Page 1 (2/2)

There wasn’t ht of the road, just bare dirt, fallow fields, and patches of colorless grass broken up by the occasional lonely stand of trees But up ahead was green, lots of it

Saet Albert’s attention “So what is that up there, again?”

“Cabbage,” Albert said Albert was an eighth grader, narrow-shouldered, self-contained; dressed in pressed khaki pants, a pale blue polo shirt, and brown loafers—what a much older person would call “business casual” He was a kid no one had paid much attention to before, just one of a handful of African-Anored Albert anymore: he had reopened and run the town’s McDonald’s At least he had until the burgers and the fries and the chicken nuggets ran out

Even the ketchup That was gone now, too

The e?” he repeated

Albert nodded toward Edilio “That’s what Edilio says He’s the one who found it yesterday”

“Cabbage?” Sam asked Edilio

“It makes you fart,” Edilio said with a wink “But we can’t be too choosy”

“I guess it wouldn’t be so bad if we had coleslaw,” Saht now”

“You knohat I had for breakfast?” Edilio asked “A can of succotash”

“What exactly is succotash?” Sam asked

“Lie of the field “Not exactly fried eggs and sausage”

“Is that the official Honduran breakfast?” Sam asked

Edilio snorted “Man, the official Honduran breakfast when you’re poor is a corn tortilla, soood day a banana On a bad day it’s just the tortilla” He killed the engine and set the ery”

Saround He was a naturally athletic kid but in no way physically intiold, blue eyes, and a tan that reached all the way down to his bones Maybe he was a little taller than average, maybe in a little better shape, but no one would pick him for a future in the NFL

Sam Temple was one of the two oldest people in the FAYZ He was fifteen

“Hey That looks like lettuce,” EZ said, wrapping his earbuds carefully around his iPod

“If only,” Saloomily “So far we have avocados, that’s fine, and cantaloupes, which is excellent news But we are finding way too e”

“We es back eventually,” Edilio said “The trees looked okay It was just the fruit was ripe and didn’t get picked, so they rotted”

“Astrid says things are ripening at weird times,” Sam said “Not normal”

“As Quinn likes to say, ‘We’re a long way from normal,’” Edilio said