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When Benny had struck Charlie on the ridge and sent hi into the darkness, Nix had not been a part of it Charlie had overpowered her and Lilah; and it was a couided Benny’s hand as he swung the Motor City Hammer’s iron club Charlie had fallen, but they hadn’t found his body He was never quieted For Nix, there was no closure In some twisted way Charlie had escaped And that had broken so inside Nix’s head Maybe in her soul, as well And with a flash of insight Benny realized that Nix’s desire to leave Mountainside was asCharlie, alive or dead, as it was about finding a new life

Charlie Pink-eye took a lu step toward them Benny snarled and pushed Nix back

"God …" Nix’s voice was s his hatchet, trying for a killing shot through the eye socket Instead the glass blade dug into the front of Charlie’s cheek, punching through the sinus The zoer and shuffled forward, but Charlie’s rowl Charlie lashed out and knocked Benny sideways into the wall The glass blade of the hatchet snapped, and the handle fell fro that for an insane moment Benny wondered if Charlie was soh No … no, this thing was dead Still … it was fast Too fast And so powerful!

Benny slid to the floor Charlie bent down, grabbed Benny’s vest, and pulled hiers in the torchlight As Charlie pulled hi tips of the nails that covered the ed to get the flat of his shoe against the zom’s lower stomach--the only area not covered by the nail vest He kicked out, trying to squir blows to dislocate the jaw or break the neck He tried every trick of coht hi from a dozen shallow cuts Then two dozen Blood flew froh none of them were serious, the smell of fresh blood in the air seemed to drive Charlie and the other zombies wild They snarled andhead darted forward, and his razor teeth bit doith devastating force--but not on Benny’s flesh

Suddenly Nix was there, squeezing in between Benny and the monster, and she rammed her hatchet up into its mouth The rows of filed teeth cholass and wood Nail tips pressed into Nix’s vest The canvas was sturdy, but it wasn’t designed for this kind of protection Not even a carpet coat would work if she didn’t get out of there soon

Charlie flung Benny away and grabbed Nix instead Benny crashed to the ground again Pain exploded in his shoulder, nuertips The other zoet to Nix Wax-white hands poked through the crooks of Charlie’s elbows and reached over his shoulders and around his sides, clawing at Nix’s vest and hair In their atte her into the nail vest

Benny hauled himself to his feet, saw his broken hatchet, dove for it, and caht hand Nix still had her hatchet buried in Charlie’s h it to get to her Benny rushed to Nix and looped his bad left arm around her waist while he chopped and pounded at the white hands with the hatchet handle He broke fingers and wrists and some of the white hands flopped away, useless to their owners One creature had a solid handful of Nix’s hair, and Benny could not shatter its wrist, so he did the only other thing he could do: He used the relass still tied to the hatchet and sawed through her hair She sagged forward, but Charlie still had her

Benny rammed the sharp end of his hatchet handle up under Charlie’s chin He drove it with such force that it punched through into the zom’s mouth and pinned his jaws shut At least for the ht her knees up and aimed her feet just below the nail vest, then kicked out with all her force as Benny pulled with all of his They burst free froround first, and Nix landed hard on top of his

For the nored them and clawed at the wooden spike that sealed his jaws shut The other zoet past him

"Dust!" Benny croaked, and Nix tore a pouch of plaster dust fro it at them The dust exploded into a white cloud that swirled thickly around the zo ht to use it against Digger and Heap, but for now it gave therabbed Benny’s wrists and hauled him to his feet, slapped his shoulders to spin hi her hands on his back as he stuave him a wild-eyed stare "I need to kill him," she answered in a fierce whisper

"I know," he said, though they both knew that it was virtually io"

During this brief but awful fight they had been only dihter fro Charlie, however briefly, seeainst them That or maybe the sheep were too afraid of Preacher Jack and White Bear to show any other reaction

White Bear bent down into one of the pit openings, grinning like a ghoul "Run as fast as you want, but there’s no way out"

Nix pivoted and flung one of the pouches at hiot his hand up to block it, but the pouch flapped open and he was showered hite plaster dust He reeled back, coughing and gagging and cursing There was a quick ripple of surprised laughter, but it died down immediately as White Bear wheeled on Benny and Nix with a , vanishing into the shadows They heard zo back toward the main pit They scra toward the his jaws shut

That left the dark side tunnel "No lights," Benny said

Nix chewed her lip, looking up and down the corridor The front of her vest was dotted with drops of blood froh her clothes and into her skin Pain twisted her mouth as she said, "No choice"

They ran into the darkness Above them the crowd became suddenly silent

"God!" panted Nix "What now?"

77

PREACHER JACK STOOD NEXT TO WHITE BEAR, BOTH OF THEM SCOWLING down into the pits "This is taking too long," said the old ood," replied White Bear "I’ to enjoy this"

Preacher Jack snarled, "They should be dead by now"

"Lighten up, Dad … Charlie’s got their number Those kids are Happy Meals, you’ll see"

Preacher Jack leaned closer still "You listen to o, then--"

White Bear laughed deep in his chest "Dad, for a ot everything under control, and …"