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Then one day Morgie sat on a rock down by the creek and cried harder than I ever saw anyone cry. He cried so hard I was scared for him. He kept punching his thigh, over and over again. Sometimes he punched himself in the side of the head. And cried. I tried to help him, but he screamed at me so loud that I got scared.
So . . . I went and told his dad.
I don’t know what happened exactly. Morgie’s dad went running down to the creek and told us to stay away. He and Morgie were down there for a long time. A couple of hours.
Morgie didn’t go to school for two days, and his dad didn’t go to work. Tom said that he saw them down at the creek again. Fishing.
That was a couple of years ago.
The thing with Jazz was today.
We’re all taught what to do with a fire-ant bite. You have to elevate the spot where the bite was, then wash the area to reduce the risk of infection. Then you place a cool compress on it. As soon as you can, take an antihistamine.
We even have some old epinephrine pens one of the traders found in a hospital. They used one on Jazz.
It didn’t work.
She went into convulsions.
And then she died.
Just like that.
No long disease. Not the flu. No zom bite.
Ants.
Little red ants.
Ordinary stuff.
When you live in a world where there are seven billion zombies, you think about death coming for you with hands and teeth.
Not ant bites.
Somehow it feels worse.
They sent us home early from school. No one was allowed in the nurse’s office after they brought Jazz in. Just teachers.
Teachers all carry slivers.
I barely even knew her, and I’m not really sure I liked her all that much.
But I can’t stop crying.
The Valley of the Shadow
Coldwater Creek, California
(On First Night, fourteen years before Rot & Ruin)
1
Hannahlily
Hannahlily Bryce was pretty sure that Tucker Norton was it.
The actual it. As in the one.
