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"That’s the last," she said to Peter "We’ve got about ten seconds before they figure out the current’s off" Caleb was straddling the top of the fence now "Caleb," she yelled, "move your ass!"

He took the last fiveto his feet His cheeks et fro, smeared with dirt and snot; his feet were bare In another few seconds they’d be in the dark again

"Are you hurt?" Alicia said "Can you run?"

The boy nodded

They took off toward the station Peter felt the virals co before he saw the toward theunfire went off next to his ear: the creature twisted in the air and went down, skidding across the hardpan He turned to see Alicia, her rifle shouldered, her eyes fixed on the fence She let off three more shots in quick succession

"Get him out of here!" she yelled

He raced with Caleb to the ladder Behind them, Alicia continued to fire, the sound of her rifle shots reaching hih the yard More virals were inside the fence line now Slinging his rifle, Peter mounted the ladder; when he reached the top, he turned to look Alicia was backing toward the wall of the station, shooting into the shadows When her gun went silent she cast it aside and began to clieneral direction and squeezed the trigger The barrel kicked up, his shots sailing uselessly into the dark His whole body shook with the feel of it, its wild force

"Watch what you’re doing!" Alicia cried, pressing her body to the ladder below hi!" There were three now, co out of the shadoard the ladder’s base; Peter took a step to his right, claainst his shoulder Ai theer and they ju into the dark He’d bought a few seconds at most

"Shut up and cli at me!"

Then she was at the top He found her hand and pulled hard, vaulting her onto the concrete surface of the roof Caleb aving to them from the mouth of the hatch

"Behind you!"

As Alicia clale viral was standing on the edge of the roof Peter raised his gun and fired, but too late The place where the creature had stood was eet the smokes!" Alicia yelled fro, turunt A sharp pain sliced his ankle as he hit the platform; the rifle clattered away Alicia stepped over the two of the down on the other side Alicia’s face clenched with exertion; her feet scrabbled at the ladder, fighting for leverage

"Ican’tclose it!"

Peter and Caleb leapt to their feet and pushed But the force on the far side was too great Peter had done so to his ankle when he’d fallen, but the pain was vague now, unimportant He scanned the platfor at the top of the stairs

"Let go," he said "Drop the hatch It’s the only way"

"Are you crazy?" But then he saw, in Alicia’s eyes, that she understood his intentions "Good, do it" She turned to Caleb, who nodded "Ready?"

"Onetwo"

"Three!"

They released the hatch Peter dropped to the platfored for the rifle and swung around, thrusting theThere was no time to aim, but he hoped he wouldn’t have to

He didn’t The end of the barrel went straight into the viral’s openpast the rows of glossy teeth, coe at the top of his throat, and Peter looked hi the rifle one hard shove to drive it hoh the brain

Chapter TWENTY-ONE

There was one great difference between the world as it was now and the world of the Tiht, and it wasn’t the virals The difference was electricity

The virals were a problem, sure-about forty-two and a half million problehthouse were correct A whole history of the epidemic in its final hours, for Michael the Circuit to read "CV1-CV13 National and Regional Summary of Select Surveillance Components," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; "Civilian Resettleency Manageton, DC; "Efficacy of Postexposure Protection Against CV Faic Fever in Nonhuman Primates," United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, Fort Derrick, Maryland And so on, in that vein Some of which he understood, so One person in ten One person taken up for every nine that died So, assu a human population of 500 million at the time of the outbreak-the combined populations of the United States, Canada, and Mexico-and forestalling, for the moment, the question of the rest of the world, about which very little see some kind of mortality rate for the virals themselves, say a modest 15 percent-that still left 425around between the Pana with henature between 36 and 38 degrees, ie, 9996 percent of the rizzly bears

So, okay A probleht, and I can keep the virals out forever

The Tireat buzzing man-made electrical juiciness of it all The millions of enerating plants turning the bottled energy of the planet itself into the eternally affir down a line, saying, Yes? Yes? Yes?

And themachines Not just computers and Blu-rays and handhelds-they had dozens of these devices, scavenged over the years from trips down the s, ordinary everyday things, like hair dryers and ed in, connected to the grid

So for hi for Michael Fisher to throw the switch and turn the whole thing-human civilization itself-back on