“No point. Just want to rest now.”
Danny closed his eyes, the brightness finally too much to stand. In the darkness he thought back and remembered the people he’d lost. He wished that Lizzie and their three children were on this boat now instead of him. Or maybe here with him …
A few seconds passed. Or had it been minutes? The dead town seemed closer than when he’d last looked.
“You still with us, friend?”
Danny’s eyes flickered open again. “Very tired, Joe.”
Joseph wrapped another blanket around his shoulders. Danny let his head loll forward, but then snapped it back again quickly when he heard a child yelp with pain. The noise startled him. It made him panic, made him remember.
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing,” Joseph said, immediately sensing his dying friend’s unease. “Just kids being kids, that’s all.”
Danny watched as a woman separated Jake and Chloe, both of them bickering over half a can of soda.
“She stole it off me,” Jake protested. He yanked Chloe’s hair, then grabbed the can from her and knocked the rest of it back in one gulp.
“That was mine!” Chloe screamed, lunging for him again. “I’ll get you for that,” she sobbed.
Exhausted, Danny’s eyes flickered shut.
ALSO BY DAVID MOODY
Hater
Dog Blood
Autumn
Autumn: The City
Autumn: Purification
Autumn: Disintegration
Autumn: Aftermath
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.
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THEM OR US. Copyright © 2011 by David Moody. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
