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Sally swore "God … you don’t think Tom’s brother was burned up, do you?"

"Hope not, but I don’t think so There were tracks leading off into the field, off toward Wawona The kids probably went that way If I’d known that it was only kids, I’d have gone after the in the east"

"I know" Sally narrowed her eyes thoughtfully "You said you saw Fluffy? Anyone else around?"

"With all that’s going on? Everybody’s around, and I have half a dozen people out looking for Toet theood reason Why?"

"I’ht?"

"A dangerous one"

He grinned "Tellcreatures?

Firsthand accounts of zo creature Humans, animals, birds, insects, and reptiles No one knows if they will attack fish

It has been speculated that it is war flesh that attracts the zombies’ appetites, but then how do you explain zoms who eat insects? Insects don’t have much body heat

Heat alone can’t be what attracts them, because if that was the case they’d continue to feed on the recently dead But they don’t Once so has died, zoms lose interest pretty quickly (It takes hours for a body to cool to room temperature)

If zoically be coer on victims in warmer climates and less so on victims in cooler cli cadaverine Is it smell that attracts them? That doesn’t make sense, because a freshly killed person or ani it

THIS DOESN’T MAKE SENSE, AND IT’S DRIVING ME CRAZY!

50

"HOW FAR IS IT TO YOSEMITE?" BENNY ASKED, PEERING AHEAD TO the hazy nats away from her face "Not sure How far do you think we’ve co for three hours With this terrain, figure about three miles an hour Maybe a little less Call it two and a half, which ht ed her journal out of its pocket and flipped open to one of the pages of ly copied There was one map that showed the eastern side of Mariposa County, with the town of Mountainside circled A strip of cardboard with incree Nix removed it and found another circled spot marked BD/WS Brother David’s way station "Tom said he wanted to take us to Wawona, over near the Merced River" She did some hthotel, with its frequent travelers and patrolled woods, was corouped there, they could actually make a decent start on the trip to find the jet "Soht have seen the jet," Benny said "Toh there all the time"

"Like Preacher Jack," Nix reminded him, then added under her breath, "Freak"

Benny nodded and pulled out his canteen for a drink "We’ll be careful Besides, Tom will know that’s where ent"

She took the last of the Greenave Benny half of theht about now A big steak so rare it would moo when I stuck my fork in it Spinach and sweet corn And those honey biscuits he makes from my mom’s recipes And one of his apple pies with raisins"

"With raisins and walnuts," corrected Benny "It’s i about a feast "They’ll have plenty of food at the hotel"

"If they don’t, I’e of her from his dream "Come on, Nix," he said quickly "We can be there in a couple of hours"

She looked back the way they’d come "They will find us, won’t they?"

"Sure," he said, and for the first time today he actually meant it "And we’ll be okay until they do"

The fields, valleys, and h which they’d walked had been clear of serious threats They’d spotted a few zoms, but each ti Neither of them felt any desire to attack zoms unless there was no choice Last year, on his first trip into the Ruin, Benny and To and torturing zoood tiht, and the o," Nix said, and they began walking again Even though it was early April and they were in higher elevations, the sun was hot Most of the clouds had burned off, and neither of the for his canteen again, "we should sit soain when the sun’s not four inches froluhtened and pointed "Look! Apples"

They left the road and cut through a field to an overgrown orchard They collected an armload of apples and settled doith their backs to a bullet-pocked stone wall The stones were cool, and the apples were sweet There was a burned-out farmhouse nearby, and beyond that was a barn that had once been painted bright red but that fourteen years had faded to a shade of rust rese the peaked roof, dozing in the afternoon heat

Benny and Nix took off their sweltering carpet coats, and both of them were soaked with sweat Benny was so exhausted that he was almost--almost--too weary to notice how Nix’s clothes were pasted to her body He quietly banged his head on the stone wall Then he closed his eyes and tried counting to fifty million Eventually he opened his eyes and busied hi apples for theain and started writing

"What are you doing?" Benny asked,a list"

"Of?"

"Things I don’t understand about what’s been happening"

"That’s going to be a long list What do you have so far?"

She chewed the end of her pencil "Okay, I get the rhinoceros Zoos and circuses and all That one uy we found tied to the truck? Who was he and as he fed to the zoms? And by wholumly shook his head

"What does it ue or radiation or whatever it is wearing off? Or are we just now discovering that some people are immune to it?"

"Wouldn’t we know that already?" Benny asked

"With three hundred million zoms in America? Hoould anyone know, especially if it was rare?"

"The bounty hunters would know," insisted Benny "Tom would have known He’s all over the place He hears all sorts of stuff If that’s been happening, then he knows about it"

"Okay," she said, nodding thoughtfully, "I’ll buy that … but wouldn’t that mean the other idea is more likely?"