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Chong kept praying that they would pass through some kind of veil and cross from a day that could only be part of some mad nightmare and into yesterday, when the worst problem was knowing which berries wouldn’t give him diarrhea.
Then he heard the strangest sound.
A small burble of happy laughter.
He looked down at the child who clung to him. Her face was alight with sheer joy as the quad banged over fallen branches and leaped channels cut by rainwater.
Eve grinned up at him, and for the first time since he had first met her, Chong saw the uncomplicated purity of happiness. It was so odd, so totally out of keeping with everything that was happening, that even though he smiled back at her, Chong was deeply afraid for this child.
He did not for a moment believe that a kid who was borderline catatonic could simply “snap out of it.” No way. Chong kept his smile in place, but he felt that he was looking at the beautiful face of a horror deeper than his own infection.
God, don’t let her be all the way over the edge, he silently prayed. If I have any grace coming to me, then let’s agree that I don’t really need it anymore. Give it to the kid. Give Eve a chance.
Even his prayers were orderly, and Chong was good with it. He meant every word.
He closed his eyes for a moment as a fresh wave of motion-induced nausea wormed through his guts.
Lilah, he thought. Lilah...
Riot’s quad burst out of the forest and into the desert. “We’ll be in Sanctuary in less than—”
She screamed and slammed on the brakes.
Chong opened his eyes.
The desert was filled with reapers. More than a hundred of them.
One of them, a tall woman who—unlike the other reapers—had long flowing hair, drew a slender knife and pointed it at Riot.
Riot groaned and spoke a word that Chong knew would burn like acid on her tongue.
“Ma!”
She immediately spun the quad and plunged back into the forest.
Even over the roar of the engine, Chong could hear a hundred voices howl as the reapers gave chase.
84
“I GOT THIS,” SAID NIX, RAISING HER BOKKEN.
“No!” warned Benny as he moved away from it, using his body to push Nix back. “It’s one of those smart fast ones from that scientist’s report.”
The zombie began stalking them, and immediately Nix and Benny knew they were in dangerously unknown territory. This wasn’t the slow, relentless shuffle of the zoms they knew. The creature in the green jumpsuit seemed to be assessing them as it stalked slowly forward. Its milky eyes flicked from Nix’s bokken to Benny’s katana.
The creature—and Benny could no longer think of this thing as a zombie—bent forward and bared its teeth, its face wrinkling with feral animal hate.
“Oh God,” whispered Nix.
The creature snarled in pure fury and rushed at them.
Benny was caught in a dreadful moment of indecision.
Run or fight?
He could feel Nix’s whole body trembling beside him.
The fight and the slope were behind them.
