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"Guy’s lying," said Benny

Morgie brightened "What? He has so

"I kinda hate you guys"

"He’s going to start crying," Chong said to Benny in a stage whisper

"He’s going to e to do," said Morgie, "is start kicking your asses"

"Eek," said Chong through a yawn

Benny pretended to scratch his ankle, but then he moved his sneaker, and there were four packs of Zombie Cards in a neat stack, the waxed-paper wrappers still sealed Morgie rins on his friends’ faces

"I still hate you," he said as he tore open the first pack

"And yet," said Chong, "we’ll find a way to pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and struggle on"

Morgie h the cards

Zombie Cards were one of the few luxuries the boys could afford In the next town--fortythe line ofbusiness All hand-crank stuff, because no one trusted electricity anyet it to work

The printers did it old school Offset printing in four colors, and they did a quality job The Zombie Cards were printed on heavy card stock, ten cards to a pack On the front of each card was a portrait of fa, Dr Skillz, Sally Two-knives, or the Mekong brothers; heroes of First Night, like Big Mike Sweeney, Billy Christer; someone from the zombie war, like the Historian or the Helicopter Pilot; fa, or the Monk; or random cards of famous people who had become zoms On the back of each card was a short bio and the name of the artist Benny’s favorite card was of Ben, a tall African A a torch at a swaret past him to attack a blond woe was based on "an eyewitness account of a valiant but tragically futile struggle against zoms in Pennsylvania" The artist had captured the nobility of the man with the torch and had , an effect enhanced by the stark shadows and light fro flame It was one of the rarest cards, and Benny was the only one of his friends who had it He also had a co Charlie Matthias and the Motor City Hammer He still liked Charlie and the Hammer, but as much as he denied it to himself, reserve bubbled inside hih his collection, looking for the three bounty hunters he’d seen in the Ruin, but they weren’t there It reinforced Benny’s belief that their actions were not in any way typical of the bounty hunters Benny knew personally To to his friends about what Tolance at Zak, who sat on the store’s porch, fanning through the dozen packs of cards he’d bought Zak saw hie sed, absorbed in his memories of the Ruin So far he’d only told Nix, and he hadn’t seen her since she’d left the garden the day before Her absence was like an eut, but he refused to think about it

Chong had the largest collection of Zombie Cards, mostly because he had two cousins who collected theood-size set Nix only had a few She was poor and wouldn’t take handouts, although if Benny gave her his doubles, she always accepted

"Are you going to save any for Nix?" Chong asked as Morgie tore open his second pack

"Why?" Morgie asked absently as he peered at the writing on the back of a card that showed a police officer in San Antonio, firing at zoh a knot of theures were tiny on the card, but the action was explosive, and Morgie was totally absorbed by it

Chong and Benny exchanged a look over his bowed head, then shrugged Morgie could be as dense as a mud wall sometimes

They opened all of their packs of cards and sat in the shade of the porch, organizing the doubles with one another, bragging about cards they had and that the others didn’t Benny smiled and joked and chatted with the others, but as he sorted through the cards, he could feel how false and fragile his smile was He wanted to feel the way he used to feel, and hated that he had to fake it

"Hey, you even listening?" Morgie asked, and Benny turned to hi the question as if it were an echo but not re what he was asked

"What?"

"Joe Attentive,"

"I asked, what’s with you and Nix?"

"Nix?" Benny tensed "What about me and Nix?"

"She was over your house every day this week, and now she’s not hanging around with us She hasn’t ie wore a smile, but it went about a ive a nonchalant shrug "No, it’s cool She was just being a friend"

"What kind of friend?"

"Just a friend, Morgie" But Benny could see that ansasn’t going to cut it He sighed "Look, we all know Nix has a thing fornews flash I don’t have a thing for Nix, and the reason you haven’t seen her around the last two days is that I think she knows it, and her feelings are hurt I’m sorry, but there it is So, if you want to ood ti up fro The others looked at hiht about now She could use a friend, but what she doesn’t need is so her like a horny dog"

"What are you saying?" said Morgie, eyes narrowed