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Kyle wondered what had happened to Tim. Did he grow up to become a well-adjusted adult? Or did he beat his wife and kids? What if he went to jail? What if Tim was in jail right now, protected from those things by steel bars but starving to death because he couldn’t escape to find food?
Two years later another kid picked a fight with Kyle for no reason, only this time the result was quite different.
It was Kyle’s sophomore year in high school. The kid’s name was Brady. He wasn’t anything special, not at all the kind of kid you’d think was a bully if you only got a quick look at him. But for whatever reason, he wanted to get scrappy with Kyle.
It all came to a head when the two boys found themselves in shop class together. Brady made one taunt too many, and though Kyle could no longer remember what Brady said, he wouldn’t forget what happened next. Brady was hectoring Kyle from the next work table, and Kyle stood up from his bench with a wrench in his hand and took two steps forward.
Brady looked terrified, as if Kyle were gearing up to break open his skull.
The shop teacher, Mr. Horton, heard the commotion and saw what was happening. “Break it up right now or you’re both suspended!”
The only reason Kyle stood up with a wrench in his hand is because the wrench was already in his hand when he stood up. He wasn’t going to do anything with it.
Brady never bothered Kyle again. The following year, junior year in high school for both of them, the two even became sort of friends. Brady had mellowed, and they found themselves in the hallway talking about computer stuff once in a while. Brady, Kyle figured, might have turned out okay, at least until the world ended.
So maybe, Kyle thought, if he stood up for himself a little, he and Lane could become friends after Kyle whisked him safely away.
Lane sat on the floor and leaned against the boarded-up door while Roland slept at his feet. He held his pistol in his right hand and a flashlight in the other. Anyone who approached in the dark would be shot.
Things were no good now that Bobby was gone. No, they were not good at all. Something different had to happen and fast. He’d have a man-to-man talk with Hughes. He’d offer Hughes a job as one of his wingmen, possibly even outranking Roland.
And he’d need to get rid of Parker. Tomorrow.
He heard two sounds. Roland’s deep breathing. And Annie as she thrashed about in her sleep.
Annie dreamed that she had been bitten. She dreamed that she went into some kind of coma. And she dreamed that she came out of that coma in some kind of rage.
She chased people and screamed her throat out while chasing them. She chased them out of a camp and into a forest.
She caught someone who looked like a teenager and sank her teeth into his back. Her prey screamed, but it was too late for her prey. She’d gotten it and now it was hers. She straddled it and placed her hands on its shoulders and shoved its head into the ground and onto some rocks. The pathetic thing whimpered. Then she leaned forward and bit into its neck while it writhed and wriggled and screamed.
Others joined in. Predators like her. Hungry hungry predators. Predators who hated the weak who were responsible for their hunger. Predators that ripped the flesh from the prey she’d caught with their teeth.
She woke screaming.
Lane leaned forward when he heard Annie screaming and placed his finger inside the trigger guard.
Kyle snapped out of his half-asleep state when he heard somebody screaming. It sounded like Annie.
Hughes twitched awake and jumped to his feet when he heard a girl screaming. Were they under attack? Shit, where was his shotgun?
Parker woke to the sound of somebody screaming. The hell’s going on now?
He couldn’t see anything. That bastard Lane had locked him up in the cooler.
Parker heard scrambling next to him. Kyle shouted and banged on the metal door with the flat of his hand. “Annie!”
Annie seemed like a sweet kid, but good grief. What a head case. And Kyle was falling for her like the putz he was. Why couldn’t he see that she was trouble?
Annie stopped screaming as abruptly as she had started. Parker heard Carol’s faint voice from the other side of the door, though he couldn’t quite make out what she said.
“Girl just had a bad dream,” Hughes said. “Shit. And I was deep asleep too. Won’t be again for at least another hour after all that.”
“Annie, are you okay?” Kyle said through the door.
“I’m fine,” she said. “I just had a—really bad dream. Sorry everybody.”
Parker tried to get back to sleep, but instead he thought about jabbing his thumbs in Lane’s eye sockets.
Annie had the dream again, only this time she was in a city. A hungry hungry predator in a city. A city empty of food. Empty of prey. Her prey that was her food. Her cattle run wild.
She found a house. Sound inside. Light inside. Sound and light meant prey and food and more food. One of her prey opened the door. Her prey stepped outside. Her food stepped outside. She screamed, alerting the others, and ran and pounced and bit it and chewed.
Warm blood in her mouth, on her chin, on her chest.
Yelling inside the house. Those things, her food, were yelling at her from inside the house. She looked up, snarled, and saw the face of one of those things.
She knew that face.
Lane.
This time when Annie woke she could not be consoled.
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