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Hunter had begun developing powers Sa to keep that fact secret—he suspected that Caine was sending spies into Perdido Beach He wanted to be able to use Hunter as a secret weapon if it cah to keep in a place where everyone knew everyone else

“Hunter, we’ve searched all of the homes and carried the food to Ralph’s,” Saies spoiled while ere all filling up on chips and cookies The meat all rotted People were stupid and careless, and there’s nothing we can do about that now” Saer he felt at his own foolishness “But we have food sitting out in the fields Maybe not the food we’d like, but enough to carry us forit in before it rots and the birds eat it”

“Maybe we’ll get rescued, and on’t have to worry,” another voice said

“Maybe we’ll learn to live on air,” Astrid h to be heard by at least a few

“Why don’t you go get our food back from Drake and the chuds up there?”

It was Zil He accepted a congratulatory slap on the back from a creepy kid named Antoine, part of Zil’s little posse

“Because it wouldsome kids killed,” Sam said bluntly “We’d be lucky to rescue any of the food, and we’d end up digging raves in the plaza And it wouldn’t solve our problem, anyway”

“Get your ht their moofs,” Zil said

Sam had heard the term “moof” more and more lately “Chud” was a newer teratory than the one it replaced

“Sit down, Zil,” Sam went on “We have twenty-six kids who are in the…have we decided? Are we calling it the army?” he asked Edilio

Edilio was in the first pew He leaned forward, hung his head, and looked unco it that, but ? I guess it doesn’t matter”

“Mother Mary has fourteen kids working for her, including one-day draftees,” Sa off the list “Fire Chief Ellen has six kids at the firehouse, dealing with eencies Dahra handles the phare of technology Albert has twenty-four kids working with hi food supplies Counting ht kids who do various jobs”

“When they bother to show up,” Mary Terrafino said loudly That earned a nervous laugh, but Mary wasn’t s

“Right,” Sa is, we needin that food”

“We’re just kids,” a fifth grader said, and giggled at his own joke