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"I’m okay"

He’s weak, Vosch said I remember the way Ben used to stroll down the hallways at school, his broad shoulders rolling, zapping people with his death-ray smile, the master of his universe I never would have called him weak then But the Ben Parish I knew then is very different froed wall of broken stone and twisted metal The new Ben Parish has the eyes of a wounded ani that’s happened to hiym and now, but I do know the Others have succeeded in ing the weak fro

The weak have been swept away

That’s the flaw in Vosch’s master plan: If you don’t kill all of us all at once, those who re who reive this concrete its strength

Floods, fires, earthquakes, disease, starvation, betrayal, isolation, murder

What doesn’t kill us sharpens us Hardens us Schools us

You’re beating plowshares into swords, Vosch You are reelo

And ill be your masterpiece

88

"WELL?" I SAY after several minutes pass and Ben doesn’t coh…roooes back pretty far But I can see light up ahead"

"Light?"

"Bright light Like floodlights And…"

"And? And what?"

"And it’s not very stable I can feel it slipping underneath me"

I squat down in front of Sammy, tell him to climb aboard, and wrap his arht, Saht"

"Don’t let me fall, Cassie," he whispers into my ear as I start up

"I won’t let you fall, SaainstI won’t let hih four alien attacks, suffered God knohat in Vosch’s death factory, andwill be okay

There really is no hope, you know, Vosch said I’ve heard those words before, in another voice, hway Hopeless Useless Pointless

What Vosch spoke, I believed

In the safe room I saw an infinite sea of upturned faces If they had asked, would I have told them there was no hope, that it was pointless? Or would I have told them, Climb onto my shoulders, I will not let you fall?

Reach Grab Pull Step Rest

Reach Grab Pull Step Rest

Climb onto my shoulders I will not let you fall

89

BEN GRABS MY WRISTS when I near the top of the debris, but I gasp for hi left for that final foot I just hang there, waiting for Ben to grab ap, a sliver of space between the ceiling and the top of the slide The darkness up here is not as dense, and I can see his gaunt face dusted in concrete, bleeding froht ahead," he whispers "Maybe a hundred feet" No roo on our sto The entire caone"

I nod I’ve seen what the Eyes can do up close and personal "Have to rest," I pant, and for some reason I’m worried about the quality of my breath When was the last time I brushed my teeth? "Sams, you okay?"

"Yes"

"Are you?" Ben asks

"Define okay"

"That’s a definition that keeps changing," he says "They’ve lit the place up out there"

"The plane?"

"It’s there Big, one of those huge cargo planes"

"There’s a lot of kids"

We craard the bar of light seeping through the crack between the ruins and the surface It’s hard going Sammy starts to whimper His hands are scraped raw, his body bruised froh spots so narrow, our backs scrape against the ceiling Once I get stuck and it takes Ben several rows bright, so bright I can see individual particles of dust spinning against the inky backdrop

"I’m thirsty," Sammy whines