“Yeah,” I say. “We’re safe.”
“Then, yes, let’s go back to Faraway. Cal and the others can help clean up here if they want.”
“We came here to stop them,” Niki says. “To stop people like him from growing into power and making this world shitty for everyone who isn’t him.”
“No,” Denton says. “I came to make sure Jamie didn’t get himself killed.” He turns his attention to me. “In Florida, when we found you and Andrew, I tried to tell the others to keep moving, but they wouldn’t. We saw Andrew first, and they went for him, then they went for you. I heard you tell Andrew you loved him, and I knew we’d fucked up. I’m sorry, Jamie, truly. I never meant for either of you to get hurt. I knew we couldn’t take you back with us, so when you ran off into the woods, I started figuring out how to get Rosewood to stop looking for you. I had to appeal to his bullshit whims and tell him he was wasting supplies and that people would turn against him if he kept it up. I wish I could have done more, but I couldn’t. Now I feel like I did. You’re alive, Rosewood is dead. So let me get you to safety again so you can go home to Andrew. Please, just let me do that.”
I stare at him, trying to figure out how much of this is true and how much is just him trying to look like a better person. But I can seein his eyes, the way he’s pleading with me—it’s real.
I wipe my bloody hands on my pants and stand. Niki and I follow Denton over the barricade.
When we reach the truck, Niki looks back in the distance, where the gunshots have stopped. The town is completely silent. It’s only a matter of time before someone finds Rosewood’s body.
“Come on,” I say. “It’s done here.”
“What if it isn’t? What if there are still people here who are that willing to kill others?”
“Wearen’t those people.” I reach out and take her hand, the one she doesn’t hold a gun in. The new polish on her nails chipped because she’s been nervously picking at them since we left Faraway. “This isn’t us giving up or running away. We have our own people to worry about. We have to make sure Jamar, the Kid, Taylor...” Andrew. “That they don’t become those people.”
We have to make sure they don’t become like us. Seeking revenge through violence. All we can do is protect and love them, and hope we can survive this world with love instead of hate.
“You’re a great sister,” I say, keeping my promise to remind her when we were done in Fort Caroline. “Let’s go home.”
Denton climbs into the driver’s seat of the truck. Niki hugs me tight, sobbing quietly against me, and whispers, “Okay. Let’s go home.”
Before we’re even buckled in, Denton pulls a U-turn, going back the way we entered Fort Caroline.
We drive in silence, the falling settlement fading into the distance.
Denton drives through the night. The truck had a full tank of gas, and he gets us to Faraway a little past one in the morning. He directs us to the showers, where I can wash up. It’s pitch-black and the water is freezing cold, but it seems to wake me from whatever stupor I’ve been in, and I realize it’s really over.
I thought I wanted Danny Rosewood to die, but none of that even mattered. I risked everything because I was angry that people like that still existed and still hurt others even after we’ve already lost so much.
I sob under the freezing-cold water. How could I make a mistake like this?
Denton is waiting for us by the lodge with Nadine, Hannah, and a third person. It’s Kelly. She runs to me, pulling me into a hug. It’s nice to have someone from the Keys on my side again. I never gave her the chance to get close when we were there, but she’s here now, and she’s hugging me, and I cry again.
“Where’s Jamar?” Niki asks.
“So what’s your plan?”
In the sunrise, I look over at Denton and shrug. “Andrew and the others went to Bethesda. Niki and I will follow them and see if we can catch up.”
Denton laughs. “Yeah, Niki seemed pretty pissed.”
I smile. She absolutely was, but it was nice to see. Like the old Niki we met on the road. Not the terrified Niki looking for revenge like I was. She’s worried about Jamar, but she knows Andrew and the others will protect him.
“You can take the truck if you want,” Denton says.
I snort and give him a shrug. “Niki and I don’t know how to drive.” But even if we did, I don’t think I’m ready to catch up to them just yet. Andrew was right, I was on a revenge mission, and if he knew that before I even did, it means he knows how close I came to losing who I was. He might not trust me again, at least not off the bat. Maybe some extra time will make it easier.
But my chest aches at the idea of not seeing him soon.
That afternoon, Niki and I say goodbye to Faraway and head northeast to Bethesda.
Andrew
ONCE WE’RE CLOSE TO BETHESDA, I PUTAmy and Cara on high alert. Taylor carries Henri-Two and Jamar holds the Kid’s hand. We stopped in Virginia to find more guns for Cara and Amy. At first they didn’t want them, but I reminded them about the escaped zoo animals in DC. And how far out they’d been hunting.
