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Deadline Mira Grant 16620K 2023-09-01

"I do"

"Just checking You have ten ret this"

The speaker crackled again as he hung up his end, and the house said, sounding almost perplexed, "The isolation order has been rescinded Thank you for your patience You are now free to leave the preear, folks," I said, picking up a duffel bag with one hand and "

"On it," said Alaric, grabbing the wireless booster

Becks didn’t say anything She just picked up a box filled with dry cereal and cans of soda and kicked the garage door open

The van was inside, which was good The bike was outside, which was not good Working in tight tandem, the five of us were able to load the van in just under five s into every inch of available space I didn’t question the a Since the odds of us co that was even potentially useful and assume that it was easier to throw shit away than it would be to find it once ere on the road

We were halfway through the packing process when Alaric realized there wasn’t going to be room for everyone "Wait," he said "We need to leave soood" I raisedthe bike"

"But--"

"We need sorinned, "you know I’aveto be exposed"

"We’ve all basically bathed in insect repellent--if they bitethe van We have a pretty narrow tiet out before it closes"

Becks lobbed a duffel bag at hiavethe van I didn’t really care if he thought I was being an idiot Maybe I was I was also being a realist

When the last box edged into place and the last bag was stowed, the four of the the s all the way up I put onto activate the intercom "How’s our connection?" I asked

"Loud and clear," Mahir replied

"Great Now le roll"

The garage door rolled sie, and the night air cah my leathers It wasn’t the temperature so much as the uncertainty that the air represented: the risk of a kind of infection we’d never been afraid of before Kellis-Amberlee was a known quantity; it was, for lack of a better phrase, a safe virus, so that could kill you, but which we understood The thought of a new vector ain