o_18peu05u01b7716ipmne189ms1ha.pdf

seen behind the window. No hand to push
the curtain back. Its ghostly motion could
not be explained by anything other than an
observing presence, hidden behind the
darkened pane of glass.
“Shit!” Marty said.
He paused a moment to clear his head. The
Iraqi desert taught him that he could think
his way out of anything, as long as he kept
his head on straight. Having approached the
gas station from the rear, Marty knew there
was no back door. There was no other way
out than the way they got in and Marty,
now, assumed that they had already been
seen by whoever was behind the curtain.
They needed to leave before their
mysterious onlooker could make a more
personal appearance. A thousand thoughts
coursed through his mind. Were they a
carrier of the infection? Were they armed?
Had they tipped over the edge of their
sanity? Marty didn’t want to wait for his
questions to be answered and Lucas was
becoming more panicked by the second. The
urgency to leave forced Marty to abandon
the other two gallon jugs of water he meant
to retrieve. They would only have half the
water they intended, but what they did have
was enough for the essentials. Mostly for
drinking. They would get more, once they
149