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“You ia, somebody shot out my da around the curve of the road and off the pavehted van nearly rocked onto two tires “Shaun’s here We’ll be right there to get you Georgia out”

“Clear” The connection clicked off

I pulledmy hands in the air Shaun spotted theto a stop besidehi on the gravel-covered ground as he ran over to throw his ar a deep breath

“You okay?” he asked, not letting go

“You didn’t get a blood test before co over here”

“Don’t need one If you were infected, I’d know,” Shaun said, and let o “I repeat, you okay?”

“I’ over to settle in the passenger seat Shaun got in behind ine back on and slaas The van leapt forward into a wide curve, rocketing toward Rick’s car “You hear the shots?”

“Bike was too loud How lanced at me For a brief moment, I saw the raorry in his eyes “If they’d nailed both your tires ”

“I’d be dead” I leaned forward to open the glove co outside without a gun in ood idea “If whoever did this had done their damn homework, you’d be dead, too, so let’s not dwell Word from Buffy?”

“None”

“Great” I pulled back the slide, checking the chamber Satisfied by my bullet count, I let the slide rack back into place “So, is this enough excitement for you?”

“Maybe a bit much,” he said For once in his life, he sounded like he h If our attackers had done their ho Nor won’t prevent that But some vehicles are too damn valuable to lose just because you lose a tire, and most vehicles in that class are the sort likely to draw heavy gunfire So scientists developed a type of tire that doesn’t give a daunshots They’re called run flats: You put a bullet in theht have skipped them—I did skip them on my bike, where they ht a new set every year

For the first tiot the van, it didn’t see, and I focused on trying to page Buffy and Chuck, using every band and communications device we had We knew coes should have h There were no replies on any channel I’d been terrified That’s when I started to get numb