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"And I am," Jason said "But I don’t want to lose my only faripped his hand over the back of her seat tightly "I’ll not lose it again I’ll be strong"

Katie pushed her sunglasses up on her nose and sighed with relief "We just can’t let our emotions rule us We just can’t We have to keep calm"

She could see out of her peripheral vision that both of thehtness in her belly lessened, but her hands still felt shaky inside

Glancing at the fuel gauge she exhaled slowly It was going to be tight

No deviations

No detours

Straight on

To safety

To their new home

And then…

The truck crested a hill and for a moment Katie couldn’t draw a breath

"Fuck," Jason blurted out

"No," Jenni whispered in horror

"Gawdda full speed was the enor down the next hill, rushing toward them It had to be the same crowd that had pursued the people, adults, all bloodied, all chewed up, all screa as they raced down in an enormous crowd that filled the narrow faran to sob "No, no, no"

Katie pounded her fist on the steering wheel "They fucking followed us

They fucking followed us!"

"What are we going to do?" Jason asked, his voice edged with panic

Jack began to bark

Katie grabbed the CB "Ralph, Nerit…we have a situation"

"What’s wrong?" Nerit’s voice said caled orry

"There was a shitload of zoh the town Evidently, they kept running after us in the direction we had gone Right now, they are about aroad all the way into the trees"

"Can you gun it and get through them?" Ralph’s voice asked

Katie looked at Jenni and Jason They both looked afraid, they both looked desperate, but they all knew the truth

"No We can’t Too ht flip us" Katie rubbed the back of her hand over her mouth and tried to s Her mouth was so dry "We have to…we have to turn around"

"Katie…" Ralph’s voice was soft

"Sorry, Ralph," her voice caught, "anted to make it back"

"Turn around Go to FM 1226 Keep out of their sight They’ll keep going straight on hopefully Take FM 1226 to CR 1113 That’ll bring you back here," another voice said

Probably the cop

There was soas…"

"…drive out to the it," Katie finally said, then handed off thefast She could see they were desperate to get to the truck, roll it, break it apart, and eat ithin A few in the front stuht of those behind

Katie reversed, swung the truck around, and aimed back in the direction they had come, and floored it

"Pray for us," Jenni said into the …until you can’t no et you," Ralph said

Katie’s eyes flicked to the rear viewthe hill behind theas pedal to the floor