Jon
asked, “Are you from Freetown?”
Carli
said, “Yes. Someone from your town came
to warn us you had trouble. We came to
see if we could help.”
The boy
shook his head. “No ma’am. All you’ll get here is dead,” he said with no
emotion at all, save matter-of-factness.
Arner
sat on the floor. “Tell us what
happened. We’ve seen the attackers, so
you don’t have to describe them.”
Everyone
else sat too. The boy took another swig of
water before answering. “They came out
of the west first thing one morning.
They came fast, so fast they kicked up a sandstorm that hid most of them
from sight. I still don’t know how many
attacked. It had to be at least
fifty. Even more came later.”
Arner
said thoughtfully, “The first group must have been a scout detail to test the
town’s defenses. They’re organized.”
Leo
nodded. “That could be. Jon, where were you when this started?”
“School. Our teachers and the other kids went to the
hidey hole in the basement, but I was scared for my folks, so I lit out to find
them.”
Carli
spoke carefully. “I take it you didn’t.”
“No
ma’am. I couldn’t get anywhere near
where they were supposed to be. My mom
was at the greenhouse, right there off the west gate where the monsters came
in. My dad was in the middle of town,
working on the water system. All that
was already overrun.”
“Then
you came here to hide?”
“I snuck
out the east gate. That was before they
closed it up to keep everybody trapped.
I came back after dark and pulled up a bit of the fence to slip in.”
Carli
realized they had used Jon’s entrance to get into the town. “Why didn’t you come to Freetown for help?”
He
looked at her with surprise. “My mom and
dad are still here. If I can find them,
maybe I can show them how to get out.”
Jon was
still child enough to hold out hope for parents most assuredly dead. Bitterness that this brave boy should be left
orphaned bit at Carli.
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