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And then, there were the other freaks: that glowering lesbian thug Dekka, the brat Brianna And Sam himself

Always Sam

The compound was four houses at the end of Fourth Avenue, past Golding The street dead-ended there in a sort of cul-de-sac Four not-very-big, not-very-fancy houses They’d set up a roadblock of cars to form a wall across Fourth Avenue The cars had to be pushed into place--the batteries were all dead, all except the few vehicles Sa condition

At the center of the roadblock was a narrow gap, an opening A square and blocky once-white Scion was in position to one side of the opening It was light enough that four kids could push it across the opening to block the gate

Dekka could of course si into the air That and the rest of Zil’s defenses

But they had not coutless Sam? He would have come after him Dekka? She would love to coh the co her freak speed to blow past sentries al wire after that Let Brianna coet the surprise of her life

Saht be able to handle the rest

At noon, when everyone would be scrounging lunch, Zil led Hank, Turk, Antoine, and Lance out of the cohway, and north to the foothills of the ridge

The farmhouse That freak Emily and her moron brother At first Turk had mentioned it as a place he knew from back, before He’d attended a birthday party there for the boy named Brother Brother and Emily were homeschooled, and Turk knew them from church

Turk had been surprised to find Brother and Emily still there And they’d all been surprised to find that Ereed to let Hus there

So Zil had put up with theames they couldn’t really play in order to have the farm as a safe house But when the time came…well, a freak was still a freak, even if she was useful

Reaching the faras station first Fortunately there was a deep ditch, an open storas station There were no more storms, so it was dry and choked eeds But there was a path there, and as long as they kept quiet, Edilio’s soldiers at the gas station wouldn’t hear thehway for a while All the pickers would be in the fields having lunch No one would be hauling produce to town

The highas eerily erew tall on the shoulders of the road Cars that had crashed there during the first few seconds of the FAYZ still sat empty, dusty, useless Relics of a dead era Their doors were ajar, trunk lids raised, s often shattered Every glove comparters for food, weapons, drugs…

One of those cars had been the source of Zil’s s with two bricks of coies stuffed with meth Antoine had probably snorted half the powder already, stupid tweeker