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Bug would tell Caine about the electricity at the store That would earn hiet Jack to find a way to cut it off

The fact that the poas still onhad to be careful to follow someone else in

The store was an eerie place The produce section, which was the first thing he saas e produce had been shoveled out, but they had not done a thorough job A big squash was so rotted, it had been reduced to a liquid smear There were corn-on-the-cob leaves scattered, onion skins, and on the floors a sticky gray goo that was the residue of the cleanup effort

The meat section stank, but it was empty nonetheless

Shelves were acres of ele aisle in the middle of the store

Careful to avoid brushing against any of the half dozen or so workers, Bug walked along the aisle

Jars of gravy Packets of powdered chili mix Jars of pimentos and pickled onions Artificial sweetener Clam juice Canned sauerkraut Wax beans

In a separate section with its own guard was a slightly n read, “Day Care Only” Here, there were cylinders of oatmeal, cans of condensed h not many

Things were bad in Perdido Beach, Bug reflected The days of candy and chips were definitely gone Not even a cracker to be seen, let alone a cookie He’d been really lucky to score that handful of Junior Mints on his spy mission to the power plant

That was luck And now, Bug had some more luck It was purely by chance that he discovered the secret of Ralph’s He had dodged aside to avoid a couple of kids and ended up cowering in front of the swinging doors that led to the storeroo a plastic tub filled with ice

Bug couldn’t enter the storerooured itso wanted to find out about

He took a deep breath, ready to run for it if necessary He pushed the swinging door open and slid through The kids with the bin were gone But he heard movement around the corner, behind a wall of cartons marked “plastic cups”

There was the work area that had once belonged to the butchers Now four kids, in rubber aprons that dragged to the floor, ielding knives

They were cutting up fish

Bug stood and stared, not believing what he was seeing Soray, hite and pink insides Other fish were sured it must be deformed And two of the fish didn’t look like fish at all, but rather like soggy, featherless blue birds, or maybe like bats