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John glanced around, half expecting to see a disheveled Dave pulling hi, his hairlike he’d just been shit out of a dinosaur He wasn’t there, of course, and wouldn’t ever be there again John io back to sleep on the floor

Wait Whose floor? Where the hell was he? John had told Amy on the phone that he was back at the motel, but that was because he didn’t want to admit that he didn’t actually know He was in somebody’s basement There was a full bar down here Maybe a frat house? He was close to ca down here and watching round-the-clock apocalypse coverage on their sixty-inch TV, then someone introduced him to the modern wonder that was the Irish Car Bo he knew, his cell phone was shooting noise bullets into his temple and the clock said afternoon John surveyed the floor around hiotten drunk with the basketball team, apparently

John stu for his shoes He never found theuys there He put on a pair of Nikes he found by the door that were downright huge--seemed to be size 18 or so They looked newer than his own but he figured he could catch up with the guy later to see if he wanted to trade back Some people like shoes that are a littleat the wall and that so it Brain was still trying to boot up, loading all of the extra shit into the task bar Finally heto do so rash if he wasn’t there to calm her down He hit the cold air and found the Bronco parked haphazardly across the lawn John cursed when he saw some jackass had spray painted ZOMBIE ASSAULT VEHICLE on the door, but then recognized it as his own handwriting

He pulled out and saw the dor ahead He actually wasn’t more than five or six blocks away from Amy’s bus stop at the Mexican place Awesome He let the Bronco idle for a bit so the heater would have tih, but instead of a bus, pulled up to it were four less, black vans Yellow tape roped off the whole sidewalk and the parking lot beyond Guys in black space suits were prowling everywhere

Aht

John stopped right in the middle of the street, threw open the door off the Bronco and ran to the first van He yanked open the back door

"AMY! HEY!"

Nobody there He ran to the second one Before he could get it open, two of the space suit guys grabbed hi contaed John away froood look at what they earing and it was fucking terrifying The glass on their hellinted blood red They had ar around like they were on the way to fight a war on Mars

A third space suit guy came up to them and said, "What, is he family?"

John said, "Yes! I’m Amy Sullivan’s … dad"

"Sir, do you know--"

"Listen! I’ot it all over Look at uy said to his coworkers, "Okay, see if you can get ID and let him ride with Otto"

For the second time in nine days, John’s hands were bound with the heavy-duty zip tie handcuffs He was stuffed into the third van, but Amy wasn’t in there, either Twenty minutes later it jolted to a start, and he knew that he and Amy would be in Undisclosed in a little over two hours He had that much time to think up a plan

45 MINUTES EARLIER …

Forty-five et hauled away in a van …

Aovernun cases and ar? The sight of these regular people wandering around with all that hardware scared herfell apart and civilization ca over food andShe didn’t have strong friends She didn’t have a family The closest she had was David, and what if he was hurt or--

"Excuse uy in a ju Instead it was a hipster-looking guy with a beard and glasses and wearing a black peacoat

"A into each other We sat across from each other on the bus on Z Day Remember? Then I come back and it turns out you live on the floor below ht it up He was a nice-looking guy but he also looked exactly like seven hundred other guys on calasses