Wes wasn't offended. He thought about the question and then said. "Don't know. Slow metabolism, I guess."

"It's because Stevie drew you that way," Lou said.

"Huh?" Wes said as he stood and stumbled over to the nearest overturned rack of snacks. It was slim pickings but he was determined to find something.

"That's the way Stevie drew you," Lou said. "Fat..." She gasped and cupped her hand over mouth. "Sorry."

Wes waved her off. "It's okay. Fat is fat. I ain't got nothing against it." He found a bag of peanuts and opened it with his teeth. "So I'm still fat because this is the way Stevie drew me?" He popped a couple of peanuts in his mouth. "How come you all are getting older? You're all *bout a foot taller than when I first laid eyes on you... *cept you, April. Don't know if anything's changed on you since all this began because we ain't known each other that long."

"I lost weight," she said proudly.

Wes sneered. "Good for you."

"I think it's all the Twinkies you eat," Gordy said. "I'm surprised that creamy filling doesn't ooze out of your ears."

Wes shrugged. "Can't help it if Twinkies keep for forever and a day. They's the only thing we find on a regular basis from overturned store to over-turned store." As if the universe was trying to prove a point, he spotted a box of Twinkies near the stack of snacks he had just combed through. "You see!"

"Just because you find 'em, don't mean you gotta eat 'em," Gordy said.

"Son, food ain't something you pass up during end times," Wes said ripping open the box. He took out a Twinkie and tossed the box to Tyrone. "You better take one before I go through the whole box."

Tyrone handed the box to April without even considering taking one.

Wes stuffed then entire Twinkie in his mouth and shrugged. "You don't know what you're missing," he mumbled.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Lou gesturing with her head for me to follow her. I stood and did as she requested.

"You need to talk to Tyrone," she said once we were outside the building.

"About what?"

"Valerie," she said hesitantly.

I peered through the dirty glass door and got a glimpse of the group. Gordy, April, and Wes were deep in conversation while Tyrone stared off blankly.

"What can I do?" I asked.

"Help him deal with her... what happened," Lou said. "We need him, and he's useless to us if his head's not right."

"He'll work it out." I started to walk away, but she grabbed my arm and forcefully pulled me back.

"I don't get you," she snapped.

Normally her angry tone would have triggered an angry response from me, but for some reason, it didn't faze me. I honestly didn't care, and that bothered me. "It's not your job to get me, Lou."

"Job?" She looked hurt. "Why are you being such a jerk?"

"I'm not in the mood..." My plans were to storm off, but she stepped in front of me.

"Too bad for you because I want to know what's up with you... I heard what you said to April."

"I know."

"It was cruel."

"I know."

"You weren't like this before..."

"I disappeared? I know." I sighed. "I don't know what you want me to say. I'm a kid. I can't take responsibility for everyone else. If Tyrone doesn't get that people die in miserable ugly ways in this world then I can't help him. Same goes for April. It's not my fault they got Archie and Bobby. Archie is the same as me. He is Creyshaw. He had a job to do and he failed. I'm not going to go looking for him. I'm not!" My voice was getting louder and louder. "You want to know what happens if I find him?"

I could see real fear in her eyes as she backed away from me.

"I would have to kill him if he's not already dead!"

"What are saying?" she asked with a tear rolling down her cheek.

"The Delons have him. He will be marked, and he will be turned. You remember how they turn people, right?"

"I..."

I cut her off. The anger that had escaped me earlier was in full force now. "A shunter crawls out of its solifipod while you're sleeping and attaches itself to your face to suck out the part of your brain that makes you human."

"I don't understand."

"Because you weren't there. You didn't see what I did to him. I pulled the shunter off. I tore his face off. I can't do that to him again."

"Again?" She approached cautiously, reached out and gently took my hand. "None of this is real, Oz. You didn't do anything to Archie. I need you to see that. We don't belong in this world. The only way we can get back to where we belong is if we are all focused on getting home. We can't do this without Tyrone... or you."

I looked down at her hand holding mine and collapsed to one knee. "I'm tired."

She squeezed my hand. "That's allowed." She smiled.

I chuckled and looked up at her. "Wes is right. There's a chance that we'll never get home no matter how hard we fight."

She nodded. "Yeah, but there's a chance we will, too."

I stood and stared at her eyes. If I could, I would have never stopped looking at them, but a crashing sound in the parking lot diverted our attention. My body went stiff. Lou reached out and grabbed my arm. Her breathing was heavy and fast.

"What was that?" she asked.

I swallowed. "Wind..."

Another crash came, followed by the wap-wap-wap of feet on the ground. Wap-wap-wap. Wap-wap-wap. Lou and I backed toward the store entrance. Neither of us had any weapons. A conversation carried out in whispers drifted through the darkness.

"Not the wind," Lou said.

A cry, "Whoop!" sounded out from the back of the parking lot.

"Augh-wee-op!" was the reply. Whoever or whatever it was was just on the edge of the darkness.

"Whoop-whoo!" Another call.

I stepped forward.

"Where are you going?" Lou asked.

"Sounds like... a couple of kids," I said.

"Yeah, well the last bunch of kids we ran into tried to feed us to a bunch of locusts."

I turned to her and gave her point some thought. "Carl's group?"

She nodded.

"I remember. That's when you lost Tank."

"How did you know about Tank?"

Before I could answer, another call came from the darkness.

"What do you want?" I yelled.

I could hear the faint sound of whispering. They were bickering.

"Show yourself!" I yelled.

Nothing.

"You chicken?" I provoked.

The whispering got louder. Finally a single voice emerged. "We are the Throwaways!"

"Throwaways?" I mumbled. "You heard of *em?" I asked Lou.

"No," she said.

"What do you Throwaways want?"

There was a long pause. "We are the Throwaways!"

I chuckled and Lou shrugged her shoulders.

"You said that already," I answered.

There was another series of intense whispers and then the same single voice spoke. "We want... you to surrender."

FIVE.

I saw the figure of a tall lanky boy hidden in the shadows. He held on to a staff. As he stepped closer, I could see that he was dressed too lightly for the chilly temperature. His face was thin and his skin was horrifically pale.

"Why do you want us to surrender?" I asked. "I didn't even know we were fighting."

"We are," the boy shouted. "We are the Throwaways. We are at war with everyone and everything."

"That doesn't sound fun," I yelled.

I heard the door to the store open and turned to see Ajax, Aribod, and Wes exit.

"What in the world is going on out here?" Wes asked.

"We've got visitors," I said.

"Who?"

"The Throwaways."

"We are the Throwaways," the boy said.

I shook my head. "They say that a lot."

"What do they want?"

"For us to surrender," Lou said.

Wes raised an eyebrow. "How many of them are there?"

"Best as I can tell," I said, "five, maybe a couple more."

Ajax hoot-growled and pounded his chest. Ariabod snorted like a bull.

"Hold on," I said. "I'm pretty sure they're harmless."

"Pretty sure ain't good enough," Wes said. "Lou, get inside and have Gordy, April, Kimball, and Tyrone sneak out the back and circle around behind these jokers."

"Whoa," I said. "I think we should just calm down. Let me talk to them."

"This world ain't really built for talking your way out of trouble," Wes said.

"Give me five minutes," I said. "Let me go out there and see if I can't talk some sense into them."