sob

Do you believe in God, Evan?___ure I do.___ don__. I mean, I don__ know. I did before the Others came. Or thought I did, when I thought about it at all. And then they came and_ I have to stop for a second to collect myself. __aybe there__ a God. Sammy thinks there is. But he also thinks there__ a Santa Claus. Still, every night I said his prayer with him, and it didn__ have anything to do with me. It was about Sammy and what he believed, and if you could have seen him take that fake soldier__ hand and follow him onto that bus____ losing it, and it doesn__ matter to me much. Crying is always easier in the dark. Suddenly my cold hand is blanketed by Evan__ warmer one, and his palm is as soft and smooth as the pillowcase beneath my cheek.__t kills me,_ I sob. __he way he trusted. Like the way we trusted before they came and blew the whole goddamned world apart. Trusted that when it got dark there would be light. Trusted that when you wanted a fucking strawberry Frappuccino you could plop your ass in the car, drive down the street, and get yourself a fucking strawberry Frappuccino! Trusted_

She was sobbing for help, but her sobbing wails died within the four walls of the room under the clamorous slogans raised by a mob on the road, which had gathered near the masjid just beside the hospital, raising slogans, "Hum kya chahte, Azadi, we want freedom", "Yahan, kya chalega- Nizam-e-Mustafa", "La Sharqiya' lagharbia, Islamia Islamia.

Hana?" Lena says softly. "Are you okay?"That single stupid question breaks me. All the metal fingers relax me at once, and the tears they've been holding back come surging up at once. Suddenly I am sobbing and telling her everything: about the raid, and the dogs, and the sounds of skulls cracking underneath regulator's nightsticks. Thinking about it again makes me feel like I might puke. At a certain point, Lena puts her arms around me and starts murmuring things into my hair. I don't even know what she's saying, and I don't care. JUst having her here__olid, real, on my side__akes me feel better than I have in weeks. Slowly I manage to stop crying, swallowing back the hiccups and sobs that are still running through me. I try to tell her that I've missed her, and that I've been stupid and wrong, but my voice is muffled and thick

I sob and clutch my stuffed bunny. Nick leaps up on my bed and squashes his body against mine, nuzzling my face with his muzzle until I lift it enough for him to lick away my tears.While the pixie rages downstairs, I wrap my arms around Nick__ furry body and cry into him. My shoulders quake from the effort of it. He whimpers once or twice and tries to lick my face some more, but mostly he watches the door, and eventually I stop with the pathetic sobbing stuff and just keep crying.

I__ mean? That__ the worst you can throw at me?___ean and self-pitying. Does that make it better?___nd what are you, Astrid?_ he shouted. __ smug know-it-all! You point your finger at me and say, __ey, Sam, you make the decisions, and you take all the heat.____h, it__ my fault? No way. I didn__ anoint you.___eah, you did, Astrid. You guilted me into it. You think I don__ know what you__e all about? You used me to protect Little Pete. You use me to get your way. You manipulate me anytime you feel like it.___ou really are a jerk, you know that?___o, I__ not a jerk, Astrid. You know what I am? I__ the guy getting people killed,_ Sam said quietly.Then, __y head is exploding from it. I can__ get my brain around it. I can__ do this. I can__ be that guy, Astrid, I__ a kid, I should be studying algebra or whatever. I should be hanging out. I should be watching TV.__is voice rose, higher and louder till he was screaming. __hat do you want from me? I__ not Little Pete__ father. I__ not everybody__ father. Do you ever stop to think what people are asking me to do? You know what they want me to do? Do you? They want me to kill my brother so the lights will come back on. They want me to kill kids! Kill Drake. Kill Diana. Get our own kids killed.__hat__ what they ask. Why not, Sam? Why aren__ you doing what you have to do, Sam? Tell kids to get eaten alive by zekes, Sam. Tell Edilio to dig some more holes in the square, Sam.__e had gone from yelling to sobbing. ____ fifteen years old. I__ fifteen.__e sat down hard on the edge of the bed. __h, my God, Astrid. It__ in my head, all these things. I can__ get rid of them. It__ like some filthy animal inside my head and I will never, ever, ever get rid of it. It makes me feel so bad. It__ disgusting. I want to throw up. I want to die. I want someone to shoot me in the head so I don__ have to think about everything.__strid was beside him, and her arms were around him. He was ashamed, but he couldn__ stop the tears. He was sobbing like he had when he was a little kid, like when he had a nightmare. Out of control. Sobbing.Gradually the spasms slowed. Then stopped. His breathing went from ragged to regular.____ really glad the lights weren__ on,_ Sam said. __ad enough you had to hear it._____ falling apart,_ he said.Astrid gave no answer, just held him close. And after what felt like a very long time, Sam moved away from her, gently putting distance between them again.__isten. You won__ ever tell anyone___o. But, Sam___lease don__ tell me it__ okay,_ Sam said. __on__ be nice to me anymore. Don__ even tell me you love me. I__ about a millimeter from falling apart again.___kay.

I follow the path we__e taken so many times this summer _ across the front, down the street, cut back through a neighbor__ yard, down the stairs to the beach, past the pier, through the campfire labyrinth, up to the deck of the Shack, and straight into Sam__ arms. Without speaking, he kisses me hard on the mouth and I kiss him back, sobbing and crumpling into his chest like a broken puppet.

Yeah, let__ get John here. That way we can stall for a while longer. We can keep on doing nothing for just a little while longer.__lbert said, __ake it easy, Howard.___ake it easy?_ Howard jumped to his feet. __eah? Where were you last night, Albert? Huh? Because I didn__ see you out there on the street listening to kids screaming, seeing kids running around hurt and scared and choking, and Edilio and Orc struggling, and Dekka hacking up her lungs and Jack crying and__ou know who couldn__ even take it?_ Howard raged. __ou know who couldn__ even take what was happening? Orc. Orc, who__ not scared of anything. Orc, who everyone thinks is some kind of monster. He couldn__ take it. He couldn___but he did. And where were you, Albert? Counting your money? How about you, Astrid? Praying to Jesus?__strid__ throat tightened. She couldn__ breathe. For a moment panic threatened to overwhelm her. She wanted to run from the room, run away and never look back.Edilio got to his feet and put an arm around Howard. Howard allowed it, and then he did something Astrid never thought she would see. Howard buried his face in Edilio__ shoulder and cried, racking sobs.__e__e falling apart,_ Astrid whispered for herself alone.But there was no easy escape. Everything Howard had said was true. She could see the truth reflected in Albert__ stunned expression. The two of them, the smart ones, the clever ones, the great defenders of truth and fairness and justice, had done nothing while others had worked themselves to exhaustion.

Drake's whip hand spun Diana like a top.She cried out. That sound, her cry, pierced Caine like an arrow.Diana staggered and almost righted herself, but Drake was too quick, too ready.His second strike yanked her through the air. She flew and then fell.__atch her!_ Caine was yelling to himself. Seeing her arc as she fell. Seeing where she would hit. His hands came up, he could use his power, he could catch her, save her. But too slow.Diana fell. Her head smashed against a jutting point of rock. She made a sound like a dropped pumpkin.Caine froze.The fuel rod, forgotten, fell from the air with a shattering crash.It fell within ten feet of the mine shaft opening. It landed atop a boulder shaped like the prow of a ship.It bent, cracked, rolled off the boulder, and crashed heavily in the dirt.Drake ran straight at Caine, his whip snapping. But Jack stumbled in between them, yelling, __he uranium! The uranium!__he radiation meter in his pocket was counting clicks so fast, it became a scream.Drake piled into Jack, and the two of them went tumbling.Caine stood, staring in horror at Diana. Diana did not move. Did not move. No snarky remark. No smart-ass joke.__o!_ Caine cried.__o!__rake was up, disentangling himself with an angry curse from Jack.__iana,_ Caine sobbed.Drake didn__ rely on his whip hand now, too far away to use it before Caine could take him down. He raised his gun. The barrel shot flame and slugs, BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM.Inaccurate, but on full automatic, Drake had time. He swung the gun to his right and the bullets swooped toward where Caine stood like he was made of stone.Then the muzzle flash disappeared in an explosion of green-white light that turned night into day. The shaft of light missed its target. But it was close enough that the muzzle of Drake__ gun wilted and drooped and the rocks behind Drake cracked from the blast of heat.Drake dropped the gun. And now it was Drake__ turn to stare in stark amazement. __ou!__am wobbled atop the rise. Quinn caught him as he staggered.Now Caine snapped back to the present, seeing his brother, seeing the killing light.__o,_ Caine said. __o, Sam: He__ mine.__e raised a hand, and Sam went flying backward along with Quinn.__he fuel rod!_ Jack was yelling, over and over. __t__ going to kill us all. Oh, God, we may already be dead!__rake rushed at Caine. His eyes were wide with fear. Knowing he wouldn__ make it. Knowing he was not fast enough.Caine raised his hand, and the fuel rod seemed to jump off the ground.A javelin.A spear. He held it poised. Pointed straight at Drake.Caine reached with his other hand, extending the telekinetic power to hold Drake immobilized.Drake held up his human hand, a placating gesture. __aine_you don__ want to_not over some girl. She was a witch, she was__rake, unable to run, a human target. The fuel rod aimed at him like a Spartan__ spear.Caine threw the fuel rod. Tons of steel and lead and uranium.Straight at Drake.

First off,_ he said, __ want to say I__ sorry about E.Z. He was a good kid. He didn__ deserve_ For a moment he almost lost it as a surge of emotion welled up from nowhere. ____ sorry he died.__omeone sobbed loudly.__ook, I__ going to get right to it: we have three hundred and thirty-two_I__ sorry, three hundred and thirty-one mouths to feed,_ Sam said. He placed his hands on his hips and planted his feet wide apart. __e were already pretty bad off for food supplies. But after the attack by the Coates kids_well, it__ not pretty bad off, anymore, it__ desperate.__e let that sink in. But how much were six-and eight-year-olds really grasping? Even the older kids looked more glazed than alarmed.__hree hundred and thirty-one kids,_ Sam reiterated, __nd food for maybe a week. That__ not a long time. It__ not a lot of food. And as you all know, the food we have is awful.__hat got a response from the audience. The younger kids produced a chorus of gagging and retching sounds.__ll right,_ Sam snapped. __nock it off. The point is, things are really desperate.

A sob caught in my chest. I didn't even know what a gray was, other than a drab color. All I knew was that I was hungry all the time. And I knew, deep down, that it wasn't just for food.

Where are we__ Kyungsoo yelps as Jongin practically throws him over the window pane of a filthy-rich looking convertible, a treacherous little thing parked up against the curb, all black exteriors and plush white interiors, not even bothering to open the door, __oing?___o see fireflies,_ Jongin says muffling coughs in his sleeves, and it__ only when Kyungsoo buckles up and looks over does he realize that the boy is grinning from ear to ear, __eal ones.