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But it never ca inside of ht "We can always use an extra set of hands," Si his canored Simon’s olive branch, if that’s even what it was, and shoved past hi this for Simon He climbed all the way in the back, to the third rohere no one else was sitting He didn’t acknowledge anyone, not even Natty, like she wasn’t the reason he was there in the first place

"Can he do that?" I whispered to Jett before we got in too

Jett just shrugged "He can do whatever he wants It’s his ca back to where a few athered to see us off "In case you hadn’t noticed, this place is like a well-oiled machine I think they can spare hi in beside Natty and ignoring the tension alreadyinside the vehicle If it kept up like this, I’d have a raging headache before weSilent Creek It otten sort of used to the orderliness of it here

Silent Creek’s remotean entire camp of eternal teens fro cohost tohen tied decades earlier Most of the locals fled, leaving only a handful of holdouts who’d refused to vacate the outlying areas The decaying old church in the center of the small settlement had turned out to be the perfect operation center for the Returned

During h Silent Creek, which Natty said almost never happened, mostly because the place was so far off the beaten path And since there were no stores or cafés or gas stations, not even a single latte stand, there were zero reasons to stop, even on those rare occasions when someone did stray their way

And it hadn’t escaped my notice that up here, cocooned in the mountains the ere, it felt somehow safer I mean sure, Jett had to "jack" his internet connection, which I assually hacked into soroceries were some forty miles away at a convenience store where truckers and RVers stopped to stock up on energy drinks and chips while they filled their tanks, but at least we didn’t have the No-Suchers breathing down our necks

Plus, the stars here were so bright they were practically fake, and yet every night they appeared, they sort-of-totally-absolutely tookto my calculations, and trust on ca the lines of six hours If I was being co it should’ve taken--you know, because of the calculations and all--six hours and seventeen minutes And I’d planned to count down every last second on Jett’s watch

But things didn’t go exactly as planned, and instead of taking just over six hours, ere closing in on eight and a half, none of which was because Willow had decided to take the scenic route A mere fifteen as station we’d stopped at to refuel Simon had picked the stop because he doubted they had surveillance cameras the NSA could tap into He was so certain, in fact, he even let us get out and stretch our legs while aited But fifteendeal

The other hour-plus was taken up by the tire we’d blown in the hway I shouldn’t co skills and had souardrail, or worse, fro up in a fiery heap of scrap nificantly less drae the flat

And when I say we, I mean Willow and Simon I was useless, mostly because there was no way Willoould ever have letwith Jett, Natty, and Tho in his power to avoid everyone Even Si as Willow’s one-ot her hands dirty

But apparently our "spare" was just that, a teet a replacement When we finally made it to the next crappy little station--also presued to procure us a not-necessarily-new but definitely-not-flat tire to get us back on the road again

Every time Simon ain I didn’t want to adot to Tacoed the countdown in my head

The hours, theet back any of the ti the five years I’d missed, but at least with Willoho didn’t worry about such insignificantlike that, behind the wheel we ht make up some of the tie over the Colu ere entering Washington--the state where I’d been bornthe state Tyler had vanished froain