Page 23 (2/2)

As he grabbed for it, the darkness caain

44

BENNY AND NIX STOOD IN SILENCE, LOST FOR THE MOMENT IN THE ENORMITY of what they no to be the truth

Two planes

Maybe more Probably more

Somebody was out there

For Benny it was one of those moments in which he knew for sure that the world as he knew it had changed No matter what he did, even if he turned around and went back to Mountainside, the world was never going to be the saht

Nix stepped back and studied the plane So far all they had seen was one side and the tail section They would have to climb the mountain of impacted dirt to see the front and the other side Above them, the dark mouth of the open hatch seeht Benny

Nix pointed to so on the side of the plane forward of the hatch

"What’s that?" she asked "Is that writing?"

Benny squinted at it, h a patina of dried mud "‘C-130J Super Hercules’"

"What’s that mean?"

"Ithink it’s the kind of plane this is I half re about a plane called a C-130 I just can’t re about troop transports, maybe?"

"Troop transports?" Nix’s eyes ide "Benny! Do you think that means there’s an army someplace?"

He shook his head "I don’t knohat it ht Nowwho knows?"

Nix’s eyes roved over the dead ain "Look, on the tail More writing"

They hurried closer to the big tail section, which also reseriht that they had to cup their hands around their eyes

"I think that’s a flag," Benny said

"Not the A," corrected Nix "Look, it only has a couple of stars And there’s soh A"

It took Benny a few seconds to piece it together "‘TheAmericanNation’"

Nix frowned "Is that what they used to put on air force planes?"

"I’ it put that way Besides, I wasfor commercial jetliners That’s "

They stood there for aat him He turned and looked back at the woods "I haven’t heard anything for a while now"

"No," she agreed

"I hope that’s good news"

She nodded but said nothing; clearly she was more interested in the plane than in the welfare of Lilah and Chong Benny found that profoundly disturbing

"We need to look inside," said Nix

"Yeah," Benny said, and headed to the front of the plane The mound of dirt was so steep that he had to climb it on all fours But as he reached the top, he saw that there was an easier path that emptied out from the woods That wasn’t what made him freeze in place, however "Oh my God!"

"What?" demanded Nix, as just behind him

"Don’t come up here," Benny warned, but it was already too late Nix reached the top and cried out exactly as he had

"Who?" she began, but shook her head and didn’t finish

The clearing in front of the plane was not at all clear

There were several things placed just in front of the cruht behind a row of twisted trees

The first object was a sround The altar was covered with bundles of dead flowers and small fire-blackened incense bowls Set atop the altar was a row of human heads

Not skulls Heads

Five of them The oldest ithered and nearly picked clean by insects; the freshest could not have been ed

But the spectacle orse than this pagan display

Beyond the altar, standing in the shadow of the big plane, were three posts, more like T-bars than crosses, and lashed to each one was a body

The bodies wore the faded and wind-torn rags of military uniforms

The three bodies ithered, but they were not lifeless

They were zoot pretty cheesed at Benny Benny was trying to i killed so many zoms that he could do it in his sleep

To lecture about hoe can never let down our guard, never rest on our laurels, never forget that every single zoer now as they were the first tiized and all and said it was just a joke But I don’t think Tom really believes hi she knew too well, too intie were on the other side of death So was To was here, and in her heart Lilah believed that if she died today, then Chong would not survive very long Not even with Benny and Nix The Ruin was too hard for theerous They were all town kids

Below her the boars grunted andflesh

Lilah exa she held in her tanned hands It was not as powerful as the spear she’d lost; or as quick as the gun that lay soloo her knife, she’d cut three of the straightest branches she could reach, then shaved off the twigs and s poles Then she removed her canvas vest, stowed the last useful ite strips Once all the cutting and tri was done, Lilah placed the crossbar of the knife between the poles and lashed it all together with turn after turn of canvas Lilah knew a great deal about knots and binding She preferred soft leather--deer hide was best--but a s ti process, but Lilah did not hurry A uarantee failure The result of her as a kind of long-handled ax The blade of the knife protruded at a right angle from the tip of the ax, and a piece of hard, knotty as lashed to the back end to create a club As long as the poles and bindings held, she could chop and sain

Lilah climbed carefully down, limb by limb, until she stood on a stout branch seven feet above the circle of dead boars They stopped ralared up at her, and Lilah’s sence in those eyes Not huence of a predator Ani Aniue, whatever it was, erased all intelligence when it reaniht?

It was a problem she would have to think about later Now she needed her entire mind to be focused on ould happen in the next few seconds<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>