Page 25 of Five Survive

“Arthur, you take the curtain on the front right window.”

“I see,” Arthur said to Red. “We get the side with the sniper.”

Oliver ignored him. “Maddy and I will do the windows by the dining table.”

Yep, on the safe side, Arthur had called it.

“Reyna, you take the curtain front left, by the driver’s seat, once Arthur has closed his. We’ll leave the windshield so we can drive out of here. And Simon, you get the one by the bunks.”

So Simon had made it to the non-sniper side too, then.

“Oh and close the bedroom door while you’re there; there’s a big window at the back there too.”

“What about the window on the door?” Simon said, gesturing to it with his head.

“Oh yeah. Red, can you grab that one too?”

Sounds fair.

“Okay, everyone.” Oliver clapped his hands and they all flinched at the sound, too close to the crack of the rifle. “Let’s do it. Go, go, go!”

Red pushed up into a low crouch, her shoes crunching against the sparkling glass as she lunged forward, passing Oliver. She took a breath and stood up, slowly, her leg catching on the small fire extinguisher mounted to the wall here. She turned and tucked herself sideways in the thin gap between the blown-apart window and the one in the door. Trying not to think about the red dot, but of coursenow she had. With her left hand, she reached out for the chain hanging by the window, quivering in the outside breeze that wasn’t outside anymore. She pulled, and the cream-colored shades started to descend. Too slowly.

“Come on,” she willed it, glancing aside to see Arthur ripping the black curtain closed ahead of her in the cockpit, Reyna now venturing out to hers.

Red pulled, too hard, the shade jamming. “Fuck you,” she said, reversing the chain a few turns to set it right and then drawing it down the rest of the way. The wind laughed at her, playing with the bottom of the shade, pushing it out a few inches and sucking it back in.

Red turned her head the other way, catching Simon as he closed the door to the bedroom at the back. She reached up with her right hand, over and out to the catch at the top of the window in the door. She held her breath and dragged it down in one quick movement, the dark shade locking in place at the bottom.

Only now did Oliver rise up, beckoning Maddy to do the same. They leaned over the booths at the dining table, unhooking the tiebacks and pulling both sides of the curtains across. Red still couldn’t work out what the patterns in those curtains reminded her of. It was on the tip of her brain, really. So annoying. It wasn’t that guy fromSpongeBob,was it? The grumpy one with the clarinet. Oh, damn it, what was his name again? And what was that smell that was following her, bittersweet and cloying? Was it coming from her? Red looked down and raised her shoe. The bottom of her sole was dirty and wet with something. She sniffed. Was that gas?

“Okay, good work everyone,” Oliver said, out of breath, like he’d had the difficult job there. Athankswould be nice. “Right, let’s get out of here. Reyna, where are the keys?” He held out his palm towardher.

“How?” Maddy asked him. “All the tires are blown out.”

“The RV will still move,” Oliver said. “Slowly, and it will likely cause irreparable damage to the wheels, but I think we have bigger problems right now.”

Why would there be gas on Red’s shoes?

“Reyna, keys!” He snapped his fingers impatiently.

She patted the pockets on her hoodie, at the back of her jeans, a look of horror dawning in her eyes.

“I don’t have them. I don’t know where they are.”

Red had seen her take them, after the four tires were shot out.

“What do you mean?” Oliver rounded on her. “You had them. You were driving!”

“I know, I know.” She ran her hands nervously through her black hair. “Maybe I dropped them when I was running, I don’t know.”

“Outside?!” Oliver was shouting again.

“Maybe, I don’t know, I’m sorry!”

“Well, who’s going to go outside and get them, Reyna?!”

“Nobody’s going outside,” Simon interjected.