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A large, white roo h filuess that it’s a tay observation point I bet there’s a tea everything

There’s a pool table and a ping-pong table down at one end of the rooazines and comics A couple of TVs, one hooked up to a DVD player, the other to a video-game console There’s a table close to that TV, loaded with games and a few iPods A variety of couches and chairs are positioned around the place

A couple of the zoirl called Cathy - is watching TV and filing down her teeth And the final zo through a car azine

Seven in total One o

I hover by the door - Reilly didn’t say anything when he letfor the others to noticepool looks up and shouts, "Hey! It’s the girl who kicked Rage’s arse!"

Everything cole azine He just glances at

I push forward, s aardly "Hi I’m Becky Smith, but everyone calls hs, and jogs across He sticks out a hand - it’s covered by a glove and bandages "I’m Mark," he says as we shake hands "I wasn’t there when you revitalized They keep me out of stuff like that Afraid I’ll react badly to the flames"

"What do you estures at himself He’s covered completely from neck to toe, heavy clothes, soes, heavy-duty boots "I got burned to the bone while I was a revived They don’t kno My face is okay but I’m like a skeleton under all these layers I have to stay wrapped up They’re worried that if I lose any more internal - "

"Can it, Worm," one of the other boys says "You’d bore her to death if she wasn’t already dead" He nods at me but doesn’t smile He’s dark-skinned, with short curly hair I would have shot hio in response to his nod But since I’e and accept everyone as an equal, no matter what color they are, I nod back at him instead

"B," I tell him

"I know," he says drily "I’m not deaf I’m Peder"

"Danny," the boy beside him says Danny’s tall and bony Greasy blond hair and bad acne He’s wearing jeans and a T-shirt like mine As I look around, I see that all of the others are siuy in the chair He’s in the leathers he earing when I first saw hiirl introduces herself coldly She sits and focuses on the video ga, dark hair tied back in a ponytail Pretty, but not in a soft way

One of the other boys comes over and shakes my hand "Gokhan"

"Gherkin?" I frown

"Gokhan" He spells it out "Turkish, innit?"

He’s pluers He’s filed down the bones sticking out of the tips and painted thens

"And I’ pool says He’s the one who first spotted er hair and loads of freckles

"Tiberius?" I laugh automatically "What sort of a dumb name is that?"

"I was named after the river Tiber in Rome," he says stiffly Then he turns his back onor what, Worm?"

"In a minute," Mark says "I want to show B round first Don’t you want to get to know her? She’s one of us now"

"Maybe she is and maybe she isn’t," the boy in the chair says He finally stands, cracks his knuckles over his head andin my cell that we can mimic the habits of the past, e had a set of fully functioning lungs I even findby accident so happier, si knuckle cracker is the tall guy with the big head and small ears, the chubby, rosy cheeks, a chunk bitten out of the left one The guy I clobbered over the head when I first recovered Rage

"Of course she’s one of us," Mark says "She can talk, can’t she?"