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"Chin up, back straight," Emma said "Try to look scary"

We closed ranks and walked into theirSoot-stained all over Dressed in scavenged castoffs I scowled, doing erous person They shied away like beaten dogs

Here was a kind of shantytown Low-slung huts hed doith boulders and tree stual s the bones of a burned civilization; hardly there at all

Chickens ran in the street A s in its blistering heat

"Don’t get too close," Addison ht so, too It was the lilassy stares Several wore crude masks or sacks over their heads with only slits for eyes, as if to hide faces chewed by disease, or to slow a disease’s transmission

"Who are they?" I asked

"No idea," said Euess is they’re welcoue carriers, criivable even in Devil’s Acre Those who escaped the noose settled here, at the very bottoe of peculiar society Exiled from the outcasts of outcasts"

"If this is the edge," said Ehts can’t be far away"

"Are we sure these people are peculiar?" I asked There see unique about them, aside from their wretchedness Maybe it was pride, but I didn’t believe a coraded, would allow themselves to live in such medieval squalor

"Don’t know, don’t care," Emma replied "Just walk"

We kept our heads down and our eyes forward, feigning disinterest in hopes that these people would return the favor Most stayed away, but a few trailed us, begging

"Anything, anything A dropper, a vial," said one, gesturing to his eyes

"Please," implored another "We haven’t had a kick in days"

Their cheeks were pocked and scarred, like they’d been crying tears of acid I could hardly look at theot it," said Ears dropped back and stood in the road, watching us darkly Another called out in a high, fraying voice "You there! Boy!"