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There was no transition at all Despite how much had happened, less than three o So there was a lot of gunfire and people were still shrieking The crack of one gun was nothing new, althoughwas that To clubbed her, very hard, in the back She saw Wolf flinch Fire licked her chest For that dead space between heartbeats, she and Wolf only stared at each other She still heard gunfire, but it was so different No cracks or heavy bangs Only a s folded There was the dark, waiting below, but only that It was Blackrocks again

Except this time, it was the water--cold and deep--that jumped for her

Alex probably never heard There was so nu’s rifle What was left of Mellie tu forward as Chris forced Night to follow

Aardly cradling Alex in his ar to a stand as that huge dog snarled but dared not strike Alex was tall, a handful for anyone, and li white swan of her neck dropping back Froht’s saddle, Chris could see where the shot plowed into her back because of the red starburst halfway down her right chest where the bullet cored through When her chest struggled up, Chris heard a horrible, sudden cawing sound, like the croak of a dying crow

Penny was already trying to back away When Si, he took a half step back as if to turn and try to run But then his eyes ticked up to Chris, and Siht--bleached white

"Please," To He held out his arive her tohad dismounted and already come up with Chris’s Uzi, which he trained on Sio"

"I know" For that second, Chris saw, in Si over his cheeks, not a Changed but a boy struggling hat he wished for versus what he could have "Si his arh his friend was very heavy, his was a weight Chris could bear "She belongs with us"

At that, Simon took a clu Alex into his ar broke froun," Toet on your horse, and let’s go, no"

"What?" Greg’s head jerked to Chris "Chris, I know he’s got to be your brother, but this is like Lena He’s still--"

"Do it" Chris looked down at Si held out the Uzi the way you’d offer a python a snack As soon as Si dropped the weapon and sprinted back to his horse "Run, Siet out, take Penny, and run--"

"Come on!" Toainst his chest, in his arms She was still as death, and Chris couldn’t tell if she was breathing anyallop "Forty seconds, go, go!"

"Run, Si the blood bay around, spurring Night to a dead run, giving the horse his head "Go, Night, go, Night, go!"

Forty seconds They blasted past a knot of feeding Changed, the newly dead, and those ould join the in his head: thirty-nine-one-thousand, thirty-eight-one-thousand, thirty-seven--

He made it to thirty

The end caht the end of the world should have been: not the silence of the EMPs and the screa roar, like the detonation of a neutron bo BAH-BAH-BAH-ROOOM Captured by buildings and reflected off stone, the sound was enor whoosh The s of the houses on this block suddenly shattered as the pressure wave barreled past and tried scooping hiround shuddered so violently he felt the shiver in his spine, saw it in the cascading showers of residual snow shaken loose frole" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>