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Alicia dropped down She dusted off her hands on the front of her jersey and pushed a sweat-dampened strand of hair off her face "I think we should check it out Middle of the day like this, we’re not going to have a better chance"

Theo’s face said, Why am I not surprised? He turned toward Peter "What’s your vote?"

"Since when do we vote?"

"Since now If we do this, everyone has to agree"

Peter tried to read Theo’s expression, to guess what he wanted to do In the question before hiht, Why this? Why now?

He nodded his assent

"Okay, Lish," Theo said, and reached for his rifle "You’ve got your smokehunt"

They left Caleb with the horses and approached the building in a loose line The sand was pushed high against the s, but the front entrance, at the top of a short flight of stairs, was clear The door opened easily; they stepped inside They were in so on the wall just inside the door was a bulletin board covered with paper signs, faded but still legible CAR FOR SALE, ’14 NISSAN SERATA, LOW MILES LOSE WEIGHT NOW, ASK ME HOW! BABYSITTER WANTED, AFTERNOONS, SOME EVENINGS, MUST HAVE CAR CHILDREN’S STORY HOUR, TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS 10:30-11:30 And, larger than the rest, on a sheet of curling yellow paper:

STAY ALIVE STAY IN WELL-LIGHTED AREAS

REPORT ALL SIGNS OF INFECTION

DO NOT LET STRANGERS INTO YOUR HOME

ONLY LEAVE SAFE ZONES IF INSTRUCTED BY A GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL

They moved inside, into a wide roo lot The air was sharp and thick with heat

Sitting at the front desk was a body

The woman-Peter could tell it was a woun, a small revolver, was still clutched in her hand where it had fallen to her lap The corpse was brown as leather, the woman’s desiccated flesh stretched taut over the bones, but the bullet hole in the side of her skull was plainly visible Her head was tipped to the side, as if she had dropped solad Arlo isn’t here to see that," Alicia murmured

They moved in silence into the stacks Books were strewn everywhere on the floor, soon drifts of snow They circled back around to the front; Theo gestured with the barrel of his rifle toward the stairs

"All eyes"

The stairs opened on a large rooht that poured fro of spaciousness: the shelves had all been pushed aside to make room for the lines of cots that had taken their place

Each cot bore a body

"There must be fifty of them," Alicia whispered "Is it some kind of infir between the rows of cots An oddto the air Halfway down the column, Theo paused beside one of the cots and reached down to re cloth He held it up for Peter and Alicia to see A stuffed doll

"I don’t think that’s what this is"

The i a pattern The smallness of the bodies The stuffed animals and toys clutched by tiny hands of leathered bone As Peter stepped forward, he felt and heard the crunch of plastic A syringe There were dozens of the hit him like a fist

"Theo, this isthese are" The word stopped in his throat

His brother was already headed to the stairs "Let’s get the hell out of here"

They didn’t stop until they were outside They stood on the front stoop, breathing in great gulps of fresh air In the distance, Peter could see Caleb standing on the roof of the filling station, still scanning the scene with the binoculars

"They ," Alicia said quietly "Decided it was better this way"

Theo slung his rifle and took a long drink of water His face was ashen; Peter saw that his brother’s hands were tre "Goddamn Zander," Theo said "Why the fk would he coht of stairs at the back," Alicia said "We should check it"

Theo spat and shook his head, hard

"Let it go, Lish," Peter said

"What’s the point of checking the building if we don’t check the whole thing?"

Theo turned sharply "I don’t want to spend another second in this place" He was resolved, his words would be final "We torch it No discussion"

They pulled books from the shelves and fashioned a pile near the front desk The paper caught swiftly, flah the door and stood back fiftyburn Peter took a drink fro would wash away the taste in his mouth; the taste of bodies, of death He knew his eyes had beheld so that would stay with him for all the days of his life Zander had come here, but not just for books He’d come to see the children

And that hen the drifted sand at the base of the building began tobeside him, saw this first

"Peter"

The sand collapsed; the virals poured forth, clawing from the sand where it had covered the baseht of h-pitched wail that shattered the air with pain and fury

The library was fully engulfed now Peter raised his rifle and fuue, without focus Everything about the scene see no traction on any of it More virals were eh the heavy black s in a glittering rain of shards, their flesh blazing, trailing liquid fronds of flame It seemed that whole stretches of ti to fire The first group had taken refuge in a pocket of shade where the library steps rose frole huddled ame of hide-and-seek