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She had e And she had failed to stop the virus that now claimed nine bodies Instead she’d saved a couple of creeps Yay for her

She and Howard found Albert just as he’d said: sitting with his back against the wall

Lana noticed an awful lot of blood A sht away," Lana observed "Dead people don’t bleed as much And see how the wall is sers on his neck "Then he just sat here and bled to death"

No question in her er exit wound out the far side It looked as if some wild animal had taken a messy bite out of his skull

"I don’t raise the dead," Lana said

"No, wait," Howard insisted He knelt beside her and lifted one eyelid It was dark, there wasn’t hter and flicked the flaain"

Howard lifted the other lid That iris, too, responded

"Huh," Lana said

She pressed both hands against Albert’s head After a fewthat pose she bent his head forward to see the awful exit wound Around the jagged, ripped edges, flesh was growing

"The brother’s not dead," Howard said

"About as close as you can get," Lana said "But no: he’s not dead And this kind of thing, at least, I can heal"

"Boy’s going to owe me," Howard said

"You’re a trip, Howard, as my dad would say," Lana said "You are definitely a trip"

"You’ll tell Albert I brought you, right? You’ll tell hi?"

Howard stood up "Gotta go find Orc I just figured out where he’d go"

Lana got herself into a e around in the house

"You find anything, you better share," Lana called after her dog

The two boats raced toward each other

Six seconds to i Drake would knoas bluffing Drake didn’t fear an i and he would expect Sam to suddenly veer aside

Four seconds to impact

"Jack!" Sam yelled "Up on the bow!"

"What?"

"Do it!" Saht fro the boathook like a lance Like he really was a knight Hopefully Drake had noticed