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"Too bad," Astrid said
That brought silence She could hear Cigar breathing, so she kneas still there She didn’t knohether he was still looking at Petey Or so that was supposed to be Petey
"He was in ar whispered "I felt hi he took you over?"
"I let hiar said "I wanted him to make me be like I used to be But he couldn’t"
"Where is he now?"
"He’s gone now," Cigar said sadly
Astrid sighed "Yeah Just like a god, never there when you need one"
She listened hard And smelled the air She had an impression, barely an impression, that she could tell in which direction the ocean lay
But she also knew that the land bethere she was and the ocean was largely fertile fields seething with zekes Zekes that had probably not been fed in sohway, but once she got to the highway she would be able to follow it toward town Even in the dark she could stay on a concrete highway
Sahway, because that here Astrid would be Most likely Despite none of the refugees having seen her on their way fro Astrid was not the right move Not yet She would slow him down, even if he found her And she wasn’t a soldier She wasn’t Dekka or Brianna or even Orc They could help hiht; Astrid could not
But oh, Lord, hoanted her now Not to make love but just to have her there in the darkness beside him To hear her voice That above all The sound of her voice was the sound of sanity, and he was entering the valley of shadow Walking into pure, absolute darkness
He walked until he was out of the faint circle of light cast by the nuht, taking solace froht reached only a few feet Turning back as he walked on, he could see it But it cast only a faint light, a light whose photons seemed to tire easily
Into the darkness Step Step
Soment if he bit down any harder
"It’s just the sa changes when the light goes out, Saht on Click Light off The same bed, the same dresser, the same laundry you’ve strewn all over the floor…
Not the point, that younger Saht The threat knows I’m helpless in the dark So that’s not the same
It’s not the same if the threat can see and I can’t