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“Petey Is…” She barely kne to ask the question Her brain was fried She was beyond exhausted She lay down beside her brother and cuddled close to his indifferent body “Tell me, Petey Tell me about Nestor”

But Little Pete was already asleep And in seconds, so was Astrid

It was in sleep that she began to fit together the pieces

of the puzzle

THIRTY-FIVE

02 HOURS, 53 MINUTES

TWENTY-ONE HOURS WITH no food Not a bite

No likelihood of food suddenly appearing

Jack’s storowled or rumbled It cramped The pains would come in waves Each pain would last a minute or so, and stretch out over the course of an hour Then there would be a reprieve of an hour, sometimes an hour and a half But when the pain caer

It had started in earnest after about twelve hours He’d been hungry before that, hungry for a long, long ti, “Hey, let’s eat” This was his body saying, “Do so”

A new round of pains was just beginning Jack dreaded it He wasn’t good with pain And this pain orse, so That pain was outside This pain was inside

“Have you figured it out yet?” Caine deot it, Jack?”

Jack hesitated If he said yes, then the next round of this nightin

If he said no, they would sit here and sit here and sit here until they all starved

He didn’t want to say yes He knehat Caine planned He didn’t want to say yes