and his eyes were bulging out of his head with terror and sorrow, and tears and snot were streaming down his face.
"He made me eat Toby,"he started in a whisper that became a scream. "He made me eat my guinea pig! He made me - why why why did he do that? I ATE TOBY!"
He threw up al over Matt's shoes. Blood-red vomit.
Merciful death for the animal. Quick, Matt thought. But this was the hardest thing he'd ever tried to do. How to do it - a hard stomp on the creature's head? He couldn't. He had to try something else first.
Matt peeled off a Post-It Note and put it, trying not to look, on the fur. And just like that it was over. The guinea pig went slack. The spel had undone whatever had been keeping it alive up to this point.
There was blood and puke on Matt's hands, but he made himself turn to Cole. Cole had his eyes shut tight and little choking sounds came from him.
Something in Matt snapped.
"You want some of this?"he shouted, holding out the Post-it pad as if it were the revolver he'd left with Mrs. Flowers. He whirled again, shouting, "You want some? How about you?
You, Josh?"He was recognizing faces now. "You, Madison?
How 'bout you, Bryn? Bring it on! You all bring it on! BRING IT - "
Something touched his shoulder. He spun, Post-it Note ready. Then he stopped short and relief bubbled up in him like Evian water at some fancy restaurant. He was staring right into the face of Dr. Alpert, Fel 's Church's own country doctor. She had her SUV parked beside his car, in the middle of the street. Behind her, protecting her back, was Tyrone, who was going to be next year's quarterback at Robert E. Lee High. His sister, a sophomore-to-be, was trying to get out of the SUV too, but she stopped when Tyrone saw her.
"Jayneela!" he roared in a voice only the Tyre-minator could produce. "You get back in and buckle up! You know what Mom said! You do it now!"
Matt found himself clutching at Dr. Alpert's chocolate brown hands. He knew she was a good woman, and a good caretaker, who had adopted her daughter's young children when their divorced mother had died of cancer. Maybe she would help him, too. He began babbling. "Oh, God, I've gotta get my mom out. My mom lives here alone. And I have to get her away from here."He knew he was sweating. He hoped he wasn't crying.
"Okay, Matt,"the doctor said in her husky voice. "I'm getting my own family out this afternoon. We're going to stay with relatives in West Virginia. She's welcome to come."
It couldn't be this easy. Matt knew he had tears in his eyes now. He refused to blink, though, and let them come down. "I don't know what to say - but if you would - you're an adult, you see. She won't listen to me. She will listen to you. This whole block is infected. This kid Cole - "He couldn't go on.
But Dr. Alpert saw it al in a flash - the animal, the boy with blood on his teeth and his mouth, Stillretching.
Dr. Alpert didn't react. She just had Jayneela throw her a packet of Wet Wipes from the SUV and held the heaving kid with one hand, while vigorously scrubbing his face clean. "Go home,"she told him sternly.
"You have to let the infected ones go,"she said to Matt, with a terrible look in her eyes. "Cruel as it seems, they only pass it on to the few who're Stillwell."Matt started to tel her about the effectiveness of the Post-it Note amulets, but she was already cal ing, "Tyrone! Come over here and you boys bury this poor animal. Then you be ready to move Mrs.
Honeycutt's things into the van. Jayneela, you do what your brother says. I'm going in for a little talk with Mrs. Honeycutt right now."
She didn't raise her voice much. She didn't need to. The Tyre-minator was obeying, backing up to Matt, watching the last of the creeping children that Matt's explosion hadn't scattered.
He's quick, Matt realized. Quicker than me. It's like a game.
As long as you watch them they can't move.
They took turns being the watcher and handling the shovel.
The earth here was hard as rock, heavy with weeds. But somehow they got a hole dug and the work helped them mental y. They buried Toby, and Matt walked around like some