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We hadn’t passed through any gates or enclosures of any kind, nothing to indicate that we’d entered their camp at all As far as I was concerned, ere still in the middle of the desert

"Busy," a boy I couldn’t see answered, and a round of laughter ruroup I wasn’t sure why, but for whatever reason, ere the butt of so

"Not too busy for us," Siets word that Siave our two ca to be one of the boys with her hair cropped close like that, or if she just liked the way it looked Her scalp was visible, but even that wasn’t enough to uy, not with such delicate features and thick, black lashes Soood "I knew I recognized you," she spat, playing up her whole onna show your face here?" She looked around at the others--her cohorts "Dude used to be one of us But he couldn’t cut it here, so he had to start his own ca back to Siht you could take us in our own house?" She snorted, and so did the rest of theain "Joke’s on you, isn’t it?"

"You come up with that theory all on your own?" Simon popped off "You really think we came here to attack you?" He turned to Thoht Griffin wouldn’t let ’eirl "That’d be dangerous You don’t wanna hurt that pretty little head of yours, do you, darlin’?" He winked at her then, which was definitely a mistake

Her dark blue eyes flashed and she carunted as she rammed the butt of her rifle into his face

Simon didn’t even try to defend himself I flinched as I heard that sound--which wasn’t soas it was the surreal sound of Simon’s nose as it dislocated when the base of her weapon sround in front of her, falling on his hands and knees, while she stood poised above hi satisfied with herself Blood pooled into the sand beneath him

I couldn’t tear my eyes away as I waited for one of them to move first Either for Simon to retaliate, or for her to decide she hadn’t satisfied her bloodlust just yet

But they both stayed where they were Eventually, Si you haven’t figured out yet is, Griffin’s truth is twisted The Returned should be working together, not turning on one another" His words came out mumbled, but we could understand him all the same

Except no one cared what Simon had to say, and he was hauled to his feet once ledto say too

"What is this place?" I pressed ainst the dirt-s at all like sleepy Silent Creek This was more like boot ca kind you slept in during summer excursions with your family These were the heavy canvas tents of war The ones with beat-up Humvees, or maybe even tanks, parked out front

There were obstacle courses, too Tall rope walls, and orange cones set up at regular intervals, and rows of tackle duh school during practice And even at this hour, several people were running in formation, their paces perfectly timed, military-style

We were so not in Kansas anymore

Thom’s voice came fro the predawn drills "To the outside world, it’s one of those camps for troubled teens The kind of place parents spend a ss or being delinquents Utah has a ton of those places since the laws are "

I ed me aside so he could pry yet another faceplate off one of the outlets, this ti He was on a mission to find some way to tap into their communications system So far he’d pulled apart every outlet, wall plate, and even the overhead lights, trying to find the right coe out to the Silent Creekers so we could let theht be in over our heads here

"It makes it easy to hide a bunch of teens in the desert," Thoroup of o into town"

"What about the guns?" I asked "No one questions that either?"

Sih to answer "The kind of people they buy weapons froet their er do you think they’ll hold us here?" All of us except Willow had been confined to a room with two army-style cots, a sink, and a toilet that sat s to shield it fro in jail, e jumpsuits No one would tell us where Willow had been taken, and ere in no position to lodge a complaint