“Yes, but the eyes are a dead giveaway. You need to wear your sunglasses at all times.” I put them back on, and Greer added, “We have to make it to the river by nightfall.”
I still longed for a hard sob, and I wished Doc were with me. He’d let me cry. Poor Doc. He wanted me to have a hero, and maybe I did, but in escaping, I had put his life in danger. “I hope Doc’s all right.”
Greer picked up another piece of clover and rolled it between his fingers. “I’m sure Doc has weaseled his way out of blame,” he stated. From the way he said it, it sounded as if Greer knew Doc.
“Do you know him?” I asked, remembering the hero comment.
Greer tossed the clover to the ground. “Well, anyone hired as a specialist for your health must have been with the family for years. You have to be crafty to stay with the Merrics and not suffer from perdition.”
Suffer. People suffered under the Merrics. I gazed off to the distance. “I know nothing about how things work in this world. It’s frustrating. I don’t even know your full name and you never really answered whether you're part of the Galvantry.”
Greer took a drink from the canteen. “I am.”
As soon as he said it, I realized I had absentmindedly been playing with Lothaire’s emerald, sliding it back and forth on the chain. I slipped the necklace back into my shirt. I was sure the Galvantry would like to get their hands on it.
“You are?” I contemplated the reality of the hills and trees. I was big time alone with this guy. Geez, I was making excellent grownup decisions this summer. Wow. What was next, joining a cult? I remembered none of this on my summer to do list.
“Again, don’t believe a word your family has told you.”
“I want to go home,” I told him firmly, like if I said it like I meant it, he’d take me there.
“I don’t even know where to begin even if I could. Let’s get moving.” He slung his bag over his shoulder.
We reached the river as the last rays of sun were sinking behind the hills. The river meandered over shallow rocks. Greer unpacked his bag on a flat grassy area nearby.
“Your supplies are in your bag,” he told me, and I opened it up and found bottles: Plaque Be Gone, Zuds, Grease Grip For Hair, Grease Grip For Hands, and about ten other products. Some made me blush a bright red considering Greer had packed the bag, not Elsa. I hoped she added certain products because she knew better.
Luckily, Greer was too busy setting up the camp to notice. At first, I didn’t know what he was doing. He tossed a thick gray disk into the air, and it expanded into a tent big enough for two. He unzipped it, and I saw inside. Two sleeping bags, flat as paper, were on each side. On the back wall of the tent was a small control panel with three buttons: green, yellow, and red. Greer crawled in and pressed the green button.
“So, this is where we’re sleeping,” I said, hoping Greer would reveal he had a second tent in his bag.
“Yes.” Greer put his bag on one side of the tent. I guess he already chose his side.
At Gettysburg, we always rented a camper, so this was my first time camping in a tent. I was with a quiet stranger. A stranger. We’d be sleeping in here together. Oh, I was not ready to share a tent with this guy. Nope. “I can sleep outside.”
He claimed there were much scarier things in these woods than I could imagine. “Maybe we should, I don’t know, talk before we share a tent,” I said as I followed him out. “I mean, I don’t even know your full name or where you went to high school or where you’re from. I get there are two sleeping bags, but it would still help me sleep better.”
He handed me the water bottle. “I’ve got to make a phone call.” He took out a rather dull looking phone from his pocket.
“What? First you tell me that the woods are full of things worse than I can imagine—like you have any idea how dark my imagination can get—and then you tell me see ya. I’ve got the entire world searching for me. So, you are going to leave me out here by myself to make a call? And aren’t phones easy to trace?”
“This is a two-way phone. It only transmits to one other phone, and they are both untraceable.”
“But what if the Libratiers come and attack me?” I protested.
“The Libratiers won’t attack you. Their goal is to take you back to the Merrics, not hurt you.”
My hands went to my hips. “That’s not any better.”
“I won’t be far.” Greer tossed me a Cloverfield fruit bar. “Eat up.”
Greer walked away from the clearing, and I freaked. “Yeah, sure. How about I eat this snack and wait for the American Army to jump out of the woods?”
“Trust me.” Greer turned back to face me. “If the American Army has found us, there is absolutely nothing I can do out here. I know you’re scared, but the person on the other end of this line thinks I’m dead so if you’ll excuse me…”
“But— “
“Don’t touch anything!” he called and retreated into the woods. I wanted nothing more than to throw a rock at him. I was certain I didn’t like this Greer guy except here was the thing: I felt so much worse with Greer not being around. He left, and the fear and weight of it all crashed into me. Greer and I were entwined in this, like it or not.
I was too open outside and sought comfort
