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A dozen people ca and Morgie ith therass covered with blood, they stopped and froze in place Nix stood apart, her bokken in her hands, winded and terrified but looking unharmed Everyone looked at her for a second, and then all eyes snapped back to stare at Benny

Benny started to get up, but suddenly Lilah was there and she had a glittering dagger in her hand Before Benny could speak Lilah crouched over hie of the blade beneath his chin Benny froze

"Lilah!" growled Tom

"Look at his shoulder! He’s been bitten," she snapped back

"No …," Benny croaked "No!" cried Nix

Tom handed Mrs Houser off to Captain Strunk and two other ed and bound her with practiced ease, though their faces were twisted into masks of fear and revulsion Toer

"No," he saidfrom her to Benny and back "If he’s bitten, then it’s et bitten," Benny insisted, but no one see attention to him

Lilah had eyes the color of honey, but at that ht they looked as cold as ice There was no trace of compassion or humanity on her face All he could see was the hunter, the loner The legendary Lost Girl who had killed humans as well as zo iron against his skin

Then it was gone, and she stepped back

"Be sure," she said to Torass, ht with the zory, and she ie crept closer until he was shoulder to shoulder with Nix; after a slight hesitation, so did Chong Their bodies for stare, as if she was sizing the how et past theet bit," he yelled To prove it he pulled off his shirt and flung it on the grass at Lilah’s feet Anger was rising in hi his terror inch by inch "See?"

"I see," was all Lilah said She lowered her knife and turned away Everyone watched as she walked over to the porch, mounted the steps, and without a pause drove the tip of the blade into the back of Big Zak’s skull Unlike Benny, she did not , pale and shaken

Tom bent and picked up Benny’s shirt, examined the bite hole on the shoulder, and handed it back to him "You sure you’re okay?"

Benny looked over to the porch, where Big Zak lay sprawled a few feet froe as Benny A friend once A victi his head slowly as he turned away, "but I’m a billion ht the United States Census Bureau estimated that there were 6,922,000,000 people alive on planet Earth

Tom said that news reports claimed that more than two billion people died in the first two days after First Night

By the tilobal death toll were at four billion and cliht more than six billion people died Most people think the whole rest of the world is dead

We know that the total population of the nine towns here in central California is 28,261 as of last New Year’s census

9

THEY ALL SAT ON THE PICNIC TABLE IN BENNY’S YARD, DRINKING COLD TEA and eating enormous slices of apple pie with raisins and walnuts in it The sun was a golden ball in a flawless blue sky, and birds chattered in the trees However, this rahten thearound therass She had not spoken a single word since the confrontation in Zak’s yard No one had, except for so of Tom’s apple pie Benny nibbled at his, but he had no appetite Neither did Nix, though she poked angrily at the dessert until it was a ie ate theirs, though Chong see on autopilot, his eyes focused on Lilah’s stern but beautiful profile

Tory and unhappy

"What happened back there?" Benny finally asked "With Danny and Zak … and …"

Tohed and ran his hands over his face "It was Grandpa Houser Looks like he died sitting on the living rooht he was asleep Maybe she tried to shake him awake and he reaniet away Or et help The twins said that they were out with their dad allZak to help her Not sure what happened next There’s a lot of blood in the kitchen, so it looked like maybe Grandpa attacked them when they caht Zak must have been bitten there and ran home I looked inside their house too There was a lot of blood in the dining room, so Zak must have bled out there, and when he reanimated …"

"… he attacked his dad," Benny said

To his suspicions that Big Zak had been knocking Zak around, but there didn’t see in his mind What if Zak had been bitten--by Mrs Houser or Grandpa Houser--and, knowing that he was infected, had gone home to make sure that here he’d be when he died and reanimated? Would Zak have done that as a twisted way to pay back the abuse?

Nix reached over and gave his knee a squeeze; and when Benny looked at her he saw a coave him a sad little smile, and he wondered, not for the first tihts Or feel what he felt What did they call that? Empathy? Benny was pretty sure that was the word

"This really sucks," said Morgie "Danny and his folks Man …"

"Zak, too," said Chong

Morgie gave him a hard look "We’re better off without any of the Matthias fa Zak’s head--"

Nix whirled and grabbed a sie’s shirt "Shut up!" she said fiercely

"Hey! What’s your probleers off "You should be throwing a party Your mom died because of Zak and his whole loser faot et you h to--"

"Shut up" Nix’s voice was as cold as ice "Zak didn’t knohat Charlie would do when he told hiie sneered "Yeah? And how do you know that? Did you ask him? Did you ever ask him why he told Charlie at all? How do you know that Charlie didn’t tell hi, but her eyes were green fire

"How do you know that Zak wasn’t a part of all of it?" Morgie continued "Toe to be bounty hunters Maybe Charlie was teaching Zak Maybe Charlie told Zak all about Gameland and the Z-Games and all of it You don’t knohat Zak knew He could have been as guilty as Charlie and the Ha her to cry or punch Morgie or do soo of Morgie’s shirt