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"Not fair?" He sucked in a sharp breath, closing his eyes When he spoke again, his voice had returned to his usual soft tones "Never et it, okay? I’ to be easy Don’t do that to her--don’t set her up to be crushed I was in ca Mo to be there for theed"

"Whoa, whoa," Liaed"

That, I could have protested until I was blue in the face

Whoever had unhooked Walood job of finding a safe place to store thelass coated the cement floor, blown out dozens of feet froh their reeter would have been

Next to ainst the sallow dust collected on the floor I shot an arrunted in surprise Even as I helped hiround, where a dozen footprints fanned out in the dust

Every shape and size, fro boot to the decorative swirly curls left behind by a young child’s tennis shoe, all stah

"They could be old," I whispered

Liam nodded but didn’t pull away from my side I hadn’t fooled either of us

The store’s power had been shut off soo, and it was clear it had been open to the wild for too long There was only a second bete first heard the rattling in the nearby shelves and when Liaan, but he silenced

And when the deer, a gorgeous, sweet thing with a silky cara out froazine racks, Liahter

Liaer to his lips and wavedthe dark fleet of identical cash registers in front of us So theainst any unwanted visitors Carefully, without disturbing the pileup of plastic baskets, we cliister’s conveyer belt Standing on top of it, I could see where more shelves had been lined up in front of the other exit It looked as though soh it at one point, bursting through the makeshift barricade

What did that?

I think there’s some part of everyone, Psi or not, that’s tuned into the s, especially terror and desperation, leave an ih to walk through that place again It felt like the darkness was stroking beneathtoterrible happened here, I thought, feeling a cold drip downus the kind of screeching song that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end

I wanted to leave This was not a safe place This was not a place to bring Zu or Chubs--so as Liahts flickered on and off, buzzing like boxes of trapped flies Everything beneath theht, and as he moved farther and farther down the first aisle, it see at the end of it would s hi forward into the sea of empty metal shelves, half of which were knocked flat on their backs or leaning against others in slanted lines, their shelves buckling under soh the sea of lotions, s that seemed so necessary in the past, so vital to life, wasted and forgotten