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"Zu?" Lia another yelp out of Chubs as he kicked his leg "Zu? Did you--?"

She only cried harder, burying her face in her gloves

"Oh onized, like his guts were being torn straight out of hiainst his et another word out

"Zu," I said, sounding strangely calm to my own ears "Listen to me You saved us We wouldn’t have made it without you"

Lia I was there I winced, but how could I be upset that he would check on his real friends first?

I felt his eyes on the back of my neck as he worked his way back up to me When he reached the driver’s seat, he collapsed into it, his face drawn and pale "Are you all right?" he asked, his voice rough "What happened? How did you get us out?"

"It was Zu," I began, already well aware of the narrow line I’d have to walk between the truth and what I could actually tell them--both for myself and for Zu’s sake I wasn’t sure how much she actually remembered from what happened, but I wasn’t about to confirm any of her fears In the end, all I said was, "She sent one car crashing into the other It knocked one of the guys out and sent the other one running"

"What was"--Chubs was having a hard ti--"that horrible noise?"

I stared at hi to push the words past my disbelief "You’ve never heard that before?"

The boys both shook their heads "Jesus," Liah a blender while being electrocuted"

"You really didn’t have White Noise? Cal at my heart What camp had these kids been in? Candy Land?

"And you did?" Lia

"They used it at Thurmond to…disable us," I explained "When there were outbursts or probleh to use your abilities"

"Why are you all right?" Chubs wheezed, half suspicious, half jealous

That was the question of the day, wasn’t it? My long, sordid history with the White Noise included several episodes of fainting, vo, and memory loss, not toprofusely out of uess once you’d had a taste of the worst, pretty bad isn’t all that terrible If it was their first ti with it, that would at least explain why they wilted like dead grass after only a few seconds