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Albert was nearby, watching the whole place, arms folded over his chest He was, as usual, the neatest, cleanest, calmest, most focused person there Astrid envied that about Albert: he set a goal and never seemed to suffer any doubt about it Astrid was almost, but not quite, resentful of the way he had co sorry for herself and get her act together

But it had worked She’d finally done what she needed to do She hoped She hadn’t shown the results to anyone yet People ht just decide she was crazy But she hoped not, because even after all the self-doubt, after all the abuse she’d endured, she still thought she was right The FAYZ couldn’t just be Albertbutts The FAYZ needed rules and laws and rights

People were co, drawn by the smell of meat Not a lot of it per person, Albert had made that clear, but in the after lost their li in from the fields, the prospect of any food at all uards ready, four of his own people armed with baseball bats, the default weapon of the FAYZ And two of Edilio’s guys, and Edilio hi over their shoulders

The strange thing was how it no longer sees, sharing a bottle of Scotch with an eleven-year-old with a shaved head and a cape reen bed sheet Kids with sunken eyes Kids with open sores, untreated, barely noticed Boys wearing nothing but boxer shorts and boots Girls wearing their h scissor hacks A girl who had tried to remove her own braces with pliers and now couldn’t close her h her front teeth

And the weapons Everywhere weapons Knives, ranging fro knives in ornate leather sheaths Crowbars Pieces of pipe with taped handles and lanyards Some had been evena wooden table leg to which he had glued big slivers of broken glass

And it had all beco, defenseless children That had changed a lot of people’s attitudes toeapons

But at the saures into their back pockets Stained, torn, ratty comic books still stuck out of waistbands or were clutched in hands with nails as long and filthy as a wolf’s Kids pushed baby strollers loaded with their few possessions

The kids of Perdido Beach were a mess at the best of times But it was so much worse now in the afterray with ash

Coughing was the background noise The flu that had been going around was sure to spread through this crowd, Astrid thought gried by smoke inhalation would be especially vulnerable

But they were still alive, Astrid told herself Against all the odds, more than ninety percent of the kids first trapped in the FAYZ were still alive

Mary led the preschoolers out of the day care into the plaza Astrid looked closely Mary seeirl as about to step in front of a boy on a skateboard

Had she been wrong about Mary? Mary would never forgive her

"Well, so what?" Astrid muttered wearily "It’s not like I was ever popular"