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The group was totally silent Several of the girls iping their noses and eyes now It was an eroup of warrior wo I knehat it was all about

Melody let herself be turned away froan their walk back to the house No one said or did anything other than watch theot about ten steps into the trip when the words ca out of my throat of their own accord

"Wait!" I yelled, probably a little too loudly

Rob cringed next to -eyes

"She can hold him if she wants to!" I continued

Melody spun around, clasping her hands in front of her chest

Kiersten shook her head "I don’t think that’s such a good idea"

"Please?" Melody begged her sister "Just for a ive him back, I swear to God"

"No," said Kiersten fir over "Take her into the house I need to deal with these people before I deal with her"

They nodded and took Melody gently in hand She walked backwards to the house, staring at Winky, not bothering to hide her tears or her misery Once she was at the stairs, she turned to walk up, casting glances over her shoulder every few steps Eventually, she disappeared out of sight without another word

"Wow That was so of shit … you guys don’t happen to have any diapers, do you?"

"As a matter of fact, we do," said Kiersten "It wouldn’t be very intelligent of us to plan to start a new civilization without them, noould it?"

"So, what’s the deal with your sister?" I asked "I’ht?"

"No She’s not crazy Not like you hbors, in fact - and Melody isn’t like that, as far as I can tell"

Kiersten nodded "She’s grieving She lost her baby recently, and it’s really tearing her up Us too" Kiersten cleared her throat and lifted her chin She looked like she was in the process of defying her euess" I kind of saw it as a blessing in disguise This world was too harsh for babies, and Melody see and vulnerable for the responsibility

"No kind of about it It sucks Period"

"But babies are a big deal to take care of And it’s hard enough just taking care of ourselves," I said, thinking out loud

"We have set up our hoirls to help, and our sole ether in peace and raise our children - children ill be taught the value of living simply and in harmony with others"

I wasn’t all that fairls in h school who’d tried to be hippies like back in those days Part ofher overly-siue with the logic, so I kept ht still be a way out of thisto kill the boy babies?" asked Rob

She scowled at hied "Airls That’s history I’ this crap up"

"We’re the new and improved version of those warriors," she said, pride in her voice "We don’t kill babies And we don’t kill anyone who doesn’t mean us harm Our world needs less war andto be hurt, so long as he agrees to cooperate"

I looked up at Bodo, and he was hanging fro forward I swore I could hear hi to be pretty hard to … uh … do things with in his current state"

She looked over her shoulder, sighing aloud "Yeah We s But they’ll wear off" She turned back to me "So unless you want to trade your other friend for hi Bodo away" She sh I can see why you’d want to keep hi about him "He’s not a piece of property, Kiersten He’s a ood one And he’sto take no for an answer" I schooledI couldn’t let her see ht be all peace and love and harmony in theory, but she’d found a way to make friends with vicious canners and lived to tell about it The only way that happened was by sheer cunning Kiersten was no one to mess with

"Unless you have another offer, you hold the losing hand here," she said, turning to leave us and walk back to the stairs

"Wait!" yelled Winky from behindelse to trade"

"What? Bikes?"

"No, stupid" She lifted up her bundle "The baby!" She grinned at esting "Do you honestly think I’d turn over a baby so it could be molested by a bunch of man-chicks?!"