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He tried it ten ave up and stepped out of the booth, and noticed so for the first time

Blood

Splattered on the inside of the door Blood, and bits of pink so--

Brains

--that he couldn’t identify

In that instant the whole sequence suddenly made sense John sat down in the cornfield and tried to think of a dozen ways to talk himself out of it The sah the heads of dozens and dozens of people inside those army barriers up ahead The families of those firemen, and the friends and coworkers of that reporter, and all of the other people who had died in an instant when everything went to shit: death was soers Extras in the background We don’t die They die

John lit a cigarette He finished it He climbed on board the dirt bike and said, out loud,

"All those fuckers are going to pay"

30 MINUTES EARLIER …

A half hour earlier, while Dave and John were still trudging across a cornfield after having e it hard to breathe Everybody on the bus was restless and nervous, bottled up in there with each other, cut off from the outside world The phones were dead Traffic had stopped--cars in front, cars behind She was sick orry and she had to pee so bad she didn’t know if she could actuallyto the back and sitting down again on a toilet

The bus driver got up and announced that he had gotten word over the radio that the highway had been shut down for the rest of the day and uys in the seats across the aisle scoffed They really wanted it to be zo center ahead, that traffic was being diverted there and that once there the passengers would have the option of arranging for other transportation, or reboarding the bus and taking it back through the stops in reverse order All A center and that those stores had bathroo another route into town If she had to walk, she’d walk She hadn’t brought walking shoes but it wasn’t that far She’d show up at David’s front door with cupcakes and show hi and try to peel clothes off of her Then they’d sit on his porch in the autu coffee from that Cuban place and they’d talk about … whatever this situation was, and laugh about the Internet dorks giddily whispering about zombies

The bus veered off onto the shoulder and rode it until the turn lane for the shopping center As soon as it rolled to a stop, Amy shakily headed for the nearest doorway She wasn’t even paying attention to what store she walked into, she just knew that on her dazed trip to the restroom, she passed a lot of televisions and cell phone kiosks and a gauntlet of , worried people She sat the cupcakes on a shelf outside the door because it see how your body affects your outlook on the world Using the bathroo some water on her face, it made all the difference in the world With that physical tension gone, the situation seemed so much less bleak She probably wouldn’t have to even make the hike into town, surely there had to be another route--one of those gravel back roads that looped around the cornfields if nothing else--then find so that way She wasn’t sure why the bus didn’t just take one of the the rabbed her cupcakes and caught a neeird vibe in the store Everybody was standing and gawking in the saaze and saw they atching Best Buy’s rows of huge TVs, all of which were tuned to the local news It cut to the anchor, who said a curse word she had never heard used on the news before, and his co-anchor leaned over and started gagging

What in the world?

A on, but then she noticed so on their phone and pulled out hers Ah, service was back She dialed and--

"Amy! Can you hear me?"

"Yes!"

"Did you hear the news?"

"Yes, David--"

"Listen to ot out of town Noe may have to coo back to town because--"

"David Stop talking Did you not get any of --"

"Shit!"

The phone cut out