The cops never showed up.

“I don’t understand,” Wes spat, trying to smother his panic with anger. “Why didn’t they come?”

The sun had risen a while ago, casting dusty rays of light over the whole store, and marking over four hours since Abel had called 9-1-1. But two more ‘busy line’ notifications and one disgruntled man who called them liars later, Abel was left clutching his dying phone with nothing to show for it.

“Okay, calm down,” Abel said. “Maybe that hostage situation got worse and they really can’t spare anyone. We don’t know how bad it’s gotten.”

“Can you try calling them again?” Evie asked, trying to hide the tears in her eyes.

“Not with my phone dying like this. You guys have battery?”

“Not really…” Wes said.

“Me neither,” Evie said.

“All right. Then we’ll have to figure this out on our own. We’ve made it this far, we can keep going until we’re safe.” Abel looked the other two in the eyes. “But I want you to know that you have to do everything I say. That includes staying here while I go look for food.”

“You can’t go out there alone,” Wes cried.

“Yes I can, and I’m going to. We’re not going to starve in here, and you need to watch out for Evie while I’m gone.”

“But what if—!”

“Shh,” Abel said, motioning at Evie with his head. “I’ll be fine. And I won’t be out for long, I promise. Now stay.”

Waiting tore Wes to shreds. Abel was out there alone, and Wes wanted nothing more than to be out there beside him, but he couldn’t just leave Evie. Instead, he huddled with her in the back of the shabby, cobwebby store for three agonizing hours. Abel checked in via text every ten minutes—for the first half-hour. Then Wes’s phone died.

“He’ll be fine,” Wes said, sliding the phone away. “He said he’d come back as soon as he found food.”

Evie curled against his side. “How will we know if something happens, though?”

“Nothing will happen,” Wes said.

Even though his voice was calm, his heart was pounding. If anything happened to Abel, it would just be him and Evie out here, alone. He knew he couldn’t protect her like Abel could. One wrong move, one flawed decision, and they could be dead.

The next several hours were the longest of Wes’s life. He tried to distract Evie by asking her about school, and friends, and whatever she did at the tree house. At first, Evie was despondent, but when she warmed up, she chattered nonstop about every excruciating detail in her life, from her irritating class projects to her friends’ middle-school drama. It gave Wes time to breathe, but after a while, he also wished he would go deaf.

When the doorway beeped, they both jumped.

“Wes? Evie?” Abel’s voice called.

They scrambled to their feet. Wes grabbed Evie’s hand, and they ran to the front door, where Abel was slinging his bursting backpack onto the floor. He hardly had time to re-enable the lock before they pounced on him.

“Are you okay?” Wes asked, instinctively checking Abel’s arm. “My phone died. I couldn’t respond.”

“Did you bring—? Ooh! You brought donuts!” Evie said, digging through the backpack.

“Yes, and some other stuff, but don’t go crazy,” Abel said. He turned to Wes. “It was hard to stay out of sight that whole time. I don’t think I can do it again successfully. If we want to be truly safe, we’ll have to leave.”

“The store?” Wes asked.

“Ideally, the city,” Abel said. “Those men may still hanging be around this neighborhood, waiting for us.”

Wes bit his lip. “Then let’s go tonight.”

“Shouldn’t we go back to the house?” Evie piped up from behind an aisle divider, where she was wriggling into the discarded pair of jeans Abel had found for her.

“No. That’s the first place they’d be waiting,” Abel said.

“But what if Mom’s there?”

Abel and Wes glanced at each other.

“Even if she was…” Abel said, “I don’t think she’d want us to go back. Not if they’re waiting.”

Wes cleared his throat. “I grabbed all the cash I could before we left. Enough to get us out on a train and find a place to stay when we get out.”

“Good. Eat, grab your bags, and we’ll go.”

***

Wes slumped against the train window. The glass was cool against his cheek. As the city ebbed into the distance, he watched the studded lights blink on the starship station tower. It was the tallest structure in the city. He stared at it every night from between the ramparts of his and Abel’s bedroom window. Every time a new ship docked, his heart leapt with the thought it might be Dad, even though he knew he shouldn’t get his hopes up.

So far, there’d been no word.

Wes sighed and turned back to the others. They faced each other over a mini table, Evie and Abel on one side, Wes slouched on the other. They’d gotten on the train without a problem. After trying the police once more without success, they decided it was just better to get as far away as possible. Mom had always said to remove themselves from danger first, and the longer they stayed, the more chances there were of getting caught.

So here they were. Wes and Abel had both yanked their hoods up while Evie tugged Wes’s ball cap low over her face and stuffed rolls of her old socks in the shoulders to beef up her frame. Then Wes and Evie purchased their tickets together and boarded early. Abel followed fifteen minutes later.

Even afterward, they didn’t feel safe. Every stranger who passed by, every peculiar shadow that crossed them, was a potential threat. As soon as Abel picked up that the other two were so jumpy, however, he assured them the security system used citizen number algorithms nowadays to prevent younger passengers from being seated with older strangers. Within moments, he got carried away and descended into a ramble of technical jargon.

Wes tuned him out. He’d never been much of a fan of all that stuff. If Abel wanted to depend on some miracle to get money for college so he could major in cybertech studies, he could. Wes only cared about video games. And Mom. With Abel working full-time, and Evie only being ten, Wes had been Mom’s main caretaker for the past year. And now she was gone.

Wes fought the dark feeling in the pit of his stomach and returned his gaze to the window. The starship station was out of sight.

Evie heaved a massive sigh. “I was looking forward to Leftovers tonight. It’s supposed to be the season finale.”

“I don’t even know why you like that show,” Abel muttered, focused on his phone, which was plugged into their booth’s charging port. “It’s all blood and gore.”

“Not all blood and gore,” Evie said. “There’s a lot of stuff about humanity after the apocalypse.”

“And carnivorous aliens eating their brains,” Abel said.

“But not just that.”

“It’s disgusting.”

“You’re just a wimp.”

“Ugh,” Abel said.

“There was an episode on a train, too,” Evie said.

“I remember that one,” Wes piped up. “Wasn’t that near the end of season two?”

“Uh-huh, where the train brakes snap and Yara and Jek have to find a way to stop it before it crashes into their base. And meanwhile, Jester has constructed a huge bomb on the tracks as part of their other plan to cut off the Raiders, and the train is barreling straight toward it.” Evie laughed. “That episode was awesome.”

Abel rolled his eyes. “That show is only still on air because they’re not following the comics anymore and fans have to watch to find out what happens.”

“So you know the comic storyline?” Evie asked, elbowing him.

“I know of it,” Abel said. “Now stop talking so much, I need to find a suitable place to stay before we get there. Most of the hotels I’ve looked at have drug raid records.”

“That’s fun,” Wes said.

“There’s bound to be a safe one somewhere,” Evie said. “Hey, when you’re done, could I play a game on your phone? Mine died again.”

“No, I need to use the charging port.”

“But I’m bored.”

“Find something else to do.”

Wes leaned against the window again and watched them. Mom’s disappearance was hitting Evie differently than him and Abel. Evie’s babbling still showed no signs of letting up. Abel distracted himself by taking care of the younger two and worrying about every last detail of their escape.

Wes was just left to hang on.

He had never been much for talking—not even with his siblings, outside the usual banter. Mom would listen to him, but that was sort of her job. Besides, he didn’t like bothering her too much when she was tired. Most of the time, after school, he would keep her company. She would sit back on the couch, too exhausted from simple things, like taking a shower, to do anything else for the rest of the day. One of her shaky hands would rest on his arm as he sat beside her and read her chapters from books in his literature class.

She usually fell asleep. He would keep reading out loud until her breaths had been long and slow for a good while, then he would stop and just sit still. He’d wait, listening. He wondered if she would still be there next year. If it weren’t for Dad’s military medical insurance, she might have gone months ago.

He would put his hand overtop hers and feel the shaking and wish he could just make it stop.

The train jolted over a bump on the tracks and startled Wes back to awareness. They were all still slouched in the train seats. Evie and Abel were talking about Evie’s Leftovers t-shirt now, the only piece of merchandise she actually owned. Her gaze went out the window on the sky, but her lips were fixed in a smile.

“Everybody at school thinks that shirt is so cool,” she said. “Except the teachers. I have to wear my purple sweater over it if I want to wear it out. We’re not supposed to wear stuff that promotes violence. It’s fiction! How can it promote violence?”

“It promotes me to violently vomit,” Abel said.

They both laughed.

Wes grinned. He closed his eyes and listened to his siblings joke together. They had a long way before they reached the next city. Soon, he would try and sleep, even if it was hard to feel safe with all the people around. But as long as he and Abel and Evie were together, they would be fine.

They had to be.