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After breakfast Matt went online to find two stores, neither in Fel ’s Church, that had the amount of clay Mrs Flowers said she’d need and that said they’d deliver But after that there was the house and by the last lonely remains of where the Old Wood had been

He drove by the little thicket where Shinichi often came like a de behind hione after theical wards on Post-it Notes, he and Tyrone Alpert had pul ed out a bare, chewed feet past the thicket was to work his wheezing junk car up by stages, and it was actual y going over sixty when he flew by the thicket, evento hit the turn perfectly No trees fel on his

He whispered "Whoa,"in relief and headed for hoh Fel ’s Church was so horrible it glued his tongue to the top of his mouth It looked - this pretty, innocent little tohere he had grown up - as if it were one of those neighborhoods you saw on TV or on the Internet that had been bo And whether it was bombs or disasterous fires, one house in four was simply rubble A feere half-rubble, with police tape enclosing them, which h for the police to care - or dare

Around the burned-out bits the vegetation flourished strangely: a decorative bush frohbor’s grass Vines dipping from one tree to another, to another, as if this were soht in theblock of houses ful of kids - and in surandchildren inevitably came to visit, there were even more kids Matt just hoped that that part of summer vacation was donebut would Shinichi and Misao let the youngsters go home? Matt had no idea And, if they went ho the disease in their own hoh, Matt saw nothing hideous

There were kids playing out on the front lawns, or the sidewalks, crouching over le overt thing that he could put his finger on There was no single overt thing that he could put his finger on that eird

He was Stilluneasy But he’d reached his house now, the one with a grand old oak tree shading the porch, so he had to get out He coasted to a stop just under the tree and parked by the sidewalk He grabbed a large laundry bag fro dirty clothes for a couple of weeks at the boardinghouse and it hadn’t seeot out of the car, pul ing the bag out with hi stop

For aHe knew that so, cut short It e the s the raucous crows that lived in the oak trees, had gone silent

All at once

Matt felt a twisting in his bel y as he looked up and around

There were two kids in the oak tree right beside his car Hison to: Children

Playing Okay His body was s out a pad of Post-it Notes: the fliic cold

Matt hoped Meredith would remember to ask Isobel’slow, and

and there were two kids playing in the old oak tree Except they weren’t They were staring at hi upside down by his knees and the other was gobbling so at hiely acute eyes "Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be dead?"he asked

And now the head of the gobbling boy caht red - - blood Andwhatever was in the garbage bag was et away

A wave of nausea washed over Matt Acid hit his throat He was going to puke The gobbling kid was staring at hi

Then, as if stirred by a hot breath of wind, Matt felt the fine hairs on the back of his neck stand up It wasn’t just the birds that had gone quiet Everything had No child’s voice was raised in argu or speech

He whirled around and sahy They were staring at hi hi precision, as he turned back to look at the boys in the tree, al the others ca

They were creeping Lizard-fashion That’s why so within the saround, elbows up, hands like forepaws, knees splaying to the side

Now he could taste bile He looked the other way down the street and found another group creeping Grinning unnatural grins It was as if so therins al else Suddenly they’d stopped, and while he stared at the back at hiures out of the corner of his eye

He didn’t have enough Post-it Notes for al of them

You can’t run away from this It sounded like an outside voice in his head Telepathy But maybe that was because Matt’s head had turned into a roiling red cloud, floating upward

Fortunately, his body heard it and suddenly he was up on the back of his car, and had grabbed the hanging kid For a o of the boy The kid Stillstared at him but with eerie, uncanny eyes that were half rol ed back in his head Instead of dropping him, Matt slapped a Post-It Note on the boy’s forehead, swinging him at the same ti The kid must be fourteen at least, but about thirty seconds after the Ban Against Evil (pocket-size) was s real kid sobs

As one, the crawling kids let out a hiss It was like a giant steaan to breathe in and out very fast, as if working up to so slowed to a crawl But they were breathing so hard Matt could see their sides hol ow and fil

As Matt turned to look at one group of the But he could feel the ones behind hi in his ears He could fight a group of theroup on his back Some of thee

Soirls, for God’s sake Matt reirls had done the last time he’d met the up at the gobbling kid was going tosounds - and he could hear a thin little whistle of helpless pain and weak struggling against the bag

He whirled quickly again, to keep off the other side of crawlers, and thenfel ahen he grabbed it but the kid held on to as in -

Oha baby! A baby! A -

He yanked the kid out of the tree and his hand automatical y slapped a Post-It onto the boy’s back And then - then, thank God, he saw the fur It wasn’t a baby It was too smal to be a baby, even a newborn But it was eaten

The kid raised his bloody face to Matt’s, and Matt saw that it was Cole Reece, Cole as only thirteen and lived right next door Matt hadn’t even recognized him before

Cole’sout of his head with terror and sorrow, and tears and snot were strea down his face

"He made me eat Toby,"he started in a whisper that beca! He made me - hy did he do that? I ATE TOBY!"

He threw up al over Matt’s shoes Blood-red voht But this was the hardest thing he’d ever tried to do How to do it - a hard stomp on the creature’s head? He couldn’t He had to try so else first

Matt peeled off a Post-It Note and put it, trying not to look, on the fur And just like that it was over The guinea pig went slack The spel had undone whatever had been keeping it alive up to this point

There was blood and puke on Matt’s hands, but he ht and little choking sounds ca in Matt snapped

"You want so out the Post-it pad as if it were the revolver he’d left with Mrs Flowers He whirled again, shouting, "You want so faces now "You, Madison?

How ’bout you, Bryn? Bring it on! You all bring it on! BRING IT - "