5

Tyler snuck onto the bus to grab his backpack, then ducked off and around to the side of the bus where Mr. Dwyer couldn’t see.

Tyler pulled on his sunglasses. Julia used her own glasses as eye protection.

Before Tyler put the covering over his face, he shook his inhaler to take one preventative puff. He removed the cap and exhaled all of his breath. Whoosh! Then he inhaled, held his breath to the count of ten, and exhaled.

He and Julia wetted down their dress shirts with a small amount of water, then put on the makeshift masks so their faces were completely covered. The wet clothes felt good in the dry, dusty heat.

“How do I look?” Julia asked teasingly. Her entire face was covered in her pale blue dress shirt, so she was left wearing her skirt and a tank top. Tyler could only make out her eyes from behind the clear lenses of her glasses.

“Awesome,” Tyler couldn’t help saying.

“Get back as soon as possible without overexerting yourselves. Just walk at a decent pace,” Ethan instructed. “You don’t want to get heatstroke.”

“We’ll be careful,” Julia promised.

José and Kevin were the lookouts, making sure Mr. Dwyer’s view was blocked. Daniela and Sha’relle got back in the bus and asked Mr. Dwyer more questions about dust storms. They stood behind his seat so he would have his back to the direction the L.J. rescue party had gone. It wasn’t difficult to get Mr. Dwyer talking. In physics class the students liked to ask questions to get Mr. Dwyer going off on tangents, keeping him from giving his weekly pop quizzes.

Tyler and Julia set off at a brisk pace, following the highway like L.J. had. They walked in silence, about a foot apart from each other. Their shoes kicked up dust.

“Good thing we’re covered,” Julia said. “Especially you, Freckles.” She nudged Tyler’s pale arm. Julia’s dark skin made her less susceptible to sunburn. By her tone of voice, Tyler could tell she was smiling. That made the heat bearable.

Maybe he should ask Julia to the dance right now. If he did ask her now, though, she might think he was opportunistic—that he’d only volunteered to go on the rescue mission so that he could be alone with her. And okay, that was kind of true. But he also just liked being around her. He should at least try to make conversation.

“I wonder how far he got,” Tyler said.

“Well, he’s been out of sight for a while.” Julia glanced at Tyler. Her voice sounded off. She was nervous. “Guess we’ll find out when we catch up to him.”

Tyler looked back. The sky behind the bus kept turning darker, with the dust storm growing closer every moment. Tyler picked up his pace and Julia sped up to match his stride. He tried to think of another conversation topic to distract her.

“My dad said the drought this year is the worst one in a long time.” He cringed. Why did he say that? He bit his lips to prevent any other stupid comments from escaping.

“Yeah,” she said.

“We’re going to make it, you know,” Tyler continued. “We’re going to be okay.”

She didn’t answer for a few moments. Then she said, “I know.” They kept walking for a while before she asked, “Do you think we’ll run into coyotes?”

“They’ve probably found their own shelter already. Animals can sense things. When we had Daisy, she sometimes whimpered before the tornado sirens went off.”

“Do you still have her?”

“No. She had to be put down last year. Old age.”

“I’m sorry.” Julia touched his forearm.

“Thanks,” Tyler said. “My dad won’t let me get another dog right now.” He didn’t want to get into how his parents had separated about eight months ago and could barely stand to look at each other anymore, let alone have a civilized conversation. Tyler realized that it was unlikely they’d be getting back together, but at this point he would be happy if they could at least stop bickering in front of him.

Julia seemed to notice his sudden change in mood and asked him another question about Daisy. Tyler told her stories about his family dog for nearly a half hour. They passed a few acacia trees. They weren’t large enough to provide shade if he and Julia needed it.

A little farther ahead, among the tiny buckthorn bushes along the side of the road, a large boulder loomed along the highway. It stood about a foot shorter than Tyler—and he thought he saw movement near it.

“It looks like there’s something behind that boulder.” He pointed at a rounded figure—someone crouching down.

“What if it’s a coyote?” Julia whispered and stopped.

“It’s probably not. And coyotes don’t usually attack people. Come on.”

When they came around the corner, a sliver of shade leaned away from the boulder. L.J. was crouched in that shade, wedging himself inside the crevice between the boulder and the ground, hiding from the sun.

“What are you doing?” Tyler asked.

L.J. panted and clutched his right ankle as if he was in pain. “I twisted my ankle.”

“You shouldn’t have run in those dress shoes,” Tyler snapped. “You need to think more before just taking off like that. You could have gotten yourself killed—and us. We had to come save you!”

“I know, I know. Can you please spare me the lecture and help me up?”

“Um, we just came all this way to get you, so . . . you’re welcome,” Tyler said, crossing his arms.

L.J. rubbed his sore ankle and then looked up. “Thanks,” he mumbled finally. “Thank you for coming to find me.”

Tyler exhaled. “No problem.”

“We need to get back,” Julia said. “Mr. Dwyer doesn’t know we left to find you. Here.” She held her hand out to L.J. “I’ll help you up. Put your arm around my shoulder.”

L.J. pushed himself up, one hand using the boulder, the other hand grasping Julia’s hand.

Tyler went over to L.J.’s other side, so L.J. could put an arm around each of them. Tyler didn’t want Julia to think he was a jerk.

“Try and rest more of your weight on me,” Tyler said, trying not to feel jealous that L.J. had an arm wrapped around Julia. “Come on. Mr. Dwyer has probably figured out we’re gone by now, so we need to pick up the pace.”

“I hope we’re not in too much trouble,” Julia said.

L.J. was finally in a standing position. “Okay, I’m ready. Let’s go.”

***

Hiking back seemed to take longer than the walk to the rock, now that they had been out in the hot sun. Tyler really wanted to drink the water left in his bottle, but he knew he might need it later on. So he tried not to think about his thirst. He also wanted to get back because he had already screwed things up for the team once and didn’t want to get in more trouble for disobeying their coach. He hoped Mr. Dwyer would understand once they brought L.J. back safe.

Tyler got a sick feeling as they moved toward the dust clouds, but he knew trying to run away from the storm would be a worse idea. Taking shelter on the bus was their best chance.

Fifteen minutes later, they returned to the bus. L.J. was limping, with an arm still around each of their shoulders. Brown dirt and dust layered over the protective clothes covering Tyler and Julia’s faces. Twenty-five miles per hour. That was the average speed Ethan said the storm would travel, but this wind felt faster than that.

José and Kevin were screwing around, running outside the bus and kicking up sand. Everyone else was inside. Ethan, Daniela, and Sha’relle ran out to greet them. Mr. Dwyer came down the steps with a disapproving look on his face.

“As the adult responsible for your safety, I expect you to listen to me when I give you instructions.” He gripped his hat in his hands. He was mostly looking at L.J., but then he glanced at Julia and Tyler briefly.

“Sorry,” Julia and Tyler said together.

“You were right,” L.J. said, limping to a stop in front of Mr. Dwyer. “I’m sorry.”

“L.J. twisted his ankle.” Julia’s voice became clearer as she pulled her mask away from her face.

“Are you sure he wasn’t faking just so he could hold onto you?” Ethan teased.

Tyler clenched his fists. Why couldn’t L.J. like Daniela or Sha’relle or anyone else?

L.J. whispered something.

“What?” Ethan asked.

“He said, ‘Water,’” Julia replied.

“Oh, you’re dehydrated? Way to go!” Daniela said sarcastically. “Guess you didn’t think about that before you took off.”

L.J.’s hair was caked in sweat and dirt. “I’m sorry,” he croaked. He sounded like he meant it.

“You’re not going to drink all the water we have left,” Daniela said.

“Leave him alone,” Ethan said. “We’ll ration the water.”

“Fine.” Tyler handed over his water bottle to L.J., who gulped the last of what was there.

“Okay now. Let’s not start fighting,” Mr. Dwyer said. “We need to move past this. No more runaways. We stay together as a team, deal?”

The students standing outside nodded, some of them looking more comfortable with this plan than others.

“When is the replacement bus going to get here?” Daniela asked. “I have to go to the bathroom.”

“They probably aren’t letting any buses or emergency vehicles drive in the storm. It’s not safe,” Mr. Dwyer said.

“Just go outside,” José replied to Daniela.

“Yeah, right. Easy for you to say,” she snapped.

The clouds were clearly moving closer. The dust storm was less than a football field away.

“At least our bus will cool down once the clouds block the sun,” José said.

“Way to find the silver lining. No pun intended.” Kevin snorted to himself, and José chuckled. They seemed like the only two people still in a good mood about this situation.

“Everyone back on the bus—let’s go,” Mr. Dwyer said. “The dust storm will be on top of us any minute.”