They were really doing this, were they? Asking to be shot at. Inviting the red dot in.โ
Red pressed the button, clicking up through the channels on the walkie-talkie, swapping one static for another while she waited, eyes on Oliver.
โOkay, letโs think about our angles, then,โ he said. Yes, letโs.
โWindows. Weโve got a big one at the back of the RV. Then on the left we have the small one by the bunks, two windows at the dining table.โ He nodded his head at them, Redโs eyes catching on the curtains. โThe two side windows at the front and the windshield.โ The windshield was the only window they hadnโt covered, their only view out into the total darkness of outside. โThen on the right we have the big one behind the sofa, and the small one in the front door. And thatโs it, isnโt it? There isnโt one in the bathroom.โ
โThereโs the rearview camera, too,โ Reyna said quietly from the table, picking at her thumb. โShould come up if we put the RV in reverse. I think.โ
โYes, okay, great,โ Oliver said, turning to shoot her a smile. Reyna didnโt return it. โThat means we might not need someone to cover the back. The person pressing the horn can use the camera to get that angle. Okay.โ
He studied them all and they waited to be assigned their windows, Red skipping back to channel three.
โIโll take the rearview camera and Iโll press the horn.โ He swallowed, like his was the hardest job, but he didnโt have to put his face up to a window with a sniper watching outside. โReyna, youโll be with me, you watch out the front, through the windshield. Maddy, you take the front left side, watching out the dining table window. Simon, back left, through the bunk window. Arthur, youโre front right, through the window behind the sofa. And Red, youโre back right, the window in the door.โ
Red nodded. At least her window still had glass in it. She glanced at Arthur, a knot forming in her gut. Heโd pulled the short straw here; the last two times the sniper shot at them, it had come through that window. He looked okay, though. Nervous, not scared. Not yet, at least. He glanced at her, and she gave him a quick half smile. He caught it from her, stretching onto the other side of his face. Together they made one whole smile, tight and tense.
โIโm taking the riskiest job,โ Oliver said. Was he? โHeโll shoot toward whoever is at the steering wheel, like with Maddy. So Iโm going to need some protection.โ
โYouโre not going to ask one of us to be your human shield, are you?โ Simon said, backing away with his hands raised.
Red snorted, though none of this was really funny, was it? They might die tonight, all of them, some of them, her. A bullet could come anytime, anywhere. Was that what made these smaller moments funnier, because they might not get any more? Last chances to smile, to laugh, to tell Arthur she liked him and it was okay that he didnโt like her back because she was unlikable at times, she knew that. To tell Simon that, yes, his cheekbones were amazing and it would be a damn shame if he didnโt end up onstage or in front of a camera. To thank Maddy for always being there by her side, to share all those big moments, and small, some so small that Red had probably forgotten them by now. To tell Reyna that maybe she could do better. To tell Oliver, well, Red wasnโt sure what she would tell Oliver. And that didnโt
matter because she wasnโt going to say any of that anyway. Red wasnโt good at last chances, at ๏ฌnal moments, was she?ย I hate you.
Sheโd never said it since.
A swarm of guilt in her gut as she came back to the room, cooling to shame as she watched Oliver studying the pile of resources on the table. Nothing big enough to protect him there.
โOh, I know,โ he said, darting forward to grab the screwdriver. โExcuse me.โ He pushed past Red and Simon, elbow butting hers, walking over to the small closet beside the front door. He pulled it open.
โThereโs only a mop and a dustpan and brush in there,โ Simon told him. โI know,โ Oliver replied, bending down to look at the hinges on the inside
of the door. โArthur, will you help me here? Hold the door while I remove the hinges?โ
โSure.โ Arthur nodded, rolling up the sleeves of his sweatshirt. He walked between Red and Simon, gently resting his hand on her back as he guided himself through. Fingers warm, then gone, leaving something behind. That stupid, pathetic ๏ฌrework again, at the back of her eyes. Didnโt it know there was a man outside with a gun?
Arthur curled his hands around the top corners of the closet door while Oliver guided the screwdriver, slotting it into the ๏ฌrst screw.
Redโs eyes returned to the walkie-talkie. Her job. Her responsibility. Her plan. Partly, anyway. She clicked up again, shaping the static with her ears, making it say whatever she wanted it to. You could do that with memories too, sometimes. Lie to yourself, think fake thoughts to cover the ones you didnโt want. Like that time Catherine Lavoy took Red to the mall, because sheโd ๏ฌnally outgrown her last pair of jeans, and it was Redโs ๏ฌrst good day since everything happened. Sheโd even smiled. But sometimes Red changed it, and it wasย herย mom instead, not dead anymore, not angry anymore. A lie. Impossible. But it was nicer than the truth.
โSo before we get into position, everyone,โ Oliver said, one screw removed, turning his attention to the next. โWe will have to turn o๏ฌ all the lights in the RV, so we can see out the windows better. Turn o๏ฌ the
headlights too, so Reyna can see out front. So grab one of the ๏ฌashlights or use your phoneโs light to get yourselves into position.โ
Simon waded forward, snatching the headlamp from the dining table with a whispered โYes.โ He pulled the elastic over his head, wearing the light over his eye like an eye patch.
Red shook her head at him. She thought the adrenaline would have sobered him up by now. She thought wrong, clearly. She crossed to the kitchen and turned on the faucet, ๏ฌlling Simon another glass of water, pushing it into his chest.
โAll right,ย Mom.โ Simon swayed, taking a sip.
โSimon,โ Maddy hissed at him, angry lines crisscrossing her forehead.
Heโd said the forbidden word.
Oliver grunted as he removed one of the hinges, the muscles in Arthurโs arms stretching as they took the weight of the door. Oliver bent low to remove the hinge at the bottom.
Turning the screwdriver, he said, โYou are all responsible for your angle. So you have to be ready when I say Iโm about to beep. No blinking, no sneezing, no nothing. We cannot miss the muzzle ๏ฌash. Simon?โ
โAye aye, Captain.โ
No, Red had already worked out it wasnโt anyone fromย SpongeBobย in the curtains. She was going to die before she ๏ฌgured it out, wasnโt she? Her eyes tripped up on Reynaโs face on their way back from the curtains, sitting there, staring straight ahead. Chewing on her tongue and some silent thought, a strange faraway look in her dark eyes. Was she thinking about the plan, about what they were about to do, or something else?
Simon noticed too. He sidled over and whispered in Redโs ear, โYou see the way she looked at Oliver when this secret was mentioned? Something going on there.โ
Red didnโt respond, but she blinked, and Simon seemed to think that was the same thing. He nodded, too hard, and now Red couldnโt help but think he was trying to de๏ฌect somehow.
โOkay.โ Oliver placed the second hinge inside the closet and straightened up, his knees clicking. He took the freed closet door from Arthur and swung
it sideways, tucking it under one arm. โLetโs do this. Reyna, look alive.โ
She got to her feet, wiping her hand across her face, taking the look in her eyes away with it.
โFlashlights on, everyone.โ
Red placed the walkie-talkie down on the dining table, leaving it on channel three, ready for the sniper. She reached into her pocket for her phone. No service of course but, hey, 51% battery, still pretty good for her. She knew that Maddy panicked whenever her own was below 50%, wouldnโt even leave the house.
She swiped down and clicked on the ๏ฌashlight. โArthur, hit the lights. Reyna, headlights.โ
Reyna leaned across the steering wheel and out went the headlights. Arthur reached up to the control panel by the refrigerator and twisted the lights all the way o๏ฌ. The darkness from outside found its way into the RV, disappearing them all, broken up only by the white swinging beams of their ๏ฌashlights. A yellow glow from Simonโs headlamp as he readjusted it onto his forehead. Red lit up Maddy as she came to stand next to her, ready to take her position at her window. Her face was ghostly pale, almost blue, white dots in the pools of her eyes.
โInto your positions.โ
โThatโs what she said,โย Simon whispered, walking past Red toward the window by the lower bunk.
Red turned, bumping into Arthur. โSorry, after you,โ she said.
Arthur approached his window, resting one knee up on the sofa. Red took her place at the front door, waiting behind the closed shade. She watched over her shoulder as Oliver awkwardly spun the closet door to stand end up and he crouched beside the steering wheel. He shifted the gear into reverse, and the image from the rearview camera ๏ฌickered into life in the center console. The road eerie white at the bottom of the screen, the sky molded from shades of black and gray.
Oliver shu๏ฌed the closet door against himself. A shield. A barricade. But could wood that thin stop a bullet from a high-powered ri๏ฌe?
Red turned to her own window. She swallowed, fast-forwarding the next few seconds, to her putting her face and eyes up against the bottom of the glass to study the darkness beyond. She imagined the red dot ๏ฌoating right there on her face, joining the freckles on her nose, moving up to her forehead, or against her teeth, and sheโd never even know about it. Maybe sheโd hear the crack in her last moment, but she wouldnโt know, would she, as it hit its target? Dead too fast for the fear to live. Like how she imagined Mom had died, in those early days when her dad and the other o๏ฌcers spoke in jagged circles around it.ย Killed in the line of dutyย was all some would say to her.ย Your mom was a hero,ย others.
In Redโs head, Mom didnโt have time to be scared, no time to think her goodbyes, she didnโt know it was her end, she didnโt know and with one blink she was gone. But she wasnโt afraid, and that was one good thing as the world fell apart. Except that wasnโt what happened. At all. Red looked it up, the night before the funeral. Multiple articles about the fatal shooting of Police Captain Grace Kenny of the Philadelphia PD, Third District. She shouldnโt have, because then she wouldnโt know. But it was too late. And the picture in her head changed. Mom on her knees. Begging for her lifeโthe articles didnโt say that part, but Red ๏ฌlled in the gaps. On her knees, terri๏ฌed, knowing what was about to happen. And then it did: two shots to the back of the head. Killed with her own service weapon. She had time to be afraid, all the time in the world, lifetimes in seconds, there on her knees.ย Executedย was another word the articles used, a word almost too big for thirteen-year-old Red to understand. It didnโt ๏ฌt in her head, not in the same sentence as her mom.
She understood now, though, thinking about putting her face up to that
window. Thinking about that red dot searching her out in the darkness. Even a fraction of the fear her mom felt, right there at the end of all things.
โRed, are you listening?โ Oliver raised his voice. โI said ๏ฌashlights o๏ฌ!โ โS-sorry,โ she mumbled, pressing the button, and the pitch-black claimed
the RV for itself, the others no longer full people, just shadows, nightmare ๏ฌgures on this nightmare night. No moonlight even, now that Reyna had pulled down the shade on the windshield.
โNow,โ Oliver said, clearing his throat. โIf you pull your curtains or shades just a little bit, from the bottom corner, so you can look out.โ
โDo we really have to put our fucking faces up against the windows?โ Simonโs voice called behind her. โSounds like a death wish to me.โ
โYes,โ Oliver replied. โBecause thatโs the plan.โ
Have to stick to the plan, Red thought. Always. Like she was doing right now. She just had to see through the rest of tonight, the rest of the plan.
โOh, I know!โ Maddy shouted, directly opposite Red at her window. Always side by side. โWe can use our phones, like Arthur did before. Record a video of outside, then we de๏ฌnitely wonโt miss the ๏ฌash.โ
โOkay, if youโd prefer,โ Oliver conceded.
โYes, Iโd fucking prefer,โ Simon said, a sound of clumsy rustling from his corner.
โRight, phones out!โ Oliver called.
Red watched the dark shape of Arthur struggle with his, ๏ฌddling with the front of his jeans. Close enough to reach out and touch. To hold hands, even, if they didnโt need both hands for this plan.
โPut them up against the windows now, make sure they are facing your assigned angle.โ
Red unhooked the shade, her ๏ฌngers gripped hard around the clasp. Do not let it go. She raised it a couple of inches from the bottom and, with her other hand, pressed the camera of her phone against the glass. She shifted her body so she wasnโt directly behind the phone, in the line of sight, and she watched the screen. There was nothing out there. Only black.
She checked over her shoulder at Arthur. His hand had disappeared beyond the lower corner of the mattress, out there in the night, the other still ๏ฌddling nervously with his jeans.
โOkay, start recording now!โ Oliver shouted, and the dark RV was ๏ฌlled with a chorus of high-pitched bleeps, singing to each other, as they all pressed record.
One second. Two seconds. Three seconds on the recording.
โReady?โ Oliver called, a shadowy arm reaching up behind his shield.
Redโs breath stuttered, the sound of her heart too loud in her ears, too loud and too fast. And then her heart was lost to a scream, the scream of the horn piercing the night and piercing her ears. One long note, then four short bursts.
โCome on.โ Oliverโs voice strained as he pressed the horn again. Three short beeps.
One long note.
The RV wailing into the darkness. And again.
Nothing. Not the crack Redโs ears were waiting for, not the clap of the gun. Her phone screen dark and empty.
โCome on!โ Oliver tried again, ten sharp beeps, sharper, shorter. The RV screamed and screamed again.
โWhy is he not taking the fucking shot?!โ Nothing.
The screaming stopped, the ghost of the sound ringing in Redโs ears in the after-silence.
