“There’s an emergency shelter,” Steph was saying to everyone in the choir. “Run by the military. It’s twenty to thirty miles from here, but we can make it. It’s even in the same direction as home. And if anyone can get us the rest of the way home, it’s got to be the military. I think we should go.”
Kayla, Luke, and Maddie were standing at the edge of the crowd with Orlando behind them. A few others had stopped to listen too.
Kayla folded her arms and scowled at Steph. She realized it seemed silly—first Kayla wanted to go outside and Steph wanted to stay inside, and now Steph wanted to leave and Kayla wanted to stay put.
But that was just it: Kayla had gone outside. She’d experienced firsthand how dangerous it could be. Her instincts told her it was safer for everyone to remain at the airport. Most of them had contacted their families before the power had gone out, so this is where all their families thought they would be.
“Where’d you hear this?” Ms. Pollack asked.
“From some of the people here who are actually from McKenzie. Apparently there’s an official military base about a hundred miles away—”
“Yeah, Fort Janson,” Orlando said loudly enough for everyone to hear.
“Right,” Steph said, nodding at Orlando. “And the military also set aside a site for an emergency shelter near McKenzie, in case of something like this.” She paused. “Well, maybe not this exactly, but you know what I mean. The fort’s probably going to send people to staff the shelter site and take care of anyone who needs help. So,” she concluded, turning back to Ms. Pollack, “we should go there.”
A man from the small crowd standing with them snorted. “I served in the National Guard and I can tell you, the folks at Fort Janson aren’t gonna be bothering to staff that shelter site—they didn’t set it up after the flood of ’08.”
Several others nodded. Steph glared at them. The man walked away, and the rest of the crowd followed until it was just the choir members left.
“Say we do decide to head for this military shelter,” Luke spoke up. “How are we gonna find it?”
“I heard that if we follow the highway north, through McKenzie, we should run right into the shelter.”
“Hang on,” Kayla asked. “What happened to ‘Everyone should stay inside, and you’re a grandstanding idiot if you want to try something else’?”
“You said it yourself—we need to do something,” Steph said. “Getting the food out of the planes was putting a bandage on a broken limb. We’re going to run out again, and there won’t be anything to go get next time.” She sniffed. “You’re not the only one with good ideas.”
Ms. Pollack stood up. “Well, we’re not splitting up. We’ll put it to a vote. The majority wins. Who wants to stay in the airport?”
Kayla’s hand shot up. Ms. Pollack waved her finger in the air as she counted. “Nine,” she said.
Kayla felt her heart sink. There were nineteen students in their choir. That’s when she noticed that Maddie’s hand wasn’t raised.
“What?” Maddie said quietly. “We can’t stay here. She’s right.”
“Who wants to go for the military shelter?” Once again, she counted. “Ten. We go for the shelter,” the teacher announced. “Gather your things and pack as much food as you can. We’ll leave first thing tomorrow morning.”
She walked up to Steph, and Kayla heard her say, “Take me to the people who told you about this.” They left with Steph leading the way.
The choir kids separated into groups, murmuring to one another. Kayla, Maddie, and Luke settled into some chairs nearby.
“I can’t believe you sided with Steph,” Kayla said to Maddie.
“I didn’t side with Steph,” she said defensively. “I sided with leaving the airport. We are going to run out of food again. It’s just a matter of time, and unless you’ve got another bright idea that you’re not telling us, leaving is the smart decision.”
Kayla looked down at the carpet. “I don’t want to go outside again. When that ship flew over us, I just . . .” She couldn’t bring herself to finish the thought. “I don’t want to go outside again,” she repeated in a mumble.
She wasn’t looking at them, but she knew Luke and Maddie were sharing a glance.
“Hey,” Maddie said. “We know you’re scared. We’re scared too. Everyone is.”
“But we need to do whatever it takes to stay safe and get home,” Luke added.
“We have everything we need here. What if the power comes back tomorrow?”
“I think we’re past that,” Luke said. “It sounds like no one knows when it will come back—we don’t even know if it ever will come back. We have to hope for the best but prepare for the worst.”
Before Kayla could come up with a response, Orlando walked over to them. “Think I might be able to tag along with you guys?” said he asked. “My brother lives a few towns over—that shelter site is on the way actually.”
“We’ll ask Ms. Pollack,” Maddie said. “I can’t imagine she’d say no. Having a mechanic around who knows the area can’t be a bad thing. We are a choir, though. How’s your singing voice?”
Orlando chuckled. “Bad.”
“We’ll work on that. Walk with me, Orlando. I’ll teach you how to hit a high C.”
Luke looked at his watch. It had stopped with all the other electronics, but Kayla noticed that force of habit made him look at it every so often. “We should probably start gathering supplies. I’ll see what they’re willing to give out for food.” He walked off toward the food court.
Kayla sat in a chair, sulking. The thought of having to go outside again was making her more nervous by the minute. Maddie was right—they would eventually run out of food again. And the longer the power stayed out, the less likely it seemed that it was going to turn back on anytime soon, especially if the Visitors were still flying around outside. Leaving the airport was the smart plan, but Kayla still didn’t like it. Those things were still flying around outside.
And she hated that Steph had been the one to come up with this plan.
They’d been in school together for as long as Kayla could remember, and they’d never gotten along. Things only got worse when they both became interested in choir in the ninth grade. By the time they were juniors, it seemed as if they were competitors in everything. They were both sopranos, so naturally they were both constantly trying to prove who could hit the higher note. Whenever there were tryouts for a solo, they both went after it. And when Ms. Pollack asked for someone to hand out sheet music and one of them volunteered, the other had to find a way to one-up her. Kayla didn’t know if their rivalry would ever go away.