I studied Eve on the trash-littered bank of the stream that ran through a brush-choked gully. One glimpse of her wide, purple face and we’d get busted.
“Look down so I can’t see your face, then take a few steps.”
Eve did as I asked. She looked like a major appliance in a hoodie.
“Limp a little, like you’re old and have a bad knee.”
Eve took a few more steps, this time limping.
“That’s good,” I said. “It makes more sense that you’re hunched over like that if you’re old. Now remember, keep your hands in your pockets and don’t speak.” I looked her over one more time. “Are you ready?”
Eve looked around. “Where is Walmart?”
I pointed up out of the gully. “That way. Across a parking lot. But Eve, you have to remember to keep your head down.”
“I will.” She sounded impatient. I guess I couldn’t blame her—I’d said the same thing about ten times.
We climbed out of the gully, pushing through brush and branches, into the Walmart parking lot. As a big semitruck rumbled past, my heart pounded. Was it immediately obvious Eve wasn’t like the rest of us? I had gotten so used to the way she looked that she didn’t seem all that different to me. But what about someone who’d never laid eyes on her before?
We passed a mom-aged woman pushing a shopping cart toward her car. She didn’t even glance Eve’s way.
“So far, so good,” I said under my breath.
We passed more customers, some pushing carts, others carrying bags.
At the automatic doors, we were met by a whoosh of chilly air, then by an elderly woman greeter who looked Eve up and down, giving us a tight smile and no greeting. I veered off the main aisle between racks of clothes as soon as possible to get Eve out of sight. We wound past sweat suits, underwear, and pajamas to the jewelry section.
“Here we go.” I gestured at the wall. “Look at all those great earrings.” Except, I suddenly realized, you needed pierced ears to wear them. I looked around. “Here.” I led Eve down the wall. “These are clip-ons.”
Eve surveyed the cheap, glittery selection of gold and silver earrings. She pulled her hand out of her pocket and reached for a pair of loop earrings pinned on cardboard.
I quickly snatched down the earrings she was reaching for. “Hands in pockets, please.” I held the earrings out for her. “Do you like these?”
Eve studied the earrings from the depths of the hood, then turned back toward the display without a word.
I took down a pair with emerald-colored glass at the center. “These are nice. They’d go well with your complexion.” Like I knew what I was talking about. I just wanted to get out of there.
A low hiss came from Eve, rising in pitch like water boiling. It was hard to say whether she didn’t appreciate my help, or thought I was making fun of the way she looked. I put the earrings back, wishing Lorena and Persephone were here. Eve would probably take another girl’s advice on fashion before mine. Plus, I missed them. I missed bantering with them and having companions to help me navigate the tornado my life had become since that bus pulled through the heavily guarded gates of Sagan Middle School for High-Achieving and Obedient Kids.
Eve scanned the rows, studying each pair of earrings for an instant before moving to the next. I inhaled to ask if she was looking for something in particular, then thought better of it. The less she spoke, the better. I glanced around the store. Thankfully, no one was paying us any attention.
“There.” Eve’s neck was craned toward the top row.
“Which ones?” I touched a pair of dangly shields. “These?”
Eve shook her head.
I moved down the row, pausing with my finger on each pair until Eve nearly shouted, “Those.”
They were shaped like silver butterflies in flight. As I took them down, I couldn’t help smiling. “Perfect. Okay. Let’s go.” I headed for the registers.
Eve made no move to follow.
“Eve, come on.”
Eve turned in the other direction and raised her chin. “I want to see.”
“Another time. Please. We need to get going,” I said.
Eve headed in the opposite direction from the doors. I hurried after her. I could understand her wanting to look around since this could be her only chance to see the outside world, but it was too risky.
“Please turn around,” I whispered, trying not to attract attention. “Please, please.”
Eve stopped in front of a Star Wars t-shirt display, her shoulders rising and falling like she was out of breath. A Rey mannequin was modeling one of the shirts, which said “Pew Pew” on it. Eve studied the neatly folded shirts stacked on a table.
“Do you want a t-shirt?” I grabbed an XXXL from the table. “I’ll get you one, but you have to promise you’ll go, right now.”
Eve went on looking at the t-shirts. This was exactly what I’d been afraid would happen. Eve was not good at following directions.
Movement to our left caught my eye: a six- or seven-year-old girl and her father, heading our way.
“Eve, we have to go. Right now.”
“Star Wars!” The girl let go of her father’s hand and ran toward the display. “I love Star Wars.” She squeezed between me and Eve. She looked over her shoulder at her father. “Daddy, Star Wars.”
“Yes, I see,” the dad said.
The little girl looked up at Eve. “Do you like Star Wars?”
“Eve,” I warned, as Eve looked down at the girl.
The girl screamed. She backpedaled, stumbled into me, and fell as Eve hissed, the spikes on her skin visible through the hoodie.
Her father pushed past me. “Get away from her. What is that?” He got between Eve and his daughter, accidentally elbowing Eve. Lightning fast, Eve’s spiked hand lashed out. The father shouted in pain and surprise, clapping his hand over his forearm.
“Don’t touch me.” Eve’s hood had fallen off.
The guy swept his daughter up in his arms and backpedaled away from Eve, blood dribbling from a gash in his forearm. “Security! Help, we need security!” He ran into the main aisle, shouting.
“Let’s go.” I led the way through the racks, avoiding the main aisle.
A woman screamed.
“Eve, pull your hood up.”
“Stay where you are.” A security guard was jogging along the main aisle, moving to intercept us.
Breaking into a run, I changed course, heading toward the back of the store. Eve knocked clothes off racks as we dodged around them.
I plowed into a gray-haired woman, nearly knocking her over.
“Sorry,” I called as we kept running.
The security guard was sprinting down a wide main aisle, moving to cut us off. I changed directions as he cut into the racks toward us, yelling for us to stop. There was no way we were going to outrun him.
“Eve. Stop.” I stopped, raised my hands in the air.
Eve kept going. Her hood had fallen off again. She knocked a rack of sweaters over as three shrieking teenage girls scurried out of her way.
“Eve! Stop!” She ignored me. I took off after her. The security guard was nowhere in sight.
Eve crossed the open central lane into an aisle in the toy section.
I sprinted after her. “Eve! Stop!”
The security guard suddenly appeared at the end of the aisle, blocking Eve’s path.
Hissing like a thousand cobras, Eve charged right at him. The security guard spread his arms, ready to tackle her.
Eve hurled him into the shelves. Toys flew everywhere as the guard bounced off the shelves and dropped to the floor.
I stepped around the writhing security guard. What had I done? I should have known this would happen if I took Eve into a store. What had I been thinking? Now two people were injured. I had to get her out of the store before she hurt anyone else.
At the end of the aisle, I looked left, then right. I’d lost sight of Eve.
In the distance, I heard a shout. “Police. Don’t move.”
“Oh no. Eve!” I headed toward the voice.
Before I’d gone more than a few steps, Eve appeared around a corner, coming right toward me.
“Eve,” I cried out. “Stop. You have to stop.”
Three police officers came hurtling around the corner after her. Two were carrying tasers.
“On the floor,” a voice behind us barked.
I spun. More police, with tasers. We were surrounded. I’d seen videos of people being tased, jumping and jerking as electricity shot through them. I did not want to be tased.
“I’ll shred you. I’ll shred you all,” Eve howled. Her spikes had torn through her hoodie and dress in dozens of places.
“You.” A police officer with a goatee pointed at me. “Step away from it. Now.”
“She’s just a kid,” I said. “She’s upset.”
“Move away. Now,” the officer demanded, louder.
Eve spun, looking for a place to run. “I’ll slash you.”
“Take it,” the goateed officer shouted.
I stepped in front of Eve, hands raised. “Wait.”
Behind me, Eve shrieked in pain. She dropped to the floor, jerking. Four different wires ran from her to tasers held by the officers standing behind us.
“Stop,” I screamed. “Leave her alone.”
Booming shouts rose from the front of the store. Some of the officers turned to see what was happening.
Soldiers in camo fatigues, clutching automatic rifles, surged toward us from every direction at once.
“Drop your weapons,” a female soldier wearing a big earpiece said. It was Maria. I didn’t understand. I didn’t have a weapon, and neither did Eve. I looked around, trying to understand what I was supposed to do.
Then I realized: the soldiers weren’t pointing their rifles at us, they were pointing them at the police.
“Drop your weapons immediately,” Maria repeated.
Looking incredibly confused, the officer with the goatee set his taser on the floor and showed Maria his empty hands. The rest of the police officers followed.
“What is this?” the officer with the goatee said.
“We’re assuming control of this operation,” Maria answered. Her eyes went wide as she saw Eve. “Medic! Get the medic up here.”
Eve wasn’t moving. Not at all. It looked like she might not be breathing.