Sky on Fire

Instinct told me coolness and toughness had suddenly become survival qualities.

A cadet came and stood watch over us.

“Dude,” Jake said to the cadet. “Aren’t you hungry?”

The cadet clearly wanted to be eating but had his orders.

“Shut up!” he growled.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Jake said, as friendly as could be.

“I said shut up before I have to put an end to your chatter with the end of my Smith and Wesson!” the kid snarled. He was shorter than us, with camouflage grease paint all over his face and through his hair. He also had a lame, scraggly mustache.

I nicknamed him Greasy.

We watched them gorge themselves, eating and drinking and spraying one another with soda.

If we hadn’t seen the kids by now, there was a very good chance that Astrid had gotten them all into hiding, wasn’t there?

Jake and I glanced at each other from time to time and that seemed to be what he was saying to me. It was definitely what I was trying to tell him.

And how the hell had Astrid managed to keep Luna quiet? I remembered reading something about mothers in World War II who’d had to smother their own babies to keep them from crying and revealing the position of the family to the Gestapo. I felt sick. How was she keeping Luna quiet?

“You guys made out like bandits!” Payton said, coming to stand with us. He held an open box of Chex mix. He offered it to us. “You want some?”

“No, thank you,” I said.

“No, thank you…?”

“No, thank you, sir.”

“That’s more like it. Listen, you don’t know anything about us so let me elucidate for you. I am a second-class cadet. The rest of these losers are doolies. Fourth year. Like freshmen. That means I outrank them. That means they do whatever I say and then no one gets hurt!”

He threw his arm around me and I saw stars. I whimpered a bit and Jake shot a look at me.

“You know what I realized,” Jake said. “I never asked how you guys met Brayden.”

Payton looked blank for a moment and then he laughed.

“Effin’ Brayden. Oh Lord. He wants to know how we met Brayden!” he shouted to the gorging cadets. “We met him on the bus.”

I felt my insides turn to ice.

“What bus?” Jake asked, bluffing.

“We ambushed the bus, Jake, don’t play stupid. We ambushed the bus and that’s how we found out about this place. One of the little squirts told us exactly where to come.”

Oh my God, he was about to say that he’d killed my brother? What would I do? What would I do if he said that?

“We told them not to leave,” Jake lied.

He was sweating. Jake was shaking and sweating.

“Stupid idiots! Why would they ever leave here?” Payton agreed. He munched another handful of Chex. “Oh, I know. They wanted to save Brayden. Well, he died.”

“Yeah?” Jake asked.

“To tell you the truth, we killed him. He kept moaning and moaning. Oh Lord, it was driving me crazy. So I had to ask one of my guys to smother him. I couldn’t take that moaning anymore. I hate moaners.”

Payton looked sidelong at Jake, assessing his reaction indirectly.

Jake nodded. “Me, too.” He looked gray.

“They never would have made it to a hospital anyway,” Payton continued. “Nope, we kicked those losers off the bus. I believe they were going to try to make it to Denver on foot. Idiots.”

My brother, Niko, Josie, and the rest were now on foot. Or had been, whenever this ambush had happened. I felt sick to my stomach.

“But you know what, I made a mistake when I let them go,” Payton said. He looked around the Food aisles, and saw that Anna was drifting away toward the nuts and trail mix—out of ear shot. “I should have kept that sweet little girly on the bus!”

Payton elbowed Jake.

“I bet you miss her, right?” he said to Jake. “Did you have yourself a little good-bye party before she set off?”

He was talking about Josie or Sahalia.

So he hadn’t killed them and he hadn’t messed with them.

That was good.

Okay, okay, Astrid had to have the kids hiding by now. She was very good at hiding away. They had to be safe from this sicko. I was starting to think he wasn’t crazy from the compounds. He was just crazy on his own.

“Mr. Payton, sir,” I stammered.

“Cadet Lieutenant Colonel,” he corrected me. “What?”

“I’ve been meaning to ask. How’d you guys get up on the roof?”

“Old-fashioned grappling hook, Dean. That Zarember can climb anything. Then he found a ladder and threw it down for us. Real thoughtful of you to leave it up there,” he said, clapping me on the shoulder.

I should have kept my mouth shut. I almost fainted from the pain.

“All right, doolies,” Payton said, addressing the group. “Spread out and give me a report. I want full recon on this here Greenway superstore. Exits, entrances, assets, liabilities, weapons…”

Payton winked at us.

I hated those mean, malicious winks.

“Also be on the lookout for any alcohol! Daddy could sure use a drink!”

The cadets cheered.

“Hey!” Jake said, as if suddenly remembering something. “Where are my manners? Do you guys want to get high?”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

ALEX

17 MILES

Eventually, we saw a development. Most of the houses were dark, but there were lights in a few.

“Can’t we try one?” Sahalia asked. “Maybe they have food.”

Niko didn’t answer. He started to skirt the complex.

“Niko, please, can we rest?” Max said, starting to cry. “Please?”

“Okay, okay. Let’s try that one,” Niko whispered to us, pointing to a unit at the side of the development. Two windows had lights on in the first floor. The light was diffuse, like it was coming through sheets of clear plastic.

“Stay close,” Niko said.

So we all came in close up behind him.

And that was actually a mistake. Because it looked like a stretch of lawn ahead of us. A manicured lawn with some leaves and debris scattered around. But it wasn’t.

I was right behind Niko, and suddenly he fell forward and the ground was jerked away from under my feet and I fell backward and I was falling back on Sahalia who was behind me and then we hit the bottom.

We were in a pit and above me I saw Ulysses holding on to some roots or rocks or something.

But he couldn’t hold on very long and he tumbled down and landed with us at the bottom.

It was a trap.

Dean, we fell into a pit trap.

They had laid a tarp on top of part of the foundation for a new house.

Because it was dark, we didn’t see the tarp and now were in a pit.

The walls were cut by an excavator. They had that pressed-in texture, with rocks and roots sticking out in places. The floor was just deep, sludgy mud. It was wet with water on top of the clay and with lots of putrid-smelling, rotting leaves and there was some of that white mold growing against the wall.

We were in one corner of an L-shaped pit.

If Niko had walked 2 feet to the side, we would have missed it entirely.

We were crying, screaming, I don’t know, making the sounds of terror and surprise you make when you find yourself fallen into a dark pit.

“Calm down, everyone,” Niko commanded. “Calm down!”

Everyone tried to stop crying. I tried to stop crying.

“We can get out,” Niko said. “We can get out if we keep calm and work together.”

And then there was the light-swipe of a flashlight at the rim of the pit.

Yes, it was a flashlight and it was bopping around.

“Hello?” Niko called.

We all joined in calling hello, help, etc.

“Oh my God, Dad! We did it!” came the voice of a kid. “I knew we’d catch someone! I knew it!”

“Settle down, Eddie, we don’t know who all’s in there.”

“Help us!” Batiste screamed.

Then the flashlight flashed down on all of us.

“Jesus,” the man said. “It’s a bunch of kids.”

“We’re just trying to get to Denver. We’re not trying to rob anyone or anything,” Niko said.

“Oh yeah? Well, we’re not going to Denver. We’re waiting this thing out, right, Dad?” the kid named Eddie said.

I hated this Eddie, sight unseen. He’s the worst person I ever met.

1. He had laid a trap for us.

2. We had fallen into the trap.

3. He still had a dad.

“Yeah, yeah,” said the dad. “Well…”

“Give us your food and water and we’ll let you go!” the boy shouted.

“We can’t!” Sahalia shouted. “We’ll die without it!”

“Give it up or you can’t get out,” the kid repeated.

“Now, Eddie, I don’t know…,” mumbled the dad.

We couldn’t see them at all. Not with the flashlights shining right in our eyes.

Max started to whimper. “The water’s getting in my boots,” he whined.

“Look,” Niko said, his clear, digitalized voice going up to them. “Maybe this seems like a game to you. Trying to trap people and take things from them. But we’re going to die if you take our supplies. Do you want to be responsible for the deaths of six kids? Max and Ulysses are 7 years old, for God’s sake!”

They had to let us up.

The lights went out of our eyes and we heard them arguing.

“Dad, we need the water!”

“But I didn’t think they’d be kids—”

“What about Mom? She needs the water! Dad! I’m so thirsty!”

It was clear who the boss was in their family—Eddie. The meanest kid in the world.

We couldn’t hear the argument as well then because Max started crying hard. The water was burning his ankles and feet.

Then a light shined back down and the man said, “I see your point, son. The thing is, if we don’t get your food and water, we’re gonna die.”