Escapeย was a strange word, wasnโt it? One of those ones that tripped Red up. Funny likeย resourceย but not in the same way. A word that, if you thought it too much, grew spiky and nonsensical in your head. Please someone say something else. Escape.ย Eeescape. ESCAPร.โ
โJust to ๏ฌoat an alternative,โ Simon said from the sofa, his head bouncing back against the mattress. Thank you, Simon. โWhy donโt we just wait this whole thing out, here in the RV? Look, sunrise must be at about six a.m., right? And when itโs light, the sniper loses his advantage, because weโll be able to see where he is. Then we can escapeโโthere it was againโโand because itโs morning weโre more likely to be able to ๏ฌag down help.โ He sat back, hands raised as though his plan were there, sitting on top of them, held out like an o๏ฌering.
โMy mom will give up the name before sunrise.โ Oliver shook his head, dismissing the plan.
โAnd the witness will be killed,โ Maddy said, a grim set to her jaw. โMom would be responsible for someone dying.โ
Someone dying.ย Redโs chest tightened again.
โRight.โ Simon nodded, raising his hands and the plan even higher. โAnd thatโs very sad for the witness, of course. Poor guy. But itโs not really our
fault. And Iโd prefer the six of us to survive. Weโre safest in the RV. I mean, come on.โ Simon glanced around. โArthur? Red?โ he said, looking for agreement in their eyes.
But Red didnโt agree, she couldnโt. She looked down. โI think we should do what Oliver says,โ she answered, keeping her voice ๏ฌat. What other choice was there? Oliver was in charge: the natural leader, the highest value. This was about surviving, and this RV wasnโt safe, no matter how hard they pretended.
Simon dropped his hands, a ๏ฌicker of betrayal in his eyes as he shot them at Red. He shrugged it o๏ฌ and returned to his beer.
โMajority rules.โ Oliver clapped his hands, returning to business. โLetโs start thinking about how we can escape, then.โ
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โOr get help,โ Maddy added.
Arthur sighed, removing his glasses to wipe them against his sweatshirt. โBoth seem pretty impossible right now. No cell service. No one around. A ri๏ฌe. And we donโt know where he is, out there in the darkness.โ A pause. โHe has all the cards.โ
Oliver exhaled, conceding the point, and Red bet he didnโt like being someone without any cards. Cards. Pokรฉmon cards? Was that the pattern in the curtains? If she thought about that, then she couldnโt think about anything worse, like what was happening here.
The static ๏ฌlled the room again, in the absence of voices, and Oliver glanced down at the walkie-talkie.
โMaybe he doesnโt haveย allย the cards,โ he said, scooping the walkie-talkie
up, cradling it between his hands like it was spun from glass. โWe have this. Heโs overlooked something here. Heโs given us a communication device!โ His voice picked up speed, mouth trying to keep up, as was Red. โCanโt we use this to contact someone? Walkie-talkies donโt need cell service, I mean, clearly. And donโt emergency services use walkie-talkies, anyway? Canโt we somehow connect this to the police radio and ask for help?โ
โCanโt believe we didnโt think of that sooner.โ Simon sat forward. โThatโs a plan I can get on board with.โ
It didnโt work like that. None of it worked like that.
โHow would weโฆโ Oliver trailed o๏ฌ, studying the LCD display.
โWhatโs wrong, Red?โ Arthur had been watching her, he must have read it in her eyes. She thought she was better at keeping a straight face; sheโd had enough practice.
โIโm sorry,โ she began, looking at Maddy instead of Oliver, the softer of the Lavoys. โTwo-way radios donโt work like that. Radio frequencies are regulated. Emergency services, like the police, have their own frequencies speci๏ฌcally so they donโt get interference from other signals, like youโre suggesting.โ
โRight, I know,โ Oliver said. Had he, though? โBut, in an emergency, canโt we make it do that?โ
There was a simple answer to that, the one Oliver didnโt want to hear. But he was asking, so: โNo,โ she said, looking away from him as she did, so his eyes didnโt bully a di๏ฌerent response out of her. โNo, itโs not physically possible to make this radio transmit on the emergency frequencies that police use.โ
โFuckโ was Oliverโs simple answer in return.
โHow do you know?โ Reyna turned to Red, but Oliver answered for her: โHer mom was a cop.โ
And thatย wasย still hurt. It always did. But that wasnโt why she knew so
much about walkie-talkies. Well, not directly. Her mom was a cop, but so was Red when they played that game together. And that was how she knew. Four days after the funeral, Red found a box in the attic, a box of her momโs old stu๏ฌ. And there, nestled between old jackets and shoes, were the walkie-talkies. A piece of masking tape across the back of each, one withย MOM,ย one withย RED.ย She hadnโt been looking for them, not really, just looking to look, to preserve her mom for another day, and then another. Red left her own walkie-talkie there, took the one labeledย MOMย down to her room. She stole a screwdriver from her dadโhe was already mostly lost by then, but he could still pretend to function, still went to workโand, in the quiet of her room past midnight, she took apart the walkie-talkie. Piece by piece, wire by wire, but she never did ๏ฌnd her momโs voice hiding inside.
โItโs probably an FRS radio,โ she said, approaching Oliver, holding her hand out, waiting for him to let it go. He placed it in her hand, and she felt the familiar weight of the device. She knew it, inside and out.
โFRS?โ Oliver said, not stepping back, like he couldnโt be too far from the walkie-talkie, couldnโt trust her to even hold it.
โFamily Radio Service,โ she said. โItโs the radio frequencies most amateur devices like this use. If I remember rightโโand she did remember right, how could she ever forget thisโโit has twenty-two channels.โ She knew more than that, that those twenty-two channels were found somewhere between 462 and 467 megahertz, and that the speaker also functioned as the microphone, built from the same bones: a magnet, a coil of wire, a cone made of plastic. Sheโd learned all that, putting Momโs walkie-talkie back together again, until it turned on and hissed at her. For days that was all she did, took it apart, rebuilt it, did it again on her momโs birthday the year after, and the one after that. You couldnโt do that with dead moms, though, rebuild them. They stayed gone.
โSo, we canโt use it to contact anyone else?โ Oliver asked, still standing too close.
Red stepped back if he wasnโt going to. โYes, we could,โ she said, and the light returned to Oliverโs eyes. โIn theory, if someone else is using another two-way radio on the same frequency channel within range, we would be able to talk to them. The sniper is using channel three.โ
Red and her mom always used number six, for some reason. It was lucky, at least until it wasnโt anymore.
โWhatโs the range?โ Reyna asked, studying Red as though she couldnโt wait for the answer.
Red sighed, unable to give them what they wanted. โItโs not great with something like this,โ she said. โIt depends on the terrain, the weather, how many trees and buildings are in the way, butโฆโ She thought about it. โA couple of miles, maybe. A few at most.โ
Red and her mom once picked up interference from a wedding planner barking orders down her end. Must have been someplace close. The groom
had been late, apparently, but Red pretended it was a surveillance mission and they took notes. Laughing. The kind of laugh that hurt during and after.
โOh,โ Reyna said in response. No, it wasnโt good news, not for them. They were in the middle of nowhere, a range of three miles still left them pretty much in nowhere. But there were houses and farms within all that nowhere.
Reyna pulled out her phone to check the time. โItโs almost one a.m.,โ she said, de๏ฌating. โI guess itโs unlikely anyone will be out using a walkie-talkie.โ
Silent agreement from the rest of them, the walkie-talkie laughing at them from Redโs hands.
โUnlikely, but they might?โ Red said. โOr someone might have a baby monitor on in range. We could keep cycling through the channels, see if we pick up any interference?โ
Red hadnโt found her momโs voice on channel six, or any of the others sheโd tried. But it was harder when the person you were looking for wasnโt alive.
โYes.โ Oliver snapped his ๏ฌngers at her, a smile cracking his face. โThis is what Iโm talking about! Some initiative. Okay, Red, youโre in charge of the walkie-talkie. You cycle through the channels, but make sure you always return to three, every couple of minutes or so. In case we miss the sniper trying to talk to us. We donโt want him to know what weโre up to.โ
Red glowed, despite herself, nodding as she accepted the order from Oliver. Was sheย useful? What a plot twist that was. A smile from Maddy too, full house. Red bet Arthur was secretly impressed as well; look at her, knowing stu๏ฌ.
Right, focus. There was a man with a ri๏ฌe outside, and Red was trying to be useful. She wouldnโt want to die, not like that. Although she supposed it wouldnโt take two shots to the back of the head this time. Just the one, just anywhere. Red pressed theย menuย button and then the + on the right, switching to channel four instead and the empty static there. She could pretend the tone of the static changed each time, a di๏ฌerent swirl of sound, like a new song. But it didnโt, it sounded the same. An empty hiss. Up to ๏ฌve now, then six. Red waited longer there, just in case.
โOkay,โ Oliver said, looking around at the group. He stepped over to the sofa and, in one quick motion, removed the beer bottle from Simonโs hand, walking it over to the kitchen counter. โSo Red is on part one of the plan; trying to get outside help. But we need part two. An escape plan.โ
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Stop that. Up to channel eight now. Should she go back to three and make sure the sniper wasnโt trying to talk to them?
โLike our mom always says.โ Oliver turned to Maddy. โA plan must have two parts, and you have to make sure either way plays out in your favor.โ
โThatโs win-win,โ Maddy said, completing it for him.
Yes, Catherine Lavoy always had a plan, Red knew that. Birthday presents and reserves. Two di๏ฌerent ๏ฌavors of ice cream. Red herself preferred the lose-lose system: no plan at all and no backups. She pressed the down button back to three to check for the sniperโs voice. Nothing. Back up to eleven. Click, static, click.
โAnd what is the plan?โ Simon said, his words more slurred now, but Red couldnโt tell if he was putting it on to irritate Oliver. โYouโre the leader, the most high-value person here. What is your brilliant plan to escape the active shooter out there in the pitch-black who can see us but we canโt see him?โ
Oliverโs jaw snapped open, hanging ajar as his eyes spooled in his head again, working loose.
โThatโs it,โ he laughed, slapping one hand against his hip. โThatโs his only advantage, that we donโt know where he is.โ
โIโd say his advantage is the giant fucking ri๏ฌe with the laser sight,โ Simon muttered.
Oliver didnโt hear him, or didnโt listen. โThatโs the plan, thatโs all we have to do. Work out exactly where he is out there. Find the sniper.โ
