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Lisa sed her
For ato her fiercely, and when they pulled apart, she said, "So… did you find any clue to what happened here?"
"Nothing that makes sense"
"The phone doesn’t work, huh?"
"No"
"So they’re out of order all over town"
"Probably"
They walked to the door and stepped outside, onto the cobblestone sidewalk
Surveying the hushed street, Lisa said, "Everyone’s dead"
"We can’t be sure"
"Everyone," the girl insisted softly, bleakly, "The whole town All of the, not dead," Jenny reminded her
A three-quarter moon had risen above the mountains while she and Lisa had been in the sheriff’s substation In those nightclad places where the streetlaht of the low revealed nothing Instead, it fell like a veil, clinging to soue hints of their shapes, and, like all veils, sos beneath it more mysterious and obscure than they would have been in total darkness
"A graveyard," Lisa said "The whole town’s a graveyard Can’t we just get in the car and go for help?"
"You knoe can’t If a disease has-"
"It’s not disease"
"We can’t be absolutely sure"
"I am I’m sure Anyway, you said you’d al as there’s the slightest chance, however reot to consider ourselves quarantined"
Lisa see to the deputy?"
"Yes"
"Is it loaded?"
"He fired it three times, but that leaves three bullets in the cylinder"
"Fired at what?"
"I wish I knew"
"Are you keeping it?" Lisa asked, shivering
Jenny stared at the revolver in her right hand and nodded "I guess ain… it didn’t save him, did it?"
Chapter 6 – Novelties and Notions
They proceeded along Skyline Road, low froularly spaced trees grew froift shop, a small cafe, and the Santinis’ ski shop At each establish for signs of life, finding none
They also passed townhouses that faced directly onto the sidewalk Jenny cli the bell No one answered, not even at those houses where light shone beyond the s She considered trying a few doors and, if they were unlocked, going inside
But she didn’t do it because she suspected, just as Lisa did, that the occupants (if they could be found at all) would be in the sarotesque condition as Hilda Beck and Paul Henderson She needed to locate living people, survivors, witnesses She couldn’t learn anything more from corpses
"Is there a nuclear power plant around here?" Lisa asked
"No Why?"
"A big ht maybe… radiation"
"Radiation doesn’t kill this suddenly"
"A really strong blast of radiation?"
"Wouldn’t leave victims who look like these"
"No?"
"There’d be burns, blisters, lesions"
They came to the Lovely Lady Salon, where Jenny always had her hair cut The shop was deserted, as it would have been on any ordinary Sunday Jenny wondered what had happened to Madge and Dana, the beauticians ned the place She liked Madge and Dana She hoped to God they’d been out of town all day, visiting their boyfriend over in Mount Larson
"Poison?" Lisa asked as they turned away from the beauty shop
"How could the entire town be poisoned simultaneously?"
"Bad food of some kind"
"Oh,the sa like that But they weren’t There’s only one town picnic, and that’s on the Fourth of July"
"Poisoned water supply?"
"Not unless everyone just happened to take a drink at precisely the same moment, so that no one had a chance to warn anyone else"
"Which is just about impossible"
"Besides, this doesn’t look much like any kind of poison reaction I’ve ever heard about"
Lieber with a blue-and-white-striped awning During the skiing season, tourists lined up halfway down the block, all day long, seven days a week, just to buy the big flaky cinnamon wheels, the sticky buns, chocolate-chip cookies, alooey oodies that Jakob and Aida Liebermann produced with tremendous pride and delicious artistry The Liebermanns enjoyed their work so much that they even chose to live near it, in an apartht visible up there now), and although there wasn’t nearly as much profit in the April-to-October trade as there was the rest of the year, they reh Saturday in the off season People drove over fro mountain towns-Mount Larson, Shady Roost, and Pineville-to purchase bags and boxes full of the Lieber , and Lisa put her forehead against the glass In the rear of the budding, back in the part where the ovens were, light poured brightly through an open door, splashing one end of the sales roo the rest of the place Small cafe tables stood to the left, each with a pair of chairs White enalass fronts were empty
Jenny prayed that Jakob and Aida had escaped the fate that appeared to have befallen the rest of Snowfield They were two of the gentlest, kindest people she had ever ood place to live, a haven from the rude world where violence and unkindness were disconcertingly co away from the bakery , Lisa said, "How about toxic waste? A che that would’ve sent up a cloud of deadly gas"
"Not here," Jenny said, "aren’t any toxic waste du like that"
"Sometimes it happens whenever a train derails and a tank car full of chemicals splits open"