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The sleepwalker--because there was nothing else it could have been; not with a closed, unlocked door being the only thing between it and freedoain, weakly It didn’t try to get out of its nest I didn’t think it could have ure in the corner It didn’t ain I wasn’t sure whether that was because it was too weak, or because I had stopped er tell where I was Either way, it didn’t see to come after me anytime soon I turnedout on the street below

I’ after the situation at the hospital and the number of people who had been shoved into USAMRIID’s quarantine So out the hope that this would all just go away, and the world would return to a se rapidly to prevent the tears that elling up in er an option, assu it had ever been an option in the first place

There were no carson this suburban street, and the few lit s on the houses aroundthat anyone as still awake and alive was staying as far froround level as possible That ed to the sleepwalkers

There were only about twenty of theh that didn’tin the long shadon the sides of those sae and race, frohties All of the with the sahtly out in front of them as if to ward away obstacles While I watched, two of them bumped into each other, patted one another’s ar on in tandeer the property of the human race Its successors had taken over

There was a faint moan from behind me I whirled, suddenly convinced that the sleepwalker in the corner had ht specks of its eyes glared from the exact spot where I’d seen the heart "It’s okay, Sal," I whispered, earningto feed it, it’s not strong enough to co the sleepwalker to an "it," but that was technically true of the tapewor to sex the huet the proper pronouns

Still This rooirl If she was the sleepwalker, she’d been locked in here when she converted Either she had been able to shut the door before her parents could get to her or she’d been the first to go, transitioning while she was asleep or otherwise distracted No s were probably in here with her, and teenage girls had cellphones

I began feelingcautiously in an attelass that had been knocked fro the walls I found a charger plugged into the wall about halfway down the length of the dresser, its unconnected end see to taunt erous roo from its place in the corner

"Steady," I er and stuffed it into my pocket I knew the house still had power If I could find the phone, I could call for help

A rustling sound froedto work its way free of its nest, its withered, wasted liht As it h of its chest for irl whose room this had been I felt a little better about that She had already been robbed of her humanity and her future; the least I could do for her was think of her as the woman she had been before one of my cousins burrowed into her brain and destroyed her

"I’ all your stuff, but I don’t think you could tell etically, and resu the dresser "I wish you could I’ain, even more weakly this time It was sort of nice not to be alone, since I knew that she wasn’t going to attackto her feet, rather than just rustling around in her nest, she would have done it already I had a body packed with nutrients and fat, and I could have kept her alive for a good long tiet toa steak in front of a starvingto share It was terrible that her fate and mine had taken such different directions, but it wasn’tI could have done to fix it

Honestly, I wished I had any idea who could have fixed it, or whether anyone was going to try Dr Cale was hard to predict USAMRIID was all about humanity, and Sherman was all about the tapeworht the whole situation down on their own heads--and the tapewor to theht No one was co, either