Page 72 of The Hitchhikers

The front door opened. Low voices. Footsteps. Water running in the bathroom, the flush of a toilet. Tom appeared in the doorway, Simon behind him. Alice sucked in a sharp gasp. Tom looked like he could hardly stand, his face flushed deep red and his body shiny with sweat.

“Are you okay?” he asked Alice.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m fine.”

“Sorry, folks,” he said to William and Ruth.

“Get on the floor,” Simon said.

Alice glared at Simon. “I told you it was too hot! He needs water.”

“Chill out. He had some.”

Tom lowered himself near Alice and leaned back against the wall. Simon tied Tom up, then he moved over to Alice in the chair and began loosening the twine at her wrists. She tried to watch, to understand how he was able to undo the knots so easily, but his hands blocked her view.

“Why are you untying me?”

“Time for you to earn your keep.” He laughed, and she recoiled at the smell of beer on his breath. He crouched to untie her ankles.

“Leave Alice alone,” Tom said. “You’ve made her do enough.”

“How about you shut the hell up or I won’t bring her back.” Simon yanked Alice to her feet by her wrists and pulled her out of the room.

CHAPTER 26ALICE

Jenny was standing by a window in the living room, the curtain partway open. The rifle strap was over her shoulder, one hand adjusting and readjusting on the barrel like she wasn’t sure if she was doing it right, and her other too close to the trigger for Alice’s comfort.

Simon stopped to speak to Jenny. “Keep watching the driveway, but check in on the others too, okay?”

“What if someone shows up?”

“Lock the doors and stay away from the windows. I’ll handle it.”

She nodded, but she seemed spaced out, her eyes skipping past Alice as she turned her attention back to the window. Alice wondered what Jenny and Simon had been talking about.

Simon kept a firm grip on Alice all the way down the steps and as they walked up the driveway. Her skin was turning red around his fingers. She was already sore from the twine.

“Will you let me go? I’m not going to run away.”

He ignored her and waited until they’d reached the RV before releasing her. He opened the door and pushed her up the steps. She was enveloped in a thick cloud of heat that took her breath away. Tom would not have survived much longer. She wanted to lock Simon in the RV—see how he liked it. She hopedto God he ended up in prison. Did Canada have the death penalty? Death would be too quick for Simon. She wanted him to suffer. She relished the idea of testifying against him in court one day.

Simon passed her the keys. “Back up a bit. I saw a road through the trees when I was here with William. He said it leads to his junkyard.”

Alice reversed the RV around the circle, then drove forward until she could see a narrow dirt road. They hadn’t gone far when they reached the clearing that William was using as a dumping ground for old farm vehicles and scrap metal. A rusted truck missing all its wheels, a tractor with weeds and vines growing over it, barrels, plows, and old tires.

Simon pointed to an area that was still empty. “There.”

It was a tight fit. Alice maneuvered the vehicle into the narrow slice of overgrown grass and turned off the ignition. She was hit with an image of the RV, rusting, stained and mildewed with rain, the brush growing up around it. Was this small, quiet farm the last thing she and Tom were ever going to see? Was it going to be their final resting place? She blinked away tears.

Simon took the map off the dash and unfolded it. He frowned as he bent over it, tracing routes with his finger. “We turned the wrong way and went south,” he said. “If we’d gone north, we’d have made it around Fernie. Couple more towns and we’d have been in Alberta.”

It was the first time she’d heard him sound defeated. She didn’t know why he was telling her this now, or if he was just thinking out loud, but she jumped at the opening.

“Take the RV. It’s only been a couple of hours since we were at the church. Leave me and Tom. Tie us up, whatever. It could take days for you to fix the truck.”

He just looked at her. He folded the map and pushed himself up. “Stay here.”

He grabbed his and Jenny’s backpacks, shoved the map into his, and knelt for the pillowcases of stolen goods bundled under the dinette bench seats.