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Grey reared back, squeezing his hand into a fist, and sent it plunging into the driver’sHe expected to be , but that didn’t happen; his hand passed through the glass as if it wasshards Before Lila could react, he opened the door and wedged himself into the driver’s seat and jammed the car into reverse He spun into a 180, shifted into drive, and hit the gas But the moment of escape had passed; suddenly they were in theAs more planes rocketed past, a wall of fire rose before theht, and in the next instant they were barreling through the corn rows, the tires spinning wildly in the soft earth, heavy green leaves slapping the windshield They burst from the field and, too late, Grey saw the culvert The Volvo rocketed down, then up, the car going aloft before crashing onto its wheels again Lila was screa, and that hen Grey found it: a road He yanked the wheel and shoved the accelerator to the floor They were racing parallel with the culvert; the sun had dipped below the horizon, sinking the fields into an inky blackness while the sky exploded with fire

But not just fire: suddenly the car ashed with a brilliant light

"Stop your vehicle"

The windshield filled with an i Grey ja both of them forward As the helicopter touched down on the roadway, Grey heard a tinkle of breaking glass and soht of a soup can,sound

"Lila, run!"

He threw the door open, but the gas was already inside his; helike a gathering wave to one all watery and far away A great as pushing over his face At the edge of his vision he saw the space-suitedLila toward the helicopter She was suspended face-down, her body liround "Don’t hurt her!" Grey said "Please don’t hurt the baby!" But these words seeures were above hi bodiless over the earth, like ghosts The stars were coht I really must be dead this time And he felt their hands upon hih the day; by the tied from the lead Humvee and strode back to the bus

"This is where we leave you The sentries at the gate will tell you what to do"

They were in so area: trucks of supplies, uessed he was looking at a force at least the size of two battalions Adjacent to this was a gated co topped with concertina wire

"Where are you off to?" Kittridge asked He wondered where the fight was now

Porcheki shrugged Wherever they tell eant Just remember what I said"

The convoy dreay "Pull ahead, Danny," Kittridge said "Slowly"

Two e sign affixed to the wire read: FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY REFUGEE PROCESSING CENTER NO REENTRY NO FIREARMS PAST THIS POINT

Twenty feet from the entrance, the soldiers motioned for them to halt One of the sentries stepped to the driver’sA kid, not a day over twenty, with a spray of acne on his cheeks

"How in?"

The tags had long since been stripped fro into the radio clipped to his shoulder The second was still standing at the sealed gate with his weapon pointing skyward

"Okay, kill the engine and stay where you are"

Mo, which he held up to the"Put any weapons and cell phones in here and pass it to the front"

The ban on weapons Kittridge understood, but cell phones? None of thenal in days

"This many people, the local netould crash if people tried to use them Sorry, those are the rules"

This explanation struck Kittridge as thin, but there was nothing to be done He received the bag and moved up and down the center aisle When he came to Mrs Bellamy, the wo o to the beauty parlor without it"

Kittridge did his best to sht you are But we’re safe here You have my word"

With visible reluctance she withdrew the enormous revolver froe toted the bag to the front of the bus and left it at the base of the stairs; the first soldier reached inside and whisked it away They were ordered to diseear and stand clear of the bus while one of the soldiers searched their luggage Beyond the gate Kittridge could see a large, open shed where people had gathered More soldiers wereup and down the fence line

"Okay," the sentry said, "you’re good to go Report to the processing area, they’ll billet you"

"What about the bus?" Kittridge asked

"All fuel and vehicles are being commandeered by the United States e saw the stricken look on Danny’s face One of the soldiers was boarding the bus to drive it away

"What’s with hie turned to Danny "It’s okay, they’ll take good care of it"

He could see the struggle in the man’s eyes Then Danny nodded

"They better," he said

The space was packed with people waiting in lines before a long table Families with children, old people, couples, even a blindwoman in a Red Cross T-shirt, her auburn hair pulled back fro up and down the lines with a handheld

"Any unaccoiven up on the mask Her eyes were harried, drained by sleeplessness She looked at April and Tim "What about you two?"

"He’s hteen"

The wo

"We’d like to all stay together," said Kittridge

The wo on her handheld "I’ood, Kittridge thought, to get a naht us in said we’d be evacuated to Chicago or St Louis"

A strip of paper slid from the handheld’s port Vera tore it off and passed it to Kittridge "We’re still waiting on buses It shouldn’t be long now Show this to the worker at the desk"

They were assigned a tent and given plastic disks that would serve as ration coupons, then moved into the noise and smells of the camp: wood sround wason ca at a pump to fill buckets ater, stretched out in lawn chairs like spectators at a tailgate party, a look of dazed exhaustion on their faces All the garbage cans were overflowing, clouds of flies hovering A cruel sun was beating down Apart froees appeared to have coasless cars abandoned

Two people had already been billeted in their tent, an older couple, Fred and Lucy Wilkes They were fro for a wedding when the epidemic hit They’d been in the cae asked Joe Robinson had gone off to find out about rations, Wood and Delores to see about water April had let her brother run off with so him not to wander far Danny had acco?"