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"I’ tears prick at the back of "

"Me too," he said after a minute, and I didn’t need to look back to know that he was crying, too

The laptop was stored in the top drawer of his desk, the note taped to the top of it glaringly yellow

Ruby,

I lied before I would have run

--CG

"Chubs!" I called, waving him over The power-on chime was oddly sweet Little bells

"He just left it here?" Chubs asked, tapping his fingers against the desk "Is the wireless card still there?"

It was, but Clancy had taken care to wipe everything else from the co in the middle of the screen

"Why does the clock in the corner say fifteen?" Chubs asked, sitting down in the chair I leaned over to see what he was pointing at The battery life We only had fifteen minutes

"That assle," I fu As long as the connection holds, we can use it to try to figure out a way out of here We can even look up Jack’s father’s new address"

"And post youra frail wave of happiness cut through me

"It’s okay I’d rather use these…fourteen ht even be able to put a call through to him if the computer has a microphone"

He didn’t dare try to call his own parents

"Seriously," I began "It’ll take you two seconds to post the h to make it work," he said

Ito hi in the room’s stale smell My feet drew me over to the side of Clancy’s bed, where I finally stopped,even the anxiety I felt

The as coated in soot and protested bitterly when I tried to throw it open The flood of fresh air that rushed in ainst the sill The camp was spread out before me in piles of ash and scorched earth, but it was all too easy to iet their food by the fire pit When I closedup to me, taste the spice of chili and wood s his hair pure gold as he bent his head in quiet conversation with the others