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Brittney’s finger curled around the trigger “No I don’t think I’ to do that”

She heard his footsteps retreating down the hallway She expected the door to give way in a few seconds And then she figured she would be in Heaven with her little brother

“Lord? Please help me to be brave,” Brittney said “In Jesus’ name Amen”

“It’s okay if I die, Tanner,” she said, in a different sort of prayer, one she knew her dead brother could hear “As long as Caine dies first”

TWENTY

18 HOURS, 29 MINUTES

BRIANNA HAD NOT found Sam on the road to the power plant as she raced back to town He was not on any of the roads The only vehicle she had seen had Quinn, Albert, Cookie, and Lana out for a ride in a giant pickup truck She’d thought about stopping theo to the power plant, but none of the four was hter Quinn and Cookie were both supposed to be soldiers, but the person she needed to find was Sa buddy

Saas station He wasn’t at town hall or in the plaza He wasn’t anywhere she looked

And Brianna was burning out fast The speed was exhausting Not as tiring as it should have been, probably, given that she had just run so back and forth, up and down streets and alleyways But exhausting And the hunger was like a lion inside her, tearing at her insides

Her sneakers were in tatters Again They didn’t build Nikes for going as fast as a race car

Then she heard a loud bang It was hard to guess where it had co Slow Very slow But as fast as they could run, poor things

“What’s going on?” she de to a stop

No one answered If anything, they seemed scared of her

It was clear, though, that they were running away fro So she zipped back up the street and in less time than it would have taken a nor in Astrid’s open doorway

“Hey Anybody home?”