Page 46 (1/2)

"We don’t know anything until you scan your thuot hit," Lucy said

"I told you I didn’t get hit"

"I don’t know, Will Maybe the air’s too dry"

He wasn’t buying it And he knew she wasn’t either, but she kept trying to keep him calm

"It can’t be the virus," she said "That just doesn’t make sense"

Unless Will’s body was just done with puberty He guessed it was a possibility He hadn’t grown any taller in ht have to leave school He should have been thrilled to finally get to leave To have this all end But, not now Not when he’d just gotten Lucy back

The two of them slowed There was a corpse on the floor ahead of thes were splayed, with one shoe off and one shoe on The white floor around him was a mess of smeared blood It wasn’t until they were closer that they sahere all that blood had coone The flesh had been torn away, and Will could see the front of his spine nestled into the red ed wound was a face they knew all too well

Saray His face isted in agony It was a painful death Horrible But Will guessed it was inevitable

"Ohdown at Sam "Who would do that?"

Will searched inside hi Sa," Lucy said, and pulled Will forward

"Wait," Will said, staying put He took off his oversized sweatshirt and flung it out like a bed sheet He let it fall across Sam froave her a nod "Okay"

They ran for the open door to the quad Outside, it was raining hard The air siant square of mud Will scanned the razor wire peri on top of the east wall

"Thumb check!" Lucy yelled as loud as she could

The adult lowered the boxy led fro pole extended over the razor wire As they ran for the wall, the figure above became clearer Rain splashed off his black motorcycle helmet It was Sam’s father The thumb scanner spun as Sam’s dad lowered it When it was ten feet above them, Will could see that the scanner was sealed up in a ziplock freezer bag

Will unzipped the blue-green seal, wiped his hand on his jeans, and stuck his hand into the bag He planted his thu," the man shouted doithout the benefit of his amp

Will shook his head

"No," he said, his voice barely a rasp "It can’t be right This doesn’t make sense"

If there was pain in Lucy’s face, it was only for a second A storust blew it away Her hair whipped in her face, and she looked up to the sky

"He has to be lifted out!" Lucy yelled

"No," Sam’s father said He reeled the scanner back up

"What do you raduate! You have to let hiloved hand at Will

"I knoho you are, kid," theout"

"Will’s going to die if he doesn’t--"

Will put his hand out to stop Lucy short

"No probleone crazy

"Just be here waiting e show," Will shouted up The man turned away from the quad The conversation was over For now

"Will, what are you doing?" Lucy said under her breath

Will shrugged

"Worth a try"

Lucy and Will stared at Saainst the lockers They’d stripped him of his blood-soaked shirt and dressed him in the oversized sweatshirt Will had worn They’d stuffed their own socks into the gaping wound in his neck so that the blood wouldn’t seep into the sweatshirt fabric It was the best they could e in the time they had, but he still didn’t look close to alive

"This isn’t going to work," Lucy said "They’ll see he’s dead"

"No, they won’t"

"You can clearly see he has no neck! Oh god, and they aren’t going to let you out," Lucy said, going nearly as pale as Sam

"Hold on," Will said and he knelt down beside Sa and cinched it tight The hood closed around Sam’s face in a perfect oval, like an Eskihtly and studied Sahtly "That’s not bad"

Will stood and overco to work I’et to leave"