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"The coast," Peter repeated The word felt heavy in his mouth "You ged "Calling it the ocean would be polite It’s pretty much a che the crap out, plus the discharge froh there, too Tankers, cargo ships, you naetting your feet wet"

"But you could still leave from there," Peter tendered "If you had a boat"

"In theory But I wouldn’t reco past the barrier"

"Mines," Greer explained

Vorhees nodded "And lots of them In the last days of the war, the NATO alliance, our so-called friends, banded together andalong the coasts, and not just conventional explosives They blasted just about anything in the water You can still see the wreckage down in Corpus Then they laid mines, just to slam the door"

Peter remembered the stories his father had told hi ribs of the great ships, stretching as far as the eye could see Never had he thought to wonder how this had come about He had lived in a world without history, without cause, a world where things just hat they were Talking to Vorhees and Greer was like looking at lines on a page and suddenly seeing words written there

"What about farther east?" he asked "Have you ever sent anybody there?"

Vorhees shook his head "Not for years The First Expeditionary sent two battalions that way, one north into Louisiana through Shreveport, another across Missouri toward St Louis They never caed "Maybe soot"

"I’d like to see it," Peter said after a moment "The city Kerrville"

"And you will, Peter" Vorhees allowed himself a rare sive Vorhees an answer, and Peter felt torn They had safety, they had lights, they had found the Ar, but Peter felt confident that Vorhees would send an expedition to the Colony and bring the others in They had found what they had come for, in other words-more than found it To ask his friends to continue seemed like an unnecessary risk And without Alicia, part of hi be over

But whenever he thought this, his next thought would be of Aht: to coret, probably for the rest of his life Michael had tried to pick up the signal froeneral’s tent, but their radio equipe, worthless in the mountains In the end, Vorhees said he had no reason to doubt their story, but who knehat the signal meant?

"The military left all kinds of crap behind Civilians, too Believeevery squeak" He spoke with the weariness of a irl of yours, Amy Maybe she’s a hundred years old, like you say, and maybe she isn’t I have no reason to disbelieve you, except for the fact that she looks about fifteen and scared shitless You can’t always explain these things My guess is she’s just some poor traumatized soul who survived somehow and by a stroke of luck just wandered into your camp"

"What about the transmitter in her neck?"

"Well, what about it?" Vorhees’s tone wasn’t , merely factual "Hell,for those people to show up, assu there’s even anyone left alive out there"

"Is there?"

Vorhees paused; he and Greer exchanged a look of caution

"The truth is, we don’t know Some people say the quarantine worked, that the rest of the world is just hu out there without us This raises the question as to ouldn’t hear anything over the wireless, but I suppose it’s possible they set up some kind of electronic barricade in addition to the mines Others believe-and I think the major and I share this opinion-that everybody’s dead This is all conjecture, oes that the quarantine wasn’t quite as tight as people thought Five years after the outbreak, the continental United States was pretty old depository at Fort Knox The vault at the Federal Reserve in New York Every ht down to the corner savings and loan, all just sitting there, nobodythe store But the real prize was all that A upwards of ten thousand nuclear weapons, any one of which could shift the balance of power in a world without the United States to babysit it Frankly, I don’t think it’s a question of if anyone came ashore, but how many and who Chances are, they took the virus back with theave hi him the world was empty, an empty place

"I don’t think A," he said finally

"If it’s any help, I don’t think so either She’s just a kid, Peter How she survived out there is anybody’s guess Maybe she’ll find a way to tell you"

"I think she already has"

"That’s what you believe And I won’t disagree with you But I’ll tell you so up, crazy old lady lived in a shack behind our housing section, an old falling-down dump of a place Wrinkled as a raisin, kept about a hundred cats, place absolutely reeked of cat piss This wo We kids would tease the hell out of her, though of course we couldn’t get enough of her, either The kind of thing you feel bad about later, but not at the tiates one day" Vorhees concluded with a shrug: "Time to time you hear stories like this Old people irl But it’s not a new story"

Greer leaned forward He seemed suddenly interested "What happened to her?"

"The woeneral rubbed his chin as he searched his ed herself in her cat-piss-s, the general went on: "You can’t overthink these things Or at least we can’t I’ree with me We’re here to clear out as many dracs as we can, lay in supplies, find the hot spots and burn the I’eneral pushed back from the table, and Greer as well; the time for talk was over, at least for the day "In the meantime, think about my offer, Jaxon A ride home You’ve earned it"

By the time Peter had stepped to the door, Greer and Vorhees were already leaning over the table, where a large

"Was there so else?"

"It’s just" What did he want to say? "I ondering about Alicia How she’s doing"

"She’s fine, Peter However Coffee did it, he taught her well You probably wouldn’t even recognize her"

He felt stung "I’d like to see her"

"I know you would But it’s just not a good idea right now" When Peter didn’t move from the door, Vorhees said, with barely concealed impatience, "Is that all?"

Peter shook his head "Just tell her I asked for her"

"I’ll do that, son"

Peter stepped through the flap, into the darkening afternoon The rain had let up, but the air felt co dabank was drifting over the ridge Everything was spattered with ed his jacket around hiround between Vorhees’s tent and thealone at one of the long tables, spooning beans into his mouth from a battered plastic tray More soldiers were scattered around the roo Peter fetched a tray and filled it fro

"This seat taken?"