“It’s a temporary fix,” Orlando said to the group. “If it runs out of gas or turns off for some reason, it might not start again. You all saw how hard it was the first time. I don’t trust it to restart if it stops.”
“That means we should go now,” Ms. Pollack said. “How far will it get us?”
Orlando shrugged. “I filled the tank, but I couldn’t tell you what kind of mileage it’ll get, especially after the changes I made. No electricity means it’s eating more gas than it would normally. Also, headlights and turn signals don’t work. I doubt even the speedometer will function, but it’ll move, and that’s all we need right now.”
“Then let’s go!” the teacher said excitedly. “Everyone in the back.”
The choir quickly gathered their belongings and rushed to jump into the truck. There weren’t really seats, just two long benches, but there was enough space for everyone and their bags. Ms. Pollack said she’d drive first since Orlando had been up all night. Within a few minutes, they were on their way home.
They drove down county roads, guided by the map Orlando had grabbed from the store. Even out here in the middle of nowhere, they had to slow down occasionally to avoid abandoned vehicles
Kayla watched scenery go by: mostly cornfields and soy fields. Every now and then, they passed a cluster of trees.
More than an hour passed before they reached any sign of civilization—a small town, smaller even than McKenzie. As they drove into it, Kayla saw Orlando breathe a sigh of relief.
“This is my stop,” he said to her. Orlando gave Ms. Pollack directions, shouting from the back of the truck into the cab. He led them into a residential neighborhood where they stopped in front of a house. Orlando hopped over the side of the truck but made a point of telling Ms. Pollack to “keep it running.”
He was only about halfway up the sidewalk when the door popped open, and a man who looked remarkably like Orlando rushed out and hugged him. Orlando exchanged a few words with his brother before returning to the edge of the truck.
“Time for you all to head on without me.”
There was a chorus of “thank you” from the students.
Orlando looked over to Kayla, Steph, Luke, and Maddie. “It was great to meet you,” he said. “If you ever find yourselves in McKenzie again, let me know.”
“Thank you, Orlando!” Ms. Pollack shouted out the window.
Orlando gave one last wave. The truck started moving again. Kayla and the others waved to him until they rounded the corner and he was out of sight.
From there, they made their way back to the country roads toward home. Every hour, it felt like they were covering the same ground over and over again—the same fields, the same little packs of trees, the same hills.
Kayla poked her head out the side of the truck near the driver’s window. “How’s it going, Ms. Pollack?”
“It’s going all right, but we’re going to need gas soon. There’s no way we’ll make it home on what we’ve got, not even close.”
Some of the other students heard her, and a buzz of concerned murmurs spread through the truck.
“We’ll probably hit a gas station soon,” said Kayla in what she hoped was an upbeat voice.
“I doubt gas stations will be functioning,” Ms. Pollack replied.
“Maybe we can stop and syphon some from a car,” Kayla suggested.
“That’s probably a better bet,” her teacher agreed. “But this thing runs on diesel, which we can’t get from a car. We’ll stop at the next freighter truck we see.”
Steph moved from across the bench over to Kayla. “People are getting antsy. We need a distraction, like a game or something.”
Kayla shrugged. “We’re a choir. Didn’t you say something about singing in perfect pitch being our job?”
Steph nodded and laughed a little. “Right.” She stood by the cab of the truck and began singing the first few bars of one of their songs. It didn’t take long for the rest to join in. That seemed to calm everyone for the time being.
Kayla couldn’t focus on the song. She was concerned about the gas. So far they’d only passed cars, which were no use. She was afraid the engine would putter out at any moment. She knew they wouldn’t be able to get it started without Orlando.
They drove for a few more miles before Ms. Pollack shouted, “Something coming up!” Kayla squinted at the road ahead. Is that a road block? she wondered.
As Ms. Pollack slowed the truck and the obstacle came into focus, Kayla saw that two cars had been pushed onto the road so no one could drive past that point.
Kayla got a sinking feeling in her gut. Something about this felt wrong. But in she knew they couldn’t turn back. They hadn’t passed any gas stations yet, and they would likely run out of gas in the time it took to find a different route. The truck slowed, and Ms. Pollack pulled up to stop a few yards from the roadblock.
She got out, leaving the truck running. “Some of you come help me—let’s see if we can move these cars.”
As she watched their teacher and a few other students walk over to the cars, Kayla heard a rustling in the woods off to the right of where the truck was parked. Is it the Visitors? she thought nervously. Her heart sped up. “H-Hello?” she called out.
“Hello.” A man stepped out of the woods. At first Kayla felt relieved to see it wasn’t the Visitors, until she noticed the baseball bat hanging at his side. Several others came lurking out of the woods—a woman holding a knife, a guy gripping a pipe, another holding a wrench.
“Kids, stay in the truck!” Ms. Pollack shouted. She turned to the first man. “What do you want?”
He smiled, and Kayla felt a chill run down her spine. “Nice truck you got there. We could really use it.”
Ms. Pollack stood perfectly still. “We’re just trying to get home.”
The man let out a bark of laughter. “We’re all trying to get home. We owe you a thank you. You brought us this truck, and now we’re going to get home a lot faster.”
He looked from student to student, his smile growing bigger. “Why don’t y’all hop out? That truck’s ours now.”