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"NO!" Benny yelled, and backed away Pale hands grabbed his ankles and held him as Tom took one unsteady step toward hiain and kicked his way free just as Toers brushed his face Benny ran as ash drifted down fro trees

"NIX!" he cried, but still his voice had no volume No power

There was movement and color off to his left, a flash of red, and Benny cut that way He saw Morgie Mitchell sitting cross-legged on the hood of a burned-out car, his face screwed up with concentration as he tried to repair the broken pieces of his father’s fishing rod Lying sluure covered with bright red blood

Chong!

Benny hurried to hiure out where his friend was hurt "Chong! Chong … can you hear ’s eyelids fluttered and slowly opened There was still life in his eyes, a wet glian speaking very slowly and softly, and Benny had to bend close to hear

"Everything out here wants to kill you, Benny," Chong said

"Chong! Where are you hurt?"

Chong lifted a hand, and with one bloody finger he tapped his te in here works any slu fro hih the dirt and clamped around his wrists

"No!" Benny bellowed, and he twisted and kicked and bit the fingers until they broke apart and became hot ash He spat out the ashes and scra toward hiie said without looking up froonna die out here"

"Where’s Nix?" Benny deie looked up Instead of eyes he had two eonna die too, Benny … and it’s your fault"

Anger and revulsion warred in Benny’s heart, but he backed away Suddenly hands grabbed him Not the cold hands of the buried dead, but two small, warm hands They touched his back, then his shoulders, and finally the sides of his face Benny turned slowly, gratitude and relief flooding his heart

"Nix … God! Where were you?"

His voice trailed away Nix Riley was a withered thing Her red hair hung like lis from a scalp that was patchy and blotched Her skin was leached of color and there were clear signs of bites on her cheeks and shoulders and arreen eyes … rong They were a diseased confusion of green and gold and black The effect was dreadful, the eyes of a thing rather than a girl

"Benny," she said, and then she sed teeth "Kiss me"

• • •

Benny screa, his body drenched in sweat Cold starlight filtered through the leaves, casting the world into a blue-white strangeness, as alien as the dreams-cape from which he’d just escaped

Benny turned to Nix, surprised that his scream hadn’t startled her awake Or had the screaently shake her

But her skin was as cold as ice

"W-what … ?" Benny’s voice was hollow and brittle

He turned her over and she idity of rigorto find her pulse, needing to find at least the thread of it All he found was slack skin beneath which nothing rabbed her and pulled her to hi like volcanic lava in his chest How could this be? Hoas it possible? Was it the cut on her face? No … that was just a cut Had she been bitten? Where? When?

And that fast he knew the answer On the field In the dark As the fire raged and the s ht, maybe Nix hadn’t known Or maybe she had and didn’t dare tell him

She was like a block of ice in his arain It was impossible The world could not allow this It could not be true

Nix stayed cold and dead in his ar at her, his splinteringfor that last bit of hope Please … let her be okay! Maybe she’s just sick Please … please … please!

Nix Riley opened her eyes

They were the green and gold diseased eyes of a zoed at him

44

AND HE WOKE UP

The forest was as black as death The crickets pulsed and the night owls hooted The girl in his arms was a soft, warm reality

Benny Imura held her His heart ha with his tears

"Nix," he said gently She led against hi her Benny did not sleep again the rest of the night

He did not dare

45

TOM IMURA WAS UP LONG BEFORE DAWN HE FIXED A QUICK MEAL FOR himself and Sally, refilled their canteens froo by the tiuish shadows froer to cli and had her fill of water, she looked and sounded ht before "You’ll live," Toentle hu the knife wound beneath the bandage "So have you"

He shrugged "Fact of life"

Sally reached out a hand "Help me up"

He did They were both very careful about it, and Sally ed the process with a lot of curses and coainst one of the rocks that for"

"You shouldn’t be up"

"Can’t stay here Besides, my horse is out there so a horse with a stab wound is--"

"--going to hurt, no kidding Better than walking"

"You should try and rest for most of the--"

"Don’t even try, Tom It’s kind of you to be nice to a lady--if we can suspend disbelief long enough to use that word for o find your brother and the girls"

To for--"

"Get your ass in gear, boy You’re burning daylight"

He sh to see the path Torabbed hiood hand and pulled him in for a whopper of a kiss When she finally pushed hiasped and blinked like a trout on a riverbank