The sun was losing its grip on the sky. With each glance Ted took, it dipped closer and closer to the tree-ragged horizon. It would be night soon. “About an hour left,” he said so everyone in the commandeered bakery truck would hear him. “We should have time to kill a few more ’fore it gets too late.”

Billie was anxious enough with dusk so close and trying to keep her eyes on the road, but the teenager’s words and manner unsettled her. “Haven’t you been listening, Cooper?” she said, perturbed. “Chris told us to stay out of the houses and that’s what we’re going to do. It’s too dangerous.”

He waved her off. “You ain’t my mommy. If I want to do some hunting, I’ll damn well do it.”

She was incredulous. He’d gotten so cocky. “I’ll tell you something, big man. If you want to get yourself killed, fine. Jim-dandy. But you’ll not get someone else hurt in the process. You go hunting, you do it alone. Understand?”

He just shook his head, muttered something under his breath, and went back to staring out the window.

She glanced into the rearview mirror to check on Del and Bart. They were on the floor of the truck amid the trays of bakery goods that would never be delivered, Bart poking at a day-old Danish before tasting it, while Del sat propped against a row of bread shelves. Both were quiet and obviously exhausted, a feeling she heartily shared, but Del was more sullen than normal. He held the last of the tomato-stake crosses, turning it over and over in his hands, gazing at it as if it were some complex puzzle he couldn’t quite fathom. Then he shook his head. “No way,” he murmured. “No way these’ll stop ’em. I mean, those things aren’t stupid. They see that cordon, they’ll just walk forty or fifty feet off the road until they find out it doesn’t reach everywhere. Then they’ll just go around it and what then?”

“There’s no way we could’ve fenced in the entire town, Cap,” Bart said through a mouthful of pastry. “That’s not realistic. Hey, you ought to try one of these, they’re not bad.” The boy shook his head no.

“Bart’s right, honey,” Billie agreed. “Chris only wanted us to slow them down, that’s all. And that’s just what we’ve done.” His tone was skeptical. “You mean with these?” He threw down the cross contemptuously.