Page 16 of Five Survive

“How you getting on?” Oliver asked Reyna, leaning over her.

“Last one,” she said with a grunt as it gave way, and she spun the wrench a couple of times. “All loosened.”

“Great.” Oliver rested his hand on her shoulder. A small touch. “Let’s get the jack in place.”

A12-ton hydraulic bottle jack,it said on the side in large black letters against the red. Oliver bent down, unscrewing the black top of the jack, the device growing taller with each turn.

“That’s as high as it gets. Someone pass me those blocks.”

Simon pushed them over with one foot.

Oliver piled the blocks up, four high, beneath the outer metal frame of the RV, just behind the wheel. Then he placed the steel-plated bottom of the jack on top of the highest block, jiggling it to check it was secure enough. It would do, apparently, because Oliver turned his attention to the lever. He pulled it up and down, and again, and slowly the top of the device began to emerge from thebase, reaching up for the bottom of the RV. Oliver’s arm pumped and pumped again. He settled down on his knees; this would take a minute.

Which was good, because Red just remembered—

“Hey, Maddy, which side of the bed do you normally sleep on again?” she said. “Because I—”

“—The left normally,” Maddy said, watching as the jack disgorged itself, metallic and rigid. “But I’m easy.”

“Oh, that’s fine, I’m normally the right,” Red lied. And why did she need to? Maddy had just said she didn’t mind.

The top of the jack made contact with the frame of the RV, metal on metal, shining ghostly white as Maddy captured the moment in the flashlight. A creaking sound as Oliver pulled the lever up and down and up. Slowly, the RV began to lift, the flat tire unpuddling from the ground.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have liftoff!” Simon whooped, and the scrubland stole his voice, echoing it back, stripping it of anything human. An otherworldly cry in the night.

Red watched the RV, inching higher and higher, relieving the pressure on the torn-open tire.

“I have to pee.” She suddenly remembered, voicing it as she did.

“Ever the lady,” Simon commented.

“Well, you can’t go in the RV now we’ve jacked it up,” Oliver said, slightly breathless, slightly irritated, still pumping away at the lever. “You’ll have to find a bush.”

“I might upgrade to a tree, thanks,” Red said, turning toward the back end of the RV and the thick trees they’d come through that way. She couldn’t go somewhere in front of the RV; she didn’t know how far the headlights would reach. Imagine: Arthur seeing her white ass, floating in the night. Red avoided his eyes.

“You can’t go on your own,” Maddy said, grabbing her arm. “It’s pitch-black.”

“I have my phone.”

“No, but, I mean it might not be safe.” She breathed out. “What if there’s an axe-murderer or something?”

“No axe-murderers in South Carolina,” Simon said. “Only in North Carolina. It’s chainsaws you’ve gotta watch out for. And vampires.”

“Chainsaws. Vampires. Got it,” Red said. “I’ll keep my eyes peeled.”

“Vampireslovepeeling eyes.”

“Red?” Maddy said.

“I could—” Arthur began.

“—I’ll be fine, I’m just going over there. Be right back.”

Red kept going toward the back, doubling her pace when Oliver called: “Quickly, we won’t be long here!”

She’d pee in her own time, thanks. Except now she was moving at a slow jog, and now more of a run, shoes scuffing against the rough road. The voices of the others faded behind her as she moved, just her and the moon now, and the whispering in the grass. She slowed to pull out her phone—11:21p.m. and 65% battery, still very good for her—and swiped up to flick on the flashlight. Shadows stretched and shrank as she pooled the light around her, searching for a spot. There were plenty of shrubs and bushes around, but they were short, not much to hide behind. And she still wasn’t that far from the group.

Red went farther, farther, holding up the light to carve a path through the darkness. Her eyes alighted on a tree right ahead, alone, broken away from the others. Just like her. Branches spring-full of leaves, quivering as she approached. Had the tree been pushed out by the others or left of its own accord? Anyway, Red circled around the back of it, checking to be sure the trunk covered her. All good.