Sky on Fire

“We needed you!” Sahalia said accusingly. “We lost … we lost people. Brayden got shot! If you had come…” She couldn’t finish the sentence, but she didn’t really need to.

Mrs. Wooly pushed some hair out of Sahalia’s face. She took Sahalia’s hand in hers.

“Oh, Sahalia, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry that whatever happened happened. It must have been horrible, honey,” she said in her gravelly voice.

“I made it to the high school and I was trying to get a hold of a bus to come for you guys and there was this little kind of riot there and then this alert came over the radio. I had to report for duty. That’s how it is for us. When called to serve, we gotta serve. But I swear to you I’ve spent every moment trying to figure out how to get you rescued. But none of that matters. You’re here. You made it.”

“Niko said you were coming in a Kia minivan,” Max said.

“A Kia?! No way, honey. I only drive Subarus. And school buses.” She rustled Max’s hair. “You should see the Airbuses, kids. A whole fleet of A380s. Loading and flying and loading and flying. You’ll be on the next one out. I’m going to see to that!”

“Are we going to Alaska?” Max asked.

“But Mrs. Wooly—” I said.

“You might,” she said. “But they’re going all over. Lots of flights to Canada. Vancouver, Ottawa, BC.”

“But Mrs. Wooly—” Niko tried to interrupt.

“They got hit much less hard than we did and have been really amazing. This time tomorrow, you guys will be safe. Maybe somewhere sunny even.”

Max and Ulysses looked at each other and smiled.

“But Mrs. Wooly!” I yelled. “We have to go back.”

“Go back?” she said, puzzled.

“Dean and Astrid and Chloe and Caroline and Henry are still at the store,” I said.

She went white and said, “Hell.”

* * *

Mrs. Wooly grabbed the first reservist she saw. He was a young guy, chewing gum, and had a long neck and the kind of head that bobs a lot. She took him off to the side and gave him a bunch of directions. She looked serious. He looked half-irritated, half-amused.

Then she came back to us with the guy.

“Kids, this is Frank. He’s going to get you on the next plane out of here.”

“What?” I said. “No!”

“I’m going to do the best I can to get your brother and the others. But look,” she told us, leaning in closer. “You gotta get out of here now. It may not be safe for much longer.”

“What do you mean?” Sahalia asked.

“What’s happening?” Niko said.

“Just go with Frank!” Mrs. Wooly ordered. “He’ll get you guys on the next plane out of here. I have to go!”

And with that she started running—running away from us.

* * *

Frank grabbed a wheelchair for Max and deposited him in it.

“Follow me, squirts,” he said.

He went and looked at the call-board and said, “Gate A-40,” and then, “All right, let’s get this done.”

Niko looked pissed. Sahalia looked scared. And I was just puzzled.

We all just followed along as Frank led us to the elevator and then down to the shuttle train.

My mind was catching up to the moment.

What had she meant, it might not be safe for much longer?

* * *

We waited on the shuttle platform. I guess I was in a daze.

A shuttle came and I tried to get on.

Frank pulled me back.

“Look, dummy!” he said, pointing to a sign that read: RESTRICTED! MILITARY PERSONNEL ONLY.

The soldiers in the car were all talking to one another and asking one another questions and checking their gear. They were excited—anxious—stirred up about something. But what?

Our shuttle came and Frank pushed his way in with Max’s wheelchair. The rest of us jammed in near them.

I asked Frank, “What did Mrs. Wooly mean, it’s not safe?”

“Can’t tell you,” he said. “Sorry, kid.”

Niko caught my eye.

“He probably doesn’t know,” Niko said dismissively. “He probably doesn’t have security clearance.”

“What do you know about the military?” Frank snorted.

“Are reservists even in the military?” I asked. “You’re not even in the Army.”

“We are too in the Army!” Frank protested.

“Then why don’t they tell you what’s going on?” Niko taunted.

“Operation Phoenix,” Frank said, indignant. “A battery of thermobaric bombs. Detonation sites all over NORAD and Colorado Springs.”

“They’re going to burn the air,” Niko gasped.

“Yeah! Big-time!” Frank clucked. “Gotta try to incinerate the compounds ’cause they’re starting to spread. It’s called thermal oxidation, you little twits.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Sahalia asked.

“Nothing you need to know, missy,” Frank said.

He thought he was so cool because he’d shocked us into silence.

* * *

At the gate a soldier was making an announcement over a megaphone.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin boarding. Please make one long line right here. Seating is open. Keep families together. No pushing or shoving.”

We got in line.

Ulysses and Max were playing around with the wheelchair, Ulysses tilting Max back and Max laughing like crazy.

“You can leave us now, if you want,” Niko told Frank. Niko made himself look like he thought Frank was a big shot, somehow. “I mean, you must have a lot to do.…”

“Yeah, I do,” Frank muttered, cracking his neck. “I’m not here to babysit.”

“We can get on the plane ourselves,” I said.

“All right then,” Frank agreed. “Good luck, squirts.” And he took off.

“I’m not going,” I whispered to Niko as soon as Frank was out of earshot. “I’m going to find Mrs. Wooly and help her organize the rescue.”

Niko didn’t say anything.

“If you think about it,” I continued, “one woman trying to get a rescue operation going for some kids—who cares? But if I’m there … I’m the brother. I’m a kid. It will, I don’t know, move people.”

Niko immediately turned to Sahalia.

“No,” she said.

“Get the kids on the plane,” he said. “We will find you.”

“No!” she protested. “We don’t even know where this plane is going!”

“We’ll find you,” I told her. “I swear it! I swear to you we’ll find you!”

She crushed me to her in a hug. Then she hugged Niko, too.

“Don’t let this be the last time I see you,” she said to me.

“I won’t,” I answered.

Sahalia turned to Niko and hugged him tight.

“Thank you,” she said to him. “I’m sorry for what a jerk I was sometimes. You saved my life. You saved it a dozen times. That’s the truth.”

Then she turned to Max and Ulysses. They were still messing around with the wheelchair.

“Come on, boys, it’s time for us to get on the plane.”

She pushed Max’s chair forward, edging through the people in front of her.

Ulysses looked back at us, confused at why we weren’t coming, and I heard Max holler, “Wait! What?”

“Come on,” Niko told me, and we started running.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

DEAN

DAY 15

Payton looked up at Astrid. His mouth fell open and he was shocked. I used that moment to get my hand on his hand, on the gun. I pushed the gun and his hand away from me. And then Payton looked back down at me and snarled.

Our hands were both on the gun and I was flat on my back on the table. I got my leg up and kicked him, as hard as I could, and I held on tight to the gun.

And I shot, as he stumbled back, and it hit him.

I didn’t mean to and I did mean to and I shot him right in the chest.

Payton fell to the floor. His mouth was open and he was looking at me with a horrible expression on his face.

An expression of confusion.

“Jesus Christ!” Jimmy screamed. “You killed him!”

Jimmy backed away from me.

Astrid turned the chainsaw off.

I sat up. My hands were shaking. I had just shot Payton.

Caroline and Henry started shrieking. I didn’t want them to see Payton. I didn’t want them to have seen me shoot him but I couldn’t take it back. His blood was pooling out around him.

I couldn’t stop looking at him.

“Hey!” Astrid said. I jerked my head away to look at her. “You saved us. Remember that.”

“Oh, Dean!” Caroline cried. I stumbled toward them. She and Henry came forward and hugged me.

The twins talked at the same time, asking me if I was okay and telling me how scared they had been and asking if Payton was really dead.

Jake groaned from where he lay on the floor.

Astrid took a step forward toward him, but Jimmy thought she was coming for him.

“Please, p-p-please,” he begged. “Don’t kill me.”

“I have a better idea,” said Chloe, stepping out from behind Astrid.

She stomped over to the juice and held up the bottle.

“Drink!”

“I don’t want to die!” Jimmy sobbed.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” Chloe snapped, “it’s not poison in there. Just sleeping pills.”

Jimmy Doll Hands brought the bottle to his lips and drank it.

“All of it,” Astrid said.

And so he chugged it.

“What should I do with this one?” Astrid said with contempt. She still had Anna by the hair.

“Make her drink!” Chloe snarled.

“No,” I said. “We’ll just tie her up.”