wood of the pier and pushed until the grain bit into my skin. The pain snapped me into focus. Mom and Dad were waiting. Home was waiting. I wouldn’t let the Path turn me away now.
I scrambled for a plan. Walking out would be crazy. It was too far, and with the fighting heating up, I couldn’t imagine that we’d make it long before being picked up by one side or the other. We needed another way. Something fell into place. Philadelphia. I counted the miles between there and New York in my head and then jumped up and ran back to the house with Bear beside me.
I guessed that Mitchell and his men were quartered somewhere to the west of the house, so I passed it by and moved into the forest. When we came out the other side, we found a black passenger van at the end of an asphalt driveway, flanked by two Humvees.
Four soldiers were hurrying between one of the Humvees and a dock, loading it up with ammo and provisions. When I looked closer, I saw that Nat was one of them. She was dressed in scuffed combat boots and a set of fatigues that were too big. She set a wooden crate in the back of the Humvee and went for another. Bear ran to her, and I jogged over to keep up.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Go away, Cal.” Nat pushed Bear aside and bent over to pick up a crate of ammo.
“Where are you going?”
She hefted the box and brushed me aside. “Virginia.”
“Virginia?” I said, trailing her. “I thought after they dropped off Alec and his friends, Mitchell was heading to Philadelphia.”
“He is,” she said, slinging the crate into the back of the Humvee. “But the rest of us figured that instead of protecting a bunch of rich politicians who are in no actual danger at the moment, we’d go to Virginia, and help the people who actually are.”
“Think we’re set,” one of the other soldiers said.
She shut the hatch while the others took their places inside the Humvee.
“Nat, don’t do this.”
“California is
The Humvee’s engine rumbled to a start.
“Yo, Natalie, let’s go!”
Nat moved closer and I was surprisd to feel her hand taking mine, drawing me to her.
“You could help us,” she said. “You could help me.”
The anger in her had drained away, replaced by something raw and trembling that reminded me of sitting on that classroom floor with her and Bear, her armor of command wiped away. I started to speak but strangled the words off at the last second. Alec hadn’t turned me aside and neither would she.
Nat stood before me a moment more and then her boot heels turned and thudded across the asphalt. Bear went after her, barking as he ran around to the side of the vehicle. The door slammed shut and the engine revved.
The Humvee pulled away down the dark drive. I stood there for a long time without moving. Eventually, Bear gave up the chase and returned to my feet, a small whimper in his throat.
“They about ready down there?”
Sergeant Mitchell had come out of the barracks and was standing by the loading dock. I nodded.
“Well, let’s get a move on, then. Don’t worry, kid, you and your friends will be singing ‘O Canada’ before you know it.”
“I’m not going with them,” I said, pushing my voice out harsh and quick. “I want to go to Philadelphia with you.”
“Looking to join up, huh?” he asked with a pleased grin. “Fight the big bad Path?”
Sergeant Mitchell waited for an answer, but the lie stuck in my throat. All I could do was nod.
Once the rest of Mitchell’s men got Alec and his friends in the van, we spent the next few hours creeping along back roads behind the remaining Humvee.
I was in the middle row of seats, with Bear in my lap. Kate was to one side of me, Diane to the other. Alec and Reese were in front of us, bouncing their heads in time to whatever was coming through their oversize headphones. Christos stared out the window at the dark.
Everyone was lit in the ugly green glow of the radio that sat between Mitchell and the private riding shotgun. Transmissions came through it in staticky bursts of code, panicked voices calling for assistance while gunfire snarled in the background. Eventually, Mitchell flipped the radio off and we were left with the rush of tires against the road.
An hour later we merged onto a highway that was clogged with refugees heading east. Mitchell forced his way through the jammed traffic and pulled up to an exit blocked by two Fed Humvees. We came to a halt and Sergeant Mitchell and his private got out to talk to the sentries.
Alec pulled one of the headphones off his ear and cupped his hand over the side window to look out.
“I would
A rusty pickup truck had pulled off to the side of the road, just beyond the roadblock. One of its back tires was lying on the ground in shreds. A skinny man in a tattered blazer sat beside it, his head in his hands; a jack and a deflated spare lay in front of him. Standing behind him was a young woman staring at his back and clutching the hand of a small boy.
“What’ll happen to them if they’re here when the Path comes?”
Kate had turned away from the window and was staring back at me.
“They’ll be given the Choice,” I said.
“Is that really what people say it is?”
I nodded and Kate turned back to the family at the side of the road. The man was standing now and waving his arms for help, but everyone passed by, studiously ignoring him.
“We should help them,” she said.
“Sure,” Alec said over his shoulder. “Maybe we can cram all of South Dakota in our plane and fly them to Canada.”
“Alec—”
Before Kate could finish, Mitchell was climbing back into the van. Up ahead, the sentries drew aside and our Humvee pulled through the roadblock. Mitchell put the van in gear to follow. Kate pitched forward, about to say something, but as the Humvee started to move, she swallowed it and collapsed into her seat.
Behind us, the man by the pickup had given up trying to flag anyone down. He sat in a heap, the useless tools in front of him, watching us as we slowly rolled away. I pulled Bear closer to me and looked away too.
We went through the checkpoint, and the two Humvees re-formed the roadblock, like a gate slamming shut behind us. Mitchell switched the radio back on, filling the van with static and disjointed communications. Up ahead, the Humvee bristled with rifle barrels poking out of every window, scanning the trees. The turret gunner stayed low but kept his weapon moving, sweeping back and forth. The private in our van leaned out his window, his face lit by the glow of his rifle’s night-vision scope.
The war sounds were nearly constant, distant still, but seeming to come from everywhere at once, like hearts beating out in the darkness. The air felt warmer too and dense, weighing down on us. Even Alec and Reese noticed. They pulled the headphones off their ears and sat up straighter, watching out the side windows as bursts of yellow and orange lit the sky above the tree line.
I wondered where Nat was right then. Had she and her friends gotten stuck in this fight? Or had they managed to push through, eager to throw themselves into an even fiercer one ahead? I could still feel the heat of her hand on mine and hear her voice, hushed, asking me to come with her. Why did that sound make me feel so small?
I shut my eyes and counted out the miles from Philadelphia to New York. Once we reached the capital, all I had to do was slip away from Mitchell and all of this would be over before I knew it. I tried to fill my head with
