Carter began backing away from the forest, edging toward a thin stand of trees due south. Sarah rose, clutching Eve to her chest; the eyes of both were wild with fear.

“Nix!” called Eve, reaching a hand toward her.

For a split second, Carter and Sarah looked at their daughter’s face and then across the field to Nix and Benny.

Carter lowered his shotgun.

“Run,” he said.

The motor sounds were everywhere now, getting louder and louder.

“RUN!” screamed Sarah.

She and Carter whirled and ran for the trees.

Benny glanced at Nix.

The ravine was behind them and there were woods all around the clearing.

Nix pointed her pistol at the closest of the motor sounds. “What is that?”

“I don’t know,” Benny said, pushing her arm down. “But let’s not find out. Let’s go.”

They backed up several steps, then together they turned and ran as hard as they could for the forest.

Chapter 26

26

LILAH TRIED TO PULL HER PISTOL AS THE MONSTER RACED TOWARD HER.

But it was too fast and too close.

She tried to get up, but her left side was a furnace of heat and blood. Her leg buckled, and she fell back.

Over the edge of the cliff.

The darkness below swallowed her—body, screams, and all.

Chapter 27

27

LOU CHONG RAN FOR HIS LIFE.

It was, he realized with some despair, something he had to do way too often.

Chong was lean and fit, but he was not a good runner. He felt that his body was better suited to climbing a tree with a good book in his back pocket, wading out into slow streams with a fishing pole, or sitting at a picnic table eating apple pie and discussing either fishing or books. Eluding hot pursuit had never been on his list of things to enjoy before he got old. Neither, for that matter, was fighting zoms in a ravine, staring down the mouths of lions, or looking into the barrels of shotguns.

Nevertheless, he ran.

This forest was sparse compared to the denser woods back home in central California. Even so, Chong managed to use the meager vegetation for cover as he put as much distance as he could between himself and the craziness back on the field.

He paused only once, to gape in wonder at the men and women on motorized machines who came tearing out of nowhere.

Jeez, he thought dryly, Nix is going to love this.

And not for the first time—or even the first time that day—Chong wished that Tom was still here.

But . . .

The motor sounds faded a bit, and Chong felt a splinter of relief that those newcomers were not chasing him. The others, though . . . Riot, Carter, and Sarah. They could be anywhere out here, and Riot had already demonstrated that she was capable of moving like a ghost through the forest and tall grass.

Moving like Lilah.