I can feel my knees start to shake. A bead of sweat slides down myspine and my mouth is dry. I glance around the road. There’s no one else here. It’s just me and Harvey Rosewood in the street. And he has a gun.
I try to speak slow and steady. “Jamie doesn’t like mushrooms. I love mushrooms but Jamie’s not into them. That’s the onlydietaryrestrictions we would have. You cool with that?”
He stares at me for a full, silent ten seconds, his hand never moving away from the gun. Then finally his shark mouth returns and he claps me on the shoulder, turning around and heading back the other way. He shouts back, “See you around, Connecticut.”
Not if I see you first, Harvey Rosewood.
When I get to the park, Jamie is waiting for me. Three steps away from Harvey Rosewood and I realized how scared I had been. I spent the last block or so trying to breathe and not cry. Seeing Jamie’s face makes me feel safe again, but I can’t hold it in anymore.
I burst into tears and run to him. His smile drops and he lets the rifle fall to the ground as he pulls me into a hug.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” But I’m still sobbing. I can’t help it. Then I remember myself. I push away from Jamie, glancing around to make sure no one saw us. The park is empty and overgrown. The sidewalks are cracked and weeds grow knee-high through the fissures. Fort Caroline doesn’t have a parks department yet.
“Andrew. What is it?”
“I was worried about you. Did you get our ammo back?”
He frowns and hands me the handgun he had tucked into hisshorts. The holster is still missing. “The handgun, yes. But they wouldn’t register the rifle without you there. One gun per person, apparently. And they only let certain people carry the guns around town, so they won’t give the holster back.”
“It’s better than nothing. We’ll find some on the road. I just want to get the hell out of here. Now.”
“We can’t go now.”
I know. It’s broad daylight. We’ll have to wait for nightfall.
“I learned something,” I say. “There’s more fireworks tonight.”
“They have enough for a second show?”
“Third, actually. I think each shift gets one. So the people who will be on watch tonight are pulling double shift.”
Jamie smiles and I feel better already. “So a third of them are going to be at the fireworks and everyone here is going to be distracted.”
“And no one will even notice we’re gone until tomorrow morning.”
“Let’s go pack.”
Jamison
WHEN WE GO TO PICK UP THEmap, not only has Cara not ratted us out, she gives us an off-road route out of town. It’s through the woods on the opposite side of the motel. She tells us to steer clear of the woods on the highway side because that’s where they’re going for the fireworks show.
She also tells us when the buses are heading out so we know when we need to leave.
It’s just before sunset and the clouds are lit in vibrant pinks and purples, though Fort Caroline is dark. We head for the woods and listen as we walk, moving slowly. We agreed on this back in the motel. We’ll move slowly until we get to the road Cara has highlighted for us. Andrew and I don’t speak as we walk, listening to every sound around us. The cicadas are loud and drown out our footsteps.
We reach the road and turn right, just like Cara mapped it out.
I feel bad for leaving her. We should have at least said goodbye. Or maybe offered to let her come with us, if for no other reason than to not leave a loose end. Because that’s what Cara is now, a loose endwho knows exactly where we’re going.
Henri’s voice reminds me to trust people and I push the thought away.
We don’t need to stop because we’ve both memorized our route. We spent our last two hours in Fort Caroline going over it until we could recite it. The less we need to stop, the better.
We travel through the night and into the morning, our legs aching and our shirts soaked in sweat. The sun is hot as it rises high in the sky; it has to be almost a hundred degrees and humid as well, but we both keep going. We don’t stop to eat and we ration our water no matter how thirsty we get.
When the sun goes down, we finally stop to rest. We’re somewhere in Georgia. Before we stopped I saw signs for Ludowici, South Newport, and Darien. I check the road atlas while Andrew gathers sticks to start a fire. It will be a quick fire, just to boil the water from the nearby stream, then we’ll put it out for the night. We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves in the dark.
