt--barely five feet tall, skinny and pale--though he had a certain inner strength about him. Now, though, he looked weak and shaky, and was wincing and holding a hand over his abdomen.

"Oh," he muttered a moment later, his voice as small as his body, "I'll be okay. Eventually. Seems going through the Timegate is even rougher than we thought." He pushed his wire-frame glasses back into place with a shaky hand. His leathery wings, running along his sides from his arms to his legs like those of a flying squirrel, rustled softly in the darkness of the old, empty warehouse.

"Appearing in midair and dropping to the ground didn't help much, either," Sledge said, twisting his bovine features into a grimace. He pushed himself to his feet, walked a few steps and turned in a circle, moving stiffly, trying to limber up his sore muscles.

Boiler rubbed her aching arms and legs. It probably wasn't as bad for her as it was for Sledge and Quentin. Being eight feet tall and more muscular than most males she'd met, she could take a lot more punishment than they could. Quentin seemed to have gotten the worst of it, though he'd been through a lot in the past few months, and that had to have taken a toll as well.

And most of it was my fault.

"I'm sorry you got dragged into this, Quentin." Her voice was soft, but still echoed in the cavernous room. "If not for me, you'd still be with your parents, you'd still have a life and a future--"

"Hey." Quentin smiled. It was a little shaky, but it managed to melt the ice that had formed around her heart several months ago. She smiled despite the rage that still burned white-hot in the core of her soul. Quentin patted her hand and added, "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."

She took a breath and shrugged. "Well, thanks. But your life was turned upside-down because of me, and you could still be in danger just from being here. I'm sorry about that."

"Don't be. I don't think what you did was wrong. And now I can make a difference." He smiled again and walked around, rubbing his legs and tail to work the cramps out of them. "Actually, I think this is the first time in my life that I've really felt alive."

"Well...I'm glad you feel that way. I just wish it weren't under these circumstances."

"Not your fault." Sledge walked over to the stuff they'd brought, a single bag for each of them containing clothing and a few personal items.

"I don't know. For a long time I've been thinking that I should've found another way." She sighed and untied her ponytail, letting her knee-length black hair flow over her shoulders and back.

"Well, there wasn't one." Sledge frowned as he picked up his bag. "You gave that son of a bitch exactly what he deserved. If anything, his death was too quick."

"That's what I keep telling myself." Boiler shrugged. "After everything that's happened...I don't know."

Sledge brushed his shoulder-length hair away from his face and stared at her. "This is a hell of a time for doubts."

"Can't help it. What I did was...extreme."

"Like that's anything new." Sledge laughed and swatted her arm. "You've always been a chip off the ol' block. Remember that time you got tossed off the high school dodgeball team because you damn near decapitated Marty Lund with the ball?"

Boiler chuckled. "As if I could forget that." She shrugged. "The arrogant prick had it coming, though."

"Wish I'd seen that." Quentin smiled, and Boiler grinned and blushed.

"So do I."

"It was priceless, all right." Sledge grinned and picked up the two duffel bags. "Our moms and dad were so proud." His smile was tainted suddenly by an old sadness, but he shook it off. "We'd better hurry. If anybody followed us through the gate--and we'd be idiots to assume they didn't--they could arrive at any moment."

"Assuming they didn't arrive before we did." Quentin turned a shade paler. "Damn, I wish I hadn't said that."

"Well, we need to be prepared for it." Boiler patted his shoulder.

"Right." Sledge nodded. "Well, you guys feel up to traveling?"

"Guess we don't have any choice." Boiler sighed, took her bag from Sledge and slipped it over her shoulder. She looked at Quentin.

"You okay now?"

"Fine. How about you? Going to be okay?"

"Eventually." She took his bag from Sledge and looked around, found the door and took a step toward it. Quentin reached out and grabbed the bag. She stopped and quirked a brow ridge at him.

"I can carry it." He chuckled and gave the bag a gentle tug. "Being half human doesn't make me helpless, you know."

Boiler nodded. "I just figured...I dunno." She shrugged and let go of the duffel bag.

"Thanks." Quentin slung the bag over his shoulder and headed for the door. "Guess we'd better get started."

"Yep." Sledge patted Boiler on the back and followed Quentin. She caught up with them, opened the door, stepped outside and looked around.

"Huh," Sledge muttered as he glanced around, taking in the dark street and the city lights in the distance. "It doesn't look much different. I mean, different from the way it was before the..." He trailed off and winced, unable to finish the sentence.

"Yeah," Boiler whispered. Forty million people. All gone in seconds, wiped out in a blinding flash of light and a shockwave that ripped apart everything in its path. She clenched her fists and her red eyes glowed brighter. All because of one maniac. Her fury returned full force and it was all she could do to stop herself from ramming her fist through the wall.

Quentin's hand touched her fist and she gasped.

"Hey," he said, smiling again, "it's gonna be okay."

She relaxed ever so slightly. "I hope so."

"I have faith in you." He blushed and looked away.

Sledge chuckled, then took a breath and let it out slowly. "Well...it's a good thing we came through in a deserted part of the city. There's something to be said for a quiet entrance."

Boiler nodded.

"Well, where do we start?"

"First thing we need is a place to stay," Boiler said. "An apartment would probably be best, one that's big enough for all of us, preferably near our parents."

"Then we'll need to find jobs so we won't have to steal anything. We'll have to avoid drawing attention, fit in as much as we can and try not to change anything that doesn't need to be changed."

"Right." Fit in. That's a good one. An eight-foot-tall, purple draconid, a minotaur, and a teenage, half human-half draconid, all sharing an apartment--that wouldn't be conspicuous at all. She shrugged and focused on the business at hand. The best they could probably hope for was an odd job here and there, but that wasn't really a big deal. Most chimeras did odd jobs to get by in this time, and Boiler had done her share as she was growing up, though she'd once had a promising career as a bounty hunter.

"Well," Sledge's voice intruded on her thoughts, "it should be easy enough to find jobs that take advantage of our strength. Moving heavy equipment, and stuff like that."

"Yeah. And if I'm lucky, I can land a few bodyguard or bouncer gigs. Maybe even get back into my old chaser job."

"Yeah, that'd be great. As long as we stay out of the spotlight, we should be okay."

She nodded.

"And everything else will be okay, too," Quentin said.

Boiler found herself smiling down at him, and before she realized what she was about to do, she took his hand and held it gently. His lips spread into the biggest, goofiest grin she'd seen on him yet. Boiler's own smile matched his quickly, and she was once again thankful to have him with her.

"Yeah, things just might turn out okay." She held his gaze for a moment and then faced forward. "Well, let's get going. We've got work to do."