I clicked into the seat next to Dean as BOOM! Searing winds hit us.
Captain McKinley wrestled the control stick, battling the winds for command of the helicopter.
BOOM! Another explosion to the right of us. The hot winds almost dashed us back down but he pulled up, up, up.
And then we were racing into the dark air. We were ahead of the bombs then and we got away from there, up into the black sky that was splintering now, shot through with sunlight and fire. And I held my brother’s hand.
EPILOGUE
WE DESERVE A HAPPY ending. All of us do. And I think we’re going to get it. But I’m not exactly sure yet.
We’re lucky to be here in Quilchena. Yes, we sleep in rows on cots in giant tents. Yes, armed guards patrol the perimeter. And yes, we have next to no contact with the outside world. But some of the American containment camps are much worse.
We hear stories of refugees being locked in prisons and denied all rights. There are some crazy rumours floating around about medical experiments being performed on O types. The Canadians at least treat us like human beings. They’re polite and everything.
I feel bad for the poor Canadians. They had no idea what they were in for when they allowed refugees to be air-lifted here.
It turns out that the survivors of the Four Corners disaster, as they’re calling it on the news, are violent and unstable.
The first refugees they airlifted to Calgary and Vancouver started leaving the temporary housing and tearing through towns and cities – looting and rioting.
Now they have us all collected in containment camps and they’re negotiating with the American government to see what will happen to us. The Canadians should never have taken us in. Alex has a theory that they felt partially responsible for the chemical weapons programme at NORAD because it’s a joint venture between the US and Canada.
It’s one p.m., and normally at this time, all the refugees gather in the dining hall. After lunch, they let us watch TV for one hour. Any more than an hour, they’ve found that the refugees get too hostile and shaken up.
There are a few mini-tabs being passed around, but there’s less interest in them than you might think.
Alex got ahold of one and discovered that all the data’s gone. All our e-mails. Our photos. Texts. Contacts. Accounts. It’s all gone and we have no way to find our parents, because their accounts are gone, too.
It’s creepy being online – a few stupid sites are up, but mostly there are missing pages and endless redirects. It’s like the network has been struck with amnesia.
Alex has set up new accounts for us. If our parents are out there, they will find us. I have to believe that.
In the meantime, at two p.m., the guards post the most recent refugee listings and we all pour over the lists, searching for the names of the people we’ve lost.
They’re listed by zip code and then alphabetically.
I keep praying to see our parents: 80132 Grieder, James. Or 80132 Grieder, Leslie. But so far nothing.
No sign of Heyman, Lori, either. Or any of Astrid’s younger siblings.
Ulysses, incredibly, found his whole family. And they have agreed to legally adopt Max if his parents don’t show up. Max lives with them now and he loves it. Somehow, I feel certain that the Dominguez family will give him a more traditional and morally sound upbringing than Max’s biological parents.
They are in Tent G, which is all families with young children.
Mrs McKinley lives there with the twins. The scene when Captain McKinley brought Caroline and Henry to their mom was joyous and heartbreaking and made everything –
(Astrid reminds me of it every time I wake up shouting in the night. I still see Payton’s face after I shot him. And the pallet loader guy I cut to pieces.)
Captain McKinley had to return to duty. Mrs McKinley took Chloe and Luna in out of the goodness of her heart. If we had to have Chloe with us in Tent J, I think I’d go nuts.
Mrs McKinley and the kids sometimes take Luna on rounds through the infirmary. Luna has taken to the role of therapy dog like a pro. When people hold our face-licking, tail-wagging Luna and hear the story of how she got rescued, all the way from Monument, it seems to give them hope. Luna has sort of become the Quilchena mascot and no one is more proud of that than Chloe, who grooms Luna incessantly and walks her about eight times a day.
Captain McKinley told us he saw Mrs Wooly at the Fort Lewis-McChord Air Force Base. Apparently when she saw him, she was so happy that he was alive and that we’d made it out safely that she first kissed him on the mouth and then insisted on buying him and everyone else in the canteen drinks all night long. She drank them all under the table, of course.
I can’t believe Mrs Wooly made it. Hearing about the moment when Ulysses spotted her at DIA is one of my favourite parts of the story. Captain McKinley says she’s trying to get leave to come and visit us.
Alex, Astrid, Sahalia, Niko, and I live in Tent J. Tent J is basically for orphans age 8–17, but since I get to be with Alex and Astrid and Niko, I don’t feel like an orphan at all.
Today we’re not at the listings. Today we’re having a party.
Mrs McKinley has made a picnic and requested permission for us all to go out on the community outdoor area on Hole 3. Everyone else is at the listings, so we have the whole green to ourselves.
It’s the twins’ birthday and they’re turning six.
It’s a beautiful day. There’s a pond on this hole – a water feature, I guess they call it. And behind it are trees blazing in gold and orange and chestnut brown. This is a very nice golf club here, that they’ve turned into a prison for us.
Mrs McKinley has laid out a bedsheet as a picnic blanket and has clearly been saving her food and bartering so there can be treats for the kids. There’s a bag of potato chips (everyone is careful to only take one or two) AND a bag of cheese doodles AND somehow, she’s wrangled a package of chocolate-covered doughnuts. Pretty impressive.
Caroline and Henry are playing with their present – a soccer ball. Ulysses and Chloe join and they start playing a little game with two of Ulysses’s older brothers serving as goalies. Luna is running and barking and generally getting in the way.
The grown-ups sit on the parched grass and watch the game.
This feels almost like real life again.
Max is watching from a very comfortable position on the generous lap of Mrs Dominguez. I can tell he’d like to join in, but his feet still aren’t a hundred percent yet. Mrs Dominguez takes him to the clinic and waits in the long queue with him every day so he can be seen. She’s been doing that with him for the two weeks since we got here.
Mrs Dominguez is combing Max’s hair with her fingers and that cowlick of his just springs up every time. I bet she never thought she’d be the mother of a towhead.
‘Where’d they get the ball, do you think?’ Astrid says as she comes to stand beside me.
She puts her arm around my waist and I draw her into me.
Think I’ve gotten used to having her as my girlfriend?
I haven’t.
She glows in the sun. I don’t know whether it’s the pregnancy or if it’s just that I love her so stupidly much,
