"Mylar sighed. "I tell you and you let me go." You tell me and I won't let Angel pull you apart. Did you ever see anyone pull the wings off a fly? Tel... me now or you're going to find out how it feels to have your arms ripped out."Angel lunged and Mylar screamed, words flooding from his mouth. Marcus smiled, listening carefully before taking flight. Closer to the high ceilings of Braxton's manor, he found what he was looking for. The belt that was wrapped around his waist was of sturdy material. Tariq covered his nose and coughed. A shroud covered the body. The insects had eaten through the shroud.“Have you even checked the room in the last month?” he asked.“Imam Shabbir told me to stay out until you came.”“This is ridiculous. Go in there and kill those insects. It smells so bad.”“I’ve got the solution. We don’t have insect spray, so I’ll have to do it the old fashioned way.”Shrika ran a towel under water. He smiled mischievously.“And what do you plan to do?” asked Tariq.“Just leave it. Stopping a moment in the trampled grass and broken bushes, we tried to work out who it could be. The path was new, made in the last day. It was a group of humanoids, wearing heavy shoes and carrying weapons. A whole lot of people had come through, we guessed over a hundred. Bones and scraps of food were thrown here and there in their path. Animals had avoided the path completely.A small army. Going straight towards Newham, ignoring the hills in the way.Even worse, from the west. There wasn't. She jogged with me every morning. She swam, waterskied, and loved to take Penny for long walks.Her blonde hair was still cut short at the back of her neck, progressively longer towards the front where it fell to her shoulders. And she still dressed carefully, loving colorful short skirts with matching tops, unless it was like today. Today she wore a cotton top and shorts, a red baseball hat on backwards, and high top sneakers. I checked. Yup. The left one’s laces were untied.I liked watching.