“Unless it’s just some batshit crazy psycho,” Jax interjected, green eyes flicking up briefly from his phone screen.
“Jesus…can we focus for half a fucking minute? I’m talking aboutrealsuspects,realpeople. Who has an actual motive for setting this game up? It has to be something to do with what happened a year ago. But not just anything, something really fucking bad.”
“Wait, I got it,” Jax piped up. “Maia and Danny, right? They have areallygood motive. They both died.”
“Oh my god. Seriously, Jax? How can they do this if they’re dead?” Jade snapped.
“No, wait, Jax has a point,” Ellis said, rubbing his head thoughtfully. “Maybe not Maia and Danny, but what about their families? They’ve got motive. Weren’t Maia’s parents high-up, genius NASA nerds? I bet they were destroyed by the death of their precious little pooky—gruesomelymurdered and no one held accountable. Maybe they decided to avenge Maia’s death. They’d be smart, resourceful, and rich. Now that’s a motive.”
“You don’t really think so? They seemed so sad and lost at the funeral. Though I guess you never really know people, do you? It’s always the quiet ones.” Jade’s eyes flicked up and caught Caden watching her. He grunted and dropped the pile of embarrassingly stained sheets.
“Didn’t they move back to Canada?” Jax added unhelpfully.
“Well…maybe they came back? I don’t know.” Ellis suddenly grinned. “Besides, there’s always Danny’s family. We’ve got motive right there.”
“Stop it, Ellis!” Raya shouted, jumping to her feet. “There’s no way Ana or her mom have anything to do with this.”
“I’m just saying, if we’re talking motive, they’re at the top of our list. What was the other one, oh, yeah—opportunity.” Ellis was enjoying himself. “No better opportunity than being right here with us, inside the motel. Pretending to be trapped.”
“Don’t even go there, Ellis.” Raya stepped forward; her fists clenched at her sides.
“Go where?” Ellis said innocently.
“You know exactly where…”
Yadda,yadda. Caden pulled out his phone. Seventeen minutes and counting. These losers were going to waste the whole hour talking. He sighed and turned away, heading over to the bus steps. They could argue all day if they liked—not his problem. He’d check back in if things got real and they started fighting. Time to start building the shelter. He climbed onboard the bus, careful not to touch the hot metal frame.
As soon as he stepped into the aisle, he was hit by the smell—ashy, burned plastic mixed with the pungent stench of something else.He pulled the neck of his shirt up over his nose to stop himself from gagging.
“What the hell?” he grunted. Liquid coated the floor, mixed with the ash, forming ominously dark, shimmering pools. It looked toxic and smelled worse.
He squatted down, rubbing his thick fingers into the gloop. Sniffing them tentatively, he recoiled; he knew that smell. “You’ve got to be kidding,” he muttered. Could this day get any worse? He looked across at the others, but they were all still squabbling.
“Hey!” he bellowed. One by one they turned to face him. He held up his hands, the oily black liquid dripped off his fingers. “Got a problem.”
This was not good. Not good at all.
The floor of the bus was completely soaked in gas.
20
Jade
16:04
“Gas?” Jade felt her stomach drop. “Are you serious right now?”
The sickening stench of gas was everywhere, spread around by people’s hands, their shoes, their clothes. It was inescapable—nauseating. Jade’s thoughts were jumping all over the place, fueled by a flurry of blind panic. How was this even possible? The bus exploded—all the gas should have burned off. What were they going to do? The shelter plan had failed. There was so little time left…so little time…
She looked around; the others were just as lost. The only one who seemed capable of functioning was Ellis. True to form, he climbed onto the steps of the bus and took charge. “All right. Let’s stay calm and think this through.” He rubbed his hand over his head, hard, his face creased with worry. “How much time have we got left?”
“About fifteen minutes,” Jax called out, eyes on his phone.
“Oh my god.Ellis, what are we going to do?” Jade’s voice sounded odd, even to herself.Fifteen minutes.Nausea swelled in the back of her mouth. In fifteen minutes, someone would have to cross the line. She pictured Benny, the blood, the truck.
“I say we do nothing,” Raya spoke up, her sharp voice silencing the others. “It’s hot. The gas will evaporate. We can wait and go on just before the hour’s up. Odds are we’ll be far enough from the explosion that the bus won’t catch fire.”
“That’s your plan, Mori?” Ellis looked incredulous. “The gas is obviously leaking from somewhere. Do you seriously think it’s a good idea to lie down on top of a gas leak and hope we don’t catch fire? We will burn to death. Do you get it?Burn.”
