Emmy Laybourne - Sky on Fire

‘Not that we’ve found,’ I said.

I could lead them to the aisle with the lights but they’d see that all the Christmas lights and the lanterns were missing. Aargh.

‘I thought I saw a generator,’ Jake said.

‘No,’ I answered. ‘We don’t have any.’

‘Yeah, near the leaf blowers and stuff.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘Ladies, ladies, figure it out,’ Payton said. ‘We’re doing physical conditioning in thirty and I want as much light as possible. Then we do a total inventory on this place. I want it listed down to the tampon.’

‘Sir, yes, sir!’ shouted Jake.

‘Sir, yes, sir!’ I echoed, late and sounding lame.

‘Dismissed, doolies,’ Payton said with a fond chuckle.

Jake led me toward Home Improvement.

‘Why did you say we have a generator?’ I hissed as soon as we were out of earshot. ‘They’re gonna be disappointed!’

‘I was just trying to get you alone for a second,’ he answered. ‘Look, we’re going to have to kill them… It’s the only way to keep Astrid and the kids safe.’

‘We can’t kill five guys, Jake,’ I protested.

‘We just need to get that semiautomatic from the black kid.’

‘I don’t want to kill five guys, Jake! You don’t know what it’s like!’

Jake gave me a hard look.

‘They killed Brayden. My best friend. They killed him! You think we should just forget about that?’ Jake snapped.

‘Jake, you’re not thinking clearly,’ I protested.

‘They killed him and I’m going to make them pay.’

‘It won’t make you feel better,’ I said.

‘No, I know that. Nothing will ever make me feel better,’ he said. He shrugged his shoulders. ‘But we have to keep Astrid safe. So we’re going to kill those cadets.’

‘No, Jake,’ I said. ‘We just need to get our hands on Anna. We get her as a hostage, maybe we can make them leave!’

Jake looked at me, chewing the side of his mouth.

‘All right. Shoot. Yeah, that’s a better plan,’ he said.

‘Hey!’ Zarember came at a run. ‘Don’t make Payton wait! That’s the first thing you need to know!’

In the space where the bus had sat, Payton had had his cadets make a little gym.

They had brought over the weights from the Sports aisle, and they had laid down a bunch of rubber mats – the kind you lock together.

Jake had snatched some of the battery-powered lanterns from the House.

We should have just told them about it at the beginning. It was like a time bomb – when Payton found that House hidden away, he was going to lose it.

Jake set up the lanterns and I brought some car batteries and clip-on desk lamps in their boxes. I told Payton I thought there must be a way to jerry-rig them to the car batteries.

‘Now there’s some resourcefulness. Look at that!’ Payton commanded the cadets.

‘Thank you, sir!’ I yelled.

Every time I did that I felt like a phony and a fraud.

Because of my arm, my ‘gimpy arm’ as Payton put it, I was excused from physical conditioning.

I worked on getting the lights set up while Payton put Jake and the others through a gruelling routine of weight lifting and cardio.

‘That’s it, Simonsen!’ he hollered. ‘Get under it. Come on, Zarember, push, push, push!’

Jake actually seemed to be enjoying it.

I saw Anna drifting toward the Girls’ clothing section.

I put the light down.

I would follow her into the aisle and I would grab her.

The thought made me sick to my stomach.

But to save Astrid?

I could do it.

‘Where you going?’ Payton demanded.

‘No-nowhere,’ I stammered.

Payton crossed to me in three strides. He grabbed me by the shirtfront.

‘Anna’s off-limits, you hear me? No one touches her. No one thinks about her. Got that?’ He got up so close that spit from his mouth sprayed me in the face. His teeth were yellow and his breath minty fresh.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Yes, sir!’

‘I tell you what, you have so much time on your hands, why don’t you make us some lunch?!’

What is it about me that screams ‘cook’?

I went to the Food aisles, in the exact opposite direction of where Anna had headed.

What could I make these idiots? And what could I cook over a brass fire pit?

Soup, I decided. Chunky soup – the kind with those little hamburgers in it. Payton would like that.

We had some saltines, too.

I didn’t even hear her coming.

She touched me on the shoulder and I turned and Astrid was in my arms, kissing me hard, holding me to her.

‘Where are you hiding?’ I whispered when our kiss ended. ‘It’s not safe.’

Astrid pointed up.

‘I just… I had to give you these.’

She pressed three foil packs into my hand. The sleeping pills. The EZ-melt ones. The ones that had knocked Chloe out for a day and a half.

‘We used one on Luna and I thought…’

Of course. Sleeping pills.

‘It’s brilliant,’ I said. ‘Now go.’

She took my hand and led me to the next aisle and I saw the tile ajar in the ceiling.

I could see Caroline and Henry and Chloe peeking out. They looked tired and scared and grimy.

Caroline gave a little wave.

Astrid brought her face close to my ear and whispered, ‘Look, I want you to know that you’re – you’re the one for me. In case we die. I want you to know.’

And as lightly as a cat, she climbed back up the shelves and up into her nest in the ceiling.

I rushed into the next aisle.

I had to get the pills into something. And fast. But not the soup. It would be hot and, no, they might not all eat it.

Juice.

There it was.

That kind with the carrots and vegetables in it. Yes, yes, yes.

It was sweet, really sweet, but had veggies so if it tasted a little off…

I grabbed two large bottles and took them to the back of the aisle.

I hoped that if someone came looking for me, I’d have time to hide the pills.

I unscrewed the tops off the two bottles and started pressing the sleeping pills out of the packs. There were eight pills in each pack and I had three packs. Well, two pills were out of one of the packs but it was still a lot of pills.

My heart hammered in my chest as I popped the pills into the juice.

Twenty-two sleeping pills. Eleven in each bottle.

Twenty-two sleeping pills to fell five cadets and to save our lives.

IT’S HARD TO DESCRIBE how huge the operation at the airport was.

First, we went into a waiting area for all new arrivals. There were about 200 other people when we got there, and every 10 minutes or so, another busload would arrive, adding 5–20 people.

They had taken seats from the airport gates and put them in there. They weren’t bolted to the floor so they wobbled, but they’d basically made a big waiting area.

Everywhere there were signs: EVERYONE MUST WEAR A MASK AT ALL TIMES.

There were air masks piled on the tables. Some were used, some were new.

There weren’t any Army ones, like our two, available, but there was a different kind, like an Army-issue mask for civilians. I found one for me, and for Sahalia and Batiste. I put mine on and there was a distinct smell of some kind of fruit. I hated that smell but I couldn’t remember what fruit it was.

‘Ugh,’ Sahalia groaned. ‘Why do we need these? The damage has been done, for God’s sake.’

But we wore them. Everyone did. Because if you didn’t, an Army guy with a rifle would come over and shove one into your hands.

I think that they made us wear them for the sake of the type ABs. Obviously the type Os and As knew to keep their masks on.

But I had seen some ABs, paranoid and wild-eyed, on the bus. I guess some ABs were functional enough to get themselves to safety, but not rational enough to keep a mask on. With a mask on, those same crazy people looked sedate. Exhausted and worn-out, but sedate.