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It was a job that suddenly got a lot harder as a gaggle of a dozen kids ca madly down the slope past the Pit

"Help us! Help! Help us!"

The coyotes knew their prey were getting close to safety That was Sanjit’s conclusion as he watched therown Kids had huddled closer together as the darkness deepened Kids who had started out later ran till they were falling down, desperate to catch up

Those who had begun with a lead began to doubt the wisdo out front So front and back had joinedoff the road, , whining, co of whouess

This was officially a fiasco, he knew One of those efforts that was doomed fro in Perdido Beach, to hand hihts in Perdido Beach, all a waste of time

Too late And unnecessary, anyway, since the crowd of refugees would have gotten the same point across

A stupid, wasted effort

He didn’t bla him It never occurred to him to blame her He was head over heels, lost, lost, lost in love with her But she would agree--if he ever saw her again--that it had not worked out very well

He could barely see a hundred feet to either side of the road The gloom that had been weirdly tea colored had now deepened and shifted in the spectrum The air itself seeht that rey, but of course it wasn’t

A hundred feet was enough to see the coyote pack Their lolling tongues Their intelligent, hyperalert yellow eyes The way their ears stood up and swiveled to each new sound

As soon as it was dark they would come Unless the kids reached the lake before that happened Sanjit could read anxiety in their avid expressions and the way they paced back and forth

"Everyone just stay together and keep e Maybe it was that he was the only one with a gun Others had the usual assortun

Or maybe it was his association with the revered Lana Or the fact that he was ahed He missed Choo He missed all his brothers and sisters, but especially Choo Choo was the pessimistic one, which allowed Sanjit to be the perky opti purposefully toward the crowd of kids

"Don’t do it!" Sanjit yelled, and ai the aniht, with his total lack of skill But the coyote stopped and looked at him More curious than afraid

Sanjit knew the ani the situation up In the math of a coyote the smart move was to kill as many as the pack could Meat didn’t have to be fresh for the the bodies away at their leisure and eat for weeks

Then the coyote spoke The voice was a shock, guttural, slurred like a shovel dragged through wet gravel "Give us the small ones"

"I will absolutely shoot you!" Sanjit said, and walked forward, holding the gun with both hands, self-consciously e a hundred TV cop shows

"Give us three," the coyote said without the slightest evidence of fear

Sanjit said so rude and defiant

But so eaten!"