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"Here you go," Rob said, passing us each a black backpack My fellow freak snatched his, checking its contents like it was a party favor bag

"It looks like the bathroo water I wouldn’t try drinking it though," Rob continued "There’s a change of clothes and some necessities in there Don’t take a million years, but feel free to wash that camp off you"

Wash Thurmond off me? Rub it off like a splatter of mud? I may have been able to erase everyone else’swithout a word, the beginnings of a headache ru at the base of h to take a step back My heel caught on the uneven ceround I threw out my arms in a la I found was Rob’s ar me, but he should have let h as it went tuhts All at once, the pressure that had been building in the back of rittedmy system as I tried to yank myself away

Unlike Cate’seyelashes, Rob’s thoughts seeic…velvety and ether so lass of water, the darkuntil it finally polluted everything that had once been clean

I was Rob, and Rob was staring down at two dark shapes--two dark sacks covered their heads, but it was obvious that one was a man and the other a wo inshook her entire body, but she never stopped struggling against the plastic ties binding her hands and feet

Rain cah the gutters of the nearby buildings Through the filter of Rob’s mind, it sounded like static Two enormous black Dumpsters came into focus out of the corner of my eye, and it was only then that I realized ere in an alley, and ere alone

Rob’s hand--my hand--reached out and ripped the hood off the wo over her face

But it wasn’t a wo a set of dark green clothes A unifor down over her cheeks into her mouth, Her colorless lips formed the shape please and her eyes seeun in un that was tucked in the back of Rob’s jeans The saun jumped in my hand as it went off, but in that instant, the flash lit up her terrified face, an unfinished screa A spray of blood flicked up overthe dark jacket I wore…and the edge of the white cuff beneath it

The boy died the same way, only Rob didn’t bother to even take his hood off before he ended his life The bodies were lifted into the Durow smaller, and smaller, and smaller until the dark, cloudy haze of Rob’sup froasp

Rob released my arm instantly, but Cate dove forward and would have taken his place if I hadn’t raised both hands to stop her

"Are you all right?" she asked "You’ve gone pale"

"I’ to keepa little woozy froh behindimpatiently He slid a suspicious eye in my direction, and for half a heartbeat I was afraid he knew exactly what had just happened But, no--connections like that were fast, and lasted only a few seconds, no round, carefully avoiding both the adults’ faces I couldn’t bringwhat he had done--and I knew if I looked at Cate, I’d give , and I wouldn’t be able to lie, not convincingly I’d have to tell her that her boyfriend or partner or whatever he was had left the brains of two kids splattered all over an alleyway

Rob tried to offer me a plastic water bottle from the front seat, his ain on the tiny red flecks staining his cuff

He killed theh o, but it didn’t seeed his shirt, or tried to clean it off? And then he came here--to kill us, too?

Rob s Smiled Like he hadn’t just snuffed out two lives at point-blank range and watched the rain carry their blood into the gutters

My hands were shaking so hard now that I had to fist theht I had escaped the monsters, that I’d left them locked up behind an electric fence But the shadoere alive, and they had chasedits way upBecause I had no doubt, not one single wisp of uncertainty, that if he knehat I had just seen, Cate would spend the next few days bleaching ht, following Martin into the gas station Cate, who smelled like rosemary, who carried me down the hallho saved my life She as station looked like it had been ravaged by wild aniood chance that it had been Muddy paw tracks in all shapes and sizes created dizzying patterns on the floor, cutting over sticky patches of red and brown to the shelves of food

The store sh the drink cases were still flickering with intermittent electricity Most of them had been cleared out of sodas and beer, but there was a surprising amount left--and no wonder The store had marked up milk to ten dollars a carton The same went for the food Sos and candy bars, all priced like they were endangered, precious goods Others had been picked clean, or were exploding with popcorn and pretzels after their bags had been gutted