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I reached over and punched hi away from me ide eyes "What was that for?"

"That was not like riding a bike, you assle!"

He stared atIt was Suzuhter, an endless streaht pink and left her breathless Seconds passed with her laughter as the only sound able to float up above the rain--at least until Chubs put his face in his hands and let out a long groan

"Oh yeah," Liaonna fit in real nice"

The rain had slowed to a drizzle by the tiot to work on the back tire I had stayed exactly where I was in the driver’s seat,The other two kids had ju to the back of the van with Liah the cracked windshield as heus in the direction of the Monongahela National Forest After a --a paperback book--out of his back pocket, and sat down at the edge of the road Feelingto , and the other half covered by his hand I don’t know if he was actually reading or just glaring at the text

I had pulled us over into Slaty Fork, West Virginia, if the road signs were to be trusted What I thought had been sohway 219, in the ht have lost its people, but it didn’t look as though Slaty Fork had any to begin with

I stood up from the driver’s seat and made my way to the back of theto shake out that last bit of adrenaline singing in iven me had been thrown into the backseat, covered in a few loose sheets of newspaper and an empty bottle of Windex

I brushed the backpack off and set it down next to me on the seat The newspaper was over three years old and stiff with age There was a half-page ad for a new face crea

I flipped the sheet over, looking for any actual news I skimmed over an opinion piece that celebrated the rehabilitation camps and wasopenly referred to as " that the reporter clai tensions between the West and East governe, past some fluff story about the anniversary of some train conductors’ strike, was a picture of Clancy Gray

"President’s Son Attends Children’s League Hearing," is what the headline beneath it said I didn’t need to read ist: the president was too big of a coward to co after a failed assassination attempt, so he sent his freak baby to do the dirty work for him How old was Clancy noondered The pictures at Thurht of hi older than eleven or twelve But he hteen or close to by now Practically an old geezer by our standards

I tossed the paper aside in disgust and reached for e of clothes inside, and if that was the case, I was getting out of my Thurmond uniform once and for all