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leaving until I can get into that safe.”
    “And how’s that going? Get any help with that?”
    “Almost had my skull bashed in, actually.” He grabbed Cadance by the shoulders and pushed her against the wall. “Thanks for that.”
    “I was hoping they’d kill you,” Cadance said.
    “Someone else might,” Fallon said. “But I’m sure you’ll get yours first.” He threw her down into the straw. “And we’re out of shells thanks to you. Pouchon had to kill three of them by hand.”
    “Poor guy,” I said.
    “You girls need to get over to the front door.”
    “Why should we listen to you?” I asked. “Why wouldn’t we just bash your skull in like you seem to be asking for, and head out the back?”
    “Because Kathleen Shannard’s men will hunt you down and kill you.”
    “They’ll kill you, too.”
    “That’s why I need to get into that safe.”
    “The guns,” Tiara said. “That’s what he needs from it.”
    “There are guns in that safe?” I asked.
    Tiara nodded.
    “Then I guess we’d better get digging.”

    We took turns, two girls digging, one girl resting, and two girls holding Fallon down in the dirt.
    Pouchon had made a start before, but it was almost ten minutes before we struck the top of the safe.
    We heard gunshots.
    “I thought Pouchon was out of ammo,” I said.
    “Do zombies shoot guns?” Sayra asked as she continued to dig.
    “These ones can,” Tiara said, her knee still embedded into her stepfather’s shoulder blade.
    “You people are seriously the biggest dumbasses on earth,” I said. “Let’s drug people up and turn them into zombies. Then we’ll give them guns and see what happens.”
    “Most of them probably have machetes,” Fallon said. “In Haiti they gave machetes to the Marinette macoutes , since zombies have terrible aim. It’s much easier for them to just start swinging.”
    “We should see if we can pull the safe up,” Julia said.
    “You should be put on that, Amanda,” Cadance said. “You’re about the same size as a draft horse.”
    Sayra and I started working to pry the safe up out of the ground, while Julia stood by to try and help lift it once it was high enough.
    “Let me help,” Fallon said.
    Tiara looked over to me.
    I nodded.
    She climbed off of her stepfather.
    He reached down into the hole. “We bolted on a couple handles,” he said. “We’re not idiots.”
    “Zombies with guns,” I said. “You’re an idiot.”
    We pulled out the safe.
    “What’s the combination?” I asked.
    “I’ll just do it,” Fallon said. He started spinning the lock.
    I held a shovel up over my head.
    “What?” he said, looking up at me.
    “I’m going to bash your head in if you try anything.”
    “Makes sense.”
    He finished spinning and pulled open the safe.
    Inside were two black duffel bags, and on top of each bag was a handgun and a box of bullets.
    “Do any of you little girls even know how to shoot a gun?” Fallon asked.
    “It can’t be that different from using a cattle prod,” Cadance said. She reached in and pulled out a handgun.
    I grabbed it out of her hands. “You’re not getting a gun,” I said.
    “You think I’m going to waste bullets on your meaty ass?”
    “I can shoot,” Julia said.
    I handed her the handgun and kept the other for myself.
    Julia ejected the magazine from her gun. “They’re not loaded,” she said. She reached in and grabbed a box bullets. “We’ll need as many of these as we can carry.” She started loading the bullets into the magazine, one at a time. She saw me staring at her and smiled. “My sister likes guns. A lot.”
    I loaded my handguns the same way, with Julia checking things over before I popped the magazine back in.
    “Are you really going to shoot them?” Sayra asked. “They didn’t ask to be zombies.”
    “They’ll kill us if they can,” I said.
    We put the boxes of bullets in the duffel bags, on top of what were wrapped stacks of hundred dollar bills; I would’ve