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[Pages , but Theo and Maus are staying behind I think everyone knew this was coht after supper Peter objected, but in the end there was nothing he could say to change Theo’s ame around plus the cans in the basement, they can ride out the winter here and have the baby We’ll see you in the spring, brother, Theo said Just don’t forget to stop in on your way back from whatever it is you find
I’m supposed to be on watch in a few hours, and I really should be sleeping I think Maus and Theo are doing the right thing, even Peter has to know it But it’s sad to be leaving the us all think about Caleb, Alicia especially, who claave their news and has yet to say a word to anyone I think everyone’s re if we’ll ever see Maus and Theo again
I wish Hollis were awake I toldagain Theo was right about one thing-without Maus, we are ot to Moab well before dusk There’s nothing here; the river has washed everything away A huge wall of debris is blocking the way, trees and houses and cars and old tires and every kind of thing, filling the narrow canyon where the town once was We’ve sheltered for the night in one of the few re structures, up in the hills A co and a patchy roof over our heads We ht just as well be out in the open, and I doubt anyone’s going to getto walk up the ridge, try to find a way through to the other side
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Day 64
We found another ani in the limbs of a tree, like the others The body was too rotted to tell, but everyone is thinking it was a viral that killed it
Day 65
Still in the La Sal Mountains, heading east The sky has turned from white to blue, the color of autu The leaves are co, a heavy, silver s the hills I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so lovely
Day 66
Last night Aain, under the tarps I had just coin her sleep I was thinking ht She was all wrapped up in her bag, only her face showing She looked atmoment, her eyes unfocused, like she didn’t knoho I was He’s dying, she said He keeps on dying and can’t stop Who’s dying, I said, A What man? I asked her But then she lay back down and was fast asleep again
So terrible, ine
Day 67
Today we can by the road that said, "Paradox pop 2387" I think we’re here, Peter said, and showed us all on the map
We are in Colorado
Chapter FIFTY-SEVEN
The mountains declined at last to a broad valley, wide in the auturass was tall and parched, the li leaves, the stragglers, bleached to the color of bone They lifted in the breeze like waving hands, rustling like old paper The ground was dry, but in the culverts water ran freely They filled their canteens with it, cold as ice against their teeth Winter was in the air
They were six now They otten world, a world without memory, stilled in tirille of a rusted truck; no sound but the wind and the creak of the crickets, flicking through the grass as they walked The terrain was easy, but this wouldn’t last A distant white shape, painted across a far horizon, told a story of ht in a barn by a river Old tack hung on the walls, buckets for ths of chains An old tractor sat on flattened tires The house was gone, collapsed into its foundation, its walls improbably folded one on top of another like the flaps of a box, not so much destroyed as packed away They divvied the cans they’d found and sat on the floor to eat the contents cold Through the ragged tears in the roof they could see stars, and then, as the night dren, theclouds Peter took first watch with Michael; by the tione, the ion of paleness in the cloud-thickened sky He slept, drea, he saw that it had snowed in the night
By ain; the snow had melted away On the ht days had passed since they’d seen the body of the cat in the trees The feeling that so days of walking, the silent, star-strewn nights The farmstead was a distant memory; the Haven, and all that had occurred there, see a river now Peter thought it was the Dolores, or the San Miguel The road was long gone, absorbed by the grass, the wash of earth and time Theyfor, ould they find? The journey had acquired aThe thought of stopping, of reaching the end, see beside hiainst the heft of her pack, her sleeping sack and winter jacket lashed to the botto scavenged at Outdoor World: a pair of gaps cinched to her hps and, on her upper body, a loose-fitting blouse of red and white checks, the sleeves unsnapped and flapping around her wrists On her feet, a pair of leather sneakers; her head was bare She had given up the glasses long ago She kept her eyes forward, squinting against the brightness In the days since they’d left the farmstead, a shift had occurred, subtle but un the day, the feeling grew stronger Peter thought, as he often did, of the hthouse Its words for, each footfall carrying him forward, into a world he didn’t know, into the hidden heart of the past, to the place where A her here If you found her, bring her here
He had discovered, in the days since they’d left the farht he would As with the Haven and all that had happened before it-even the Colony itself-thoughts of his brother seerassy road by the project of siht when Theo and Maus had called theether and announced their decision, Peter had been angry He had not shown this, or hoped he hadn’t Even in the er was irrational; it was obvious that Maus could not continue Part of hiain so soon But Theo had the facts on his side, and in the end, Peter could only agree
But he had also come to see, over the days, a deeper truth behind his brother’s decision His path and Theo’s had been destined to diverge again, because their cause was not the same Theo did not see to make Peter think so He had absorbed Peter’s explanation, fantastic as it ith no more or less skepticism than it deserved Yet Peter could detect in his brother’s co to hi, he seemed a little afraid of her It was clear that he had coroup was headed; at the first opportunity, and under the circuiven this up Selfishly, Peter would have wished for ret, however small, at their separation But he hadn’t done this Theof their departure, as the six of them had walked away from the farmhouse, Peter had turned to see his brother and Mausa, but it had see on the porch, until the six of theain, his brother was gone; only Mausami was there