10
I understood now that we didn’t matter. We were to be slaves or dead: either way, as easy to throw away as the remains of that hunted buck I’d had for dinner. Whatever had gone on in the Awakening had made us as useless as those old tires. Daddy had known this, but he’d kept it from me so I wouldn’t despair. Sometimes it takes being shoved up against a woodpile and torn open to know things like this. And though there might be people like Laban whose hearts would rather have it go another way, they were mostly helpless to do anything.
I stepped away and got my first good look at Del, who wasn’t even jerking anymore but was still as a rock.
“We should bury him,” I said, and they were the first words I’d spoken.
“No,” said Levi. “We should go before the other Herders come.”
“I can’
