Stiles turned on Ted with an ominous glare and no one else moved. But after a long minute Stiles just stepped past him. Charlie handed him a chopped Remington semi-auto shotgun and a second one in a makeshift scabbard for his back. He nodded, grabbed a few bandoliers of silver shells from the table, and took Billie by the arm. “Come with me,” he said softly as he drew her toward the door. They were almost outside before he said over his shoulder, “Charlie, get them to the shelters. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Then he stopped and finally looked back at Cooper and the others. “If there’s anyone not in a shelter when I get there, I’ll kill them. At least that way you’ll die quickly.”

They went outside, past the soldier’s stolen school bus, and climbed into the bakery truck. Stiles glanced at the setting sun. The rev of the pedal under his foot bespoke his urgency. Billie was watching him. “You were kidding back there, weren’t you? I mean, you wouldn’t kill any of them, would you?”

He said nothing. It was answer enough.

He steered the truck back to Elm and turned south, back across town. She intuitively knew where he was taking her. He crossed Main Street and turned at the next block, onto Walnut Street, and went one block more before parking in front of an older house with peeling paint and a hanging length of gutter along the front. The familiar Conestoga mailbox read MOORE across its wagon-cover. Stiles was already out of the truck and motioning for her to follow. He led her across the lawn.

Just off the porch and between the hedges there was a basement window well, reinforced with corrugated tin and just deep enough for the small pane to swing up. Barely enough room to show Sharon Lou’s entire face on the other side. “Lou?” Billie exclaimed, kneeling down to the window. “Are you all right?”

Sharon’s face disappeared abruptly and Billie suddenly found herself nose-to-nose with a double-barreled shotgun.

“I’m sorry, girl,” the older woman said, “if it really is you. I just can’t take no chances. Not after last night. Now back up there with your boyfriend.”

She did as told. “I tried to get her out myself,” Chris said. “I knew she was a friend of yours, so I thought you might be able to convince her.”

“Hell no, I ain’t coming out,” Sharon told them. “After what I saw last night . . . things I couldn’t understand if I tried. I don’t trust nobody. So I’ll just stay put, thank you. I’ve got canned goods and blankets and a bathroom down here. And my gun. I can hold as long as I want. At least until the state police get here. Or the National Guard.”

“But it’s not safe enough,” Billie said. “Come with us.”