The-Infinite-Sea-Pdf

32
I PICKED UP Dumbo’s rifle and pushed it into the kid’s chest.
“We’re blind,” I told him. “Stairway, both hall windows, east-side rooms, west-side rooms, keep
moving and keep your eyes open. I’ll stay here with the alpha males and try to keep them from killing
each other.”
Dumbo was nodding like he understood, but he wasn’t moving. I put my hands on his shoulders and
focused on his jiggly eyes. “Step up, Dumbo. Understand? Step up.”
He jerked his head up and down, a human PEZ dispenser, and slumped out of the room. Leaving was
the last thing he wanted to do, but we’d been at that point for a long time now, the point of doing the last
thing we wanted to do.
Behind me, Ben growled, “Why didn’t you shoot him in the head? Why the knee?”
“Poetic justice,” I muttered. I sat next to Evan. I could see his eyes quivering behind the lids. He had
been dead. I’d said good-bye. Now he was alive and I might not be able to say hello. We’re only about
four miles from Camp Haven, Evan. What took you so long?
“We can’t stay here,” Ben announced. “It was a bad call sending Ringer ahead. I knew we
shouldn’t’ve split up. We’re bugging out of here in the morning.”
“How are we going to do that?” I asked. “You’re hurt. Evan is—”
“This isn’t about him,” Ben said. “Well, I guess it is to you—”
“He’s the reason you’re alive right now to bitch, Parish.”
“I’m not bitching.”
“Yes, you are. You’re bitching like a junior miss beauty queen.”
Sammy laughed. I don’t think I’d heard my brother laugh since our mother died. It startled me, like
finding a lake in the middle of a desert.
“Cassie called you a bitch,” Sam informed Ben, in case he missed it.
Ben ignored him. “We waited here for him and now we’re trapped here because of him. Do what you
want, Sullivan. In the morning, I’m out of here.”
“Me too!” Sams said.
Ben got up, leaned on the side of the bed for a minute to catch his breath, then hobbled to the door.
Sam trailed after him, and I didn’t try to stop either one of them. What would be the point? Ben cracked
the door and called softly to Dumbo not to shoot him—he was coming out to help. Then Evan and I
were alone.
I sat on the bed Ben had just abandoned. It was still warm from his body. I grabbed Sammy’s bear
and pulled it into my lap.
“Can you hear me?” I asked—Evan, not the bear. “Guess we’re even now, huh? You shoot me in the
knee; I shoot you in the knee. You see me butt naked; I see you butt naked. You pray over me; I—”
The room swam out of focus. I took Bear and popped Evan in the chest with it.
“And what was with that ridiculous jacket you were wearing? The Pinheads, that’s about right. That
nails it.” I hit him again. “Pinhead.” Again. “Pinhead.” Again. “And now you’re going to check out on
me? Now?”