The other officer shouted, “Get back in the truck!”
“April, do what they say!” I was on the edge of panic.
Into my ear, the officer said, “Miss, get on your knees and stay there.” I got onto my knees, hands cuffed behind my back. Then I heard April’s voice ring out clear and loud.
“Daniel Robinson, Alex Hinch. Officers of the Woodstown Police Department. You are not on police business. No one has told you to pull us over. Why did you pull us over?”
“Get back in the truck.” His voice was loud and firm, but not a shout.
“I will not. Because you do not have any reason to have pulled us over, but you targeted us specifically. You broke the law by pulling us over, and I need you to explain why you did that.” April’s voice was so loud and clear and strong that it almost didn’t sound like her. I’d never heard her speaking like that before.
“That is not how this works. Please get down on the ground, facedown.”
“Daniel, your wife, Cindy, works in sales for Marriott Hotels. Alex, your wife, Yolanda, is a stay-at-home mom watching after your two boys, Jaime and Sammy. They are all healthy and well. And they want you to come home today. They want you to be safe.”
I was listening to this, staring at the blue door of my rented Nissan Frontier. A car rushed by us on the interstate, and then silence slowly returned. And then, simultaneously, both of the officers’ cell phones went off.
“Your wives are calling you. They’re worried you may be hurt.”
I stayed on my knees, powerless and terrified, as a number of sounds happened: scuffling, scraping, slapping, grunting, and thudding.
Suddenly, April was behind me.
“I’m sorry, that was probably really scary,” she said into my ear, as calmly as if she were bringing me a bowl of mac ’n’ cheese, which, to be clear, she had never done.
All of a sudden my hands came loose. I pushed myself up to see April head-on. Half of her face was a cloudy white flecked with the faintest traces of green and pink—like a gemstone from the bottom of the ocean; like something from another world; like the rocks that I had, right now, in the bottom of my backpack in the back of the truck. Her dark eyes shone out from within it.
“Your hair,” she said.
“My hair.”
“You cut off your locs, it’s so short. I like it.” There wasn’t any enthusiasm in her voice.
She stood up and moved smooth and fast past the two officers, now lying quietly on the ground, handcuffed to each other, toward their car. She sank her hand through the hood up to her elbow. Her hand just . . . drove into it. A hissing noise happened. Then she walked back to the two officers.
“Why did you pull us over?” she asked coldly as I walked over to them.
“It’s a game,” one of them said, his voice shaking a little.
“Keep talking,” April said, her voice menacing.
“A reality game. It’s called Fish. We got a clue delivered to us. It said we should go pull over a Nissan Frontier and that two passengers would be inside, and that we were to pull them over and hold them and it would fast-track us to the destination.”
“The destination?” April asked.
“We don’t know what it is, we just know everyone who’s completed it won’t shut up about how great it is. It seemed fairly harmless, we assumed you were in on it! That’s usually how it works!”
“Jesus,” I said.
“Fuck, how much have I missed?” April sounded resigned. And tired.
“A lot. I can explain . . . part of it at least,” I said.
“We have to go,” she said over her shoulder as she was walking to the truck.
I left the officers handcuffed to each other with a wrecked car and got back in the Nissan.
“Why does it smell like vomit in here?” I asked.
“I vomited. But I stayed conscious this time, so that seems like an improvement.” I had no idea what she was talking about.
“Are you OK? Your . . .” And then I stopped talking because I was about to say “your face” and that seemed wrong.
“I have no idea. I have no fucking idea.” And then she seemed to instantly calm down. “I don’t know. We have to run. Is there anywhere you can go that they don’t know about? Do you know anyone with a car we can buy?”
“You want to buy a car?”
“Yes, from someone who isn’t a clear relation to you. Someone that won’t get sucked into this.”
“You want to buy a car at eleven at night?”
“And, if possible, eat something. Maybe get some coffee.”
Coffee gave me the idea. I pulled out my phone and called Derek from the Dream Bean.
“Maya? Is everything OK?” He sounded groggy.
“No, not really. I need to come over.”
I could hear him talking to his wife in the background. They exchanged a few sentences and then he came back.
“It’s . . .” he said, but I cut him off before he could finish.
“I know. It’s important. Trust me.”
“OK,” he sighed. “OK.”
“I’ll be there soon,” I said. “Thank you for this. I’m sorry. I wouldn’t bother you if it wasn’t important, I’ll explain when I get there.”
I hung up, and before I could ask April any questions she said, “Can we listen to some music?”
“Yeah, sure.” I reached for the radio, but before I touched it, an R.E.M. song started playing out of the speakers.
“I don’t know what’s happening,” April said. “I’m not doing it on purpose.”
It was a ten-minute drive, but I avoided major roads, so it took fifteen.
“Oh, thank god,” April said as I pulled up to Derek’s house.
“What?” I asked.
“Long driveway. They won’t be able to see the truck from the road.”
“Jesus, April,” I said.
“Maya, it’s not paranoia, someone literally just sent police after us and they knew our names. They knew exactly where we’d be, and I don’t want to find out
