Last Kids on Earth and the Midnight Blade. Max Brallier

But then he flashes me a happy thumbs-up, because he’s a bud like that.

      Once everyone’s gone, Bardle wastes no time. “Jack, tell Warg what happened. With your blade . . .”

      “Uh, well,” I say – and I realize I’m embarrassed and self-conscious. But I tell her everything.

      When I’ve finished, all of Warg’s eyes slowly inflate and deflate at the same time. I think it’s the Warg version of, like, a deep sigh. Then she holds out her hand – palm open.

      She wants the Slicer. I hesitate. I lost it once – and I won’t let it happen again. But Bardle’s neck gills flex and a rough-sounding grunt comes out.

      I hand it over.

      Warg runs her hand down the length of the Slicer. “Ghazt . . .” she says softly.

      “Correct,” Bardle says. “The power within that blade – it appeared when Ghazt’s energy ripped into this dimension . . .”

      Just then, Warg’s eyeballs return to her body. Dirk’s deflated eyeball is gone. Eaten – absorbed, I guess – by the other eyeballs. They look almost restored now that they’re back to their home base.

      It’s weird.

      Warg rocks forward and says, “I do not want to see this world destroyed, like our home.”

      Bardle nods. “And that is why the power within this blade must become known.”

      Warg and Bardle exchange a long look. So long, in fact, that I say –

      Warg looks at both Bardle and me. “You may keep the zombies here,” she says reluctantly. Her mouth is a hard, stern line. “But – there is one condition.”

      “I don’t have to watch you guys make out, do I?” Bardle shoots me a look that says, “Don’t embarrass me in front of the eyeball lady.”

      “Wait, are you guys talking some training stuff?” I ask. “Am I about to get trained?”

      Suddenly, the weirdness I felt about the zombies is gone because I am NUTSO PSYCHED that we’re talking about training! I give Bardle a probably creepy smile.

      Bardle shoots me a “who, me?” look, but I bet he’s secretly fired up to be in on this, because whether he knows it or not, we’re about to do a hardcore training montage. And literally ALL I HAVE EVER WANTED IS A HARDCORE TRAINING MONTAGE!

      “YES!” I exclaim. “This is gonna be . . .”

      Just then, June calls from outside. “Jack! Get out here! IT’S A PHOTO OP!”

      Bardle and Warg follow me outside. My friends are hoisting Ghazt’s tail on to the roof of an old hot cocoa stand.

      “This is bigger than the biggest fish my ol’ man ever caught,” Dirk says, impressed.

      I can see Dirk feels lousy. But he’s fighting through it. Like when you have a birthday party or something, but then you get the flu but you DON’T WANT to miss it, so you force yourself to try to enjoy it even though you wanna collapse and maybe cry. Dirk’s a trooper.

      “Bardle, get in the pic!” June calls. “You too, Rover!”

      We all gather close and smile our cheesiest smiles.

      Just before Warg snaps the photo, I get this feeling. It’s kinda like that feeling at the end of summer vacation when you see one of those stupid back-to-school sale signs, and it brings the whole perfect summer to a screeching halt; it hits you: these good times end soon.

      Things are good now, but they might not be again for a long time . . .