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Chapters (98)
  1. Author’s Note
  2. Tuesday
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4
  7. 5
  8. 6
  9. 7
  10. 8
  11. 9
  12. 10
  13. 11
  14. 12
  15. 13
  16. 14
  17. 15
  18. 16
  19. 17
  20. Wednesday
  21. 1
  22. 2
  23. 3
  24. 4
  25. 5
  26. 6
  27. 7
  28. 8
  29. 9
  30. 10
  31. 11
  32. 12
  33. 13
  34. 14
  35. 15
  36. Thursday
  37. 1
  38. 2
  39. 3
  40. 4
  41. 5
  42. 6
  43. 7
  44. 8
  45. 9
  46. 10
  47. 11
  48. 12
  49. 13
  50. 14
  51. 15
  52. 16
  53. Friday
  54. 1
  55. 2
  56. 3
  57. 4
  58. 5
  59. 6
  60. 7
  61. 8
  62. 9
  63. 10
  64. 11
  65. 12
  66. Saturday
  67. 1
  68. 2
  69. 3
  70. 4
  71. 5
  72. 6
  73. 7
  74. 8
  75. 9
  76. 10
  77. 11
  78. 12
  79. 13
  80. 14
  81. 15
  82. Sunday
  83. 1
  84. 2
  85. 3
  86. 4
  87. 5
  88. 6
  89. 7
  90. 8
  91. 9
  92. 10
  93. 11
  94. 12
  95. 13
  96. Tuesday
  97. 1
  98. Afterword

He fumbled around, found the knob, turned it, pushed it open, and leaped inside. As he moved he was trying to think of ways to kill the bugs that made it through the door with him, but then he realized that wouldn’t be necessary. They were peeling off of him at the threshold line, like vacuum wrap being stripped from a piece of meat. Jack stopped two feet inside the door and looked down at his arms, his clothes—not a single bug had made it in with him.

He turned and stared through the door as the screen banged shut. The palmettos were buzzing off in all directions, scattering like…like the leaves he’d first mistaken them for.

What the hell was going on here?

14

“Semelee! Semelee, answer me! Are you all right?”

Semelee opened her eyes and saw Luke’s big face and hulking form hangin’ before her. No…hangin’ above her. She shook her head, propped herself up on her elbows, and looked around.

“What happened?”

“You was us in the shell, had it over your eye, and you was smilin’ and laughin’ and then all of a sudden you yelled and fell back on the floor. What happened?”

Good question. Real good question. But it was startin’ to come back to her now.

She’d spotted the old man’s kid, the special one, outside his daddy’s house and followed him through palmetto eyes to one of the buildings in the old folks’ village. She’d been hopin’ he’d show her that he had her other eye-shell but he surprised her by breakin’ into the building. She tried to follow him inside but he closed the window too quick. She peeked through the windows and saw him lookin’ at some papers. She had no idea what they were and didn’t care. She was lookin’ for her eye-shell.

Pretty soon he was out again. She followed him back to the house where he met someone outside. She thought there was somethin’ familiar about the stranger but couldn’t place him.

It was about then that she’d started feelin’ the strain of controllin’ mindless little creatures like palmettos with just one eye-shell. She had to make somethin’ happen, get the special one into the house where she could have a look around for her eye-shell.

So she’d gathered as many as she could and attacked. She’d been havin’ a good time chasin’ him and seein’ what he was made of, and was gonna follow him into the house and give him a good scare—maybe have the bugs gather in the air and spell out somethin’ spooky—so he’d leave and let her search the place. But as she approached the front door she started feelin’ strange, a little sick even. And then when she tried to follow him inside it was like runnin’ into a wall. She was slammed back and things got a little fuzzy after that.