Page 29 (1/2)

So what in hell a to do now? Weller skimmed a hand over his forehead and was not at all surprised that the pally business was out of control It had changed to sootten clear as soon as the mine went Just picked up and left For God’s sake, hadn’t he already avenged Mandy? Peter was dead, and Rule couldn’t be far behind, ith their precious little Chuckies well on their way hoh for hie, and then there wasEnd Times Revelations And I don’t even believe in that crap

Should he fight this? Try to do so? Did he even have to? Sure, he could take a chance, soldier to soldier, and tell Toht Tom was on the brink, had been for a while, and there was no way to predict what the boy’s reactionto come clean wouldn’t help anyone, and he wasn’t even sure, exactly, of the bigger picture here or as going on All he had were bits and pieces, suppositions and suspicions So, would it be better to get out nohile he still had the chance? Build himself a new life someplace where he wasn’t knohat ti out in life There’s Toot them into this No doubt Mellie saw the kids as expendable, too But Weller just didn’t knohat he should do, as safest and which the lesser evil

To in the dark of his ht When Weller looked back, To into the clean, deep, chilling blue of Superior

"What?" Weller asked

"Zombies," Tom said, very clearly "We called them zombies"

PART THREE:

BREAKING POINT

39

Ten days after the avalanche, in the first week of March, Alex staggered froe of a tumbledown cabin just off a nondescript fire road somewhere west of the ht it est-southwest After days on the trail, she had a lot on herfood before she becae knot on the back of her head She didn’t need aunder her left cheek where Acne had clobbered her not so long ago God, the kid’s fist had felt like the business end of a pile driver

She was headed toward the shed--and that weird mound she’d seen earlier--but halfway there, she either fell or tripped, she wasn’t sure Blundering through snow, her boots probably tangled When she hit, she let herself sink, really dig in so the cold could start its work of burning her skin, scorching its way through her brain Maybe reduce the monster to a cinder

God, please Please, help ive in Got to stay an to swi a snail’s path through snow, heading for a dilapidated shed next to a curtain of corroded chicken wire, sucking air through a windpipe that felt as if it had been slashed by razor wire Another few seconds with his hands around her neck and Acne would’ve crushed her throat

On her knees now before that h and reared on the shed’s south side, where there was the ood ten seconds,as thirty A loamy aroma steamed from the rich, dark earth The sed on so over a white patch

Don’t think, Alex She eyed another tiny black scuttle Fight, you’ve got to fight Just do it

Because things were bad Really, really bad