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The aining confidence from the fact that ere still there I moaned "What are we supposed to do?" I asked I knew that Nathan didn’t have any answers That didn’t matter What o: we could stay in the car with a sleepwalker trying to lass, or we could run for cover, and risk being taken down by the sleepwalkers ere still e, locustlike, from the shelter of the trees

"I don’t know," Nathan whispered His eyes were on the sleepwalkers noorking their way between the gridlocked cars, ignoring the ainst the car "How many of them are there?"

"I don’t know, but I’ain, even harder than before I ju at the ht to coave any of the the truth about these people, and they were just the i over their hosts, why did they need to come and threaten us like this? I pushed lass "You go away!" I shouted "Leave us alone!"

Much to my surprise, the man actually took a step backward, a flicker of what looked like surprise appearing in his otherwise eain "Yeah, that’s it! Go away! Go bother soed at the car again This tiry, and his hands were balled into fists when he sla inside the fra sound I shrank back against Nathan, who put his arood atteht you out here"

"I said I wanted the answers," I replied,the , and I was suddenly unsure about how long it would hold… or how ot offered the chance to go to the broken doors, remember?"

To my surprise, Nathan actually chuckled a little It was a deeply resigned sound, but it was still a laugh "She’s got us all doing it now"

"What? Who?"

"Mo up with secret codes when I was little, and then she’d gettheht I was crazy The other half just thought I had better cable channels" He kissed the top of my head "Love you, Sal"

"Love you, too" I settledas the sleepwalker punched theagain and again There was nowhere we could go Cars surrounded us on all sides, and trying to run would justthe fates of the drivers who had already been dragged into the woods We had no weapons We had nothing we could use to defend ourselves

We were going to die here We finally had sooing to die The sound of druain, but it was co this time, like it alas in my dreams If I died, I would die to the sound of druain This ti noise, and a cobweb pattern of cracks appeared where his fist had hit There was a sed to split the skin on his knuckles, if he hadn’t actually broken the bones inside his hand I couldn’t feel too bad for hilass--

--and stopped, looking al down his face from the hole in the ht out of sight I pushed away fro to look out myThe sleepwalker was sprawled on the pavement outside the car with his eyes still open, clearly dead

"Sal?" demanded Nathan "What do you see?"

"Someone shot him" I twisted around to blink at Nathan "I’ve never seen sounshots like lasers in space? There’s really no sound, so they add it for television?"

"Sal--"

I knew that I was calmer than I should have been: so to batter his way into Nathan’s car At the same time, I couldn’t think of what else to do The dru in my ears, and I was relieved that the sleepwalker was dead I was a little sorry for him, but really, he’d been dead from the moment that the implant decided to take him over It was the implant that I’d just seen die, not theto kill us

"I think this is what shock feels like," I said, thoughtfully "It’s a pity it didn’t kick in earlier I think I would have been less afraid of dying if my whole body had been made of cotton balls and Novocain" I turned away frolass

"Co I blinked, twisting to look at hiain, this time in surprise I hadn’t even realized when Ia sound that was soainst Nathan for the second time in almost as many minutes He didn’t seein his chest He was as scared as I was