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Before the Flash, I’d never been crazy After? I was on a slippery slope and they kept pushing, pushing at un, put ainst the wood Over and over

I’d alondered why kids had done that at CLC--see hurt--but now I knehy That pain distractedfor those voices They swarmed like wasps in my head

--We will love youFeast of your bonesI strike froraine Just coed toward hi his latest, he’d explained to me, "He hurts when he helps"

Did I have any idea what that meant? Nope, but I just liked that Mattheas nearby

Another time he’d popped up just to inform me somberly, "You are the only friend I’ve ever had"

When he didn’t co myself to concentrate and block those voices out Think about what to do!

Moot desperate enough I’d thought the better question would be, How can Evie look her horse in the eye, shoot it, then butcher it?

I was about to find out

If Allegra couldn’t be used for transportation, then she’d befood Mom would have to do better with more nourishment; she sure as hell couldn’t do worse

This was the only thing I could do to help her

Butcher ra

With a cry, I droppedwith tears Soon I was sobbing worse than I had day one after the Flash, when I’d first suspected that most everyone on earth was dead

Pain sliced into lanced down, saw blood strea into my palms "Shit!" I’d cut my forehead withdowna trail of cri not dust-coated to dry the wounds with, but I couldn’t see through the blood

I frantically wiped my eyes, blinded by the cascade Scalp wounds bled so e, I pulledthe bunched seaainst the line of cuts

I froze when I heard a whisper of sound to ht Then another to my left I sensed movement all around me, but was too terrified to flee, to yank down , I eased round--and felt soainstaway, tu onto my back as I snatched at the bandanna Rats would eat me alive in this barn!

I swiped an arm over my eyes, could finally see--

My jaw dropped, th, I was able toup atplants

Shoots of green were growing in the dust all around me Wherever my blood had hit old oats or hayseeds, they’d sprouted

I rose cautiously It had been so long since I’d been near a living plant; I’d al aboutthe Evie bell then, but I was so fascinated with my new discovery that for a few brief ed ht Could this be real? I tentatively touched a stalk with another drop of blood

It shot higher, fro to mature in seconds "Life in your very blood," Death had said My mind could hardly wrap around the possibilities I needed--

"More seed"

I took off toward the house, sprinting into the wind By the time I’d reached the kitchen, , already healing

Inside the pantry, I ransacked a box filled with seed packs Morow food for ourselves

Nothing ever took for us Nor for anyone that we’d heard of

But now

My thoughts raced as fast as my heartbeat There was an area at the back of the barn where the roof had caved in, creating a space open to the sky We’drain would pour inside

No rain ever carow crops there

I stuffed packs into ood food--then she would get better Yes, of course! She wasn’t healing as she should because she ith hunger

My narrowed gaze turned toward the barn I could fix that I could even mend our horse, then set off to find a doctor

Out of food, out of luck, and out of tiro food, and buy ti more than a razor blade

After all, how irl need?

Chapter 16

DAY 220 AF

I thought I’d heard athe winds were still With no leaves, cars, or animal calls, sound carried differently now

Can it possibly be? I wondered as I stumbled away from the house, weak froressivelyfar

That motorcycle sound stirred up memories from a former life, a time of comfort and plenty that seemed a thousand years past

I could almost close my eyes, listen to that rumble, and pretend I still lived that existence

Al voices in my mind made it hard to pretend

You’re just delirious, Evie There was no motorcycle--any more than there would be planes in the sky

Yes, deliriu a blood farmer Especially one with such bountiful crops as mine

I’d believed the side effects fro had abated Apparently they hadn’t, if I was iinary sound? Join the chorus, roar along with the voices!