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ONE
66 HOURS, 52 MINUTES
OBSCENE GRAFFITI
S arnings to freaks to get out
In the distance, up the street, too far away for Sam to want to chase after, a couple of kids, maybe ten years old, ht Just outlines The kids passing a bottle back and forth, taking swigs, staggering
Grass growing everywhere Weeds forcing their way up through cracks in the street Trash: chip bags, six-pack rings, supers, randoer wrappers, broken toys, broken bottles, and cru that wasn’t actually edible--fornant reminders of better days
Darkness so deep, you’d have had to walk off into the wilderness in the old days to experience anything like it
Not a streetlight or a porch light Electricity out Maybe forever
No one wasting batteries, not anymore Those, too, were in very short supply
And not ht trash fires Not after the fire that burned down three homes and burned one kid so bad, it took Lana, the Healer, half a day to save hi out of fire hydrants Nothing to do about fire but watch it burn and get out of its way
Perdido Beach, California
At least it used to be California
Noas Perdido Beach, the FAYZ Wherever, whatever, and whyever that was
Sa beaht that would hang in the air like a lantern Like lightning in a bottle
But not too hts, what kids called Sammy Suns Zil Sperry, leader of the Huhts Most of the norht advertisement of who and what they were
The fear had spread A disease It leaped from person to person
People sat in the dark, afraid Always afraid
Saerous part of town, the part Zil had declared off-li, so to speak, dee Show that he wouldn’t be intin of fear
Kids needed that They needed to see that someone would still protect them That someone was him
He had resisted that role, but it had come to him, anyway And he was determined to play it out Whenever he let up, whenever he lost focus, tried to have a different life, so awful happened
So he walked the streets at two in the , ready Just in case
Sam walked near the shore There was no surf, of course Not any the Pacific to crash in ainst Perdido’s beaches