10
NIX SAT WITH HER BACK TO THE TWISTED TRUNK OF A BRISTLECONE TREE that loomed over the clearing forty yards from the edge of the ravine. She hugged the little girl to her chest as the child continued to scream and cry. Benny wondered if the kid’s mind had snapped. Those screams were hammering cracks in his own sanity.
Lilah squatted in the tall grass a dozen feet away and stared at the child with hollow eyes through which sad shadows flitted. Benny had once heard Tom refer to that kind of look as a “thousand-yard stare.” When Chong made to sit down next to her, Lilah drew her knife and stabbed the point into the earth between them.
“I can see that you need some quiet time,” he said, and scuttled quickly away.
Eventually Nix’s soothing tones and comforting embrace worked their magic on the girl, and she settled down to sniffles. Nix smoothed her hair.
“Sweetie . . . can you tell me your name?” she asked.
“E-E-E . . .” The girl tried to get it out, but every time she tried, she hiccuped a sob. “Eve,” she finally managed. Tiny jewels of tears sparkled on her face.
“Okay, Eve,” said Nix in a voice that reminded Benny of Nix’s mother. Soft and soothing, and full of the certainty of whatever was going to happen next. A parent voice. “Where did you come from?”
Eve looked at her with huge eyes and then looked over her shoulder, as if she could see her own memories. Her words came out all in a rush. “I was running after Ry-Ry, and I lost my way ’cause there were angels in the woods, and then the gray people were there and I ran some more and I tripped and fell. Where’s my mommmmeeee?”
Nix pulled her close again, and the child’s face vanished into a swirl of soft red curls. “Shhh, it’s okay, Eve. Everything’s going to be okay. We’ll find your mommy.”
Benny looked down at the child clutched in Nix’s warm arms. He was far less certain about that.
He wasn’t certain about anything. He thought about the sheer number of zoms that had come out of the forest.
Don’t forget the first rule about the Ruin, whispered Tom’s voice. Out here everything wants to kill you.
Benny closed his eyes, and even now, separated from the madness of the ravine, he wasn’t at all sure if the voice was a memory or a ghost.
Or something worse than both.
Please don’t let this be me, Benny thought. Please don’t let me be going crazy.
The sun shone and the birds sang in the trees and Benny tried hard not to scream.
11
IN A QUIET TONE SO THAT ONLY BENNY COULD HEAR HIM, CHONG MURMURED, “Some day, huh?”
Benny jumped, and Chong shot him a puzzled look.
“What are you so twitchy about?”
For a moment Benny wondered if Chong could read his thoughts.
“Sorry,” said Benny when he was sure his words wouldn’t come out choked and twisted. “Yeah. Weird day.”
Chong sneaked a glance over at Lilah and sighed softly. “You know, I think I liked being down in that hole better. All the zoms wanted to do was eat me. I think Lilah would enjoy skinning me alive.”
Benny followed his gaze and half smiled. “It’s not you, man.”
“What?”
“She’s not mad at you. I mean, she is . . . but not any more than usual.”
“I fell in, and you know how she is with the whole thing about me being a clumsy town boy and—” began Chong, but Benny cut him off.
“It’s the kid. I . . . think she looks like Annie.”
Chong winced