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asked Nix Riley.

FROM NIX’S JOURNAL
    Ever since Tom died Benny seems to think that he has to BE Tom.
    Is that normal grief? Or should I be worried?
    I asked Chong, but for once he didn’t have any answers. I think he’s worried too.

8
    “T OOK YOU LONG ENOUGH, ” SAID B ENNY, WIPING SWEAT FROM HIS EYES .“I was getting bored down here.”
    He tried to make it sound cool and casual. It didn’t.
    Nix snorted and started to say something else, but then she caught sight of the tiny figure cowering in the shadows behind Benny.
    “What—? Oh my God! Where—where—where—?” Her words disintegrated into a baffled stammer.
    “Long story,” said Benny.
    Nix bent over the girl, who was sniffling at the edge of full-blown tears. She touched the girl’s cheek and smoothed her hair. “Hello, sweetie. Don’t be afraid. Everything’s going to be okay now.”
    A few yards away, Lilah looked over her shoulder to see what was going on, and her eyes bulged.
    “Annie?” she murmured.
    Even with everything else going on around them, hearing Lilah say that name came close to breaking Benny’s heart. Annie was the name of Lilah’s little sister. Annie had died years ago trying to escape from the zombie pits at Gameland, and Lilah had been forced to quiet her when she reanimated.Benny could only imagine what was going on in Lilah’s head—seeing another little blond-haired girl, here in a pit filled with zombies. It was weird enough to Benny; to Lilah it must be totally surreal.
    Another fast zom dashed along the ravine—a huge woman with wild black hair and a line of bullet holes stitched across her enormous bosom.
    “Zom!” barked Benny, and Lilah blinked once. The shock on her face was gone in an instant as she turned back to deal with the running zom. The black-pipe spear she carried flashed out, and the bayonet blade cut through dry flesh and tough muscle. Lilah’s face was stone, but Benny wasn’t fooled; her mind had to be churning on this mystery, and it was evident in the renewed force with which she smashed and hacked.
    Nix looked over the little girl’s head at Benny’s empty hands. “Where’s your sword?”
    “It’s stuck in a zom.”
    “Stuck in a—?”
    Benny pointed at the soldier zom far back in the crowd.
    “God. We’ll never get it!” she gasped.
    “We have to,” Benny snapped.
    The wall of zoms pressed forward even as Lilah cut away at it.
    “We can’t,” growled Lilah. “There are too many.”
    Nix cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled upward. “Chong!”
    Instead of an answer, a coil of rope fell from above and landed heavily on Benny’s head, nearly knocking him to his knees.
    “Heads up!” came the yell a half second later.

9
    B ENNY PULLED THE ROPE OFF HIS HEAD AND LOOKED UP TO SEE C HONG ’ S head and shoulders leaning over the edge of the ravine, his long black hair hanging straight down.
    “Hey, Benny,” he yelled. “Lilah said you were out here practicing your brooding, and—”
    “Chong!” Benny barked. “Shut up and tie that rope to a tree.”
    The smile vanished from Chong’s face. “Already done. But c’mon, man, hurry up down there. It’s getting weird up here. There have to be fifty zoms on the other side of the ravine.”
    “Yeah, well, there are one or two down here, too,” Benny grumbled.
    “Then why’d you go down there?” asked Chong.
    Benny ignored the comment and turned toward Lilah. The bayonet blade at the end of her spear was smeared with black goo. “Let me have your spear and I’ll hold them off while you and Nix—”
    Lilah’s snort of derision was eloquent. “Go away,” she said in her ghostly whisper of a voice.
    “Nix,” Benny said, turning to her, “give me your bokken. I’ll guard your back while you take the kid up.”
    “Oh, please. She’s too little to climb, and I’m not big enough to carry her while I climb. You take her up, Benny. Lilah and I will guard your back.”
    “No freaking way. This is my