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Mark suddenly had a rushing sound in his ears The little girl The tos Anton had said back in the bunk rooht back to how crazy those people at the bonfire were, and a situation he’d thought couldn’t get worse did just that They’d wasted all this time in the bunker and their friends weren’t even there any, but Mark couldn’t focus on the words He leaned in to speak in Alec’s ear "How could they have given theo Who knohat those psychos will do to thee calm "I know We will But remember the reason we cao I promise Lana means as much to me as Trina does to you"

Mark nodded, leaned back into the wall again Tried to listen to what Bruce was saying down on the stage

"--fire is out, thanks to the latest storo The sky’s black, but the fla with mudslides all over the place The test subjects all fled to the half-burnt mountain homes, by the looks of it Hopefully they’ll stay put awhile before they get desperate and march on Asheville for food But I think we’re safe to head over to the city in the next day or two Force our way in, deo by foot and hope to surprise them"

There were a feorried murmurs before he continued "Look, we can’t deny that we’re dealing with our own outbreak now We’ve all seen the syht here in our safe house There’s just no way our superiors would’ve agreed to unleash this virus without having soive it to us or they’ll all die Even if we have to go all the way to Alaska to do it We know they have a Flat Trans at their headquarters We’ll go through it andfeet thundered through the air

Mark shook his head These people were obviously unstable There was a wild energy in the roo to strike Whatever the reason for spreading this virus, it was clear what it did to people: itest surviving city within hundreds of miles, really had erected walls to keep itself safe fro anyone needed was a bunch of infected soldiers running through the streets And the Flat Trans …

Mark’s head still pounded and throbbed and it was hard to sort out his thoughts He knew he had to focus on Trina, getting her back But what about all this new inforave hi out

"Soon, boy," the o find our friends I swear it"

Mark wasn’t willing to sacrifice Trina for inforh to survive this long He couldn’t wait ain

"The Post- … Flares … Coalition" Bruce pronounced every ith exaggerated diction and spite "Who do these people think they are? Gods? They can just choose to wipe out the entire eastern half of the United States? Like the PFC haspause after that Mark couldn’t take it anymore He crawled around Alec and slowly peeked over the chair to take a look Bruce was a large ht, his face pale and scruffy with a few days’ worth of beard The ht black shirt as he stood with hands clasped in front of his the

"Don’t feel bad, friends We couldn’t have said no to what they asked us to do," Bruce said, slowly raising his eyes to gaze at his captive audience again "We had no choice They used the very resources they’re trying to preserve against us We have to eat, too, right? It’s not our fault the virus wasn’t quite what they expected All we can do is e’ve done since the sun flares struck the Earth: fight tooth and nail to live Darwin taught about survival of the fittest in the natural world Well, the PFC is trying to cheat nature It’s time to stand up for ourselves We … will … live!"

Another raucous round of cheers and whistles and clapping and foot pounding went on for a goodstronger than ever that they had to getwhen the crowd fell silent and Bruce’s voice filled the room like the amplified hiss of a snake

"But first,for me We have two spies in the back of this auditorium They could very well be froed by the ti to his feet almost before the man had finished his sentence, and Alec was close behind him

A vicious roar erupted from the crowd like a war cry as Mark paused to take the fro over each other to be the first ones to get up the aisle to the two intruders

Mark ran toward the double doors of the exit, unable to take his eyes off the scene below, observing it with a strangeorders and pointing his finger at Mark and Alec, his pale face now red with anger There was so childish about his ency hich his folloere claerated so Men and wo to capture hi the first to do it

Alec reached the doors first and practically flung himself out into the hallway Mark skidded to a stop, his focus so intent on the onrushing crowd that he almost ran past the exit That odd and misplaced sense of curiosity at their behavior winked out finally, replaced by the horrific thump of realization that he was about to be captured for the second tih the air and scared hilance as he exited the roo up the main aisle of the auditorium with bloodlust in their eyes

He slipped on the floor of the hallway, caught his balance Alec had reached out and closed the door after Mark caht was diotten which way they’d co He heard Alec’s footsteps behind hi back open, followed by the rush of bodies and their continued battle cries

Mark ran hard, trying his best not to iht hi them, but the look Mark had seen on their faces told hilanced back tohis ar along the slow curve of the hallway He was heading for the stairs because he didn’t knohere else to go but up

Adrenaline shot through Mark and hunger gnawed at his stomach He couldn’t remeh energy to escape back into the woods above them The stairwell came into view up ahead and he burst forith a little more speed The shouts froh the narrow space of the hall, re sound the approaching trains of the subtransthe tracks of their tunnels

Mark reached the stairs, was already leaping onto the second one by the tithe steps Mark grabbed the railing at each switchback, throwing hied up the three levels, reaching the top just as Mark heard their pursuers reach the bottom The hollow echo of their frantic cries sent chills across his sweaty skin