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"Peter, we can’t stay here!"

He shook off his torpor at the sound of Alicia’s voice Beside hiun pointed uselessly at the ground, his face slack, eyes wide and impassive: What’s the use?

"Theo, listen to hly by the arht she was actually about to strike hiun to stir A collective twitch passed through the the surface of a pool of water "We have to go, right now"

Theo shifted his gaze toward Peter "Oh, brother," he said "I think we’re fked"

"Peter," Alicia pleaded, "help me"

They each took him by an arm; by the ti on his own The feeling of unreality was gone now, replaced by one desire only: to get away, to escape They rounded the corner of the filling station to see Caleb, on his horse, barreling away Theyafter him across the hardpan In their wake, Peter could hearover the wind: the mall That’s where Caleb was headed At full speed they tore up a ridge of crested sand and down into the e fro’s west entrance He slapped its hindquarters and darted through the opening while his horse raced away

"Inside!" Alicia yelled She was in co "Go, leave the horses!"

The anioodbye; they dismounted and dashed inside The best place, Peter kneould be the atriuht and cover, they could make some kind of defense Down the darkened hall they ran The air was heavy and sour, the walls bulging withwires, encrusted pipes Most of the stores were shuttered but others stood open like aed with debris Peter could see Caleb running up ahead, fat beaed into the atriuainst it The room was like a forest Nearly every surface was choked with fat green vines; in the center a stand of pal More vines dripped fro rope They took cover behind a barricade of overturned tables at the base of the trees Caleb was nowhere to be seen

Peter looked at his brother, crouched beside him "Are you okay?"

Theo nodded uncertainly They were all breathing hard "I’m sorry About back there I just" He shook his head "I don’t know" He wiped the sweat from his eyes "I’ll take the left Stay with Lish" He skittered away

Kneeling beside him, Lish checked the load on her rifle and pulled the bolt Four hallways met the atrium: the attack, if it caot them?" Peter asked

"I don’t know, Peter They seemed pretty mad Maybe sohtly around her forear," she said "I won’t be one of them If it comes to that, I need you to take care of it"

"Flyers, Lish It won’t Don’t even say it"

"I’ if it does" Her voice was firm "Don’t hesitate"

There was notoward the an object to his chest As he dove behind the tables, Peter sahat he was holding A black shoe box

"I don’t believe it," Alicia said "You went scavenging?"

Caleb lifted the lid and tossed it aside A pair of bright yellow sneakers, still wrapped in paper He kicked off Zander’s boots and shoved his feet into the a crestfallen frown, "they’re way too big They’re not even close"

And then the first viral fell, a blur of h the atriu lifted up, tossed toward the ceiling, his rifle dangling where the sling had tangled in his ar at space A second viral, hanging upside down fro struts, snatched Peter’s brother by the ankle as if he weighed nothing at all Theo’s body was fully inverted now; Peter saw the look on his brother’s face, an expression of pure astonishment He’dto the floor below Then the viral flung Peter’s brother through the open roof and he was gone

Peter scraer He heard a voice, his voice, calling his brother’s na Three virals were on the ceiling now, launching from strut to strut Peter detected, at the periphery of his vision, Alicia shoving Caleb up and over the counter of a restaurant on the far side of the atriuain But the virals were too fast; always the spot where he ai a kind of ga their aht, and wondered when he’d heard these words before

As the first one let go, Peter saw, in his mind’s eye, the fatal di with her back to the counter now The viral descended straight for her, ar of teeth and claws and smoothly muscled power In the instant before it landed, Alicia stepped forward, positioning herself directly under it, holding the rifle away from her body, like a blade

She fired

A , the rifle clattering away In the time it took Peter to realize that Alicia was not dead, she was on her feet again The viral lay where he’d come to rest, the back of his head cratered with blood She’d shot it through the mouth Above the, teeth flashing, their heads swiveling toward Alicia as if pulled by a single string

"Get out of here!" she called, and vaulted over the counter "Just run!"

He did He ran

He was deep inside the mall now There seemed to be no way out All the exits were barricaded, blocked bycarts, duone

His only option was to hide He tore down a hall of shuttered storefronts, yanking upward at their grates, but none would open; all were locked tight Through the fog of his panic, a single question eed: Why wasn’t he dead yet? He had fled fro to make it more than ten steps A flash of pain and it would all be over At least a full minute had passed before he’d realized the virals weren’t pursuing hiht He had to clutch one of the grates just to keep standing He dug his fingers between the slats and pressed his forehead against thefor breath His friends were dead That was the only explanation Theo was dead, Caleb was dead, Alicia was dead And when the virals were done, when they had drunk their fill, they’d be co hi past shuttered storefront after shuttered storefront He wasn’t even bothering with the grates now; his round Daylight ahead, and a feeling of openness: he turned a corner and e on the tiles, into a wide, domelike space A second atrium The area was clear of debris Sunshine descended in sh above

In the center of the roo rouped in a tight circle beneath so theotten into the mall? He stepped cautiously forward Noas obvious: the horses weren’t real A carousel Peter had seen a picture of one, in a book in the Sanctuary The base would turn and music would play, and children would ride the horses around and around He stepped onto the decking; a heavy layer of dust encased the their features He squared his shoulders to one of the aniht colors beneath, the precisely painted-on details: the lashes of its eyes, the grooves of its teeth, the long slope of its nose and the flaring nostrils