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"Ohconvention? You realize ould have happened if we’d been caught, don’t you?" he railed "And they were shooting at us! Shooting! With a gun!"

Soled

"Well, I’lad you find it funny!" the other one said "Do you knohat happens when you get shot, Suzuh--"

"Chubs!" The other boy’s voice was sharp enough to cut off whatever gory tale he was about to share "Settle down, okay? We’re fine That was a little bit closer than I would have liked, but still We’ll just have to try to ht, Zu?"

The first voice let out a strangled groan

"I’entle, which was enough for uy who had o with you to get food You’re not hurt, right?"

The vibrations fro around so loudly in the drink holder that I alrab it When the first boy spoke again, I had to strainfor so at us!"

Feeling left ers

You’re safe, I told ly put themselves in the line of fire for me

I should have known this would happen This, notoff alone into a deserted town, should have been my first concern But I had panicked, and it was likepool of terror

"--a nu, "but let’s try to focus on finding East River--"

I needed to get out now Right now This had been a terrible idea, maybe evenCate and Rob I would still have a chance of escaping them, too

I looped the straps of the backpack overin a deep drag of the , I used the rear seat to propthe road It was raining harder now; the fat drops were falling too fast for the windshield wipers to keep up with theht into an Iinia Silver skies were above and a black road was below--and solow of the trees with their new spring coats

Lia a beat-up leather jacket, darker across the shoulders where the rain had soaked through His hair was a light, ashy blond that stood on end when he ran a hand through it Every now and then he would glance to the dark-skinned teen in the passenger seat, but it wasn’t until he cast a quick look into the rearview mirror that I saw his eyes were blue

"I can’t see out of the back hen you--" His words choked off as he did a double take

The ht as he spun around in his seat and turned the wheel with hiled noise as the car jerked to the right, toward the side of the road The girl glanced back over her shoulder at me, her expression somewhere between surprise and exasperation