“Cal!” he said, then reached out to ruffle Bear’s fur. “Little dog!”
“Alec, you have to talk to Mitchell. We need to get—”
“Relax,” he said, moaning as he forced himself to sit up. “All is as it should be. Have a seat.”
“We don’t have time,” I said. “We have to get—”
Alec slapped the side of my leg. “Mitchell is getting ready as we speak, Cal. Now come on. Sit.”
Alec reached into the water and fished out a six-pack of cans. He tore two off and held one up to me. I looked back at the house, then took it and sat next to him. Alec cracked the can, and Bear settled down between us. There was another faraway rumble and the sky lit up in the distance.
Reese’s voice drifted to us from across the water. “And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air…”
Alec peered into the sky and began to recite — “‘If destruction be our lot,’ he said. ‘We must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide.’ Honest Abe himself said that back before his Civil War started.”
“I don’t…”
“Everybody thinks this is just like Lincoln’s Civil War,” Alec said. “But this isn’t two sides fighting it out for the soul of a country. This is a suicide.”
Alec drained his can and threw it out into the water, where it spun among small eddies. He leaned forward, staring gloomily into the dark water, one hand on Bear’s side.
“We should start getting everyone together,” I said. “Get ready to—”
“We’re not going to New York, Cal.”
Everything around us seemed to cease all at once. The water went still and so did the sway of the trees and the air in my lungs.
“My dad got us clearance into Canada,” he said. “We fly west to meet him in Vancouver, then after that… I don’t know. We were thinking São Paulo, maybe. Or Shanghai.”
“Alec, if this is because of what Nat said—”
“I don’t blame you for that,” he said. “I asked my dad if we could fly to Toronto so you could get to New York from there, but the word is, it has to be Vancouver.” Alec turned to face me. “Look, you can still come.”
“Alec—”
“New York is done, Cal. This whole country is. There’s no point pretending that it’s not.”
He waited for me to respond, and when I didn’t, Alec rolled up onto his feet and threw his arms over his head. He stood poised for a moment and then dove into the lake, barely making a splash. He sprang up to the surface again and pulled away from me on his back with easy strokes.
“Think about it, Cal. The future is coming whether you like it or not. I promise you, in a few years, we’ll all wonder what it is we got so worked up about. No one will even remember this dump!”
Alec began to sing as he pulled away, aiming at Reese in his revolving chair. Soon his voice and the splash of his strokes dissipated and the water re-formed its glassy surface behind him.
I sat at the end of the pier feeling everything inside of me grow more dense by the second, like I was collapsing in on myself. Was Alec right? Would it really be so bad to leave with them? To leave all of this? I thought of Ithaca, trying to re-ignite the flame that drove me this far, but home felt so far away and so cold. This place was dying. I looked over at Bear, leaning eagerly over the side of the pier. Why should we die along with it?
I recoiled from the thought; even the barest edge of it felt like a betrayal. I set my knuckles against the wood of the pier and pushed until the grain bit into my skin. The pain snapped me into focus. Mom and Dad were waiting. Home was waiting. I wouldn’t let the Path turn me away now.
I scrambled for a plan. Walking out would be crazy. It was too far, and with the fighting heating up, I couldn’t imagine that we’d make it long before being picked up by one side or the other. We needed another way. Something fell into place. Philadelphia. I counted the miles between there and New York in my head and then jumped up and ran back to the house with Bear beside me.
I guessed that Mitchell and his men were quartered somewhere to the west of the house, so I passed it by and moved into the forest. When we came out the other side, we found a black passenger van at the end of an asphalt driveway, flanked by two Humvees.
Four soldiers were hurrying between one of the Humvees and a dock, loading it up with ammo and provisions. When I looked closer, I saw that Nat was one of them. She was dressed in scuffed combat boots and a set of fatigues that were too big. She set a wooden crate in the back of the Humvee and went for another. Bear ran to her, and I jogged over to keep up.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Go away, Cal.” Nat pushed Bear aside and bent over to pick up a crate of ammo.
“Where are you going?”
She hefted the box and brushed me aside. “Virginia.”
“Virginia?” I said, trailing her. “I thought after they dropped off Alec and his friends, Mitchell was heading to Philadelphia.”
“He is,” she said, slinging the crate into the back of the Humvee. “But the rest of us figured that instead of protecting a bunch of rich politicians who are in no actual danger at the moment, we’d go to Virginia, and help the people who actually are.”
“Think we’re set,” one of the other soldiers said.
She shut the hatch while the others took their places inside the Humvee.
“Nat, don’t do this.”
“California is gone,” she said, turning to confront me. “Pretty soon they’ll have the entire West Coast, and the odds are that Philadelphia won’t be far behind. So how long do you think you and your family can hide out in New York and pretend that none of this is happening?”
The Humvee’s engine rumbled to a start.
“Yo, Natalie, let’s go!”
Nat moved closer and I was surprisd to feel her hand taking mine, drawing me to her.
“You could help us,” she said. “You could help me.”
The anger in her had drained away, replaced by something raw and trembling that reminded me of sitting on that classroom floor with her and Bear, her armor of command wiped away. I started to speak but strangled the words off at the last second. Alec hadn’t turned me aside and neither would she.
Nat stood before me a moment more and then her boot heels turned and thudded across the asphalt. Bear went after her, barking as he ran around to the side of the vehicle. The door slammed shut and the engine revved.
“Rup! Rup rup rup!”
The Humvee pulled away down the dark drive. I stood there for a long time without moving. Eventually, Bear gave up the chase and returned to my feet, a small whimper in his throat.
“They about ready down there?”
Sergeant Mitchell had come out of the barracks and was standing by the loading dock. I nodded.
“Well, let’s get a move on, then. Don’t worry, kid, you and your friends will be singing ‘O Canada’ before you know it.”
“I’m not going with them,” I said, pushing my voice out harsh and quick. “I want to go to Philadelphia with you.”
“Looking to join up, huh?” he asked with a pleased grin. “Fight the big bad Path?”
Sergeant Mitchell waited for an answer, but the lie stuck in my throat. All I could do was nod.
Once the rest of Mitchell’s men got Alec and his friends in the van, we spent the next few hours creeping along back roads behind the remaining Humvee.
I was in the middle row of seats, with Bear in my lap. Kate was to one side of me, Diane to the other. Alec and Reese were in front of us, bouncing their heads in time to whatever was coming through their oversize headphones. Christos stared out the window at the dark.