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He had no food What he had were stomach pains And his crew His posse The Human Crew All of who there kind of ed to look cool by the flickering candlelight

“The freaks have food,” Turk said for the thousandth tiry, but the freaks always have enough”

Zil doubted that, but there was no point arguing about it It wasn’t so food that made him hate them It was their superior attitude But whatever

“I heard Brianna caught soled Zil wasn’t sure if she always giggled, or was h

She was drawing on a pad, perching a s a Sharpie to do variations on the letters “H” and “C” for Human Crew She had a version that Zil kind of liked where the “H” and the “C” were sort of joined, slanted to one side, all hard edges

Antoine had found the weed in his parents’ bedroo yet another desperate search for food

“That’s what I’ at Lisa like she was evidence “They have their ways of getting food The freaks all work together” Turk was not sht have so to have some kind of plan

Zil didn’t have a plan Zil just knew that freaks were running things in the FAYZ And not just in Perdido Beach, but up the hill at Coates, too And now at the power plant Freaks running everything Well, freaks and their helpers, like Edilio and Albert and Astrid

And the other thing Zil kneas that things were a e, who else’s fault could it be?

“They have food, I guarantee you,” Turk said

“Yeah, well, we have tree,” Antoine said, and laughed at his oit

The front door opened and Zil reached for his baseball bat, just in case It was Hank Hank caht up to Antoine, as easily twice his size, and said, “Put that away”

“What are you, the po-po?”

“This is not about getting stoned,” Hank said “That’s not what Zil is about That’s not what the Human Crew is”

Antoine looked blearily at Zil Zil was surprised at hearing hi It was flattering Also confusing