Lonny hesitated, trembling. "Y-you mean it's just trying to scare us?"
Handlebar tweaked his nose. "That's right."
The fire returned to the young man's eyes—almost. He looked around the shattered dock, at the riddled corpse and the oily, b****y water, at the spitting power lines and the dead lights, the peeling boardwalk on the shore.
He shook his head. "No, it's not. It—it doesn't pretend, like you. It's gonna kill us, that's all." He stepped closer. "Can’t you see that? You posing hillbilly? The spill's given it a—a lean season. It's sick, and it' s hungry, and ..."
He glanced at the corpse. "We probably just killed its mate."
Handlebar could only look at him, speechless. It was the first time the kid had ever challenged him; the first time anyone in the group had challenged him, e
