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CHAPTER ONE

DEAN

DAY 12

It was a lovelyand licking all the faces she could reach

Of course, ere all wearing five layers of clothing to protect our skin from the compounds And I had on my air mask And Chloe was off to the side, ed sleep on an inflatable mattress But for us, in the Greenway, it was a niceAstrid kiss them all over their little, dirty, freckled facesAstrid expressing love for thes for her swell up I felt like my heart would burst

Then Astrid took in a deep breath

And I saw her nostrils flare She inhaled too long and I knew the rage was kicking in

"Why did you stay?" she moaned "You dumb, DUMB KIDS WHY DID YOU STAY?"

She crushed the twins to her chest, holding one of their redheaded skulls in each hand

And then I had to tackle her and hold her down

So much for lovely Greenwayas I wrestled Astrid to the ground

"Get her ainsther fluffy white head off

"Caroline," I hollered,it here"

Astrid had let it fall to the ground when she saw the twins and started hugging and kissing thehtI had to keep her down

"Put it on her!" I shouted

Caroline, crying hard, pressed the mask over Astrid’s face Henry ca ot a hit of the compounds Just breathe"

"Do it harder," Henry said to Caroline and she nodded They crushed the mask down more firmly

Astrid looked at us, at me The fury in her sky-blue eyes receded, slowly, until finally she closed them and her whole body softened underneath me

I stayed on top of her until she said hoarsely, "I’ot to my knees, then to ently pushing the twins aside as she sat up

Caroline patted Astrid on the back

"It’s okay, we knoasn’t really you"

"Yeah," Henry agreed "It was Monster-Astrid, not Real-Astrid"

"Coate! Now!"

We had needed to open the gate to let out the bus with Alex, Niko, Josie, and the rest of them The layers of blankets and plastic and plye’d used to seal the gate and ht were all ate and then, somehow, purify the air Would the entire store be contarabbed the blankets and plastic sheeting that hung froate and pressed theun!" I shouted to the twins

The staple guns were still there, set to the side, frolad ere so sloppy as to leave our tools around Or h that way

I got the blankets and plastic back up in the ti the first plywood sheet over

I tried to staple it but only got three good hits when there was a hollow CLINK-CLINK sound froun I was out of staples

"Shoot," I mumbled

There weren’t any extra staples in the box, either

"Be right back!" I hollered

You had to shout to be understood in the stupid air masks

I didn’t want to think about Niko and Josie and Alex trying to coh them on the bus

They should never have left and every tiry

I didn’t need to be angry just then, though I needed to be set the store sealed up quickly

I headed to Home Improvement

I passed Chloe on her air mattress She still had her mask on and all her layers and was totally out cold The sleeping pill Niko had given her was strong

She was going to be so pissed off when she woke up and discovered that Niko and the rest had gone on without her

She hadeveryone eren’t going That it wasn’t safe for us to go out, because of our blood type

She certainly hadn’t been consulted when Niko took her off the bus

But ere right, I told o out there Astrid had gotten just a one berserk Us out in the open air, trying to make it sixty miles to Denver? We would have ht choice

And we had enough supplies in the Greenway to last us for weeks or h for the others toenough to wait out the compounds--we had heard the effects would only last for three to six un, I saw that Caroline and Henry were gently bouncing next to Chloe’s slu form on the air mattress Luna was curled up next to the, out to sea on a raft