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I dreamed up a dozen escape plans We’d scatter No--he’d shoot at least a few of us Maybe someone could pretend to faint in the road, then the person behind would trip, and in the confusion--no, he was too disciplined to fall for anything like that One of us would have to get close enough to take his gun away

Me I was closest Maybe if I walked a little slower, let hi? I was no action hero I was so scared I could hardly breathe Anyway, he was ten whole yards behind ht at my back He’d shoot me the second I turned around, and I’d bleed out in the middle of the road That was my idea of stupidity, not heroisside us, slowing to h both wore ht in the passenger seat nodded to the one who’d captured us and gave a little salute--Nice going!--then turned to us and stared From that moment he never took his eyes off us or his hands off his rifle

Noe had escorts, and one rifle-wielding wight had become three Any hope of escape I’d had was dashed

We walked and walked, our shoes crunching on the gravel road, the jeep’s engine gru beside us like a cheap laer The town receded and a far up on either side of the tree-lined road, its fields fallow and bare The soldiers never exchanged a word There was so robotic about them, as if their brains had been scooped out and replaced ires Wights were supposed to be brilliant, but these guys seemed like drones to me Then I heard a drone in my ear, and looked up to see a bee circle ht What’s he up to? I looked for hiet us all shot--but I didn’t see him

I did a quick head count One-two-three-four-five-six In front of me was Emma, then Enoch, Horace, Olive, Millard, and Bronwyn

Where was Hugh?

I nearly leapt into the air Hugh wasn’t here! That meant he hadn’t been rounded up with the rest of us He was still free! Maybe in the chaos at the depot he’d slipped down into the gap between the train and the platfor I wondered if he was following us--wished I could look back at the road behind without giving hiht rine Otherwise, hoould we ever find her again? And what if she ran out of air, locked in that trunk? And what did they do with suspiciously abandoned baggage in 1940, anyway?

My face flushed hot and s to be terrified of, a hundred horror scenarios all vying for attention in my brain

"Back in line!" the soldier behindto--that in my fevered state I’d strayed too far from the center of the road I hurried back tolook over her shoulder--Don’t ether

We walked on in edgy silence, tension huh us like an electric current I could see it in Emma as she clenched and unclenched her fists; in Enoch as he shook his head and muttered to himself; in Olive’s uneven steps It see desperate and bullets started flying

Then I heard Bronwyn gasp and I looked up, a horror scenario I hadn’t yet i shape before my eyes Three massive forms lay ahead of us, one in the road and two more in the field adjacent, just the other side of a shallow ditch Heaps of black earth, I thought at first, refusing to see