Page 11 of Five Survive

Arthur was chewing his lip, eyes narrowed behind his glasses. “I think it’s left here,” he said, not sure, not loud enough to reach Reyna.

“Left, left here!” Simon didn’t have the same problem. But Reyna didn’t listen, didn’t trust the drunk one.

“It’s left,” Red said.

“You sure?” Oliver asked her, but Reyna had already pulled the RV into it, and the road wasn’t even paved anymore, just dirt and rocks, dust kicking up into the headlights. “This can’t be right, let me look at the map.” He snapped his fingers for Arthur to pass his phone over. “Reyna, turn around.”

“I can’t turn around!” she said, more than a hint of irritation in her voice now: a full underlayer. “This road is way too narrow and this RV is way too big.”

“Where are we?” Red asked Arthur, leaning across to see, like it made any difference.

“I think we’re here somewhere.” He pointed at the screen. “McNair Cemetery Road. Maybe.”

“That’s definitely wrong,” Oliver said. “We have to turn ba—”

“—I can’t!” Reyna shot him a look.

“Is there a turn?” Red nudged Arthur.

“Wait, I think there’s a left soon,” he said, zooming in to the mouth of the small road on his phone. “Might circle us back to that other road.” He glanced at Red and she nodded.

“For fuck’s sake,” Oliver said, one of his knees rattling against the dashboard. “We wouldn’t have gone the wrong way if I was directing.”

“This is stressful,” Maddy said, her hands buried in her loose hair. “We should have just flown and rented a condo like everyone else from school is.”

A flush in Maddy’s cheeks as she realized what she’d said, their eyes meeting for half a second. Red was the reason they didn’t fly and rent a condo like everyone else. That was why Maddy came up with the RV idea.Way cheaper—just gas and spending money. Come on, it will be fun.It was all Red’s fault.

“Just keep going,” Red said to Reyna, blocking everyone else out.

“I don’t see a left turn.” Reyna leaned closer to the wheel, straining to see.

As they followed the corner around, the headlights got lost in the woods, recoiling as they bounded off some body of water: a creek hiding somewhere behind the trees.

“Where’s the left turn?” Reyna pushed forward.

“There!” Simon pointed out the windshield. “It’s here. Go left.”

“Sure?”

Red glanced down at the map in Arthur’s hands. This was it. “Yes,” she said. “Down there.”

“Doesn’t even look like a real road,” Oliver said as they peeled down it, dirt and gravel loud against the wheels.

It was narrower, tighter, the trees pressing in on them, barring the way with low-hanging branches that scraped the top of the RV.

“Keep going,” Red said. Her fault that the others were here and not on a nice plane tomorrow instead, with all their other friends.

“I’ve lost the map,” Arthur said, blank grid lines taking over his screen.

“Keep going,” she said.

“Not like we have a choice,” Oliver retorted.

The trees broke away from the road, cutting their losses, giving way to low-lying scrubland and long grass on either side.

“Is it a dead end?” Oliver asked, staring out the front.

“Keep going,” Red said.