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Could he jump it? Could he build up the ?

His inner voice yelled, GoGO!

Benny set his teeth, called on every possible ounce of speed, and threw hiness as he hurtled over the deep ravine He landed hard on the far slope, bending his knees just as To muscles absorb the shock of ihed out loud and spun toward the wave of zoered toward him They were so completely focused on hier of the ravine

"Yo! Deadheads," he yelled, waving his sword to taunt the-Imura, zombie killer Booyah!"

And then the lip of the ravine buckled and collapsed under his weight, and Benny-freaking-Imura instantly plummeted into the darkness below

FROM NIX’S JOURNAL

It is one ht before last, while ere all sitting around the cah I think it was the first tiood to hear hiuess ht any of us would ever want to laugh again

4

BENNY FELL FROM SUNLIGHT INTO DARKNESS AND HIT THE BOTTOM OF THE ravine so hard that his legs buckled and he pitched forward onto his face Loose soil, tree roots, and small stones rained down on hile roaned, rolled onto his side, spat dirt out of his mouth, and clawed spiderwebs out of his eyes

"Yeah, warrior smart," he muttered

The bottom of the ravine was much wider than the top and thick with mud, and Benny quickly understood that it was not a true ravine but a gorge cut by water runoff fro the ties of the slope above, creating the illusion of solid ground

If he had kept running after he had leaped the gorge he would be safe Instead he’d turned to gloat Not exactly warrior sht darkly

As he lay there, his ht it was doing so twisted and weird He heard sounds First it was his own labored breathing and theelse

It was a distant roar that sounded--ienerator that ran the power in the hospital back home Still half-buried in the dirt, he cocked his head to listen The sound was definitely there, but it wasn’t exactly like the hospital generator This whined at a higher pitch, and it surged and fell away, surged and fell away

Then it was gone

He strained to hear it, trying to decide if it was really aelse There were all kinds of birds and animals out there, weird stuff that had escaped zoos and circuses, and Benny had read about exotic animal sounds Was that what he’d heard?

No, said his inner voice, it was a e pile of loose dirt cascaded down on Benny, burying hi his way out, but then he heard another sound and he looked, expecting to seeon hi wave of pursuing zoe of the ravine, and the land had cruht Four zoe and fell into the darkness with jarring crunches, the nearest one landing only six feet away

Then another zos of a cheerleader outfit--dropped right in front of Benny, striking the ground with a thud that was filled with the brittle crunch of breaking bones The cheerleader’s gray and dusty eyes were open, and her mouth bit the air

Broken bones wouldn’t kill a zoh the loose dirt to find the hilt of his sword

The zoertips brushed his face, but suddenly a second body--a huge man in coveralls--slammed down on top of her The impact was massive, and it shattered even an digging his way out like ahis feet free

Another zo with firecracker sounds The sounds were horrible, and Benny dreaded one of those liet free Overhead e and pluround to his right, a schoolkid to his left, theirtherunt as they crunched atop their fellows Farmers and tourists, a man in swian, and a beardedmercilessly down The impact sounds of moistureless bodies filled the air with an awful symphony of destruction

Another zom fell And another

The cheerleader, broken and twisted now by the iers around both his ankles

Benny screarip was too strong He ile free and sat up

"Let o!" he bellowed as he punched the zom in the face

The punch broke the zombie’s nose and rocked its head back, but that was all it accoain With pieces of broken teeth falling frorip to pull itself forward, clis; and all the ti the feast that was now close at hand The rotting-meat stench of the creature in this closed space was horrific

The zo between the stu some skin as well The pain was instantly intense Benny howled Other twisted and broken zo over one another like ht, he could al advice

Be warrior smart

"Go away!" Benny yelled, half to the zohost

BennyTo, but Benny had barely paid attention, because it sounded like one of his brother’s annoying logic puzzles Now he ached to knohat To that saying it would inspire understanding and action It didn’t He yelled it again, then followed it with every obscene word he knew

Don’t fight an iht you can win

Ah

That tih, and Benny realized that he was reacting rather than taking action A rookie mistake, as Toht It was evennow that Tom was dead