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"And you’re really okay?"

Sara shrugged It was true: apart from the scratches and the wrist that was not broken after all but e, she had no visible injuries at all "I feel fine I just can’t explain it"

Jude twisted in his chair toward Alicia "I’ve got to say, Lish, you sure kno to throw a party I’d have liked to see the looks on their faces when you tossed that grenade"

"Michael should get soas And Peter was the one who used the pan"

"I still don’t co "You say it saw its own reflection?"

Peter shrugged "All I know is, it worked"

"Maybe the virals just don’t like your cooking," Hollis suggested

Everybody laughed

It was all so strange, Michael thought Not just the story itself but the way everyone was acting, as if they had no worries in the world

"What I don’t get is what you guys were doing there in the first place," he ventured "I’lad you were, but it seems like quite a coincidence"

It was Jude who answered "We still send regular patrols down to the city to scavenge up supplies When the hotel went up, ere just three blocks away We’ve got a fortified shelter in the basement of one of the old casinos We heard the explosion and headed straight for it" He gave a closed-rin "Just dumb luckyou e did"

Michael paused to consider this "No, that can’t be right," he said after a moot out You were already there"

Jude shook his head doubtfully "I don’t think so"

"No, ask her She saw the whole thing" Michael turned his head to look at Billie; she was observing him coolly, that same look of neutral concern on her face "I reun on one of them, and Amy pulled me into the truck Then we heard the explosion"

But before Billie could respond, Hollis broke in: "I think you’ve got it a little mixed up, Michael I was the one who pulled you into the truck The hotel was already burning That’s probably what you’re thinking of"

"I could have sworn" Michael fixed his eyes on Jude again, his chiseled face "And you were in a shelter, you say?"

"That’s pretty ent suess a stroke of luck like that, my friend"

Michael felt the nervous heat of everyone’s attention Jude’s story didn’t add up; that was obvious Who would leave the safety of a fortified shelter at night and drive toward a burning building? And as everyone going along with it? The streets on three sides of the hotel were all blocked by rubble That meant Jude and Billie could only have come fro they’d exited froht

"Oh hell, I don’t know," he said finally "Maybe I’ht To tell you the truth, the whole thing is pretty mixed up in my mind"