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What she managed — fighting her thumping heart, as sure as Cameron that their minutes were numbered — felt more like a daydream. She had to think in a way that seemed “open” and hope he’d pick it up. He did, and she could feel it.
 

They won
’
t even look at us. They
’
ll follow the horses.
 

That much seemed true. She’d glanced back while Cameron had clawed his way to the bank, gasping for air. Hoof prints where the horses had stomped outside the creekbed were deep and plain. Piper doubted their pursers were watching the banks. They’d have their eyes forward, fixed on the prize. But knowing didn’t make her feel better, and the wetness at her back felt like the cool hand of coming death.
 

But if they hear us
… came his next thought.
 

We
’
re not making any noise.
 

I hear you fine,
said Cameron inside her head.
 

Piper doubted he’d ever been psychic either. Something had changed. They’d both heard the Andreus warriors before they spoke, and seen their thoughts. They’d wanted to turn from their normal trail not once but twice. As clear as it all was to Piper, it was hard to imagine that the warriors on their ATVs wouldn’t home in on the two buried people without considering the horses.
 

The engine noises would stop as if they’d meant to park in front of them all along. And then, probably without even seeing their murderers coming, Piper would feel the blade. Or maybe she’d hear Cameron die first, before her own heart was stopped.
 

I
’
ll run.
 

Don
’
t run.
 

We shouldn
’
t both die.
 

DON
’
T RUN.
 

The engines came closer.
Closer
. Now close enough to see, around the bend, if her face hadn’t been covered in filth. It was maddening to know the men and women of the Andreus Republic (whatever
that
was; she only had their own thoughts to explain it) could see their hiding place, if they’d left any clothing visible, or if the leaves and gunk weren’t as opaque as she’d thought.
 

Piper was suddenly sure that they’d been stupid to try this. They’d had minutes more than they’d thought. There had been more time to dig deeper, to cover themselves better. But they hadn’t, and now the warriors were surely staring right at them like an indulgent parent might stare at the obvious form of a child hiding under her covers.
 

What
’
s this big lump on my bed? There
’
s clearly not a child here.
 

What are those two big lumps under the leaves and dirt on the south side of the creekbed? Har-har, those two kids sure are cute, running from us, thinking they could hide under nature
’
s muck.
 

The engines came closer. A pulse then a break. Piper could hear at least three distinct sets of revs and releases. Three ATVs. That’s all they’d sent? It didn’t seem like enough. The rest must be on foot. Probably running behind or walking. Taking their time. Looking for what the ATV party might miss. But who could miss this? Two people-shaped humps in plain sight?
 

And oh shit, Piper hadn’t even considered the way they’d
disturbed
the muck. It wasn’t enough to be covered by leaves and grit. They’d had to rake the crap over themselves, upsetting the bank’s set-in appearance. This had been stupid, stupid, stupid. Even if they were adequately covered, followers would see their position as clearly as a freshly dug grave in an otherwise packed-down field.
 

I
’
ll run. They
’
ve seen us. Wait for them to chase me. They might not stop for you. Wait for them to go then climb up as planned. Go south. They might not have anyone that way, if you
’
re lucky.
 

But the engines were winding down. Decreasing in pitch.
 

They were past. They’d gone by without seeing or hearing them. Without sensing their thoughts, in the way they were sensing each other’s.
 

But they couldn’t surface even after the engines were sixty seconds distant, likely around the westerly bend in the ravine. They couldn’t even peek. Not yet. Piper stayed rigid, and felt Cameron’s mind intending the same. Because there might be more, perhaps a rear party … or maybe those on the ATVs had seen them after all, but wanted to return slowly, stealthy enough to take them by surprise.
 

Piper was suddenly sure that’s exactly what they were doing. Being cruel. Killing them quickly, in an obvious way, was too easy. Not as fun as piking heads.
 

A minute might have passed. Piper wasn’t sure. Then maybe another.
 

Three minutes. Five?
 

Time stretched. Her heartbeat: insanity. Piper had no idea how long they’d been here, silent, waiting for nothing. She couldn’t hear Cameron.

Cameron?
she thought/said.

Piper didn’t know if she was doing it right.
 

Maybe his throat had been silently slit by assailants.
 

She’d heard him until now. Something was missing. Wrong.
 

Cameron?

The engines seemed to have faded more quickly than they’d arrived. She tried to separate the sounds, but they were too far off to tell.
 

Maybe one had stopped.
 

The sound of water was hard to separate from other noises. Like approaching footsteps.
 

Cameron? Are you still there?
 

He wouldn’t have been able to scream if the man who’d stopped his ATV and crept over on foot had pierced his larynx. But still, she’d have heard him struggle. She’d have heard the strike as the machete bit his neck. If the man who’d stopped had killed Cameron by slitting his throat, surely he’d have thrashed before dying.
 

Yes. She’d have heard that. Piper was blind, not deaf. If there was someone leaning over her — which there might be; her skin prickled in anticipation — it would have been hard for him to kill Cameron without alerting her. She must be imagining all of this. Getting paranoid. Fussing for nothing, winding herself up, driving herself crazy.
 

It was all in her head. The ATVs had all gone on. They were safe.
 

Cameron was fine; he was staying still, same as her.

So why couldn’t she hear his mind anymore?

Because he
’
s dead, that
’
s why. Hard to hear a mind that
’
s no longer working. And it
’
ll be hard to hear anything at all when the man in front of you raises his blade again and
—
 

Something struck Piper’s shoulder.
 

Or grabbed. Something
grabbed
her shoulder.
 

A hand. A rough hand. The lone man who’d stayed behind, meaning to drag her out before killing her, to have some fun, now that they were alone.
 

Piper’s thoughts turned crimson. She wouldn’t scream.
She would fight.
She wouldn’t just take it. She would —
 

The filth shook away, and Piper found herself looking into a man’s hard stare.
 

Cameron
’
s
hard stare.
 

“I didn’t … I couldn’t … ” she stammered. Then: “I thought you were … ”
 

The ravine was empty. Piper was still mostly in her pocket of leaves and moss and mud. Cameron was in front of her, intermittently clutching his chest where the horse had kicked him, his face streaked with browns and yellows and grays.

They were alone.
 

He ticked his head up. This time, he had to speak aloud before she could hear him.
 

“Climb,” he said. “Hurry. Before they come back.”
 

Piper shook herself off, turned, and climbed the embankment, hearing the alteration in pitch as the distant engines changed direction.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

“We make a fire,” Terrence said.
 

“Oh, sure.” Heather shrugged.
 

“In the air shaft,” Terrence continued.
 

“Of course.”
 

Trevor sat back in his kitchen chair. He was trying to be cool, to act like this was all very
of course
and
what must be done will be done
. But deep down, he wasn’t feeling it. He was a fifteen-year-old kid, not yet legal to drive the caravan out of this post-apocalyptic hell. Though exceptions would probably be made. Alien invasion and all.
 

“Forgive me for asking,” said Heather, “but isn’t the air shaft where … oh, I don’t know … where our air comes from?”

“Astute.” Raj had already voiced his objections. Lila had argued with him for a while, which Trevor had found surprising. First of all, Raj wanted to go up top to scope the situation, and this was a way to do it. And second, Lila and Raj had been bickering a lot. Lila was, really, being kind of a bitch. She seemed to take sides against Raj just to do it. Trevor suspected she did it even when she kind of agreed with him.
 

She must be having her period. Except, wait. No, she wasn’t having that. But other things were surely afoot, making her crazier than usual. Raj wasn’t the only manifestation of Lila’s new attitudes. Trevor worried about her more than he wanted to.
 

“It’s the exhaust.” Terrence looked at Heather. “If we set the fire far enough in, it should draft out.“

“If,” Raj said.
 

Lila shook her head, looking at her mother and Raj. “What’s wrong with you two? I thought you wanted to go outside.”
 

“I do.” Heather said, although she’d surrendered much of her urgency over the last day. She wasn’t ranting about how the thumping might herald Meyer Dempsey’s return.
 

“This is the way,” Terrence said.
 

“Setting a fire. Maybe you don’t remember the fire we had before. The one that almost killed us? Oh, wait. No, of course you don’t. Because you were outside, having set it.”
 

“That was always controlled,” Terrence said. “We knew the smoke would vent, and that it wouldn’t burn long because the halon fire-suppression system would — ”

“Oh yes.” Heather touched her chin in mock thought. “That’s how you planned to burst in here. By tricking us into trying to save ourselves
after
almost burning us to death.”
 

“We’re fine, Mom,” said Lila, looking at Christopher.
 

“So you think this is a
good
idea?”
 

“I think it’s the only way.”
 

Raj said, “Because you have such an extensive engineering background?”

“I don’t need engineering to understand how fire works, Raj!”
 

“Look,” Vincent said. “We can’t go out the front door anymore. There are too many people up there. And I don’t care how much of Meyer’s artillery we take — I’m
not
willing to go up top just to shoot our way through the crowds. I’m not too big on killing people who don’t deserve it. But asking them nicely won’t keep people from shoving their way down here when they realize what’s under the house, and while I’m a hospitable guy, I don’t think any of us want to share with huddled masses that might number half a thousand.”
 

He looked around the group, waiting to see if anyone would argue. Nobody did. They’d discussed this at length. There was no way to pop the door and walk out, even in the dead of night. That had worked a few weeks ago and had worked to dispose of Morgan’s body and create a false “the bad guys left” trail. But it wouldn’t work now. Topside growth had been exponential. It was as if everyone was telling their friends, and their friends were telling friends. What they were all coming for or waiting on, Trevor didn’t understand. His father’s assertion that the place was his center in the world shouldn’t make it magical for anyone else, and it didn’t seem likely that the alien ships were going to keep returning on repeat. To Trevor, the hippies’ mood above was a kind of group psychosis, not unlike the emperor’s new clothes.
 

“So there’s only one option, and that’s to create a distraction,” Vincent continued. “But it’s kind of a Catch-22. We can’t go up there to create a distraction because that means going through the same door they need to be distracted from.”
 

Raj raised his hand. “I have a question.”
 

Reluctantly, seeming to know he was taking bait, Vincent said, “Yes?”

“Can anyone explain why a man paranoid enough to stockpile fucking
gas masks
and
plastic explosives,
” he pointed at the heavy door to the arsenal, “wouldn’t think to give his hidey hole a second entrance? Isn’t that the first rule in the paranoid rulebook: Never get backed into a corner?”