“But there are other kids in this group, too,” he whispered urgently to Katherine. “It’s not just kids from the list.”
Somehow that detail seemed very important, something to hold on to. Jonah didn’t feel like his brain was working very well at the moment, but he knew he wanted other kids around, nonsurvivors. Ordinary kids who had nothing to do with a strange plane or ghost stories or mysterious letters. It was like he believed those kids could protect him.
“Jonah, we never saw the complete list,” Katherine reminded him. “Angela said there were thirty-six babies on the plane. I think Mr. Hodge called out thirty-six names.”
Jonah stared at his sister in astonishment. He didn’t want his brain working properly now. He didn’t want it to reach the conclusion it was racing toward. He wanted to stay numb and ignorant and safe. Most of all, he wanted to stay safe.
Katherine spoke the words for him, shattering his hopes for ignorance.
“I don’t know, I can’t be sure, but I think…,” she began. Her eyes were huge with worry now. “I think, except for Daniella McCarthy, they have all the babies from the plane back together again. Right here. Right now. They have you.”
TWENTY-SIX
“Why?” Jonah whispered. But Jonah knew the answer. He didn’t even have to think about it.
Beware! They are coming back to get you.
The words from the letter echoed in his mind, leaving room for nothing else but panic.
“Chip!” he whispered in his friend’s ear. “If they say, ‘Great news! We got an offer to give out free airplane rides this morning’—don’t get on the plane! Do you hear me? Don’t get on any freaking plane!”
“Okay…,” Chip said, puzzled. He apparently hadn’t figured anything out, the way Katherine and Jonah had. He hadn’t been able to hear their conversation.
Jonah didn’t have time to fill him in. He turned back to Katherine.
“Katherine, you’ve got to tell them you’re not Daniella,” he said. “Maybe that will stop them. Maybe if they just realize she’s still in Michigan or wherever—”
“They’d just put me in the other group,” Katherine said. “I’m not leaving you and Chip.”
She crossed her arms, stubbornly, and jutted out her lower lip just like she always did anytime she fought with Jonah. But today Jonah loved her for it, loved her for it even as he wondered, What if something happens to me and Katherine both? That would kill Mom and Dad….
“Besides, you need me around to figure things out,” Katherine argued infuriatingly.
“You’re not the only one with a brain,” Jonah countered.
“I’m the only one whose brain isn’t traumatized,” Katherine said, looking at Chip, who just now seemed to be putting everything together. His face had gone pale, and he was mouthing the words, “Plane? Plane? Do you really think—?”
At the front of the group, still several steps up on the staircase, Mr. Hodge clapped his hands together.
“All right, group, let’s get started. We’re the lucky ones—we get to go outside first, while Carol’s group is sitting in a classroom,” he said.
“Does that mean we’ll get stuck in a classroom this afternoon?” someone asked. It was one of the kids with the skull sweatshirts.
Jonah missed Mr. Hodge’s answer, because he was thinking, Oh, please. An ordinary classroom. With some ordinary dull adult voice droning on, so the greatest danger is that I might fall asleep….
Jonah knew he was in greater danger than that. He could feel the adrenaline coursing through his system, his whole body on alert. But he didn’t know what he was supposed to do with all that adrenaline. He didn’t know exactly what the danger was. He didn’t really believe they were going to be herded onto an airplane.
But do they need an airplane to send us somewhere—sometime—else? What if it’s like what happened to Angela, where we take one step forward and suddenly we’re gone?
Katherine jabbed an elbow into his ribs. Jonah realized that he’d begun swinging his head from side to side, his arms tensed, and his fists ready, like someone looking for a fight.
“Don’t act so weird,” she whispered. “People are starting to stare.”
Jonah dropped his fists and forced himself to concentrate on what Mr. Hodge was saying.
“Before I go on, I need to introduce Gary Payne, another caseworker who will be assisting me with your group today,” he said. “Gary, come on up here.”
A younger man, dressed more casually in a sweatshirt and jeans, jogged up the stairs to stand by Mr. Hodge. He was barely taller than Mr. Hodge, but he was much bulkier. Jonah could see bulging muscles where Gary had pushed up his sweatshirt sleeves.
Muscles?
“Is that E?” Jonah leaned over and whispered urgently to Katherine and Chip.
Helplessly, they both shrugged. Who could tell?
“On the hike, I’ll lead the way, and Gary will bring up the rear, to make sure there aren’t any stragglers,” Mr. Hodge said, grinning to make it seem like a joke. Like, who would want to lag behind on such a beautiful day, on such a lovely hike?
Mr. Hodge began explaining the point of the hike, something about fitting into nature, finding one’s identity through connecting with one’s environment.
“For the first part of the hike, I want you to walk in complete silence, to really concentrate on what you’re seeing around you,” he said. “Then we’ll stop and chat about what we’ve discovered in that silence.”
We’re not allowed to talk? Jonah thought, his panic spiking again. Not to each other, not to the other kids?
“Let’s head for the middle of the pack,” Katherine whispered. “So Gary and Mr. Hodge can’t see us talking.”