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There’s as me back to myself Back to the here and now

The invasion Myback He’s right

We’re at war

On the verge of an apocalypse filled withhere, afor an enemy soldier What am I, crazy?

This time, I’m the first to turn away

13

The vault inemotions need a break

I wander deeper into the store, away froets really dark, I find a display platforh to be just one of the shadows if anyone else is watching Soht space between sunshine and darkness

I sit and brood over the fallen racks and broken pieces of our old civilization When I get tired of that, I look into the dark part of the store I can’t see anything but keep i But then, as I look around, I do see son near a sea of shoes and several fallen ht It’s on, but it’s weak, casting ht

I put my hand on the soft fur of Pooky Bear and debate whether to run away or to investigate I don’t feel like running to Raffe, so I hop onto ht

Before I can get there, soe She’s still in her oversized T-shirt that hangs crookedly off one shoulder and falls past her knees Her tennis shoes are alht hits the hollows of her face, e her skeletal features beneath the stitches and casting long shadows from her hair onto her neck She walks toward theShe lookson the floor

I take another look at theon his back on top of the scattered shoes with his head and shoulders mixed with mannequin limbs, as if he collapsed onto theht while the other clutches a scrap of paper over his chest He e kneels down beside him like she’s in a trance She’ll see me if she looks up, but she’s too preoccupied with the ht smell prey

I knohat she’s about to do

But I don’t stop her

I want to Oh, Christ, I want to

But I don’t

My eyes burn and sting with tears This is too much forthat I’ the hard choices and carrying the weight of responsibility for hest choices, the ones that will haunt us for the rest of our lives, are ones thatht Paige like an aniers while my mother already knehat she needed Wasn’t she the one who took Paige out there to the grove so she could find a victim for her?

I can’t even look away My feet feel leaden, and my eyes refuse to close This is whothe tips of her razor-grafted teeth

I hear a faint groan My heart ale? Is he alive?