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The porch was eh the front s caht Then they heard a screaot there first The outer roo was disturbed except the chair at the front desk, which was lying on its side Froroan As the others entered behind hih the curtain

Amy was huddled at the base of the far wall, her arms folded over her head as if to ward off a blow Sara was on her knees, her face covered in blood

The room was full of bodies

The others had burst in behind him Michael rushed to his sister’s side

"Sara!"

She tried to speak, opening her bloodied lips, but no sound came Peter dropped to his knees beside Amy She appeared uninjured, but at his touch she flinched, pulling farther aaving her ar, "it’s okay," but it wasn’t okay What had happened here? Who had killed these htered one another?

"It’s Ben Chou," Alicia said She was kneeling by one of the bodies "Those two are Milo and Sam The other one is Jacob Curtis"

Ben had been taken on a blade Milo, face-down in a spreading puddle of blood, had been killed by a blow to the head; Saone down the sa at the foot of A fro fro a look of surprise In his outstretched hand he was clutching a length of iron pipe, sing to its surface

"Holy shit!" Caleb said "Holy shit, they’re all dead!"

Everything about the scene had taken on a horrifying vividness The bodies on the floor, the pooling blood Jacob with the pipe in his hand Michael was helping Sara to her feet Aainst the wall

"It was Sam and Milo," Sara croaked Michael had helped his sister onto one of the cots She spoke haltingly, through cracked and swollen lips, her teeth lined in crimson "Ben and I tried to stop the me Then someone else ca dead here, Sara"

"I don’t know, I don’t know!"

Alicia took Peter by the elbow "It doesn’t ently "No one will ever believe us We have to go now"

They couldn’t risk the gate; Alicia explained what she wanted everyone to do The iht of the Wall Peter and Caleb would go to the Storehouse, for ropes and packs and shoes for Amy; Alicia would lead the others to the rendezvous

They crept from the Infirmary and fanned out Theon its hasp-an odd detail, but nothing they had time to worry about now Caleb and Peterrows of bins That here they found Old Chou and, beside hi side by side froht around their necks, their bare feet suspended above a bin of crated books Their skin had taken on a grayish cast; bothfrom their mouths They had evidently used the crates as a kind of stepladder, asse the the at the two e they ht, Peter knew They had to go now Whatever was happening was vast and terrible, a force to sweep over them all

They assembled their supplies and stepped outside Then Peter remembered the maps

"Go ahead," he told Caleb "I’ll catch up"

"They’ll already be there"

"Just go I’ll find you"

The boy darted away At Auntie’s house, Peter didn’t bother to knock; he stepped inside and ht to the bedroom Auntie was asleep He paused for aher breathe The maps here he’d left them, under the bed He bent to retrieve them and slid the box into his pack

"Peter?"

He froze Auntie’s eyes were still closed Her hands lay still at her sides

"I was just lying here to rest sooodbyes," the old woo on now, Peter You’re in your own time now"

By the ti fro fro herself off

"Everybody ready?"

Footsteps behind the his blade But then he saw, stepping froure of Mausa a pack

"I tracked you froan

"Save your breath, Lish I’" Mausa," she said "Do you believe your brother’s dead?"

He felt as if he had been waiting for someone to ask him this very question "No"

"Neither do I"

Her handca discovered than reot the chance to tell him," Mausami said "I still want to"

Peter turned to Alicia, as studying the two of them with a look of exasperation

"She coood idea Think about where we’re going"

"Mausami’s blood now It’s not a discussion"

For a ; she appeared to be at a loss for words

"The hell with it," she said finally "We don’t have ti them the way Sara followed, then Michael, then Caleb and Mausauard the rear

Aaps for her, and a pair of sandals As she lowered herself through the hatch, her eyes found Peter’s with a sudden, beseeching force Where are we going?

Colorado, he thought The CQZ They were just naht on the screen of Michael’s CRT The reality behind the Peter could iine When they’d spoken of such a journey earlier that night-had it really been that sahthouse?-Peter had envisioned a proper expedition: a large ar party, a meticulously plotted route His father would spend whole seasons planning the Long Rides Now here they were, fugitives on foot, scurrying aith little more than a pile of old maps and the blades on their belts How could they possibly hope to get to such a place?

"I don’t really know," he told her "But if we don’t leave now, I think we’ll all die here"

She ducked into the tunnel and was gone Peter tightened the straps of his pack and scra the hatch closed over his head, sealing himself in darkness The walls were cool and so, perhaps by the Builders themselves, to make it easier to service the trunk line; except for the Colonel, no one had used it for years It was his secret route, Alicia had explained, the one he used to hunt So at least one ed into a copse of hts were down, revealing a gray dawn sky Above thele slab of stone, a silent witness to all that had occurred Peter heard the calls of the Watch fro Bell and the changing of the shift Dale would be wondering what had happened to them, if he didn’t know already Surely it wouldn’t be long before the bodies were found

Alicia closed the hatch behind him and turned the wheel, then knelt to cover it with underbrush

"They’ll come after us," Peter said quietly, crouched beside her "They’ll have horses We can’t outrun them"

"I know" Her face was set "It’s a question of who gets to the guns first"

And with that Alicia rose, turned on her heels, and began to lead them down the mountain