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Authors: Will Weaver

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“Nothing,” Sarah says quickly.

“Well, not truly nothing,” Artie says.

Miles and Nat wait; it's as if they know.

“We took a little drive,” Artie begins.

“And?” Miles says quickly.

“We went â¦” He pauses. It's as if he doesn't want to say âhome.' “Sarah and I went back to our old house.”

Nat swallows. “And?”

“It's still there,” Artie begins.

“Thank God!” Nat says.

“But not really,” Sarah says quickly.

“We can't go back,” Art explains. “It's wrecked.”

Nat sucks in a breath. She has to sit down. “I sort of knew that in my bones,” she says.

“What about my stuff? My tools?” Miles asks.

“Still pretty much all there,” Sarah says. “It's like nobody knew how to use them.”

“Sweet,” Miles says.

After a long moment Nat stands up. “All right then, let's go home,” she says. “Wherever that may be.”

“Home is where they understand you,” Sarah replies with a glance toward Miles.

“Garfield,” Miles says immediately. “Right after he kisses Odie.”

“Say no more, bro,” Sarah says. She takes Miles's arm and leads her family through the door.

Did you miss
Memory Boy
, the first book about Miles and Sarah?
Here's a peek at what happened before
The Survivors
!

EXCERPT FROM
MEMORY BOY
NOW OR NEVER

IT WAS THE PERFECT TIME
for leaving. Weather conditions were finally right: a steady breeze blew from the south, plus there was just enough moonlight to see by.

July 3, 2008.

This would be the date our family would always remember, assuming, of course, that we lived to tell about it.

“Hurry up. The wind won't last forever,” I said. Three shadowy figuresâmy sister, Sarah, and my parentsâfumbled with their luggage. With me, we were the Newell family. We lived in west suburban Minneapolisâfor a few more minutes, at least.

“Shut up, Miles,” Sarah muttered. She was twelve going on thirteen, and her carry-on bag overflowed with last-minute additions. I couldn't complain; I had my own private stuff, including a small sealed jar that would be hard to explain to my family. So I didn't try. Right now one of Sarah's stupid paperbacks dropped with a thud onto the sidewalk. I sighed and went to help her.

“I'm not leaving,” Sarah said, jerking away from me. “Everybody's going to die anyway, so why can't we die in our own house?” She plopped down onto the lawn. Pale pumice puffed up around her and hung in the air like a ghostly double. That was the weird thing about the volcanic ash; it had been falling softly, softly falling, for over two years nowâand sometimes it was almost beautiful. Tonight the rock flour suspended in the air made a wide, furry-white halo around the moon. Its giant, raccoon-like eyeball stared down and made the whole neighborhood look X-rayed.

“Nobody's going to die,” I said. “Though if we stay in the city, we might,” I muttered to myself.

“How do you know?” Sarah said. She sat there stubbornly, clutching her elbows.

“Actually, I don't. Which is why we're leaving.”

Sarah swore at me. Anything logical really pissed her off these days.

“Arthur!” my mother said sharply to my father. “Help out anytime.”

My father coughed briefly and stepped forward. “Think of it this way, Sarah. We're heading to the lake,” he said, his voice muffled under his dust mask. “We'll get to our cabin, kick back, ride this out. Swiss Family Robinson all the way.” He manufactured a short laugh that fell about fifty yards short of sincere. Sometimes I worried more about him than my sister and mother; they at least knew how to put wood in a fireplace. My father was a real city guy, a musician, a jazz drummer.

My mother added, “We all agreed, remember? As Miles said, up at Birch Bay we'll have more control of things, like heat, food, and water. When things improveâwhen the ash stops falling, and when there's gasoline, and when the food stores are full againâwe'll come back home.” Something, maybe the dust, caught briefly in her throat.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

WILL WEAVER
is an award-winning fiction writer. This book,
THE SURVIVORS
, is a sequel to his popular young adult novel
MEMORY BOY
. His other books include
FULL SERVICE, DEFECT, SATURDAY NIGHT DIRT, SUPER STOCK ROOKIE, CHECKERED FLAG CHEATER, CLAWS
, and the Billy Baggs series
STRIKING OUT, FARM TEAM
, and
HARD BALL
, all of which are ALA Best Books for Young Adults. Formerly an English professor at Bemidji State University, Mr. Weaver lives in northern Minnesota, a region he writes from and loves. He is an avid outdoorsman and enjoys hunting, fishing, canoeing, and hiking with his family and friends. You can visit him online at www.willweaverbooks.com.

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OTHER WORKS

ALSO BY WILL WEAVER

Memory Boy

Claws

Billy Baggs books:

Hard Ball

Farm Team

Striking Out

CREDITS

Cover design by Erin Fitzsimmons & Carly Grafstein

COPYRIGHT

HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

The Survivors

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Weaver, Will.

The survivors / by Will Weaver.â1st ed.

p.Â Â Â Â cm.

Sequel to: Memory boy

Summary: Sixteen-year-old Miles, thirteen-year-old Sarah, and their parents find themselves changing in many ways as they struggle to survive winter in a remote cabin, while keeping anyone in the nearby town from learning they are living there illegally after the devastation of volcanic eruptions drove them from their Minneapolis home.

ISBN 978-0-06-009476-8 (trade bdg.)

EPub Edition Â© JUNE 2012 ISBN 9780062241696

[1. Wilderness survivalâFiction. 2. Family lifeâMinnesotaâFiction. 3. MinnesotaâFiction.] I. Title.