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‘What ays do,’ says Dum

‘Give the rowing crowds facing off with each other

The talk right into the middle of the face-off with their hands in the air They talk The crowds listen

A large man struts forward froenotes as people from the crowd call out Then everyone steps out into a circle, leaving the two large ins shouting and ju for a better view They’ve closed the circle, so I can’t see what’s going on inside, but I can guess The twins have started an official fight and are taking bets Everybody’s happy

No wonder Obi kept the twins around and put up with their antics

By four o’clock, we have as hters I’m so busy I hardly have time to think about Raffe But of course, he’s always in the back of my mind

Will he do it? Will he kill huel society? If we have to fight each other, will he hunt ht out humanity’s finest qualities Raffe has seen people do the worst possible things to each other I wish I could show him the other side – the best that we can be But that’s just wishful thinking, isn’t it?

There are fahters Tattoo and Alpha from Alcatraz are there Their real na of the the the names up, and if they don’t stop it soon, they’ll becooes by nicknames It’s as if everyone feels like they’re different people now, and so they shouldn’t have the same names as they did in the World Before

I look up when people step aside to let a man in a suit and chauffeur’s hat walk up to me Everyone stares at his exposed teeth and the raw meat where skin should have covered the bottom half of his face

‘I heard your announcelad you ive him a small sht now,’ says Sanjay, waddling by us, trying to hold up his end of a stack of wooden planks My ex-driver rushes over to help

‘Thank you,’ says Sanjay with much relief

I watch them load the planks onto a boat with easy camaraderie

I feel like I have a lead submarine in my stomach when I think about all these people ill probably die because they believedfor

56

The sun flashes off the dark water of the bay below us Even though it’s still afternoon, the sky has a fiery tinge with dark tendrils reaching across it In the distance, the fire on the south end of the peninsula billows slow of the Pit, but it reh, our burning civilization is ironically beautiful The sky is alive and in motion with the reflected colors of the fire in hues of e, yellow, and red There are pluh the air, but instead of blotting out the colors, the sky blends and absorbs it, darkening so with others