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At the corner of the intersection, they’d walked right up to the smashed-in facade of some kind of hardware store and stepped over the busted s and into the building I heard a laugh, voices--and my blood slowed to a crawl in my veins

They weren’t soldiers

Ithe side of the building until I reached the s and dropped down into a crouch

"--where did you find this?"

"Good shit, ht I’d be so dae Inside, three of our agents--Ferguson, Gates, and Sen--were hunkered down, a small spread of food in front of the of potato chips so hard he nearly split it in half

They have food I couldn’t getfood here The disbelief was so nuht at a time

They aren’t bringing the food back for the rest of us

Was this as happening each ti to scout for supplies themselves; I’d assuot picked up, they’d iroup’s current location But was this the real reason? So they’d get first dibs on whatever they turned up?

A cold, icy fury turned ers into claws My broken nails cut intoin ood," Sen said She was a beast of a woman--tall, with muscles packed under taut, leathery skin There was always this expression on her face likelike she knehere all the bodies were buried because she’d put thened to speak to any of us kids, it was to bark at us to shut up

I waited through the silence that followed, anger flaring with each second

"We should get back," Ferguson said, starting to rise

"They’re fine Even if Stewart beats us back, Reynolds is there to ain"

"I’m more worried about"