more time to the explosive, which had dwindled to twenty-three seconds.
Then he placed the device right at the base of the fence, right under the transformer, and pressed the button again, turned and ran.
Surely on camera.
Being watched by the guards, who were already calling Ed Lowe, who somehow wouldn’t answer.
Maybe waking up other guards.
The whole night going wrong.
Running through the woods, fast as he could.
Then—the explosion.
Seconds later, the alarm sound, the horns blaring from everywhere and nowhere, filling the camp.
Back to Cabin 12.
Everyone running like ants when their underground home had been exposed. People ran all over. Jack joined them with no one noticing anything.
Good. That part fucking worked.
That alarm meant only one thing: Can Heads could be breaking in.
Would they? Jack wondered. Were they always lurking out there, waiting to stream into the camp whenever something went wrong with the fence?
No hesitation now. Straight up the steps of the cabin. Into the living room. A guard spinning around.
Not recognizing Jack. Confused by the alarm. Maybe scared. All alone.
“What happened?”
Then, a flash of recognition on the guard’s face, perhaps seeing Jack covered with blood, his body and clothes becoming a map of this night.
“Wait a fuck—” the guard said, his rifle muzzle lowering toward Jack.
Jack shot him. A clean shot to the head. He heard screams from a room in the cabin.
Jack grabbed the guard’s rifle, then grabbed a tablecloth from the dining room and threw it over the body.
Then he turned to the screams, to the room, unlocking it with the key in the door.
Opening the door. To see them. God, to see them, screaming, crying, but alive.
40
The Plan
Christie ran to Jack, ignoring everything that covered him. Kate went around to his side, saying over and over,
Simon silently hugged him as tight as he could. Shivering with fear, locked on his father as though there was nothing else left in the world.
But then Jack pulled them away, and looked just at Christie.
“Listen,” he said to her. “We have to leave.”
She nodded. Of course they had to leave.
“Let’s go. C’mon kids—” she started.
He grabbed her arms and held them fast, the strength of his grip nearly pinching.
“No. Before we go…”
She saw him look down, aware that the two terrified kids still stood there, looking up.
Jack turned around and picked up the two .44s. He gave one to Christie, whose hand seemed to close over it reluctantly.
His wife let the gun rest in her lap.
Then he took Kate’s hand and closed it over the other gun.
He had taken her to the range one day. She had shot a gun before. “This is the safety. You leave it on until we leave here. And you hold it pointed down. Unless … unless you have to—”
“Shoot something,” she said.
Her eyes glistened as she fought back the fear and tears. He smiled. A nod.
Then, heartbreaking, unexpected …
“Dad.” He turned back to Simon. “Dad, do I get a gun, too?”
He leaned close and gave Simon a hug. Both Christie and Kate looking at Jack, seeing that his eyes had turned watery. He blinked, the cabin living room suddenly blurry.
“Simon. Son. You have to do something really important, you hear me?”
He felt the boy nod. “You hold your mom’s free hand tight. Got that? Tight as you can. Don’t let her go. And the other one, you hold your sister’s hand. You hold onto them, Simon. Can you do that for me?”
Another nod.
Then, as if it was the hardest thing he ever did, Jack finally pulled away.
They walked out. He leaned close to Christie.
“I have a plan.”
She watched him force a smile.
His eyes, still glistening, told her something more than his words.
There was no time for him to explain things to her privately, what would happen, what they would do.
She’d have to hear his words even as the kids followed and they, too, listened. And she’d have to somehow understand what he was really saying.
“Okay,” she said, letting him know that she understood.
His eyes wet, tearing up with gratitude that she understood things.
She couldn’t imagine what he had been through.
Her heart felt like it could explode at the thoughts of the agony, the madness that he’d had to face. That he still had yet to face.
He told her what would happen, pulling the kids alongside him through the brush even as the branches tried to trip them and rip at their bare arms.
The camp filled with the sound of alarms and gunfire.
“Did you—did you do that?”
“Yeah. Keeps them busy.”
His pace relentless, even though his one good leg was doing the work of two he marched them through the woods.
Telling her the details of the plan, all said within earshot of the kids.
So they heard, too.
But did they understand?
God, did they understand?
Jack stopped them.
A quick finger to his lips, barely visible in the dark.
Something moved through the woods ahead. Jack trying to see what was there. Some movement. Maybe this was a bad way to go.
Then a scream from behind. He wheeled around just in time to see a Can Head grab Christie and yank her
