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A third stranger came hurrying out of the woods behind the clearing, and once more Benny realized that he and his friends were boxed in.
The newcomer was a woman wearing a hooded sweatshirt that was smeared with bright blood. She held an ax in her hands, and its blade glistened with red.
Blood, whispered Tom inside Benny’s mind. Zoms don’t bleed.
I know, Benny told him. So who’d she chop with that thing?
Behind Benny, Eve cried, “Mommmeeeee!”
Chong tried to hold Eve, but Riot shot a stone at Chong, missing his nose by half an inch. Eve broke free and ran like lightning across the clearing toward the woman.
The woman fairly shrieked. “EVE! Oh my God . . . Evie!”
She dropped her ax and swept Eve into her arms.
“Okay,” said Chong, “this is heartwarming and all that, but if they’re here, then where’s Lilah?”
Benny cut a cautious look around, but there was no sign of the Lost Girl.
The man with the shotgun grinned at the reunion between his daughter and wife, but he kept his shotgun pointed at Benny. They were thirty yards away, and Benny took a step toward him, raising his hand.
“Hey, mister, we’re glad to—”
“You freeze right where you are, boy,” barked the man in a voice that was hard and flat. An uncompromising voice. “If you reaper scum harmed a hair on my little girl’s head, I’ll see you dead—and it won’t be no ticket to paradise. No sir, it’ll be slow and ugly. Tell me I’m lying.”
Benny froze, and his smile flaked away like peeling paint in a stiff wind. “No,” he said neutrally, “I think you’re telling the absolute truth. But you aren’t making any sense. I think we need to—”
“I got nothing more to say to you.”
“‘Reaper scum’?” echoed Chong. “I’m real certain I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Benny—?” began Nix, but Benny cut in.
Under his breath he said, “Keep your gun on him.”
Benny shifted position again, putting himself squarely between Nix and Riot.
“Sarah,” said the man with the shotgun, “is she hurt? Did they do anything to her?”
“I’m okay, Daddy,” began Eve, but the man growled at her.
“Hush, girl.”
The woman—Sarah—did a quick but thorough examination of her daughter, then pulled her into another hug. “She’s fine, Carter. They didn’t hurt her.”
“They didn’t have time,” sneered Riot. “I told you we’d find her.”
“Of course we didn’t hurt her,” snapped Nix. “We rescued her.”
“Oh yeah,” mocked Riot, “I’m sure.”
“What’s the truth of it, Evie?” said Carter. “None of your pretend stories now. Did these people hurt you? Did they touch you?”
Eve shook her head. Her eyes were wide and filled with doubt and confusion.
“It’s true, mister,” insisted Benny. “She was being chased by zoms, and we rescued her. She’s fine.”
Riot edged forward, tightening her aim at Nix. “Rescued, huh? Don’t buy that bullcrap, Carter. I’ll bet my dear ol’ mom sent them to grab Eve so they could sacrifice her. That’s just the kind of thing she’d like.”
