In the morning, Orlando led the way down remote county roads. He said it would be best to avoid the highways because of the all the dead cars that must be clogging them.
Walking in a loose cluster, the choir kept to the center of the quiet road. By the afternoon, they were surrounded by fields of corn and soy. When they got hungry, they stopped for lunch by a fence where some cows had gathered.
“You really don’t understand how much stuff runs on electricity until it’s all gone,” Luke said, looking at his dead watch again.
“What?” Maddie asked, stuffing a few slices of an orange into her mouth.
“Planes, cars, computers, phones, vending machines, refrigerators, watches,” Luke replied. “We kind of took it all for granted.”
“I never took planes for granted,” Maddie said. “Even if the lights turn back on, I’m never going on one of those again.”
“I mean, that was just bad luck. I flew so many times when aliens didn’t attack, and everything turned out fine.”
“Still,” Maddie said. “I think I’m done with the sky.”
“Let’s just get home,” Kayla said. “When . . . and if the power comes back, then we can try to get Maddie back on a plane.”
“Not gonna happen,” Maddie said.
The mood of the group seemed to pick up as they walked. Maybe it was because they hadn’t seen any evidence of the Visitors in over a day. Maybe they were just sick of silence and hushed tones. But people chatted more naturally and cheerfully now. Except Steph. Kayla watched her walk in silence. Whenever someone spoke to her, she smiled, nodded, and brushed them off.
Maddie and Luke were on round seventy-three of their game of two-person rock-paper-scissors when Kayla finally decided to speak with Steph. She actually tried to be decent to me last night, she thought. And I was kind of a jerk about it. The least I can do is make sure she’s okay.
“Hey,” she said when she’d caught up to where Steph was walking.
Steph eyed her. “What?”
“Sorry I was . . . short with you last night.”
“It’s fine.”
“Are you doing all right?” Kayla asked. “You seem anxious.”
Steph looked around before leaning in and whispering, “It’s just . . . what if the shelter isn’t there?”
“I thought you were sure about it.”
“I’m sure there was a plan to create this emergency shelter in the event of a disaster,” Steph said. “But what if they weren’t able to get it set up? What if the military went somewhere else?”
For a second, Kayla wanted to scold her. She wanted to remind Steph that earlier she’d had no trouble steamrolling over everyone else’s doubts. It was a little late to start second-guessing herself. Before the words popped out of her mouth, though, Kayla thought about how often her own mind had changed in the last couple of days. Steph’s worries weren’t a sign of weakness or bad planning—they were just the natural result of being human, being scared, and not wanting to put other people in danger. Even if those instincts were kicking in a little late for Steph, Kayla couldn’t blame her for them.
“Don’t worry about that,” she told Steph. “It won’t change the situation. All we can do now is see what we find once we get there.”
“Maybe we should turn back,” Steph suggested.
“Turning around is probably the worst thing we could do,” Kayla said firmly. “We’ve covered so much ground—if we give up now, it’ll be a waste. Look, worst-case scenario, we get to the spot where the shelter is supposed to be, and it’s not there.” It wasn’t exactly the worst-case scenario, but Kayla didn’t think bringing up alien abduction would be helpful. “Then we can turn back, or head for the next-closest town and see if the situation’s any better there. But giving up in the middle of the trip won’t do any good. We would just end up back at the airport, wondering if we could’ve made it to safety if we’d kept going.”
Steph didn’t look much more at ease, but she didn’t snap back at Kayla either.
“You had a good plan,” Kayla assured her. “You were right—we couldn’t just wait around in the airport. It’s easy to stress about what happens if the shelter isn’t there, but what if it is? Then you’re a hero.”
Steph finally looked her in the eye and gave her a small smile. “Thanks.”
Kayla nodded and slowed down, allowing Steph to walk ahead while Maddie and Luke caught up.
They continued walking all afternoon, over one hill, then the next. The sun was getting low in the sky, and people were starting to talk about making camp for the night.
“Just one more hill,” Ms. Pollack kept saying. “Let’s cover as much ground as we can.”
One of the girls ran to the top of the next hill and turned around excitedly. “It’s here!” she shouted, pointing toward the other side of the hill.
Though Kayla—and likely everyone else—was exhausted, she jogged to the top of the hill to see for herself. There it was on the edge of a cornfield. Dozens of green tents were assembled in a perfect grid, with forest green trucks and jeeps between some of them. There was no question—they were looking at a military camp.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Ms. Pollack said, running a hand over her face. “Let’s get down there!”
They all started running toward the tents. As they got closer, the students began to slow. Everyone at the front of the group stopped in a line.
As Kayla joined them at the bottom of the hill, her stomach dropped. There was something wrong with the camp. There were no soldiers there—no doctors or nurses either. Not even any townspeople. The place was totally deserted.