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The ani old butt on the back It reared up a little, and Bodo had to grip onto Winky’s waist with both hands to stay on

She handled the horse like a pro, leaning into the horse’sthe reins sharply to the left It had the result of itated beast spin to the side It quickly calet rid of Bodo It pranced a little as Winky straightened its head out, twitching its tail left and right over and over I could hear the swishing of the stiff black hair frolad it was Bodo on that particular horse and nota lot ood day, and I was no horseworound But I knew this would be faster, especially considering how sore y and ATVs were filled with supplies and had no roo behind the line like the fifty or so odd kids I sawto load up the last bits of stuff into the swa emptied into one of them It made me wonder how much fuel they had left They’d sacrificed soeventheht on a e ood under pressure, so soing to miss his wise counsel, even ure to e It seemed like I’d lost another dad, and that just plain sucked If anything happened to Peter while I was gone, I wasn’t going to o?" Paci asked

"Yippy kye-oh," I said without a trace of hu hed "I haven’t heard that in too long Yippy kye-oh, ood hu the loss of his brother a lot longer and deeper than I would be, and it was nice to know that at least for this ed the horse with his heels andto ignore the fact that ainst his abs I could feel thebeneath his warm skin

"Careful, I’m ticklish," Paci said softly

I was very tempted to test the truth of that stateaht now, and it would be a bigthat would be hurtful or rude like flirting, even if no one but Paci and I knew about it

The swah the corrals and off onto a path that went through the sparse trees circling this part of the compound I hated that itwe could do about that, and we needed its hauling capacity

The people riding double on horseback ca alongside keeping them in line The ATVs and people on foot made up our caboose

One of the ATV trailers had six chickens and one rooster in a group of s kennel box They went froht as the four-wheeler startedThe only ones who didn’t sees They ran alongside the walking ani the and never distracted

I wished I could be so singularly-for canners to appear out in the distant trees I worried about hoe’d fend theeons and the special code we needed to learn so we could send and understand ht about my boyfriend and the man in front ofI suffered under the heavy strain of guilt and fear, wondering hoas going to unshot wound, a stabbing, or even just a plain old run-of-the-mill broken heart

About three hours into our trip, the sway stopped One of the riders spurred his horse on to ride up to the driver’s side of the vehicle, exchanging words with hi they said; they were too far away

"What’s going on?" I asked, leaning to the side so I could see around Paci better Nothing see way There were some dense trees up ahead, but that was it

"Don’t know" Paci shifted in the saddle,the leather creak

Winky and Bodo turned around and ca?" asked Winky

"I have no idea," I said

I shifted to get down, but Paci put his hand back, catchinget out of here in a hurry, I don’t want you on the ground"

My blood chilled at the idea of racing off on this horse while all those other kids stayed on the ground Easy targets Not to mention how sore my crotch would be from the abuse of this horse’s hard butt muscles

The kid who had run up to talk to the driver caht ‘em in the binocs Four at least"

"Where are they?" I asked I searched the far-off trees, seeing nothing

"Dead ahead We have to pass through that grove to use the shortest route to the prison We can’t risk going anywhere near the highway"

"Bring y, Paci, please" I wanted to see for myself It wasn’t that I didn’t trust the people on watch; I just wanted to figure out what kind of threat these strangers erous at all

The horse surged forward under Paci’s coy My teeth chattered in lad when it was over Ihorse to one in a hurry

Rob leaned way out of the driver’s seat "Yo, what’s up?"

"Can I borrow the glasses?" I asked

He handed er I couldn’t see inside to knoho it was "Here you go Check out that bunch of trees right there," he said, pointing to a section of the landscape that was particularly dense

I put the lenses up to my eyes, and Paci turned the horse sideways Once the beast calmed down and stood still I was able to focus on what I was looking at

At first I saw nothing Then I noticed a girl standing on the edge of the woods She earing a bright red shirt and hard to ht I scanned the area around her, and about fifty yards to the left, I noticed so weird in the trees