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"Sos we like to remember The love we’ve felt for people"

"The way I love you," said Wolgast

Amy nodded

"Because I do, you know," he said "Did I ever tell you that?"

"You didn’t need to say it I always knew I knew it froretful "It’s better when it’s said"

A silence descended, deep as the forest, deep as the snow that fell upon it

"So her face "Soed"

"I think that it has, yes"

A soft darkness was es It always happened this way, like lights going down on a stage until all that remained was the two of therinned, "I like it" A moment passed, then: "Did you tell Carter how sorry I was?"

"He knows"

Wolgast was gazing past her "That’s soive myself for I knew it just to look at him He loved that woman with his whole heart" He dropped his eyes to the Monopoly board "Looks like we’re done here I don’t kno you do it I’ll get you next time"

"Would you like to read?"

They took their place on the couch beneath the woolen blanket Mugs of hot cocoa sat on the table, having arrived, like everything else, of their own accord Wolgast lifted the book and riffled the pages until he found the right one

"The Time Machine, chapter seven" He cleared his throat and turned his face toward her "My brave girl My brave Amy I really do, you know"

"I love you, too," said Aainst him

And in this manner they passed an infinity of hours, the barest blink of an eye, until the darkness, a blanket in its own right, settled down upon them

Chapter 52

They followed the eastern supply line north to Texarkana, taking food and fuel and sleeping in the hardboxes Their vehicle was one of Tifty’s, a so truck retrofitted as a portable, which they would soon need: north of Little Rock they’d be sheltering in the open Fuel was a problem they didn’t have, Tifty explained The truck could carry an extra two hundred gallons in reserve, and on his trip north with Greer and Crukshank, fifteen years ago, they’d scouted sources all the way to the Iowa line-airfields, diesel power plants, large co tanks The truck was equipped with a filtering system they could use to strip out the conta coood weather, they could reach Iowa by the ht in the portable occurred a hundred ht fell, Tifty retrieved a large plastic jug fro over his face, and poured the contents, a clear liquid, in a line around the vehicle

"What’s in that stuff?" Lore asked The stink was eye-watering

"Old family recipe The dracs hate it-plus, it covers our smell They won’t even knoe’re in there"

They ate their dinner of beans and hardtack and bedded down on the racks Soon Hollis was snoring away Hollis? Peter thought No, Lore She slept the way she did everything: however she liked Peter could understand why Michael was drawn to her-her attraction was powerful-but also why his friend wouldn’t co wanted so badly? Even if the quarry wanted to be caught, it put up a struggle During their days of waiting at the refinery, Peter had wondered,with him She was, he decided; but it was only a tactic She was trying to draw herself deeper into Michael’s world Once she got to the heart of it, he’d have no defenses left; Michael would be hers

Peter shifted on his rack, trying toto sleep in a portable Just when he would begin drifting off, a noise from outside would jar him into wakefulness One tiht They’d actually lifted the frame and attempted to turn it over To keep their spirits up, thepoker and telling jokes, as if nothing of i Hell of a racket out there was the most anyone would say How am I supposed to concentrate on the cards? Peter would miss that life; he was AWOL nine days, as much of an outlaw as Hollis or Tifty No ht offer in Peter’s defense, the e had been clear: you do this on your own; no one’s going to say they knew you

The next thing he are of, Hollis was shaking him awake They disembarked into the cold This far north, there could be no doubt of the change of seasons The sky set loith heavy gray clouds like for at the ground around the truck "No tracks at all"

They drove on The absence of virals nagged at Peter’s mind Even outside the hardboxes they’d seen no tracks, no scat A welco, as if the virals were saving soress slowed, the roads becoue; frequently Tifty had to stop the truck to recalculate their course, using a compass and maps and sometimes a sextant, a device Peter had never seen before Michael showed hile to the horizon, and taking into account the time and date, it was possible to compute their location without any other points of reference The instrument was typically used on ships at sea, Michael explained, where the horizon was unobstructed, but it could work on land, too How do you know this stuff? Peter asked, but realized as he posed the question what the ansas Michael had taught himself to use a sextant for that day when he would sail out to find, or not find, the barrier

The days of travel passed, and still no virals By now they were openly puzzling over this, though the discussion never advanced beyond noting its oddness Strange, they said I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky Which they were, but luck had a way of betraying you in the end Eleven days in, Tifty announced that they were approaching the Missouri-Iowa line They were dirty and exhausted; tempers were short For two full days they’d been sty to find a bridge still standing Their fuel supply was getting low The landscape had changed again, not quite as flat as Texas but close, with gently undulating hills subsu noon when Hollis, at the wheel, brought the truck to a halt

Peter, who had been dozing in the back, roused to the sound of the truck’s doors opening He drew upright to find hi?

He retrieved his rifle and cli was coated with a fine, pale powder-the grass, the trees Snow? The air had a tart s burnt Not snow Ashes Little clouds of whiteness puffed underfoot as Peter advanced to where the others were standing, at the crest of a hill There he stopped, as his companions had stopped, pinned in place by what they saw

"For the love of God," Michael said "What the hell are we looking at?"

Chapter 53

This woent That es had all the trade her fatalon her arm didn’t add up That curious odor Guilder had detected; what did itseazine Guilder had never seen one like it; it wasn’t one of theirs Either the insurgency had stockpiled a cache of weapons from a source he didn’t know about, or the woman came from someplace else entirely

Guilder didn’t like mysteries He liked theio

The woman seemed unbreakable She hadn’t told them so much as her na appetites, had failed to extract a scrap of information The decision to employ thepeople to the feedlot was one thing; the virals made mercifully short work of it, and the creatures needed to be fed It wasn’t anything nice, but it was over fast And as for a fes in detention, or the cautious application of the waterboard, well, sometimes such measures were simply unavoidable What had the teration

But sanctioned rape: that was so new That was a bit of a head-scratcher It was the kind of thing that happened in small, brutal countries where men with machetes hacked people to bits for no reason other than the fact that they’d been born in the wrong village, or had slightly different ears, or preferred chocolate to vanilla The thought should have repelled hiio had driven hi could seem completely crazy one day and entirely reasonable the next