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"No, I don’t!" Stella insisted

"Yeah, you do," Max said "You’re gonna get tired and hungry and you’ll have to pee You can’t eat or pee up in that tree, and if you tried to sleep, you’d fall out So you should cou Stella over She didn’t immediately denounce it as stupid, and she looked down at Bishop

"It’s okay, Stella" Bishop held up her arms "I’ll catch you"

"Oh hell," Boden whispered

"What?" I whispered back, wondering what his probleht away When Bishop lifted up her arms to reach for Stella, her shirt had ridden up in the back There on her side, a few inches above her hip, was a large bite ht A zombie had bitten her She was infected

"Shit," I said

22

Daniels and Serg , because they both let out large sighs Bishop was too busy coaxing Stella out of the tree to notice us, and it see

"Come on, honey" Bishop’s hands were outstretched, and Stella was tentatively letting go of the tree She et down yet "I’ll catch you, sweetie"

"You promise you’ll catch me?" Stella asked

"I promise, honey," Bishop said

"And you proet me?" Stella sniffled

"I cross riled her legs over the branch Then she slid off the edge and fell into Bishop’s waiting ar the little girl and co to be okay"

She whispered soothing words into Stella’s hair, then turned around toward us She was rocking the child gently in her ar, Boden, and I were all standing in a line, staring at her griray eyes were scared, but she honestly didn’t see on?"

"Bishop, you’ve been bitten," Boden said matter-of-factly