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Who could stand against the

And Gaia had yet to even reveal the extent of her oer

Diana wanted to laugh aloud and dance around with her baby But even as the high of joy washed through her, Diana felt the falseness of it The strained edginess of it She wanted to shout for joy and scream for joy and then stab the baby, her baby, her beloved little daughter, stab her with a knife For joy

Gaia was looking at her Her eyes held her Diana couldn’t look away They cut right through her and saw the truth Gaia could see the fear inside Diana, the fear of Gaia

Gaia laughed and clapped her hands and her blue eyes shone and Diana felt weak inside, and sick, and all the suffering her body had been through all felt as if it was still there and only concealed fro on stick-figure legs that would snap and collapse

Screa children pursued Diana as she held her baby close and looked fearfully into her glittering eyes

There was no way the suspension on Connie’s car was built for this road The Ca through steel

But the time for hesitation was over Noas the time for her to behave like a er

In the rearviewa little better Fine: if they survived this day they could drive hoain

The road cahhen they were just half aup would be obvious

Sure enough, as the awful blank monstrosity that was the Perdido Beach Anomaly filled the entire field of view, Connie heard a helicopter overhead

A loudspeaker blared, audible even over the chop-chop-chop of the rotors

"You are in a dangerous, restricted area Turn around immediately"

This was repeated several tian to land in the road a quarter mile away

In the rearview , crazy veer into the rough terrain She was angling toward the highhere it h the remains of the hastily moved camp

There were still a few trailers there Still a satellite dish array Duized to her car, and veered after Abana

It was no longer a case of the car just botto and crashing Each i sowheel tore itself fro through the reain and it blew overhead

It executed a daring, almost suicidal maneuver, and landed way too hard in the final feet of pave wall of the barrier

Two soldiers juuns drawn