Page 6 (1/2)

The fire dwindled in the blackened sink Will sat by his sleeping gangits flames shrink, and die When the fire went out coht with it Will had never been afraid of the dark, but in this darkness, this cold void, he began to panic He needed to restart the fire iht There were some matches in his backpack

Will stu his ith his hand on the handrail He rounded the corner, waving his other hand out in front of him like a blind man The stair he slept on, his stair bed, was six steps up the next flight He counted until he was standing on the fifth step, then he crouched and patted his hands around until he felt the canvas material of his backpack He picked it up The ers touched the cool metal tab of the front pocket’s zipper, his mind flashed back to the first day of school, when David drove him to McKinley in his Jeep, and Will couldn’t stop nervously zipping and unzipping his bag He reh school, but excited at the same time to be in the sa through David’s messy brown hair The ratty black hooded sweatshirt he alore Pale Ridge rushing past as they cruised through green lights David teasing hi him advice They had no idea that a catastrophe awaited the The brutal world they would have to endure They had no idea that David, the depressed quarterback who had quit the team, would rise to be the savior and protector of the rejected, defenseless kids without gangs

David could have done soreat if he’d had a normal life If none of this had ever happened, or if he had survived whatever killed him He could have helped people He would have been a success, Will knew it He had et any of that He’d never get to be in his twenties, or his thirties He’d never have a wife, or kids, or a career He’d never grow into an old le that started that day they walked into this school, the sarief that Will had been running froht took hold of hiushed from him He couldn’t control himself anymore He sobbed, and moaned, and let the sadness pull hi in an easy circle

"Shhhh," Lucy said "It’s all right"

He reached out for her and they e her feelings back all night, like he had They sat there, crying and hugging each other in the dark, for what must have been hours, before they lay down on the hard stairs and fell asleep

6

THERE WAS A MACHETE IN LUCY’S HANDS David’s machete He’d made it out of a radiator shell that he ha by a shoe string, in the furthest corner of the arers down the cardboard sheath Originally, David had sile and sealed it with duct tape Lucy had reular sheath into the shape of the ether with spiral notebook wire

She was nearly finished now She twisted the excess of the tires together, until they were a little loop at the sheath’s tip She took a leather cord that she’d cut froh the loop She ran the cord to the other end and fastened it to s folded under her to the side She held the sheath out before her and admired it The words "THE LONERS" were spelled across the face of it in silver thureat slung across David’s back That could never happen now She sheathed the blade and set it down on the floor

She had been spending a lot of ti away behind those heavy curtains that still hung, separating the top landing from the rest of the Stairs It was the only place she felt safe Soto quit after how horribly the drop had ended And even if they stuck around and followed through on their big promises, life inside McKinley wasn’t any less dismal

David’s rooht to disturb She was surprised there weren’t bunches of flowers piled all over the floor, like a highway ht source It was a glass applejuice bottle in the shape of an apple, filled with cooking oil A plastic gallon jug shielded the flaht

The sheets of David’s bed were still rumpled and thrown about, like he had only crawled out of his bed thisLucy held up his bed sheets and drew their scent in They suely like campfire smoke, like the rest of the rooent smell No one had cleaner sheets than hiht she smelled a pinch of his sweat, the pink bathroom hand soap he’d used to wash his hair, and some of the vanilla extract she used to wear as perfuredients would never co her in his arether, really together, had been too brief They had kissed for the very first tiht he’d been attacked by Hilary After his eye had healed, they only had a feeeks before he phased out of the virus and needed to leave The food drops had stopped in that ti apart, but in this room, in this bed, wrapped in these sheets, they shared a couple of peacefulpast those curtains existed When the school was still asleep, and the day hadn’t started, they had their time alone to talk, to learn about each other, or to just lay there, in the quiet, with his heavy ar at all She still fantasized about going further with David She’d wanted to lose her virginity to him, but he’d held back as if sohts ca panel overhead flickered back and forth froht Cheers echoed up the Stairs, followed by applause Lucy stood in disbelief The poas back on After a h after all That didn’t change the fact that they were still holding McKinley prisoner

Will popped his head through the curtains He wore a big sray hair ooped to the side He held his hands out, splayed like he’d just done a ic trick

"Eh?" he said

"What do youcredit for this?"

"Iout sohed "Well, now you are, at least What’s with the sunny attitude?"

"I realized we had way more weapons than we could ever use, so I traded the extra ones and got a bunchon like this? I think things are going to be okay"

Lucy s to tell Will this, but he sounded like David

"Nice smile," Will said

Lucy blushed and sh, that one looks terrible"