“Nice,” he said.
The silence was short-lived. Someone started screaming for help off in the woods beyond them. Coherent pleas. Desperate.
Everyone else was in the boat.
“I have to go back,” Michael said suddenly.
The air inside her lungs was sucked out in an instant.
Michael put his hands on her shoulders. “I need you to take them back. Get them help. I’ll be right behind. There are others out there. You . . . you know I can’t leave them.”
“But I need you.”
“And Raj and his friends need you. I won’t be far behind, really. You won’t even notice I’m gone.”
“You promise?”
“Swear to all that matters.” With that he led her over to the water and helped her into a boat. Her entire body was numb; she didn’t resist, although she wanted to. Someone handed her a paddle and Michael gave the two boats strong pushes to send them off.
She watched him disappear back into the woods. The sun was beginning to rise over the horizon. The air was thick with smoke from the destroyed museum and it made the morning light burn even redder in the pale sky.
“He’ll be fine, babes,” Raj whispered.
She nodded. But would she?
ARIES
Bang!
A strange noise brought her up from a deep sleep. No dreams. She didn’t seem to have them anymore. Nothing but thoughtless darkness. It sure beat the horrible nightmares she kept having the first few weeks after the earthquakes. Dreams in which she was running down dead-end streets as monsters popped out from the shadows. Quick, jolting images of her family dissolving in front of her eyes while she was frozen in place and unable to help. Her mother silently mouthing her name and Aries screaming back.
But sleeping was better these days.
Bang!
Her whole body was heavy. She had sunk into the mattress and it had taken her hostage, almost refusing to let go. Struggling, she finally opened her eyes. Soft, muted light fell across her face, the morning sun fighting its way through from behind the blinds.
“Aries?” Tapping on the door.
Panic. What time was it? How long had she been asleep?
“Aries?”
“Yeah, I’m awake.”
The door opened and Nathan hesitantly walked in. His forehead was full of frown lines and his lips were stretched in a tight grimace.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “What time is it?”
“Ten a.m.”
She’d slept in. How could she? She was almost always the first one awake in the morning. There was so much to do. Sleeping in was a luxury she couldn’t afford.
“Why didn’t someone wake me?” she snapped. Unwrapping the sheets from around her legs, she managed to get up. The mattress was a tangle of blankets. Pillows were on the floor. A glass lay turned over on its side, whatever liquid it once held now absorbed into the beige carpet. She may not remember her dreams, but obviously they were still there. She had been thrashing around like a wild woman. Night traveling.
“You were tired,” Nathan said. His face changed from worried to guilty. “And I think we just kinda forgot. We’ve got some problems.”
“What problems?” She ran her fingers through her hair. Tangles. Lots and lots of them. She cringed as she felt the hair break between her fingers.
“Clementine and Michael are still missing in action.”
The last thing she thought about before falling into her dreamless sleep was what she’d do if morning came and they weren’t back. She hadn’t come up with an answer last night and she still didn’t have one now.
“We’ll figure something out,” she said.
“There’s more. Mason’s gone too.”
Now that surprised her. “What do you mean ‘gone’?”
“He’s not here.”
That made her pause. Why would Mason leave? He’d been there last night when she got back in from visiting with Daniel. Right? She tried hard to remember if she’d seen his face with the others. “Did he take off? Is his stuff gone?”
Nathan took a step backward. “I didn’t check. I didn’t think about it.”
She pushed past him and stormed down the hall to the last room, where Mason had shut himself off from the rest of the world. She stopped for a moment at the closed door and didn’t bother knocking. Instead she turned the knob and walked right in.
His room was dark. He’d covered the windows with dark bedsheets. She scanned the room quickly. The bed was empty. Wrinkled and tangled blankets spilled off the mattress and onto the floor. For some reason she was relieved to see that Mason was obviously doing his own night traveling.
What did he dream about that made him run miles in his sleep?
She walked into the middle of the room, carefully stepping over a pile of plaid shirts and wrinkled jeans. Nathan followed behind her. In the corner was a dresser, the drawers open, the mirror cracked from where it looked like he’d put his fist right through the glass.
“Guess he didn’t like his new haircut,” Nathan said with a heavy load of sarcasm.
“Or he just needed to hit something,” she said. “I can honestly say I feel like that at least once a day.”
Aries went over to the closet and opened it. Inside was a mess of clothing, most of it the former owner’s. On the shelves in pristine condition were stacks of photo albums, yearbooks, and other personal items that would never again be enjoyed by the person they belonged to. It didn’t look like Mason had even gone inside. She closed the door and walked back over to the bed.
“So do you think he took off?” Nathan bent over and started picking through some of the clothes. “I always got the impression that he didn’t want to stick around. Didn’t talk much, did he?”
Aries took a deep breath and nudged a sock with her toe. “No, he didn’t leave.”
“How do you know?”
She moved over to the side of the bed where a small table was pushed against the wall. Reaching down, she picked up a worn photograph. Turning it over, she read the inscription.
Stanley Park. Second Beach. Vancouver, BC,
Mason and Mom—enjoying the sun.
She handed the picture to Nathan. “Because he wouldn’t leave this behind. He never goes far without it.”
Nathan took it from her and studied the print. Aries liked how young and happy Mason looked in it. She liked how big his smile was and the way the baseball cap covered his ears. A reminder of better times. Times they couldn’t get back no matter how much they wished it. It would have been nice to have known him before the earthquakes. She liked to believe the two of them might have been good friends.
Nathan nodded. “Okay. What should we do?”
“Organize a search party,” she said. “We’ve got to find them. Or at least figure out what happened. They deserve that much.”
She popped her head in to check on Jack on the way down the hall. Joy was there with him. They sat together on the bed and she was reading a magazine article out loud. She stopped speaking and both of them looked up.
“I need you downstairs, Joy,” she said. “In a few, okay?”
Joy nodded, and the expression on Jack’s face wasn’t hard to read. He knew what was going on and was frustrated that he couldn’t do anything to help. Even climbing down the stairs was a hard enough challenge.
“You feeling any better?” she asked.
“Just fine,” he said, but he gritted his teeth as the words popped out. The light banter was gone. “Wish I wasn’t so damn useless, though.”
“Don’t say that,” Joy said. “You’ve done so much for us. It’ll get easier.”
“No, it won’t.”
Aries suppressed the urge to tell him to stop feeling sorry for himself, especially when she couldn’t really disagree with him. So she left the room. She’d sit down with him later, once the others were found, and discuss what they’d do in the future once he was able to get out of bed. There had to be something he could do s
o he’d feel like he was contributing to the group. Maybe Joy could teach him to cook?
As much as she loved Jack, this wasn’t the time to have that conversation. Finding the others took priority. Aries hated to admit it, but she was lost without Mason. For all his silence and mystery, he’d pretty much taken over Jack’s role since the blinding, becoming her new confidant and helping her through the tough problems they faced as a group. They’d spent a lot of nights discussing things in the living room long after everyone else had gone to sleep. He always knew the right words to say to calm her down. Being a leader wasn’t easy, especially when everyone was so lost and scared most of the time. She had to make sure everyone was organized and had something to do. She had to assign tasks and keep them busy. She had to keep them together. And if three of her friends disappeared, she had to find them.
But where to begin? If only Mason were here. He’d be able to give her advice.
Or Daniel. But she wouldn’t see him until later tonight. If the others weren’t back by then, maybe he would know where to look.
Depending on Daniel, however, was something she didn’t care for much. She didn’t want to owe him any favors. If only he were more reliable. If only he stayed with them instead of whatever rock he crawled back to every night. Why did he have to complicate things so much? What was wrong with her that he could only stand to be around her for a few hours each night?
“Stop it,” she snapped to herself. Daniel spent enough time in her thoughts. She didn’t need him now. She needed to concentrate.
It didn’t take long for everyone except Jack to assemble in the living room. Eve and Nathan, the rare brother-and-sister team who were so lucky to still have each other, sat on the couch, and Joy was in the rocking chair by the fireplace. Colin sat in his usual seat, the Game Boy powered on in his hands, a stack of burned out batteries on the floor beneath him.
There were so few of them. How could she expect them to fix this?
She didn’t sit down. Instead she stood in front of the darkened flat screen and addressed them all. “We’ve got to pair up,” she said. “I know it’s dangerous, but some of us have to search for Clementine and Michael, the others for Mason.”
“I agree,” Nathan said. “We know Clem and Mike are off at UBC. So two of us should head out that way. But does anyone have any idea where Mason might have gone?”
Silence.
Aries shook her head. She knew Mason went off on his own sometimes at night, but she had no idea where. She assumed it was personal and didn’t ask. He was always back before dawn; she often heard the creak of his door when he snuck back into his room.
“It’s going to be harder with him,” she finally said. “I hate to admit it, but I don’t even know where to start. Did he ever mention any places he liked to go?”
“You’d know over us,” Joy said. “He only talked to you. He pretty much ignored the rest of us.”
Aries looked over at Nathan and Eve, but they were both staring at her with blank expressions.
“He was cool when we used to pick up the food,” Nathan finally said. “Except when I saw him talking with Daniel about a week ago. We ran into him at the Safeway. They acted like they didn’t know each other very well, but afterward I saw them huddled over by the soup section. They seemed pretty heated up with each other. Kinda pissy.”
“Really?” Aries raised her eyebrow. Why hadn’t anyone mentioned this to her?
“Yeah, that’s pretty much it, though.”
“How can we know so little about him?” Aries finally said. “We’ve been living with him for a few months now. It’s so strange.”
Joy shrugged. “He told me he liked my stew one night,” she said. “That was the longest conversation I had with him.”
There was a pause while everyone tried to think about what to do next.
“We have no proof that he’s missing,” Colin said without looking up. Whatever game he was playing on the Game Boy had the most annoying theme music. “How do you know they all just didn’t find a new crowd? It’s not like we really knew any of them. Even Clementine and Michael. Maybe they eloped or went back to Seattle. Either way, no great loss.”
“They wouldn’t leave us,” Aries said. “Even you know that.”
“Then they’ll come back,” Colin said. “Or they won’t. I’m not risking my life to go after them.”
“Yeah, you don’t like risking your life for anything,” Nathan snapped. “You won’t go get food. You won’t help the people who do bring you food. You’ve always got an excuse. Half the time you don’t bother going out to take watch, or you get bored and leave your post. These people have done so much for you and you refuse to return the favor. Remind me again, Colin. Why do we keep you around here?”
The words worked. Colin finally looked up from his game, a darkness crossing over his face. “What the hell do you know about anything?” he said.
“He’s right,” Joy said. “You never pitch in or help.”
Aries bit her lip. These were the words she’d wanted to say for so long, but being the leader, she felt she couldn’t say them without stepping on toes. Yes, Colin had been completely useless from the very beginning. He argued about every suggestion and refused to do anything that involved helping the group. But she’d even stuck up for him at certain points, mostly because she’d known him for a long time and because Sara had loved him. Sara, her best friend, who’d died when the earthquakes started.
Besides, she’d never kick anyone out. No matter how annoying they were. It wasn’t in her nature. She would protect everyone. If they threw Colin out for being such a pain, then what would stop them from wanting Jack out next because he was useless? Who after that? No, she couldn’t allow it. This place, this group they’d all worked so hard to save, she couldn’t pick and choose. Everyone was welcome. Everyone would be treated well. Even if they weren’t equals.
It also didn’t help that Colin had straight-out threatened them all about a month ago, though only she knew it.
It had been the exact same argument. They’d been in discussion about who would go pick up the canned goods for the week. Not exactly a dangerous job considering the Baggers weren’t in the area. She and Mason had been watching, and as far as they could tell, the crazies were in the downtown core, building the fencing that would surround the Plaza of Nations. Back before the white vans showed up and started advertising sanctuary there. As usual, Colin refused to even consider the job, and he and Nathan got into a heated argument.
Colin had stormed off into his room and Aries gave him an hour to calm down before venturing up to try and talk some sense into him.
“We all have to pitch in,” she said. He’d been sitting on the bed, leafing through an outdated health magazine and giving no clues as to whether he was listening. “Everyone has to play his part; otherwise, it’s not fair to the others. Those are the rules.”
“That’s the thing,” Colin said. “You seem to think we’re all this one big, happy family. We’re not. I never agreed to your so-called rules and I don’t recall anyone asking my opinion. I’m not going to risk my life for people I don’t care about.”
“So why should they risk their lives for you?”
Colin tossed the magazine on the floor and rolled over on his side. “They want to toss me out? I’m sure even you know that’s a bad idea.”
“Is it?” she asked.
“Yeah, it is. Who knows who I might go join then? I don’t have the alliances you have. I might be willing to give up certain information if the price is right.”
“You’d give us up?”
“In a heartbeat. Now get out.”
She’d left the room, and when she came back downstairs, she told everyone that they should just let Colin be for now. She avoided the curious looks and refused to say anything more. If Mason found out he’d threatened them, he’d probably grab Colin and physically remove him. She couldn’t take that chance. She knew Colin better than anyone else. The threat was real. Si
nce then she’d been putting in double effort to try and keep everyone peaceful.
It grew harder each day.
Now it looked like Nathan was ready for war.
“I’ve really had it with you,” Nathan growled. “Maybe it’s time for you to leave.”
“There’s no need for that,” Aries said.
“Yes, there is.”
Colin slowly turned off the Game Boy. He got up off his chair and walked over to Nathan. For several extended seconds, the two stared each other down.
“It must suck being last,” Colin said. “Even with me here, you’re still last on her list.”
“What are you talking about?” Nathan said.
“I see the way you suck up to her, but she’d never take your word over Mason’s, either. With Jack a cripple and Mason gone, you must have been hoping if you kissed ass enough, she’d actually turn to you.”
The room had grown deathly quiet. Aries had taken the few steps toward them, but neither paid her any attention. Eve and Joy sat frozen on the couch with wide-eyed expressions.
“You don’t want to be saying those words,” Nathan said.
“Funny enough, I already did.”
“It’s not true.”
Colin snickered. “Sure it is.” He turned to Aries. “What do you think? Now that your boys are gone, are you going to actually listen to this wimp?”
Nathan threw the first punch. It hit Colin directly on the cheek, sending him backward and onto the couch. Eve scrambled out of the way.
Colin was up in a flash. He crashed into Nathan and both boys flew across the floor and into the flat-screen television. Metal crunched against the wall and the glass cracked as everything fell over with a loud bang.
The three girls stared in disbelief while the two wrestled on the ground. Finally Aries managed to unthaw and reached down, trying to separate them while avoiding any stray blows.
“Enough!” she screamed.
But the boys weren’t letting go. Finally, with Eve’s and Joy’s help, she managed to pull them apart.
“This is not helping anything,” Aries snapped. “Grow up. Both of you.”