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“You’re going to be hungry kids,” Sa kids Listen toto starve To death

“To Death” He repeated it with all the e to bear on the word

He caught a warning look from Astrid and took a deep breath “Sorry I didn’t mean to yell

It’s just that the situation is really bad”

A second-grade girl held up her hand Sa what to expect, but called on her, anyway

“I just want my mom”

“We all do,” Sam said impatiently “We all want the old world back But we don’t seem to be able to make that happen So we have to try to make this world work out Which means we need food Which means we need kids to harvest the food, and load it into trucks, and preserve it, and cook it, and…” He threw up his hands as he realized he was staring at rows and rows of blank expressions

“You crazy with that stuff about picking vegetables?” It was Howard Basseainst the back wall Salanced around for Orc, but didn’t see hi…no, so…you overlooked

“You have another way to get food?” Sam asked

“Man, you think people don’t know about what happened to EZ?”

Sam stiffened “Of course we all knohat happened to EZ No one is trying to hide what happened to EZ But as far as we know, the wore field”

“What worms?” Hunter demanded

Obviously not everyone had heard Saht at that ruesome fate

“I’ve taken a look at one of the wor the limit of his patience She didn’t come up onto the chancel but stood by her pew and faced the audience, which was now paying very close attention Except for two little kids ere having a shoving match

“The worms that killed EZ are mutations,” Astrid said “They have hundreds of teeth Their bodies are designed for boring through flesh rather than tunneling through the dirt”