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What are we doing? They were developing weapons just to do it, Mellie setting the the Would they still be living out of tents? Broken-down barns? How long did disasters go on?

"We need to find a holanced up frouisher "What?"

"Nothing" Tasting home hurt hisa knee against a sawhorse

"You okay?" Jasper asked

"Yeah" Knee throbbing, he giuishers until I get back, okay?"

"I wouldn’t," Jasper said, with the injured dignity of a kid eyeing a cookie jar "What about potassiuuishers?"

"Wouldn’t the chloride turn into chlorine gas? Won’t that kill you pretty fast?"

He watched Jasper think about it "Oh Maybe" Jasper o "Reality blows"

He took his ti out grief had been his older sister’s specialty By the tiot around to him, either she’d worn theetting all worked up about kids was like worrying about dropped pacifiers: the first kid, you sterilized that sucker; the second kid, you wiped the Binky on your jeans And by the third, you let the dog lick it

That brought a grin His mom always cracked hi Cindi was good at was telling stories, , too, because she made it sound like a once-upon-a-ti stories and toasting ht pushed a lump into his throat At the fars were still roughhousing, although a fourth was pointed east, nosing the knoll, and yark-yark-yarking Now that he was up higher, Luke could easily eyeball the fields beyond the horse barn and the lookouts, black specks on a distant knoll

We need a home He studied their tent city and the kids at their chores, the orange candle of that bonfire A place to call our own

The farmhouse, a two-story with dor with the black and red tag of a teabag draped over the lip sat on the table, and a chair was pushed back The air s? Uncertain now, he stood around level, but he had no idea if Mellie used the other back bedrooms

He opened his ’s yark-yark-yark wasnow This seriously creepy vibe suddenly tickled his neck, like the day he snuck into his parents’ bedroos Like, s like that? He kept expecting his dad to pop out of a closet For weeks, whenever his dad put an arm around his mom, Luke broke into a sweat

This was like that He was so he had no business seeing, not if he kneas good--

From down the hall caid After a ain: click Pause Click-click-click Pause Click-click-click

Luke’s heart skipped He , but he understood what this was

Code

92

When he spotted the blood, Toet under cover, and wait This went against every iht now But it was the same as it had been in Jed’s shed when the bounty hunters came: panic, and everyone died So, instead, he and Weller crept in gradually, ducking behind and under what scant cover they had

The church’s front doors were ajar, an open invitation they took, Weller sweeping low as he angled high because everyone forgot to look up The church’s interior was deeply shadoith dark corners fro To the pews for trip wires, a curl of det cord But there was nothing