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What wasn’t yet clear was just how un to work

In front of La Catrina, Alejandro Perez took the clipboard fro off the boxes Then he frowned "Hey, what’s this? We asked for three cases of tequila, and you only sent us one?"

"We didn’t get our own shipuy he knew only as T J "Gave you e had, changed the bill, and we’ll arita special," Alejandroto think up various promotions to win diners back Now that there was another victim of this mystery illness, someone who’d had the decency to collapse somewhere else, there was no more reason for people to assu to do with it But all the saet back to norht have made that two days instead of five Even that much time made a difference to the bottom line

Maybe a piña colada special? Not very Mexican--but in this town, authenticity didn’t go nearly as far as a two-for-one deal

He signed off on the ood-bye to T J, and started hauling in boxes Too bad Mateo wasn’t here, with his young knees and back; these boxes got heavier every year But soon Mateo would go to college, get out of this stupid town, and be on his own So Alejandro either had to get used to carrying boxes or start looking for soood kid, he thought as T J’s huge eighteen-wheeler began lu onto the road Is he a senior, too, or would he be around next--

The rest of the question died as he watched the eighteen-wheeler slowly begin to roll off the side of the road, brake lights never blinking once, until it plowed into the grocery-store parking lot Metal screeched and glass broke as cars twisted, turned, and bent--finally slowing the truck to a stop

Alejandro ran for the truck, a few other bystanders following close behind His first thought was that T J must have had a heart attack But when he reached the door and pulled it open, he realized the truth was far stranger than that T J lay slu at the dashboard while viscous black fluid flowed fro mouth His jeans had already burned away fro into his skin The s

"Everybody stay back!" he shouted "Call an a around the truckclose to help--that pretty girl Mateo used to be so close to, Elizabeth Pike Of course she’d want to help--such a nice kid But he couldn’t think about her for very long, or about anything other than the blank staring horror on T J’s face

Like the Bender girl, he thought It’s happening again

Gage had gotten the hell out of school as quickly as he could; nobody was running around taking attendance while that was going down, and all the teachers insisted the students should clear out instead of trying to help But as he walked across town, he feltducked out

What if you have Ebola? he asked himself They’d shown a documentary about the Ebola virus in physics class (since Mrs Purdhy wasn’t around to teach it), about which he was still completely freaked out If you’ve been exposed to Ebola, then you’re exposing everybody else to it, too! You’d be what they call a Patient Zero

Only then did it occur to hiive other people Ebola, he would have to have it hi to assume I don’t have Ebola yet But it is past tistore dohere Mrs Laimuns was Captive Sound’s only pharmacist outside the hospital She waved at hi the aisles "Are you here to pick up your aunt Lorraine’s blood-pressure loves--check And hey, paper face rab some of those, too As he filled his plastic basket, he reconsidered his answer to the phar outside meant exposure to Ebola or whatever it was, so he should save his aunt Lorraine the trouble "Hey, actually, I’ll go ahead and pick up the--"

His voice trailed off as he realized Mrs Lai behind the pharmacy counter He couldn’t see her at all

Tinny Muzak played on the phare sloalked toward the counter "Mrs Laiot to the drop-offand leaned over to look inside There, between rows and rows of e, black tar thick on her sainst the tile

In Kendall’s opinion, it was like the doctors actually wanted this hospital roohts never seeether ue, and the only proof she had that Riley still lived was the beeping of a half dozen machines

Riley lay on the bed, motionless, with tubes taped into her nose and electrodes stuck to her forehead and chest Nobody had washed her hair in days, and she didn’t have on any makeup When she woke up and found out that Kendall just let her lie there for days looking like this, Riley was going to be so pissed

Well, that was the one thing Kendall could fix