I stand and move into the front of the store, walking in turning circles, two guns cocked and drawn in front of me. Behind a bench near the window we came through, I find Mandy. She has a dart protruding from one eye. Her face is a maze of dark lines. Oily silver blood drips from her nose. Her helmet camera is smashed on the floor.
Topher, I think. Please don’t be dead. I’m not ready. I’m not ready to lose him, too.
I move along to the other side of the store, where Topher and Xander started their search. There are large open bins full of rotting and dried-out fruits and vegetables. Stacks of boxes and piles of empty buckets provide some cover. I edge behind a stack of croutons.
Silence. Looking around I take note of the details of this side of the store. The windows are out of sight. The swing doors to the back are at the other end. If Topher and Xander were here when the Nahx arrived, they might not have been seen. I slide along the floor, low and stooped, checking behind each bin and stack of boxes. I don’t dare call out. There might still be Nahx somewhere. I reach the back of the section, where large high refrigerators line the walls. They are full of milk cartons. One section of the cupboard is empty. I glance at it and move on, but something stops me. I take another look. There is a clear but grimy plastic curtain at the back of the fridge. A hidey-hole.
I carefully open the fridge. When I’ve gotten it open, I crouch down and strain to see through the plastic curtain. Behind it seems to be a small room, stacked high with boxes and boxes of milk. Or what used to be milk, I think. Probably yogurt by now.
I take one last look behind me, checking for Nahx. The last thing I want to do is lead them into Topher and Xander’s hiding place, if they’re in here. When I’m satisfied that no one is watching, I tuck away my guns and crawl into the cupboard and through the plastic curtain, easing the door closed behind me.
The room is very dark. I take a moment for my eyes to adjust. I can’t see any movement, but there are half a dozen places to hide. Would a Nahx hide in here? I wonder. I doubt it.
“Topher?” I finally whisper.
“Raven?” It’s the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard.
I find them behind a stack of whipping cream.
Xander is curled up in a corner, a pistol propped on each knee. Topher is wedged in beside him, with his crossbow loaded.
“Hide or run, huh?” he says.
I’ve never wanted to hug two boys more. Impulsively, I grab Topher and kiss him on the top of the head. Xander leans his head over obligingly, and I plant one on him, too.
“Did you have a gun?” I say, eyeing Topher’s crossbow. He shakes his head. I dig Sawyer’s pistol out and hand it to him.
“Mandy and Sawyer?” Topher says, tucking the pistol into his waistband.
“Dead,” I say. Topher hangs his head between his legs and sighs heavily. Xander just looks stunned. He turns and looks at the wall.
“Are the transports gone?” Topher says, looking up.
“The ones out the front are, but there was one in the back, too, and a bunch of Nahx guarding the back door.”
I look at the two boys, taking in the terror and hopelessness in their faces. What are we doing here? This scouting foray was all Liam’s idea. By rights he should be dead under a counter with a dart in his eye. He should be lying in a pile of broken pickle jars.
“I’m going to murder Liam when we get back,” Xander says.
“Yes, me too.” I say, and don’t bother reminding him Topher and I were the ones who cooked up the suicidal plan to come back to Calgary. “Where’s the other door to this room?”
Topher points over to a wall, where in the dark I can just make out the outline of a door. It has a small window, too.
“Have you checked?”
“Not recently,” Topher says. “Last time there were still four Nahx wandering around in there.”
As quietly as I can, I get up and move to the door. The round window is so high that I have to overturn a plastic crate and stand on top to see out. I poke my eyes above for a microsecond, but don’t see any movement in the storeroom on the other side.
“It’s clear,” I say.
“Are you sure?” Topher says.
I’m not sure. And I indicate this with a casual shrug that seems out of keeping with the deadly game we’re playing.
“How long can we stay in here, do you think?” Xander asks.
“Until they find the door,” Topher says.
I step down from the crate and rejoin the boys on the floor behind the whipping cream.
“You can get out the front,” I say.
“What if they hear or see? They’re only about a hundred feet away.”
“They’re going to be distracted.”
Topher grabs my wrist. “No! No way! We can wait them out.”
“I don’t think so.” I pull my wrist away. “They are searching the area. They are settling in. I’m sure they know very well that we are a recon group. They’re waiting for the rest to arrive.” Topher starts to protest, but I stop him. “Which they will,” I continue, “if we don’t get back with word. That was the arrangement, remember? The others come through after an hour. We’ve been here for forty minutes already. You have to get back to the tunnel before more people walk into a trap.”
Topher’s face hardens. “Raven, no. You can get back to the tunnel. Get past them somehow.”
He’s grasping for some more acceptable outcome than the one Sawyer gave to me. An extra twenty minutes of my life seems like a lot to die for. But I guess if that left me to help Xander and Topher get away, it was worth it.
“I’m not letting you go,” Topher says.
“I’ll go,” Xander says.
“No!” Topher and I say in unison.
“No, it’s okay,” Xander says. “I don’t have to go back out through the storeroom. If I go back out into the store through the milk and get to the front exit, I can make enough racket to draw them forward from the back room. I can outrun them if I get out into the parking lot and stay low. They won’t get me. You can get out the back. Meet up at the tunnel. Then we all bug out of here.”
Topher and I are silent for a moment.
“That’s a terrible plan,” Topher says.
“It’s better than her plan.”
“We haven’t checked the door,” I point out. “Maybe this door doesn’t open from the inside.”
Topher looks daggers. He gets up and steps over to the door, trying the handle. It turns and clicks, surprisingly loud. We all cringe at the noise. Topher looks through the round window and sighs.
“Nothing,” he says. “They might not even still be at the back. How do we know the last transport hasn’t taken off?”
“We don’t,” I say. “Listen, out this door and down the other end of the storeroom is a door to the main store. We can slip out of here without being heard. There’s a chance we can all make it to that door, out into the store, and through the front window without them knowing about it. We just need to be quiet. They probably don’t even know we’re here. We can all leave together.”
“I prefer that, I have to admit,” Xander says.
Topher thinks for a moment. “Okay, better plan. We stick together. Everyone ready?”