“Believe me, I swear to God above, this is the best place for Craig. This is the only place he has a chance.”

“Great,” said Niko. His hands were in fists.

Brayden came back after a while with smelling salts. A little bottle from the Pharmacy. I’d never seen them before.

Niko expertly uncapped the bottle and held it a hand’s length away from Mr. Appleton’s nose. He wafted the fumes toward him.

Mr. Appleton recoiled. He was super-groggy.

“My gun,” he said, and he grabbed for Niko’s shirt, then he groaned, a long, bull-like sound, and he fell back to sleep.

* * *

“He must have overexerted himself,” Niko said on the way back to the Kitchen.

“He’s sick,” I said.

“Dude, his leg is rotting off,” Brayden said, always one with words.

“I don’t know,” I said. “He almost seemed stoned to me. Maybe he overdid it on pain pills.”

“That’s possible,” Niko said. “I gave him a lot of them to take along.”

Niko exhaled.

“Now we’re stuck with them,” he murmured darkly.

“Don’t worry, Niko,” I said. “Robbie’s not so bad.”

* * *

We assigned watches for taking care of Mr. Appleton. Niko would watch from bedtime until midnight. Robbie insisted on taking the second shift. And I volunteered for three to six a.m.

When Niko told the little kids that the grown-ups would be staying for a few more days, they were delighted.

Ulysses started break dancing, which was just funny enough to break the grimness of the moment.

Even Niko had to smile as Ulysses jigged and jagged and did ye olde robot. The chubby kid really had some moves.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

THE BIG SEND-OFF:

PART TWO

Everything was quiet and dark in the store when we woke to the sound of Luna barking and Astrid yelling her head off:

“JAKENIKODEANBRAYDENGETOVERHERE!”

We ripped through the store, scrambling over each other in our half-asleep state, but awake as soon as our feet hit the linoleum.

We ran toward her voice and the dim light of a lantern.

I rounded the head of the aisle and I saw an air mattress, half covered by a twisted sheet. And Robbie, lying on it in his underwear. And Astrid.

Astrid stood above Robbie, holding a handgun, aiming at his chest.

Luna was standing like a fireplug and barking her head off.

Then I saw Sahalia.

She was crying and basically naked. Just wearing a thong. She sat on the floor, clutching her nightgown to her chest.

Sahalia and Robbie had been …

Sahalia and Robbie had been …

Sahalia and Robbie had been … what?

“What the hell?” Jake said.

“Take the gun,” Astrid said.

Jake took the gun from her, pointing it at Robbie’s midsection.

“This is intense. This is too intense,” Jake said, and I saw his hand was trembling.

“What happened?” Niko asked.

“Nothing!” Robbie protested.

Sahalia was weeping, clinging to Astrid as if she was a life raft. Astrid was making calming sounds and trying to both cover her up and gather her from the floor at the same time.

“It’s okay,” Astrid said. “You’re fine. You’re fine. Just get up.”

Sahalia clutched her nightgown to her chest and Astrid moved her toward the Train.

“Guys,” Robbie said. “It’s not what you think. I was just lying here sleeping, and I woke up and she was on top of me. She said she wanted me to take her with me and she could be my girlfriend. I said no!” He held his hands up.

“You’re a liar!” Niko said.

“I’m telling you the truth,” Robbie continued. “I know how bad this looks, but really, I said no. Really. Te lo juro!”

Luna was still barking and growling.

“Come here, Luna.” Robbie called the dog over to him.

He scratched her ears and petted her, calming her down.

Trying to calm us all down.

“It’s all a misunderstanding,” he said to the dog. “These kids would never hurt anyone. It’s a big misunderstanding.”

I looked at the guys. Did they buy it? Did I buy it?

“She’s crazy, that girl,” Robbie said. “She kept talking about how none of you think she’s a grown-up but how she is, and she wanted to prove it to you, and honestly, I was trying to get her to put back her nightgown on when that other crazy girl came with the gun.”

“All right!” Niko shouted. “That’s enough! Just don’t talk. Let me think.”

Robbie murmured soothing sounds to Luna.

“You guys stay here and keep the gun on him,” Niko told us, gesturing to me, Brayden, and Jake, who still held the gun. “Keep the gun on him no matter what he says. I’m gonna go talk to Sahalia. I’ll find out what happened here and then we’ll know what to do.”

Niko sprinted down the aisle.

“Oh God,” Jake said. The hand that held the gun was shaking violently. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”

He bent over.

“Give me the gun,” Brayden said, moving toward Jake.

But then Robbie was reaching up. Lurching up.

I was too slow. A beat behind.

Robbie grabbed the gun from Jake, just as Brayden reached for it.

“No!” Brayden shouted. He snatched at the gun and in the scuffle the gun fired with a deafening BANG.

Brayden slipped down to the floor, looking confused.

“Brayden!” I shouted.

Jake lurched toward Robbie and tried to get the gun away.

Niko came vaulting back down the aisle and launched himself at Robbie and had him around the neck, and the three of them went toppling backward onto the floor.

Robbie punched Jake and elbowed Niko to the head and grabbed the gun out of Jake’s hands.

I rushed to Brayden. He looked at me with shock in his eyes.

When I looked up, Robbie had the gun right at Niko’s head.

“Get back!” Robbie shouted. “I’ll shoot! I’ll shoot him! I will!”

Jake scooted away, hands up.

Robbie cursed in Spanish, rising to his feet. He wiped blood from the corner of his mouth.

“Maldita sea! I told you it wasn’t me! She wanted to be my girlfriend. Why couldn’t you just believe me? You,” he said, turning on Niko, “you had it in for me from the start!”

Robbie lashed out and struck Niko across the face with the barrel of the pistol. Niko fell.

“You don’t get to decide who goes and who stays!” Robbie screamed at Niko’s fallen form. “Who lives and dies!”

He raised up his gun.

And BWAM!

A gunshot murdered my ears.

Robbie was flung backward, led by his head.

He hit the shelving unit behind him and slumped to the ground.

He was shot.

* * *

There was Josie, holding the other handgun, coming out of the shadows down the aisle.

On the ground just behind her lay the two-gallon Ziploc bag that Niko had stored the guns in.

Had the other gun just been laying there on the floor the whole time?

Josie dropped the gun, shaking her arm out.

She sank to her knees, covered her face, and howled.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

BLOOD, BLEACH, AND LIES

The little kids came screaming over to see what had happened, and I grabbed Max and Ulysses and pushed them all back toward the Train.

“Go back to the Train!” I shouted. “This is an emergency! Go! Go! Go!”

They could not be allowed to see what had happened.

I yelled at them every step back to the Train.

I pushed them inside and pulled one of the futon sofas in front of the door.

“You stay in there until it’s safe!” I shouted. “We’ll come and get you when it’s safe.”

They cried and sobbed inside, banging on the door.

Astrid and Sahalia were curled up together on the other futon couch in the Living Room.

Astrid was singing to Sahalia.

Robbie was dead. Brayden had been shot, and now Astrid was singing to Sahalia. I had to keep the facts straight or I might go crazy. Those were the facts.

I raced back to my friends.

* * *

“This is bad, this is bad,” Jake kept repeating. It must have all felt like a very bad trip to him.

Josie was crying on the floor, the gun lying next to her on the linoleum.

Niko had Brayden lying on the floor and was pressing both his hands down on Brayden’s shoulder. Blood was all over Niko’s arms and shirt. Brayden was soaking with it.

“I’m trying to stop the bleeding but I don’t know what to do,” Niko said, looking up at me with pure panic in his eyes.

I ran to the Pharmacy.

Alex was there, scrambling to gather as many bandages in his arms as he could.

It was dark. It was hard to find anything because the store was so dark.

“Bring those to Niko and then go turn the lights on, okay?” I said.

“But the power!” he protested.

“We need light!” I answered. “We need to see what we’re doing.”

“Okay.” He gulped and ran off to obey.

I needed something to stop the bleeding. I knew stuff existed because once our neighbor fell off a ladder and opened up a huge gash on the back of her head.

The EMTs had sprinkled a powder on it. Some kind of powder to stop bleeding.

I jumped over the pharmacy counter. The place was a mess.

What the hell has Jake been up to back here? I thought.

The lights came blinking and twittering back on.

I squinted, at first.

Then I started scanning the shelves.

I grabbed the pain pills Jake had given me. Those would help Brayden.

I couldn’t find that bleeding stuff. I didn’t know what it was called or anything.

I grabbed some of the antibiotics Niko had given to Mr. Appleton and I ran back.

* * *

The crime scene looked much, much worse with the lights on.

“We gotta get this body out of here!” Jake was nearly crying.