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"Yeah, well, no one is immune," Edilio would shout back

"How ary for a day Give us ti out of your body?"

How had that news spread so fast? Everyone knew about Roscoe being locked up No phones, no texts, no es almost instantly

"No, no, this is just flu," Edilio said, stretching the truth al and fever One kid’s already died, so just do what I’, okay?"

In fact, three kids had died Pookie and a girl named Melissa and Jennifer H Three, not one Andin every house in this ghost town No point in spreading h to get their attention Three deaths, on top of the bugs sout-roaches, that was enough to create panic

Edilio had no idea if a quarantine would work He would get his guys to try and enforce it: the sheriffs at least would still be on the street But ere they supposed to do if kids decided to ignore it? Shoot them to save them?

He couldn’t tell people to wash their hands: no one had washing water in their hoh to go around and what they had was just for the so-called hospital

Nothing they could do but ask kids to stay hoht of Roscoe locked in his prison Were the bugs eating hi touch had fixed her, but the Breeze was shaken up Scared

He thought of the ht of Orc No one had seen him Plenty had heard hi to his previous presence

He thought of Howard, out walking the streets looking for Orc, refusing to stop, even when Edilio ordered hiht of the two people who had held his job before hi to hold this group of kids together in the face of one disaster after another Both of them now happy to let Edilio handle it

"No wonder," Edilio muttered

"Stay inside unless absolutely necessary," Edilio shouted, and not for the first or last time wished he was still just Sam’s faithful sidekick

Chapter Sixteen

33 HOURS, 40 MINUTES

BLAZING SUNLIGHT, DIRECTLY overhead, woke Orc

It took him quite a while to sort out where he was There were desks The kind they had in school He was on the floor, a cold linoleum-tile floor, and the desks were tossed and piled around hie

So ritten on it, but Orc’s eyes wouldn’t focus well enough to read it

The really confusing thing was the hole in the ceiling and part of the wall that allowed sunlight to pour so directly on his face, on his blinking eyes The wall had been partly torn down, and without support a part of the ceiling had collapsed

He felt soht hand A hunk of wallboard