Danny had come back sayin’ he and his kid brother had been spotted and got separated. He led Karch right to the pool and back into my business. Danny got what was comin’ to him for that fuck-up, but the kid never came back.

“Or at least you didn’t think he did.”

“Shut up,” – my own voice in my head was startin’ to piss me off. But it might have been right. Me and Karch and his guys went lookin’ for the kid and when we got back there was the fuckin’ Honda out front like it’s waitin’. There were bags in the backseat full of clothes that look like a girl’s clothes. I rooted around in ’em before the others could. Found a watch that still ran good. And then I found the scavenge bag that I’d given the kid when he and Danny went out to look for food cans. The kid had been in the car with some girl.

“He probably told her about the stash. Don’t have to worry about Danny ever spillin’ the beans, but if the kid talks and Karch finds out…”

“Shut up!” I kept diggin’ in the bags and found an old brochure from Camp Cypress, one of those places with the barracks and pre-fab houses where the government sent the uninfected, back when they thought that surviving the sickness was all that mattered. Back before everything stopped working and the killing started. Back before they started calling the place Andersonville. Most people weren’t stupid enough to go there anymore.