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"Benny!" cried Nix in a fierce whisper "What are you doing?"
He jerked to a stop by the gas pu toward hi toward Benny You’re going to get Nix killed He didn’t need his inner voice to tell hi to close in Nix tensed to run
"Nix--stop!" Benny hissed "Just stop Stand still"
Nix looked absolutely terrified as all around her hungryher "Benny …"
"Shhh," he soothed, the sound as soft as a whisper, and then mouthed the words, "Keep perfectly still" If she stopped , would the cadaverine do its job? Would the zo to work Milling zoed shreds of their clothes brushing her like insect wings in the dark Nix shivered The wooden sword in her hands trean to raise the sword
No! Benny almost screamed it aloud, but he clamped his control into place It’s your fault she’s in trouble Be smart … find a way
Benny nodded, but in truth he was at the threshold of panic One wild idea after another flashed through his mind, and he slapped each one away Brash heroics, a suicidal charge … plans that were filled with roic sacrifice, but e The place The ti with the breeze, swaying, beco part of theyou need You have tools You have resources
He wanted to tell the inner voice to shut the hell up and let him think Charlie Pink-eye was back there soht now Or at Nix Don’t make assumptions See only what is there
He took one hand off the bokken and slowly, lightly patted his pockets His fingers touched the re bottles of cadaverine Should he use those? Wouldshape that rattled softly Use what you have Benny suddenly had an idea It was a crazy, insanely dangerous idea Around hias station, toward hi so badly that her bokken was visibly shaking A couple of zorabbed it and pulled Nix began to resist, but Benny shook his head and estion, but her small hands opened and the zom tore the wooden sword away fro it like an ear of corn, and bit down on it There was a crunch and a crack and the zombie snarled and cast the sword away, one of its teeth still buried in the hardwood
Moving in ultra slow-motion, Benny slid his free hand into the front pocket of his jeans The cadaverine bottles clinked, and then he found the oblong box he was looking for It was made of stiff paper, and it rattled dryly as he removed it
The zom closest to him turned sharply and peered at him with dust-covered eyes Benny wondered how it could see with dead eyes Another ht would never be solved Don’t waste ti
The zom moaned
Benny moaned back and shuffled a few feet to the left The zoo The dead could not show confusion on their slack faces, but Benny could almost feel the creature’s conflict The i was at ith the stench of decay It swayed there in indecision as Benny took another shuffling sideways step The gray eyes never left Benny’s face
Hurry Moving with infinite slowness, Benny thumbed open the little cardboard box Twenty-five pale stick ht rows He used his thumbnail to separate one of them He was about to close the box when his inner voice hissed at hi hi?
The carpet coat was hot, but ice-cold sweat ran in rivulets down the back of Benny’s shirt His heart was pounding so hard he could not understand why it didn’t sound like a bass druhtly and saw that Nix was still there, and he wondered how much time had just passed Was it three seconds? Ten? An hour? Or no ti felt real
Hurry!
He paused, then placed the first match between his teeth and removed another He thuers, exposing a dark strip on one side The matches were of the "storm" kind, coated ax to keep the in rain or wind
"God … let this work!" He said it aloud, and he said it too loud The watching zo The abruptness of its movements made the creatures around it twitch and turn and move in Benny’s direction Had they focused on hi the first one?
There was no tiainst the strike board and flicked his wrist The fire was small, but in the darkness of the field it flared like a tiny sun The snap of ignition and the hiss as the flaly loud
"No!" Nix cried, and some of the zoms turned toward her
But many,the match out in front of hiht revealed the full horror of the moment Hundreds of white faces had turned toward the sound and the flare of light Their awful rabbed his are force on his wrist Two others closed on hirabbed at his other arm Teeth closed around his forearm The pain was instant and terrible
Benny bit down on a screa hi dead He kicked out with all his force, catching the closest zo away It lost its hold on his wrist, but i for the prize
Now! NOW!
Benny tore himself free of the other zoms and darted forward as the zoht that the o out It puffed and flickered in the breeze He had the stick of the other clamped between his teeth just in case The zom reached for hi the match into the tattered folds of its clothes In a flash the dry shreds of tie and suit jacket caught and flarunt of effort powered by rage and fear, Benny shoved the burning zo in They were all dry as kindling, and fire leaped fro speed, sparks carried by the night wind
Within seconds a half-dozen zoiant candles They did not beat at the fla to Benny Sonorant of pain than if they shrieked and howled, though he could not grasp why It was unnatural and wrong in more ways that he could count
He whipped the other match from between his teeth and lit it as another wave of zoms closed in on hi hands and jabbed the own, the folds of a loose cardigan, the ripped streamers of a halter top, the coattails of a waiter’s jacket The ers, and he dropped it
"BENNY!" He heard Nix’s piercing cry and whirled to see flames shoot up behind him It took him a numb second to understand how the fire could have jumped that far, and then he realized Nix had seen what he was doing, and she--beautiful, brilliant, and brave as he knew she was--had done the sahed out loud She ducked and snatched up her fallen sword and used it to fend off a burning zo with all the force he possessed, hitting a burning zom on the side of the neck so hard that he felt the shock through his wrist as the creature’s neck snapped The zoht fire A wall of heat slah died in his throat<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>