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The smile on Nix’s face faltered. “They made it,” she said.
“Where are they?” Chong asked, looking around. “Did they come with the army? I haven’t seen them anywhere…”
His voice trailed off because Nix’s eyes were bright with wetness.
“Hey, whoa,” said Benny, “what is it? What’s wrong? Where is Morgie? Where’s Riot?”
“They… they took the fastest route,” began Nix in a fragile little voice. “They did everything they could to get to Asheville in time. They wanted to help, you know?”
She paused and wiped at her eyes. She tried to say more but couldn’t. She just put a hand over her mouth and shook her head.
So, Lilah said it. “They drove too close to Houston,” she said.
“So what?” asked Alethea. “Did they get bit or something?”
“No,” Lilah said. “There was some kind of radiation thing. A power-plant meltdown. They made it to Asheville, but they were sick.”
“How sick?” Benny demanded. “Come on, Lilah, how bad are they?”
Lilah just looked at him. Then tears rolled down her cheeks too.
“Oh… my God…,” Chong breathed.
Benny sat down hard on the edge of the table and put his head against Nix’s chest.
No one said a word for a long time.
Four
Every day after the fall of the Raggedy Man, Gutsy and Sombra went out looking for Alice. Alethea had seen her during the exodus, her eyes empty of everything but hunger. The girl Gutsy loved had been staggering awkwardly on badly broken legs, but there had been no time to quiet her. Gutsy looked for her every morning. Every afternoon. Well into each night.
Alethea and Spider volunteered to help. So did Benny and Nix and the others. Ledger offered too. Gutsy said no.
On the fifth day Gutsy came back just as the sun was setting fires in the western sky. She did not speak to anyone. She went into the tent that had been set up for her by staff from the American Nation. Gutsy stayed in there all night and most of the next day. Sombra sat outside and would not let anyone come close. When the moon rose, the coydog howled. After that day, Gutsy no longer went out looking for Alice.
Five
There was more to the story. Mysteries solved. Answers given.
Asheville had never been destroyed, but it had been attacked. A team of reapers had staged a series of systematic sabotage missions in the capital of the new American Nation. They destroyed all of the cell towers in the region, blew up two electrical power plants, and set off bombs in the communications center. The town went dark, unable to reach the rest of the national network.
By the time the power was back on and communications restored, the Raggedy Man had launched attacks on a dozen smaller towns and countless settlements. No one had any estimates of the loss of life, but it was staggering.
When Ledger and Sam had reached Site B and forced their way in, Bess Collins tried to ambush them. The small group of soldiers stationed at the site fought hard to keep it. They fought the wrong enemy, though. Sam and Ledger had taken more heavily defended places than that. Five of the eight soldiers had surrendered after the others and Captain Collins had died in the fighting. They each claimed they were just following orders, which did not work well with anyone.
The rescue operation was overseen by a pair of old friends of Ledger and Sam—a grizzled old man named Bradley Sims, known to everyone as Top, and a brawny fiftysomething ex-marine from Orange County with the improbable name of Harvey Rabbit, known as Bunny. They had been part of Ledger’s special ops teams for decades.
Even so, it had been way too close.
Six
Dr. Morton found everything he needed at Site B to make pills. His ability to almost miraculously improve on the formula did not go unnoticed. After all, he was now a patient who required those drugs. They let him work and gave him plenty of assistance, but he was never thereafter allowed into any lab or hospital without a military escort.
A transport came and took him away to Asheville, where Dr. McReady, the brilliant researcher who had led the fight to cure the Reaper Plague, had her main facility. With Wodewose and Dòmi and the bulk of all the research, there was talk of an actual cure—for Sarah Peak and Chong and all the infected. And, of course, for Dr. Max Morton.
Seven
Captain Ledger found Gutsy sitting in her tent one morning. He stood there studying her, his eyes unreadable.
