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"That’s because it’d land in the water"

Alec twisted and pulled the Transvice up so that its business end--that strange little spout coht at him

Mark flinched in spite of himself "Not funny," he said

"Especially if I pulled the trigger"

The ramp door thumped to its open position on the cracked pavement of the cul-de-sac in which they were parked A sudden and stark silence fell over the world, broken only by the distant cries of a bird War it alhed when he tried to pull in a deep breath

"Co down the ramp "Let’s find us a squirrel" He swept the weapon back and forth as he walked, looking for any interlopers "Or better yet, one of the crazies who s have to be charged or we could get rid of this virus problehborhoods nice and clean"

Mark joined hiht be watching fro them or from the burnt woods beyond those "Your value of hu-ter-ter in the suburbs was really unsettling Mark--he’d grown used to life in the hborhood just made him feel odd and uncomfortable He needed to steel up his nerves before they set out to do the real business at hand "Let’s get this test over with"

Alec started walking toward a brick mailbox that was half destroyed It looked like so a frantic atteht, then," he said "I wanted to test it on soanic ht … we need to be quick about it I’ll try zapping this pile of br--"

A door slammed open in the half-cru straight for thes His words were indecipherable, and his eyes were full of madness, his hair ratty andto claw through his own skin And he was completely naked

Mark stumbled a couple of steps backward, stunned by thefor so to do or say

But Alec had already raised his weapon, pointing the Transvice directly at the quickly approaching ave up because the wildnonsensical things, stu sounded, see, spinning sound, like the whirr of a jet engine Mark noticed that the orange light ehtened, visible even in the sunshine Then Alec suddenly jerked backhen a bolt of pure, brilliant white light shot out of the weapon and sla man

His cries cut off instantly, like he’d been sealed in a toray as ash fro so that he looked like a cutout of gray cloth, shi Then he exploded into a ness Just like that, without leaving a single trace that Mark could see

He turned to look at Alec, who’d lowered his weapon and was breathing heavily, his eyes still wide and staring at the spot the man had occupied just seconds earlier

The old soldier finally returned Mark’s stunned stare "I guess it works"

CHAPTER 50

Mark was at a loss for words The spectacle of the Transvice dissolving a person like a cloud of shts the heaviest A coht at the for help? Were others going to be as bad off? As … crazy?

It haunted hi what the disease did to people Was doing It had to be getting worse That guy had been utterly nuts And Mark had already felt so within hiht come out and make him look like the man Alec had zapped with the Transvice

"You okay over there?"

Mark shook his head and came back to his senses "No, I’m not okay Did you see that dude?"

"Yeah I saw him! Why do you think I evaporated hiainst its strap, looking around for signs of h it should’ve happened a long tio, it finally hit Mark--like a hammer to his heart--just how much trouble Trina was in Held prisoner by lunatics who could now be as bad off as the one he’d just seen And Mark and Alec had taken the time to sleep? To eat? To pack? He suddenly hated hio rescue her," he said

"What’s that?" Alec alking toward hilared at his friend "We have to go Now"

The next hour was awaiting

They closed the ra by with the Transvice in case anyone tried to board during the agonizing couple ofto pull all the way shut Then they ave Mark a quick lesson on how to hold and shoot the Transvice It see up and running, its thrusters pushing them into the sky

They fle, Mark the key observer, searching the ground below thehborhood ruins in which Alec had seen Trina and the others, Mark definitely saw roups; a few fires in yards and s from half-crumbled chimneys; carcasses of dead animals that had been stripped oflifeless here and there--soht on the outskirts of Asheville," Alec pointed out They were at the head of a large valley, fed into by the foothills of the mountain forests that had burned in the recent fire Expensive develop houses dotted the sides of those foothills Several of the ho left but charred black swaths of debris

Mark saw dozens of peoplethe streets A handful of the up at the ship, so for cover But the majority didn’t seem to have noticed at all, as if they’d been struck deaf and blind "There’s a huge group of them on that street" He pointed at them Alec nodded "That’s where I saw them put Trina, Lana, and the kid in one of the houses"

Alec banked the Berg to swoop in and get a closer look He pulled up and hovered about a hundred feet above the spot, then joined Mark at the s The two of thehtmare

It was as if a mental hospital had released all its patients There was no order to the irl lying flat on her back, screa two ether, back to back In another spot, people were dancing and drinking some kind of black liquid out of a pot that boiled over aaround in circles, still others stu of all And he no longer had any doubt that the people who’d gathered there were beyond any kind of help