Deadman's Switch & Sunder the Hollow Ones by Saul Tanpepper

hours later. He holds up a bottle of antibiotics he retrieved from the medical cart on the abandoned tram. After chastising him for not telling us what he was doing, I inform him that the pills won’t help if it’s a virus.
    â€œThey won’t hurt, either.” Later, when he divvies them up between us, I watch as Reggie and Ash pocket theirs. I do the same. Jake swallows his.
    Kelly settles into a chair next to the door of Micah’s room. “I figured out what was wrong with the tram. The emergency brake needed to be manually disengaged. Wish we’d known about it before.” He reaches into a pocket. “Pulled the fuse from the control panel after I brought it back. Same with the rest of the trams. Hid the rest down there where we can get to them when we need to. Now no one else can use any of the trams, only us.”
    Fuses are old tech, just like my brother’s jeep and Micah’s car, so a bit mysterious to me. It continues to surprise me that Kelly knows so much more about such things. More than I ever knew he did, anyway.
    â€œOne of us should go back to the mainland,” I say. “We could get help.”
    â€œFrom who? The police? Arc owns them.”
    â€œMy brother. Grandpa.”
    The way Kelly’s face hardens tells me he doesn’t trust either of them. Eric works for Necrotic Crimes Division, and Grandpa… Well, the Undead are his children, so to speak.
    But I know Kelly’s wrong.
    â€œI think we’re on our own here,” he says.
    He stands up and says he’s going to go relieve Jake. “You should get some rest, too.”
    â€œWe need to come up with a plan.”
    â€œRest first,” he urges. “You need rest.”
    What I need to do is get us all off the island. But I nod and watch him leave without arguing. I stay in Micah’s room for a little while longer, watching, praying for his recovery.
    It alarms me, how much weight he’s lost. I realize with a sudden jolt how frail he looks, lying there, his skin sallow, the rings under his eyes.
    He’s been a close member of our group since he moved here just over a year ago, and yet he’s never really been a part of us, instead always somehow…above us. He slipped right into the leadership role that none of us wanted to fill. We willingly followed.
    There was never any jealousy among us, neither because of this, nor for his attentions. We all idolized him. Just being in his company was enough. He helped us achieve more than we ever could have without him. Always so passionate and willing to experiment, to take risks. More intelligent. More capable. More…
    Well, he was just more.
    But now that’s all changed. The only way I can explain it is like when you look at a beautiful scene and realize that what you’re viewing is about as close to perfection as you’ll ever get to experience. And then to suddenly see it marred.
    I can’t help but feel a little disappointed.
    I get up stiffly and remove the IV needle from his arm and throw the setup away. The bag is empty anyway and there isn’t another to replace it. He doesn’t even wake. As for the urinary catheter, I leave it in for now.
    I silently pray that his body heals soon, at least enough to take the strain of moving him.
    Even more than that, I worry about his mind. I fear the reality of our situation might just break him, possibly irreparably.
    I fear it might be too late. He might already be broken. Just like the rest of us seem to be.
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Chapter 12

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    â€œI know you’re out there, Kelly,” I say. It’s the next morning, shortly before ten. After a long, restless night, I’d finally managed to sleep. I’ve been up now for less than an hour after crashing hard for almost six following my midnight-to-three watch. “Come on in.”
    He sticks his head tentatively around the doorway. “How’d you know it was me?”
    â€œBeen tracking