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"You fight her, you’ll face her You must"

Sink to her level? I feared I would literally beco myself forever "Matthehat if I can’t colare and drilled an arrow into one of the soldier’s wide, disbelieving eyes--

The tanker blew, shaking the world like an atomic blast

Chapter 37

When we realized Jackson wasn’t at the spot where he was supposed to ht

He can’t be dead, can’t be dead

But if he’d gotten caught in that blast, how could he have survived?

I’d just stifled a sob when Finn asked, "So what do we do now?"

"We wait for Jackson," I quickly said "Or we go back in for him"

"This is your fault!" Selena snapped at me "God, will you turn off that scent?"

"Just shut up and let me think!"

With his lids at half-mast, Finn said, "I dunno I really like the way she smells" When he lifted a lock of my hair and inhaled, Selena rolled her eyes

"So what’s up with you guys?" he asked, still sniffing me "Are you like the Super Friends?"

Matthew said, "Cards Cards! Cards Cards--"

"Stop, please" I jerked back froet back into the cauise me?"

Selena scoffed "They’ll smell you, little shop of horrors I still can’t believe you left him behind!"

Neither could I "Why don’t we save the blame for later--for noe need to FIND JACK!"

"Evie?"

I whirled around

E frorit and ash, his clothes blood-spattered One of his calves was burned severely

I gave a cry of relief and ran toward hiazefro me away

So volatile Had he just killed a man with his bare hands?

Finn broke up the tension "Okay, now that the gang’s all here, let’s starttracks back to my totally secure pad"

An hour later, we learned that Jackson did not agree with Finn about the security of his pad

It was a weekender, secluded in a blackened forest, overlooking what used to be a lake A Bagman draw

But Finn vowed that no one would bother us--just as they hadn’t on our trek to get to his place

Selena, Matthew, and I had known that Finn was disguising us Jackson hadn’t He’d li point No one, not even Selena, had dared to approach hi not to discuss our new discoveries around Jackson

At the front door, he said, "You doan board your s here, boy?" He cautiously entered, ht behind hi less at the s and oods stored here Yes, that militia had been rich; apparently, Finn had taken full advantage of his abilities

Wares were piled high: batteries, boxes of chocolate bars, Coleman lanterns, crates of bottled water, cereal

Selena snidely observed, "Kind of looks like your mom’s old place, Matt"

Matthew squeezed ht attack Even Jackson frowned at her

"No need to board up any s," Finn told Jackson as he fetched three Durafla pile of them He bundled them over to a fireplace with a stone hearth and antlers above the rough-hewn ily "And no one can see the sed here I’ve stayed at this cabin for weeks, stealing fro off the chill inside, we raided Finn’s food, dragging our fruit cups, Doritos, and Chef Boyardee cans in front of the hearth

But not Jackson With ash and blood still streaked all over, he rued till he’d found a fifth of whiskey

Bow strapped over his back and bottle clenched in onedown He sat with his elbows on his knees, staring at the fla ourselves

I put together a selection of food for hi up the bottle instead Then he leveled bloodshot eyes at Finn "How have you been getting in and out with all this stuff?"

Finn shrugged "Candy Baby I even made it out with one of their trucks It’s out back" When Jackson looked incredulous, Finn said, "What can I say? I’assed up and ready to takeoff those reds that I guess I got lazy Plus, I like to play pranks on them--more of a compulsion really Not toboner for Hickette"

Casting a significant glance at Selena, he added, "I’ll never setunfazed by Finn’s colorful personality, Jackson swigged that bottle "So each other?"

Jackson had seen that? I glanced at Finneas, counting on hi?"

God, this nightsense to hi all the pieces from him

"You been north of here, boy?"

"I have All over the Carolinas And I will not be going back"

"That’s where we been goan" Jacksonbuzzed for his accent to sound so thick "To the Oudder Banks"

"Bad idea, Cajun There’re three ways to get there from here, each one worse than the last You can either hold your breath through the plague colonies, slip through Slaverville, or take theflashed in his expression, so somber, which seemed out of place on his animated face "That’s where the cannibals really like to hole up"

"You’ve seen them?" I asked

"Oh, yeah And it’s, like, totally worse than you can irilled Homo sapiens really screith their heads And the miner cannibals in North Carolina? They’re the worst! Dude They don’t even grill"

Selena said, "The Outer Banks are looking less and less like ar and snide

When Jackson unsteadily rose, favoring his good leg, I shot to ed up" No response "Jackson? Please eat so with you?"