“I tell you what, Sahalia,” Niko said. “If you take the kids to the Living Room and play with them, I will stop considering you a little kid. You’ll have full big-kid status and all the privileges of a big kid.”

“Oh, now I’m a big kid? You guys treat me like dirt but when you need something—”

“Sahalia!” Niko shouted. “I. Need. Your. Help!”

“Fine,” she spat. “But I want my vote counted.”

“And what’s your vote?” Niko asked.

“Let them in. Maybe they can tell us what the hell’s going on out there. Come on, guys,” she said, rounding up the little kids.

“Let them in! Let them in!” shouted Chloe through the ruckus of little kids’ voices.

“Hey, Sahalia,” I called as she herded the kids off. “We set up a sundae bar…”

“For breakfast?” she said, disapproving.

“Mr. Appleton, you’ll need to wait for a moment,” Niko said into the intercom. “We need to discuss this and take a vote.”

The man’s muffled face came close to the monitor.

“We understand that you need time to decide,” he said. “There’s a lot of very scary people out here. But you can trust Robbie and me. That’s why Mrs. Wooly told Robbie about where you were. She and Robbie are good friends.

“But now I am injured and we’re out of supplies. Food and water are very scarce out here. If you could just help us stock up, we can give you the only thing we really have to trade.”

“What’s that?” Niko asked.

“Information,” he said.

* * *

It was as heated a debate as we’d ever had. Niko and Jake made a good case for not letting them in.

Niko was really concerned that they had shot the O monster. They could use their gun (or guns) against us. We could end up their prisoners. They might take over and try to rule the Greenway.

“My job is to keep you safe,” Niko said, his arms crossed. “They have guns and they are adults. They can take care of themselves.”

“If they try to take over it’ll be a total downer,” Jake drawled. His eyes were glassy and strange. “They should just go on their way. We don’t want strangers in here, telling us what to do.”

Brayden shook Jake’s arm.

“Dude, are you insane?” Brayden said. “They can tell us what’s going on out there! We need to know! And we got tons of stuff. We trade stuff for information.”

“I agree with Brayden. We should be generous and share what we have. We need to know what’s going on outside. It’s worth the risk,” Josie said.

Alex was opposed to adding any variables into what was a stable environment.

What tipped it was the rules Brayden proposed.

And my vote.

* * *

Niko turned to all of us.

“I just want it on the record that I am against this. I am only doing it because I’ve been outvoted. I think it’s a bad idea.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Brayden said. “Do you want to tell them or should I?”

Niko turned, sighing and pressed his finger onto the Talk button.

“We’ll let you in,” said Niko into the intercom. “On the following conditions. One, you give us your guns for the duration of your stay. Two, you agree to leave tomorrow morning, no matter what. Three, you promise to take no more than we give you, and four, you swear you will abide by our rules.”

“Agreed,” said Mr. Appleton, without consulting Robbie. “Now how can we help you open up this door?” he asked.

“We can’t open it,” Niko answered. “We’ll throw you a ladder down from the roof.”

* * *

I was banished from the storeroom, as were Niko and Brayden.

“You, too, Josie,” Niko said.

“But we don’t even know what type I am!” she protested.

“Exactly,” said Niko.

Alex and Jake would be the ones to let the men in.

Jake and Alex got bundled up in layers of clothing as a preventative measure. Niko handed Jake the home security ladder and then Jake and Alex went up the metal staircase and worked on opening the hatch.

After the woman had been attacked, Niko had wanted the hatch to be really easy to open (though still airtight) in case we had another emergency.

I guess he’d made the hatch really darn easy because by the time we got back with baby wipes, two gallons of spring water, and fresh clothes for the two men, we could hear adult voices through the storeroom doors.

They sounded friendly.…

* * *

Josie, Niko, Brayden, and I waited impatiently outside the storeroom doors.

Eventually Alex came out holding two handguns. He held each by the grip, barrel facing down, held out away from his body. He held them the way you might hold a couple of dead rats. He also had a fanny pack filled with ammo looped around one shoulder.

“Guess what?” he said after he unwound a scarf from his face. “They have a dog! A nice one.”

“I’ll take the guns,” Niko said. He held out a two-gallon Ziploc bag and Alex placed the guns and ammo into it. Niko wrapped it up neatly and headed off toward the Accessories Department. To hide them, I guess.

I gave Alex the clothes and cleaning supplies to take back into the storeroom.

“What are they like?” I asked Alex.

He shrugged.

“They’re acting nice,” he said. Then he looked at me. “Wouldn’t you?”

Sahalia brought the kids over.

“I couldn’t keep them away any longer,” she said. “They’re all hopped up on the idiotic amounts of sugar you set out for them.”

They were pretty wired. They were buzzing around and laughing and shouting and pushing each other and bopping up and down.

Then the timbre of Mr. Appleton’s voice came through the doors and they stopped talking.

A grown-up’s voice. Grown-ups were among us.

Caroline and Henry were holding hands, and I saw Max and Ulysses grab on to each other.

The door swung open but it was just Alex again.

“They’re changing their clothes and tidying up,” he told us. “And guess what, you guys? They have a surprise!”

“What is it?” “What is it?” “What’s the surprise?” “Are they staying forever?” “Are they here to rescue us?” “Is it anyone we know?” came the questions.

Josie motioned for the kids to follow her and she took them just a little ways back from the door.

“The two men are here to trade with us,” she said. “We are going to give them food and water and let them spend the night here. In exchange, they are going to tell us how things are going outside.”

“But … but…,” stammered Henry. He started to bawl. “I want to go home! I want my mommy! I’m tired of waiting and waiting!”

Josie hugged him and picked him up.

“I know, Henry,” she said. “You and Caroline have been so patient. But maybe these guys can tell us how much longer we will have to wait. Come on, guys,” she said to the little kids. “You can each pick out a welcome gift for the outsiders.”

Off they went, chatting and chirping like a little flock of birds.

There was manly laughter from behind the doors. Meanwhile, for those of us on the other side, it felt like time had stood still.

“Aaaaaargh,” Niko said under his breath. “I hope this wasn’t a huge mistake.”

“It’ll be okay,” I said. “Mrs. Wooly wouldn’t have told them about us if she didn’t trust them.”

Niko sighed and ran his hands through his dark, straight hair.

“I will never forgive myself if something happens to one of us,” he said. “Never.”

“Lighten up, Scouty,” Brayden said. “It’ll be fine.”

Chloe came back with two Snickers bars. Max and Ulysses lugged one big bottle of Gatorade each. Caroline and Henry had picked out some greeting cards. Batiste had two new bibles.

“Well, the Welcome Wagon’s ready,” Josie said.

And finally the doors swung open.

Mr. Appleton was tall, maybe six feet tall, and dressed now in a pair of khakis, a plaid flannel shirt, and a gray pullover sweater. The kind with patches on the elbows. His eyes had red rims, and his nose also was red around the nostrils. Besides that he looked pale and shaky. He had salt-and-pepper hair that was cut short and stood up pretty much straight. It was dirty—there was only so much you could do with a gallon of water and baby wipes, but it probably looked a lot better than it had before.

He was limping and there was already some new blood seeping through the khakis.

We should have brought medical supplies, I thought to myself.

Robbie was a good foot shorter. He was Latino and had a deeply tanned face with crinkle marks around his eyes. Smile lines. His eyes and nose were also red but he was grinning at us. And he held in his arms an old dog.

It was wet, and though Robbie had an awkward grip on it, the dog seemed patient and resigned to the indignity of being held. The dog was of no particular breed. A grayish-brownish-colored mutt with a scrunched-up face, white around the muzzle. It had one of those smushed-in faces dogs sometimes have, with one bottom tooth that stuck out over its upper lip. Ugly, but definitely lovable.

The kids cheered and oohed and aahed at the dog.

The dog woofed and wagged its stumpy tail politely.

“Everyone,” Jake said. “This is Mr. Appleton and this is Robbie.”

Robbie held the dog up.

“And this here is Luna,” he said cheerfully.

Robbie let the dog down. She came forward to smell our feet. Luna had a length of twine as a leash.

We’d soon fix that. Luna would have every pet luxury a Greenway could provide.

The little kids pressed forward all at once, offering their gifts.

Mr. Appleton duly shook hands and tousled hair and accepted the offerings, then he seemed to sway and Robbie held out his arm to support him.