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Hunter had slunk across the highway and it was like it was a border or so from one country into another Perdido Beach on one side, so else on the other

He thought at first about going to Coates But Coates wasn’t the answer to any question that Hunter could think of Coates meant Drake and Caine and that deceptive witch, Diana Mostly, Drake Hunter had seen Drake at the Thanksgiving Battle Back at the ti powers He was a bystander,the real fighting Standing there watching in sheer, wild-eyed terror as Say fros and people and threw them around

And the coyotes They were part of it, too

But it was Drake who had haunted Hunter’s nightmares Whip Hand, he called hih But it wasn’t the whip hand that terrified Hunter It was the sheer, insane violence in the boy The madness

No Not Coates He couldn’t go there

He couldn’t go anywhere

Hunter had spent the re in one of the abandoned hoainst the hills

But he had not slept well The fear and the hunger made sleep impossible

Well, Hunter told himself, if he was still this desperate in two days, he had a solution Not a good solution, maybe, but a solution In two days Hunter would turn fifteen Fifteen was the poof, the big step-off Later to the FAYZ

He had heard all about how to survive How to stay in the FAYZ, fight the temptation But he’d also heard that lately et it: I hit fifteen, I am out of here

They said at theyou wanted most By the one person you missed most If you could reject that teave in…well, that was the thing No one knehat happened if you went for it

Hunter kneould teer Or a slice of pizza Not candy, it wasn’t about candy Not anyoodness now

If some demon came to him with a rack of Applebee’s ribs, Hunter had no serious doubt that he would reach for it, whatever the consequence

He would trade his life for an In-N-Out Double-Double The only hesitation in his mind hether the demon would actually let hiry

Hunter hid in the house all night and well into the , afraid to step outside But noThe house had been cleaned out coerator door wide open, all the telltale signs that Albert’s gatherers had been through