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"Wow!"

"In case I don’t ever see you again, To hiet ave her a last smile, turned, and vanished into the forest

Sally watched hio In the brief moment between his smile and his departure, as he turned away, she saw the smile fall away from his handsome face to be replaced by the face of the hunter She repeated what she’d said the night before

"God help anyone who gets in your way"

FROM NIX’S JOURNAL

Zo dead

Zom: Nomadic zo prey (Most zo)

Walker: Another nah some people call all zoms walkers

Sliver: A thin piece of metal with a sharpened tip used to "quiet" a zom It’s inserted at the base of the skill in order to sever the spinal cord

Quieting: What people call it when a zom is "killed" permanently

46

BENNY LET NIX SLEEP UNTIL THE WHOLE FOREST WAS INFUSED WITH A pink light He studied the woods, looking for any signs of zon of the Greenman, either For the moment it appeared as if they had the forest all to the her cheek very gently He lifted the edge of the bandage and studied the long cut and the delicate stitchery The wound was a little red and puffy, but it wasn’t bad

Nix reen and gold and black

"Hey," she said al up at him

"Hey yourself"

"What tiainst him and then sat up and yawned so hard her jaws creaked Then she held her palainst it "Gak! I have reat apes," he said

Their backpacks and gear were back at the way station

Or in the ashes of it All they had hat they’d carried in their vests and jeans pockets Matches, first aid kit, sewing kit, knives, cadaverine No toothbrushes Nothing to eat

Benny handed her his canteen and she rinsed and spat Then she told him to take off his vest and open his shirt He was shy about it--not from modesty but because he didn’t really want to kno bad the burn was It hurt less this es of charred ends of bone sticking out of gangrenous flesh

The actual wound was al Three lines of blistered skin, each no wider than a pencil and each less than an inch long The skin around the burns was puffy, but there was no sign of infection

"You’ll live," Nix declared as she finished cleaning the burns with a piece of bandage

"Doesn’t even hurt," he said, but he was sure she didn’t believe hiry zom "We need to find some food"

They removed the bokkens from Benny’s carpet coat and climbed carefully down from the tree It was a slow and painful process; they were both stiff and sore As they dropped to the grass they both froze

There was so at the base of the tree Soht circle to act as a base on which was placed a large hand-carved wooden tray Large, clean leaves covered the tray, and a wonderful aroasped Benny’s h with fat yellow s, thick fried potatoes, and aaround "Who--?"

"Who cares?" Nix said as she scooped a handful of eggs off the plate "God … there’s enough here for ten people"

"We are awake, right?"

Nix laughed and shoved eggs into his mouth He chewed It was cold but delicious

"Does this s with his fingers

Nix shook her head, then shrugged "Maybe Possible sense, anyway Think about it"

It took two ht up with her "Man, I’m slow!"

"Gee, that’s a news flash," she said, her cheeks filled like a squirrel

"The Green, "why?"

"He’s a friend of To around to say hi?"

"No idea Wish I knehere he lived Tom said it’s around here soh Guy’s not supposed to be very social"

They ate for a while, then Nix said, "God … there are so ? Where’s Lilah? Who took the cans down last night? Why did all those zoms attack us? And what’s with that freak Preacher Jack?"

Benny soing on?"

"Always a first time"

"Maybe," he said, "but today isn’t that day" He rubbed his hands briskly over his face "Okay … so, what’s the plan?"

"Plan?" she replied "Don’t you have one?"

"Uuy is the ‘I have a plan’ guy?"

"’Cause I don’t have a plan either," she said

"Ah" They looked around, watching the woods as if ansould ically appear "We could wait here and see if the Greenman comes back"

Benny shook his head "I don’t think he will He didn’t wait for us last night, and he didn’t stick around to have breakfast with us this o back and take a look at the field and the way station From a distance, I"That’s very plan-like"

They shared the last of the eggs and potatoes and stuffed their pockets with the strawberries They wiped the plate clean with leaves and left it at the base of the tree Benny wrote "Thanks!" in big letters in the dirt<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>