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"And inside the cities?"

"Lots of corpses More survivors are dying out now, and the old ones ain’tup"

I shivered at the ?"

"Not a da’s covered in ash, but not every place is burned Soround C’est surprenant" It’s uncanny "Real finger-of-God stuff"

At my confused look, he said, "One house stands while the one beside it burned down No rhyme or reason, like how a tornado strikes" He closed the hood After wiping his hands on his jeans, he collected his crossbow and cli the bow on his lap "Hop in"

When I’d joined him inside, he said, "You’d never ht into the belly of the beast"

"Why do you say that? Because of the Bagaze "Maybe you’ll never have to find out Ask ht take you to Texas"

God, his eyes really were breathtaking As I stared into theuiding Mom and me west She liked him so much already

Another thing I’d noticed? The voices were uessed they faded when ly ad hirave;re has been kind to me"

"There has to be more to it than that"

Earlier, I’d told Mole"

She’d given le’ ? It’s probably that you’re a pretty girl and he’s an eighteen-year-old boy"

Did he actually like ot ood enough By this time tomorrow, she could be under the care of a real doctor"

He hesitated, gripping the steering wheel, clearly wrestling with a decision Snapping his fingers for the flask, he said, "Clotile lived through the Flash"

That was surprising "How?" I handed him the whiskey "And for that matter, how did you?"

He absently touched his forear, this Couldn’t throttle my bike So Clotile took me to an unlicensed doc in the next parish over, had a cellar office"

In a twist of fate, that drunkboth Jackson’s and Clotile’s lives

"After the Flash, Clotile and me followed another survivor from the Basin, a reservist, to join his co our fellow man, and all that bullshit But what else did we have to do? Besides, he’d figured out how to get his car to work, and ere hankering to put the entire wasted parish behind us Though Clotile was a damned fine shot, the reservists stuck her in the kitchen andthe day, we exterht, we patrolled on live bug hunts I’ve killed hundreds" I narrowed ave a harsh shake of his head, then continued, "Clotile and me had shelter and food, so we spent a few ood to be busy, to keep s Anyway, teeks ago, this big-ass army marched in, led by General Milovníci Given the choice to join or die, my unit’s leader surrendered the chain of coeneral eird, but his two kids were off the charts"

"How?"

"Vincent and Violet are twins about your age, with these vacant eyes, like a dead fish’s They dress alike, talk alike, and even got a n--on their hand"

--We will love you In our oay--

I struggled to block out the stray voice Damn it, they’d been so quiet

"But what do I know about politics, eneral’s as bad as the next, I supposed I didn’t have a dog in that fight, so I followed my orders and went out on patrol When I returned, I passed the rest of the arirls, every one of them I ran for Clotile, but they’d already taken her"

"To the general?"

"Non That’s where this getsétrange The twins had her" Jackson gripped the steering wheel again "I found their tent and held up the guards outside, but there were too many--they surrounded me, sla, I was being dragged fro squad" He turned to me "See, the reason there’re no male prisoners is because they execute any men who rebel They do it in front of everyone, keep the rank and file in line"

"Then what happened?" I asked breathlessly

"I got a sign frooan to helpfroht theone low, he said, "But, Evie, they’d beaten her to hell over the night Blood co out of her nose, her ears, her busted lips Her left ar limp Her eyes werethey were frantic"

He seemed to shake himself out of that memory "Now, Clotile, she’d been around the block She’d seen sos in her day, but whatever happened in that tent had left her shell-shocked"

--in our oay, in our oay--

"She opened fire on the two guards holding et to her and get us the hell out of there"

"And then?" I reached over to touch his forear that fateful scar

"She shook her head at ave her the look that deserved and kept heading for her Then the twins limped out of their tent She looked over her shoulder and saw them, then met oan to do I was yelling at her, just to wait, just to give irl, she mouthed, I’m sorry" He sed "Then she blew her brains out over the ground"

I forgot to breathe To watch a loved one commit suicide?