THEY WERE COMING NOW, all of them, for Red could hear their excited breathing and rapid footfalls and the gnashing of their teeth—even as the power failed at last and everyone sighted their weapons. Again he looked at the new arrivals, finding it difficult to see them through the halos of their lights, thinking he saw a black man in what looked like a convenience store tunic as well as a man and a woman standing close together and a big woman brandishing what looked like a rocket launcher. So, too, was Lonny there, just as calm and disciplined as could be, as well as an older man wearing what appeared to be coveralls. “Easy, brother,” said the man in the tunic at last, his voice as resonant and confident and reassuring as any Red had ever heard. “We got your back.”
And then the animals we
