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"S’up to the boss," the guard said, tipping coffee into a cauard’s lower lip Exhaling a gray jet, he sipped, sighed, pulled in another drag, and said, in a strangled voice, "Wouldn’t h"

"So we’re at Rule?" Luke waved away fus and get over it already This particular old guard sported a ratty e "Are we staying here? What about the kids in Rule?’

"You ask too , the uard hooked a thumb under the carry strap of his Uzi "If I was you kids," he said, sauntering toward a uards, all of theet soht in about an hour"

From his place opposite Luke, Chad hing, he stirred a stea MRE, listlessly chewed a mouthful of macaroni and cheese, then dropped the spoon into the pouch "Stooing to finish that?" "How can you eat?" Cindi asked

"I’e ed by cheesy noodles "This has to be it I estured with the spoon to a large stainless-steel ani eons "Even those guys"

"So if this is Rule," Cindi said, "and those kids are still there, ill they do with us now? Do you think they’llthat they ht"

"No," Luke said, and put both arh, like Finn’s guys would have to get through him first, but the words just wouldn’t come

"But we should make a uards, then leaned closer "We’re the three oldest There’s four of them, three of us"

"Hey," Jasper said around a " Chad rolled his eyes "If we can get guns"

"Yeah, well, if is a pretty big word right now," Luke said

"But we’re just sitting here"

"I don’t see that we can do anything else"

"I agree with Chad" When Luke looked down at her, Cindi continued in a whisper, "Except for those guards, everyone else is gone We’ll probably never have a better shot"

"And go where, Cindi?" Luke asked

"Anywhere Luke, we could raid the supply wagons, grab soo"

"Cindi, we have thirty kids Us three and a couple other guys can handle a gun, and that’s it Hoould we move everyone and all the stuff we need? We can’t outrun Finn"

"But I don’t like waiting around for Finn to decide what happens next" Chad jerked his head at the transport cage "You want to end up in one of those?"

"No, I don’t," Luke said to Chad "But staying alive beats dying"

"Not if we end up like Peter," Jasper said

After five days with Finn and his weird Chuckies, ere exactly like the girl Too, Luke had a queasy sense of as in store

Peter was too old to be a Chucky, older than To red, and God, he ate what the Chuckies did: thawed slabs of frozen oldsters stacked like cordwood in a special Chucky chuck wagon Which ured someone fed those Chuckies in white Only it hadn’t worked on Peter, who spent half his tio--and the other half trying to get at Finn Sometimes Finn hurt him pretty bad Never laid a hand on Peter, but , a couple seconds with Finn and that creepy Davey, who followed Finn everywhere like a dog, and Peter washis head

"It’s like he hears soaze away froe, Cindi said, "You know? When Peter starts up with the let o stuff ? But how? He’s onlyhalf a Chucky, you know?"

"But crazy," Chad said "Not all the tio, that usually starts up whenever Finn ht telepathy" Sing the last of the mac and cheese, Jasper licked the plastic spoon "At least, not like the "

"What else could it be? You were at the barn" What had happened when Finn’s Chuckies descended on their ca left and the rest like a ht Then, the Chuckies had donenothing Only waited, staring, their concentration utterly complete It was so quiet that Luke could hear the crackle of the fire and the jangle of hardware as horses tossed their heads It was the weirdest thing, but Luke sensed that the Chuckies were beingheld back? Yes, they’d wanted hiered after was all those juicy kids huddled in the barn

But they weren’t allowed They were likepuppets? That wasn’t quite right It was as if so or someone held them back on invisible leashes: this far and no farther