Page 5 (1/2)

"There’s a railing there," Caine said

"He went through it Crash Bu way down Me and Penny just cli way down"

Caine wanted this to stop He didn’t want to have to hear the next part Panda had been okay Not a horrible kid Not like so followers

Maybe that explained why he would drive a car off a cliff

"Anyway, he’s totally dead," Bug said "Me and Penny got hiot to his feet Legs shaky, stomach like a black hole, mind filled with darkness "Show ht Feet crunched on gravel now interrupted by tall weeds Poor old Coates Acadeht It had always been so meticulously maintained back in the old days The head blast hole in the front of the building, or the garbage strewn here and there in the overgrown grass

It wasn’t a long walk Caine did not speak He used Bug so was useful But the little creep was not exactly a friend

In the pearly starlight it was easy to see where the railing had been ripped apart It was like a steel ribbon, cut then left half curled, dangling over the side

Caine peered through the darkness He could see the car It was upside down One door was open

It took a few hed and raised his hands It was near the liround He sort of scuffed and scooted along at first Like an invisible predator was hauling hirip" and Panda rose off the ground He was on his back, staring up at the unreal stars, eyes still open

Caine levitated the boy up froentle a stop as he could Panda lay now on the road

Without a word, Caine started walking back to Coates

"Aren’t you going to carry hi whined

"Get a wheelbarrow," Caine said "Carry your own meat"

THREE

63 HOURS, 31 MINUTES

THE WHIP CAME down

It waspython that sliced the flesh from his arms and back and chest

The pain was too terrible to endure But he had endured it

He had begged for death Saed the psychopath to kill hiive him the only relief possible