Emmy Laybourne - Sky on Fire

‘Now, get out. You all get out. We’re going to take Brayden to Denver now.’

‘What?’ The little kids were crying.

‘GET OUT!’ Payton shouted. He pushed Sahalia toward the door. ‘Even you, my little sweetmeat. You have to go, too, so Daddy Payton can get the job done.’

It happened so fast. He was kicking us out of the bus and we didn’t have a moment to think or anything.

‘Hey, we have to get Brayden to Denver and we can’t achieve our mission with a bunch of pukey, crying sissies loading us down!’

I didn’t even have my backpack but I looked back and saw Max grabbing all the backpacks he could find. Ulysses started grabbing stuff, too.

Payton reached over and snatched the backpacks away from Max.

Max let out a cry and the leader picked him up and threw him down the aisle, toward the door.

‘This stuff is ours now! You get me? All this bus and everything on it is ours! So you better get off if you don’t want to be ours, too!’

A short, greasy-looking cadet grabbed the water bottles away from Ulysses and kicked him down the stairs.

Sahalia was trying to get back to Brayden now and one of the cadets was holding her back. He sort of wrestled her out the door and down the steps.

‘Brayden! Brayden!’ she sobbed.

Niko was still in the driver’s seat. It seemed like he didn’t know which way to go or what to do.

‘Hey, driver boy,’ Payton called to Niko, nudging Josie’s hip with his boot. ‘You’d better come and get this comatose kid if you want him!’

I wonder whether Payton would have let Niko take Josie if he’d known she was a girl. But with all the layers, who could tell?

Niko got up and went down the aisle toward Josie.

Payton leaned down and sniffed Brayden. ‘Ooof, man, Brayden smells ripe. We’d better get to Denver right away to get him to a hospital!’

Niko picked up Josie and half carried, half dragged her off the bus.

I noticed he had his backpack on.

I noticed it because I was right behind him.

‘Brayden!’ Sahalia was screaming from outside. ‘I love you!’

That made the cadets laugh.

‘I love you, Brayden,’ they mimicked.

‘Come on, doolies! We gotta get this jack-up to Denver!’ Payton yelled.

A cadet dragged a crushed motorcycle out from behind the bus.

‘To Denver!’ They were cheering. ‘To Denver!’ But the way they said it, mocking and overexcited, you could tell they weren’t really going to Denver.

‘You can’t just take our bus!’ Batiste shrieked at two of the cadets.

‘Oh yeah?’ said a really tall, gangly cadet. He pointed his gun at Batiste. ‘Just watch.’

Now they were all on board and we were all off, besides Brayden.

The girl in the white coat slipped around the corner of the bus. She looked like she was afraid. She stepped up onto the first step of the bus.

‘Hey!’ I called to her. She looked at me, her big blue eyes open round and wide.

‘You don’t have to go with them. You can come with us,’ I said. I thought maybe she was like their captive. Or their slave or something.

She took a long look and then she stuck her middle finger up at me.

ISLEPT HARD AND, HALLELUJAH, I slept until I woke up of my own accord. Yes, I got to sleep in.

What woke me up was just the growl of my own stomach.

I went out into the Living Room and found the three kids building Lego walls while Astrid read on the couch. Breakfast had been eaten (cereal with soy milk, by the looks of it). Caroline was still in her PJs but looked better. Luna was even up and about.

Seeing me, Luna rose and came over to give my hand a hopeful sniff.

‘Good morning,’ Astrid said. ‘I made you coffee.’

‘Dean, when will they be here?’ Chloe complained. ‘I’m sick of waiting, already. All we do is wait and wait and wait—’

She was interrupted by a bang.

I turned to Astrid.

‘What on earth?’ she said blankly.

BANG . BANG .

It was coming from the front gate.

‘Chloe, you stay here and take care of Caroline and Henry,’ I ordered. She closed her mouth with a snap.

I grabbed a headlamp and Astrid took a flashlight, and together, we ran toward the front gate, winding our way through the dark, cold store.

Luna ran beside us, barking her head off.

BANG . BANG .

Someone was shooting at the gate.

‘Stand back,’ I told Astrid, throwing my arm out to block her. She stopped, close behind me, her body pressed against mine, and even in that moment of tension and fear, I was aware of her body.

We moved around to the side, out of the way of the gate.

‘What do you want?’ I yelled toward the closest bullet hole.

Luna was barking herself hoarse.

BANG . Another shot tore a tiny hole through the gate.

‘Luna, shut up!’ Astrid grabbed Luna’s collar and held her back.

‘Who are you and what do you want?’ I hollered.

‘Stop! Stop shooting,’ I heard from outside. Had to strain to hear the voice.

Then there was a thud and a rattle on the gate, as if something or someone had been smashed against it.

‘Hey, kid,’ came the voice. ‘It’s me, Scott Fisher.’

‘Why are you shooting our store? We already gave you food!’ I yelled.

‘That’s just it, man. This guy here—’

And again came the thudding sound and a dull rattle from beyond the plywood.

‘This guy here found me and he said I had to show him where I got the stuff, and if you don’t give us more, he’s going to kill me.’

I looked at Astrid, illuminated from below by her flashlight.

‘Shoot,’ I said.

‘We have to help him,’ Astrid pleaded.

‘I know,’ I said.

Scott Fisher gave a cry of pain.

‘Okay,’ I shouted. ‘Okay!’

‘He says you have to open the store!’

‘We’ll throw down food,’ I shouted.

‘He’s going to kill me if you don’t open the store!’

‘Look, we can’t open the store. But we’ll throw down lots of food and water, okay?’

There was the sound of an argument, but we couldn’t hear the words. I could hear the tone, though, and Scott’s voice went higher and higher. Fighting? Begging?

Another rattle on the gate and now his voice was desperate.

‘Watch out, kid! He’s gonna—’

Another BANG . BANG . Then it was quiet and it seemed clear that Scott Fisher was dead.

‘Gonna what?’ Astrid said in a quiet, scared voice.

‘I’m going to go look for weapons,’ I told her. ‘You stay here and hit the air horn if they try anything.’

Thank God we’d found those stupid headlamps.

I knew I looked like an idiot, but as I ran through the store, looking for weapons, I was glad I was wearing my flashlight on my head, and had my arms free.

If only Jake hadn’t taken the one gun. We’d had two, from the outsiders.

And when he left, Niko had taken one. That was good. I wanted Niko to have one.

But Jake had taken the other gun and then walked out on us. I begrudged him that gun.

I thought of potato guns. I didn’t know how to make them and I was pretty sure they took a long time to make.

There was some way to use aerosol cans to make blowtorches, but I didn’t know how to do it.

What could I do? I guess I could go and get a bunch of knives from the Kitchen aisles and throw them at the intruders. So lame. I wanted to wring my own neck for being so lame.

‘Dean?’ came Chloe’s voice. She must have heard me moving around in the aisles. ‘What’s happening out there?’

‘It’s nothing,’ I shouted. ‘You’re doing a good job, Chloe. Just keep the twins there. Just wait for us. Everything’s okay.’