The small window on the driverโs side must have blown out, a clinking of broken glass as it cascaded out onto the road, out of sight.โ
There was a hole in the black curtain hanging across it, at the top, only a foot above Maddyโs head. But she still had a head, eyes blinking at them all. It had missed her.
โAre you hit?โ Oliver bounded forward, dragging his sister back from the cockpit.
โNo, Iโฆno,โ Maddy said, shaking her still-there head.
Red took her hand, held on to it. If Maddy had been standing up straight, or a few inches backโฆwell, it didnโt bear thinking about. And Red was good at not thinking about things like that.
โHe really didnโt like you doing that,โ Simon said, another wet patch on his shirt, the glass empty as he placed it back on the counter.
โNo, he did not,โ Red agreed.
โRight, okay, everyone,โ Oliver said, pushing Maddy down to sit on the booth. โNew rule. No one does anything without checking with me ๏ฌrst. Not one thing unless it has been discussed with the whole group, okay?โ He looked around at each of them for con๏ฌrmation.
Red nodded.
โI wonโt even take a piss without preapproval,โ Simon said, holding up his hands. Red should re๏ฌll that glass for him. She wasnโt sure there was a worse time to be drunk than right now.
โRight.โ Oliver pushed himself up, half sitting on the table as the others gathered around him. A determined set to his jaw, like he knew he was the only possible leader here. Twenty-one years old, prelaw, a sister and a girlfriend to protect, a mom who would soon be DA. โWeโve already lost two windows, which is not good news. So, the ๏ฌrst thing I want us to do is to board up those broken windows, for extra protection.โ
โWith what?โ Reyna asked, shrugging her empty arms.
โWe must have something. Everyone, check around the RV and in your bags and suitcases. Look for any resources we can use and bring them back to this table.โ
โResources?โ Arthur asked.
โThings to help us survive. Something to cover the windows. Anything that could be used as ๏ฌrst aid. Or as a weapon.โ
โA weapon?โ Simon snorted. โYeah, that sniper wonโt know whatโs hit him when I slowly charge at him with my Gillette razor.โ
Oliver ignored him. โNow. Five minutes, guys.โ
No one protested, shu๏ฌing away from the table in various directions, knees bent, keeping their heads low. Simon and Arthur headed toward their bunk bedsโSimon on the bottom, Arthur on topโand the bags theyโd dumped there this morning. Oliver and Reyna pushed past them, drawing to a stop outside the closed bedroom door. The queen-sized bed beyond it, where they were supposed to be sleeping tonight. Red wasnโt sure anyone would be sleeping tonight.
โThe window at the back is still exposed,โ Oliver said to Reyna. โYou crawl into the room, take cover against the back wall and lower the shade. Iโll hit the lights and close the door so the sniper canโt see anything.โ
He wasnโt speaking to her in that soft voice anymore. But that was the ๏ฌrst rule of leadership, wasnโt it: delegation. Still, Red couldnโt believe he hadnโt asked her or Arthur or Simon to cover the window for them instead, or gone
ahead and been the hero himself. Reyna stared back at Oliver, like she couldnโt believe it either.
โFine.โ She swallowed. โOkay, three, two, one.โ
Oliver pulled open the door, and Reyna slipped inside on her hands and knees. She disappeared as Oliver reached in to switch o๏ฌ the light, closing the door after her.
He caught Redโs eye, watching, and gave her a grim nod.
A few seconds later, Reynaโs voice called through, โOkay, done!โ and Oliver followed it back into the bedroom, ๏ฌicking on the light, heading toward the closet and out of Redโs view.
โRed, come on,โ Maddy said, pulling at her shirt and jolting her back.
Maddy stopped short of the sofa bed, her eyes up on the large overhead cupboards, where Red and Maddy had stored their bags. Getting them would mean standing right in front of the broken window. The shade was still breathing in and out, wind whistling through the ripped bullet hole, a faint trace of gasoline ๏ฌnding its way inside. Maddyโs hand shook as she studied the hole, looking back to where she had been standing to re-create the path of the bullet. Or that was what Red imagined she was doing; she knew Maddy and Maddy knew her.
โIโll get the bags,โ Red said, pushing Maddy aside, back into the safety by the table. She walked forward, crunching through the fallen glass, then raised one foot and stood up on the sofa bed. The fake leather squeaked against her shoes as she pushed up, her other leg hovering behind her. She opened the ๏ฌrst cupboard, grabbing the dark purple side handle of Maddyโs new bag and swinging it out, muscles in her arms straining.
โHow much did you pack?โ she said, dropping the heavy bag onto the sofa, scattering more glass. Maddy darted forward to retrieve her suitcase, holding it in both arms, almost like a shield.
Red opened the other cupboard and reached for her bag, only noticing now that the seams were breaking at the side, loose black threads tickling her skin as she grabbed it. Dad wouldnโt like that; this was her momโs old suitcase,ย Grace KennyโPhiladelphiaย still scribbled in the luggage tag at the
top. One of the last pieces of her handwriting they had left. Not the time to think of that, though. Not ever the time.
Red stepped down with the bag in her hands, turning back to Maddy, who was sitting cross-legged on the ๏ฌoor between the door and the kitchen counter, unzipping her sti๏ฌ, new bag. The zipper snarled as she pulled it around the corner.
Red brushed some glass aside with her foot and settled down beside Maddy, her back arching as she leaned against the door, buttressing the side of her suitcase against Maddyโs.
She unzipped it, pushing the top ๏ฌap open so it slapped the ๏ฌoor of the RV.
โNo sudden noises,โ Simon called over his shoulder, annoyed.
โSorry,โ Red called back over hers. She stopped; Maddy was staring at her.
โThis is crazy,โ Maddy said quietly, shaking her head, pausing to bite down on her lower lip. โI canโt believe this is happening.โ
Red still couldnโt believe it either. For di๏ฌerent reasons, probably, because she always half expected the worst to happen. Maddy was half full and Red was half empty, which reminded her: she needed to get Simon some more water.
โAre we gonna be okay?โ Maddy asked, and suddenly her eyes were ๏ฌlled with tears, one escaping, making a break down her cheek.
Red swiped it away as it reached Maddyโs chin. โYeah, weโll be okay, I promise,โ Red said, a promise she hoped she could keep. She tried to tell Maddy that with her eyes and nothing else, a slow blink.
โWhat if one of us gets shot?โ Maddy said, her bottom lip threatening to go, ready to take her whole face down with it.
โNo oneโs getting shot.โ Red held her eyes. โWe are getting out of this alive,โ she said, โyou and me.โ Alwaysย you and meย with them, since before they could walk and talk and think. And even before that, when their moms were best friends, their ownย you and meย from the ๏ฌrst day they met at college. Lavoys and Kennys, except their moms had had di๏ฌerent names back then. Maddy wasnโt just her best friend, Maddy was family. โCome on, letโs look
forย resources,โ she said in her Oliver voice that usually made Maddy laugh. It didnโt work tonight, so Red tried something else: โMaybe those six bulletproof vests I packed will come in handy.โ
Maddy snorted, wiping her nose. โMaybe so will the functioning cell tower I brought in mine.โ
There we go, a near smile at least. Maddy pushed open the top of her case and it was so packed that maybe she really did have a whole cell tower in there. Tall piles of clothes, neatly folded and separated into sections: underwear there, shorts that side, multiple pairs of jeans, three separate wash bags, shoes in pairs down the middle like grid lines. They were only supposed to be gone seven days, yet Maddy must have packed enough clothes for weeks.
Red glanced at her own case. No piles, no folding, no order. It was all chucked in together. Balled-up underwear buried in each corner, a watered-down mascara and a foundation that didnโt match her skin tone somewhere loose in there, never to be seen again. A puddle of marbly-pink goopโwhich must mean her shampoo bottle had leakedโspreading over a lone sock. Her toothbrush stood up dead center, her nice shirt caught in its bristles. Sheโd been hoping she could borrow Maddyโs toothpaste, not that it mattered now.
โRed,โ Maddy said, disapprovingly, looking down at the mess of Redโs suitcase. She burrowed her hand through, overturning clothes to see underneath. โDid you forget to even pack a bikini?โ she asked, searching through the rest of it. Red had one bikini, blue and white, and Maddy was right: it wasnโt here.
โGuess I must have missed it,โ Red said, trying to remember forgetting it.
Maddy turned to her. โAnd what the hell were you going to do on a beach vacation without a swimsuit?โ
Red shrugged.
โBorrow one of mine, Iโm guessing?โ
She was annoyed, but at least if she was annoyed then she wasnโt scared right now. That was better.
โDonโt think it really matters anymore,โ Red said. โWeโre not making it to the beach.โ
Maddy didnโt say anything.
โI donโt have anything useful,โ Red said, zipping the suitcase shut and kicking it away.
โLet me see,โ Maddy murmured, turning back to her own bag. She picked up one of the wash bags, shiny plastic zebra print, and opened it. โYes, I thought so,โ she said, dipping her hand inside and coming back with a pair of hair scissors.
โYou never cut your own hairโ?โ Red said.
โNo, but I always take these when I go away. Never know when you might need a pair of scissors. I had to turn leggings into shorts once when I misjudged the weather.โ
โAre those for ๏ฌrst aid or a weapon?โ Red eyed the scissors.
โBoth, I guess,โ Maddy said, pulling out a small roll of Scotch tape from the same wash bag. She placed both items beside her, giving them a quick pat. โOh yeah.โ She reached out for the front of the suitcase and the zippered compartment there. โI brought a real ๏ฌashlight, just in case we were out late on the beach and our phones ran out of battery or something.โ She pulled out a ๏ฌashlight about the size of her hand, black with a ๏ฌuorescent yellow stripe. โI put a beach ball in there too. Guess that was pointless. What the hell is going on, Red?โ
โI know!โ Arthur said suddenly, loud enough for the others to hear. โWe can use the mattress from my bunk to block up the big window behind the sofa.โ
โThatโs a good idea,โ Red said, at the exact same time that Oliver said it, as he reemerged from the bedroom with Reyna on his heels. He had something in both hands, cradling the items as he struggled past Simon in the narrow corridor. He arrived beside the table and stopped to look around at them all, eyes alive and searching.
โOkay, timeโs up,โ he said. โWhat did everybody ๏ฌnd to help us survive the night?โ
