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"There’s a truck stop about twenty miles up the road that takes journalist credentials and has a good safety rating Clean, reliable blood tests, no outbreaks in the past nine years"

With our luck, we’ll fix that for the with relief George had been quiet since I told her I wasn’t in the mood, and I’d been irrationally afraid that so soer andme fit the nor thatto me That would drive , Becks The truck stop sounds fine Why don’t you call ahead and let the?" If the truck stop was ready for our arrival, they’d have soate to run the blood tests and let us inside Much faster andour heels while some underpaid attendant tried to pull hi up when a thought struckmy stomach drop all the way to ally dead, and her only clean ID just went up with Oakland"

She’s died twice in under a week, coed that

"Hush," I nored my interction as she replied, "We’re way ahead of you Alaric dug out one of Buffy’s old clubbing IDs for her It won’t hold up to ie’s and he can find so on her--we don’t want anybody getting a good look at her face And she stays in the van; somebody else can buy her drinks"

"Got it," said Becks "Terminate call" There was a click, and I was alone with the sound of the wind once more

The wind and the voice that lurked insidesomebody that counted on you?"

You say that like it happened all the ti pause, and the faintest sensation of a sigh at the back offirst She talked before I did, read before I did… about the only thing I ever did first was figure out the ga with us, and that was aselse She was the one who decided to beco in her excite to make her happy, and later because it turned out I was actually pretty good at poking things with sticks for the a I’d ever found that I was really good at, that I really enjoyed doing, and I never would have found it if it weren’t for her She was the one who suggested we follow Senator Rynize what it had the potential to do for our careers

She was the first one to die

I drove quietly, giving her time to collect herself Finally, slowly, she said, It’s different every ti Buffy was… It was basically the end of the world, but I held it together I had to hold it together

"Why?"

Because, she said, like it was thein the world, you neededI could say to that I put ht down the highway until the neon sign of a truck stop beckoned, prouns ere just aching for the chance to put down an outbreak Everyone’s got the places where they feel safe My top three would probably be the middle of an Irwin meet-up, inside a CDC lockdown facility, and any truck stop in North Ao find yourself a trucker, and then get back to ates with handheld blood testing units One guard for , pi identified hi to engage hilove and held out runted appreciatively at the professionalis to htened properly It wouldn’t change the test results; all one of those boxes cares about is blood I winced as he bent my pinkie, but didn’t say a word Better to let his before I hts on the top of the unit cycled frorin split his cratered face, transfor "Looks like you’re clean and clear, Mr Mason," he said, further confir that Becks had radioed ahead with our credentials "Love your site Those reports you sent out of Sacra shyly, "I was really sorry to hear about your sister"

I plasteredup George rando with lad that the helmet’s visor mostly obscuredti you need"