“How’s that?” I ask.
“Good enough for a down payment. But I might need more later.”
“As many as it takes.”
Andrew
THE SOUND OF SCREAMING SNAPS ME OUTof whatever sad excuse for sleep I was having. I sit up and the sore muscles from my formerly dislocated shoulder burn and spasm. I barely have time to groan in pain before my eyes are searching the darkness around the fire.
It’s the second night since the alligator attack that the kids have woken up from nightmares. Different kids, same nightmares. Always with the monsters.
I scramble to my feet as fast as my injury will allow—clenching my teeth through the pain—and go to where Daphne and Kelly are crouching near the kids and trying to calm them down. Amy is trying to calm Henri-Two while Jamie points his rifle into the darkness.
Rocky Horror—after realizing we aren’t being beset by alligators again—has turned over and tried to go back to sleep.
“Who is it this time?” I ask Daphne.
“The Kid. You want to take him while I calm the others?”
“Yeah.” I walk over to the Kid, whose cheeks are wet with tears. He reaches up and wraps his arms around my neck, which hurts myarm so bad I have to bite back a groan and take a deep breath before I can speak. “Hey, hey, it’s okay, you just had a nightmare.”
“No! It was a monster. He was right over there.” He spins and points into the darkness. But for some reason he pointsup, not at the ground, where alligators would be. And that kind of chills me to the bone.
“What did he look like?”
“He has a scary face and it was cut and it had this over his eye.” He touches the gauze on my arm, and again the chills come back. This isn’t just some reptilian creature with teeth. “And he had four arms.”
Okay, so maybe that’s more reptilian monster.
“Well, it looks like you scared him off.” I point into the darkness. The Kid turns and looks over his shoulder, his eyes darting every which way. “So why don’t you lie back down and Jamie and I will stay here and keep watch, okay?”
The Kid looks down at his sleeping bag and pulls it over him. Then he whispers, barely audible over the crackling fire, “I had an accident.”
“Oh. That’s okay! I’ll get Ms. Daphne to help you get cleaned up—”
“No, you help.” He looks up at Jamie. “And Jamie. Keep watch.”
Jamie looks to me and then nods. “You got it, Kid.”
I reach into his backpack and grab a shirt, underwear, and pair of pants. I have to do it one-handed while my arm throbs with more pain. When Daphne comes over to us, I whisper that we’re going to change and ask her to unzip the Kid’s sleeping bag and put it closer to the fire to dry.
Jamie walks with us as we head away from the fire so the Kid canhave a bit more privacy. We stopped for the night in a library parking lot, and we walk around the side of the building where the fire is still visible, but it’s a little darker.
I hand the Kid his clothes and tell him to change, and we turn our backs. Jamie still has the empty rifle.
“How many more nights of monsters do you think we have?” I whisper.
He shrugs. “Too many.”
We’re still in Florida, but in the panhandle. The truck and car we stole from Hickey ran out of gas yesterday—first the car, then the truck while we were all piled in the bed. Even if Hickey and the others changed out their flat tires and came after us again, we’re on back roads so should be harder to find.
But in a couple of days we’ll be in Georgia. Even though it’s western Georgia and Fort Caroline is in northeast Georgia, I’m still anxious. It feels like we’re going into their territory. Cara said she can remember most of the supply run routes she mapped out for them that headed west, but what if she forgot one or two? What if someone else from Fort Caroline shows up and they recognize Jamie?
There are a lot of what-ifs, but that’s our life on the road. It’s why I was trying so hard to make the Keys our home. But Jamie was right. They were never our home. These people we’re with are, but the Keysthe placewas not.
So where is?
“Where are we going?” I ask Jamie while the Kid changes. We’ve been running for so long, it hasn’t really come upwherewe’re running to.
