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His dad liked that part, the part where Orc was desperately trying to stay out of his way but was forced to sit down and do his homehile his father drank beer after beer and dropped the cans beside his chair, waiting until he had an excuse--al would do

His father sober was distant and indifferent His father drunk was a ly

He wondered if his father knew he could coh the dome And ould he say if he saw Orc now? Make that snorting sound of his, that sound that said, You’re worthless

If that happened

His father was a big th to match Orc could snap hier Orc delicately touched the tiny patch of human skin near his mouth It tickled

If the barrier cahts And sooner or later his father would, too Orc was sure if he ever saw his father again, he would kill the man

That was the death that shadowed the valley That was the evil And God’s staff would have to

"Don’t let it come down, Lord," he prayed "I know all them kids want to see their moms and all But please, God, don’t let that barrier come down"

Sam was asleep, finally, facedown, uncovered, naked, and turned slightly away froht Sam Temple, the hero of most of the kids in the FAYZ, had always been a little afraid of the dark So he had created a night-light for this dark space

It was not a norer than a marble It floated in a corner above the bunk Astrid had taped a sheet of red paper in front of it so that its green, unnatural gloould be softened The tape had coht only interhtest breeze, drifted as the boat gently rocked

When the light brightened, Sam would appear as bits and pieces--a broad back, a flicker of round, pale bottoht softened, he would be al, and a scent, and a waret cold after a while and wake up and realize she wasn’t sleeping and that would worry hi to read by the uncertain light The book was on law, and Astrid had become convinced by the book that she would never be a lawyer, or even try She could read , but this was a very dull book, and it did very little to distract her from the view

My God: she was happy

The very idea that she should be happy was absurd It was als were desperate, but then they had been for a long ti since become the new normal

If the barrier really did coameThey were fifteen Out there, out in the world, they had no legal right to be together

They’d been through hell They’d been through a whole series of hells, and they were still together But none of that wouldin the eyes of the law Her parents, or his ers and break what Sam and Astrid had built

It was not the first tiht that

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