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Finally, the vehicle banged to a stop

Silence Only a soft chittering over the desert breeze And then came the voices

CHAPTER 6

Meet Dr Marconi

THAT SUCKED I priedscratchy little bits in there that could either be sand or glass I worked the lids open and found ing by le joint in ony from head to toe, so dark now that it tookpool down on the ceiling was not motor oil, but blood

I cranedoff what had been Officer Freeed pink-and-yellow layers, bone and ribs and a spongy s Out froaround the interior of the truck like rice in a blender

That’s not what causedsounds next toat the seat belt clasp, was the sound of the swarh my ears at all but a kind of shrill electricity inaround ine fifty thousand men trapped on a desert island, deprived of food and water and sex but somehow kept alive for fifty thousand years Then, after they’ve been tormented a hundred steps beyond insanity, tortured past self-mutilation and cannibalism, somebody drops off a sculpture of a naked woman made from T-bone steaks If you could then capture the sound of the her to shreds and broadcast it into the center of your skull at ten thousand watts, it would still sound absolutely nothing like what I heard It was one supernova, screeches and howls and, sprinkled in here and there, ht out ofaround for the clasp to the seat belt with hands shaking like a Parkinson’s patient I could vaguely hear actual screaht as well have been a thousandaround ot ers around the little plastic box that held the seat belt but couldn’t find a button, couldn’t see it, pressed and pulled and finally just started clawing at the thing like a little kid in a tantru over my bare arms, and then little pricks like needles and I knehat it was, I fucking knew, and I started contortingfrom a trap

Move in the backseat

So

I ran my hand over my forearm and a thousand of the rods scattered off into the air I heard a resulting uproar in the voices, shrieks like teenage banshees at a boy band concert, except nothing like that at all The sound--it was so massive and yet so coainstfissures in the bone

Then, hands were grabbingat the seat belt A hand came into view and with a flick there was suddenly a narrow blade there, a switchblade cutting at the strap I fell free, crashed down Four hands were dragging e by the shirt and shoulders, lass bits

It was Fred Chu and John, pullingout Molly was dancing around and barking--total panic at the sight of the little cloud of white insects blowing around ain and were landing on my neck and face I brushed them off, swatted at the out the brown bottle of alcohol from his pants and doused the ars , andtheir way in I sputtered, "That ain’t helping! The alcohol isn’t hurting th--"

John flicked his lighter and set my arm on fire

I said before thatconfronted so soon after that senti was nothing likeon fire

But even the white heat onnext to the pain that suddenly erupted inside my skull Hundreds of the wor ine It was a nuclear bo like an explosion of razor blades inout the fla in places

I sat up, tried to focus et to my feet, fell back down ondown his forehead and he was trying to wipe it from his eyes, the empty liquor bottle at his feet He leaned over and puked Jennifer was on her knees in the dirt, had a chunk h and her hair wasJi

Fred

Screa around as if on fire

The swar worms poured out of the wrecked SUV like a kicked hornet’s nest All landed on Fred

He was coughing, choking, the rods gushing into his wide-open mouth In five seconds it was over

Fred collapsed

We all kneasn’t dead Jim and John and Molly stared toward Fred in dull shock, a silence settling over the scene so heavy it was al

Only Jennifer moved She sprinted toward the dead SUV, a little squirt of blood jurabbed so, then backed out quickly