Angela hissed the words, as though she were afraid the children might hear, which was mostly unavoidable at this point: "Greg just threatened the kids!"

"What?" Marie was taken aback. She didn't like Jerry, didn't buy any of his bulls.h.i.t, suspected the shootout between him and Bus wasn't as clean as he wanted everyone to believe. That disgust for Jerry trickled down to his a.s.sociates, which included Greg. But Greg had never been anything but cordial to Marie, and helpful to anyone that needed anything from him.

The statement from Angela simply did not compute.

Angela looked at Abby and Sam, stepped a little closer. She lowered her voice even further. "Marie, there's something going on. Something bad." She touched her head like a headache was encroaching. "Did you know Keith is missing?"

"Keith Jenkins?" Double hits.

"Yes. Keith Jenkins," Angela nodded fiercely. "n.o.body knows where the h.e.l.l he went! And then Jerry calls me up into his office and basically accuses me of...of..." she searched frantically for the right word. "Conspiring, or something! I don't even know what he was accusing me of! But he was making it sound like it was my fault that Keith went missing." She balled her fists over her face. "And then I go back to my house and I find Sam...crying, Marie. Crying. And he won't f.u.c.king tell me what it's about!"

Marie rubbed her forehead. Ma.s.saging the haphazard information into her brain. "So what does Greg have to do with all of this?"

Angela threw her hands out. "Because I saw Greg walking away from my house! And then I find Sam and Abby in there, scared to death and they won't tell me what happened!" She made an unpleasant noise of frustration. "You tell me what that means! I'm just putting two and two together!"

Marie put a hand on her shoulder. "Alright, Angela, you need to calm down."

Angela took a deep breath and held it for a minute, blinking rapidly.

"I'm here for you," Marie said. "Anything you need."

Angela became very serious. She shook her head. "No. No, you can't just offer that. You need to know what you're getting into." She looked around again, around the entire shanty as though she might have missed someone that stood quietly in the corner eavesdropping. "If you want me to stop talking, I'll understand. But if I tell you everything, then...then..."

Marie didn't know quite what to say for a moment. She lowered her head, searched Angela's eyes, then finally said, "This is more of Jerry's bulls.h.i.t, isn't it?"

Angela nodded.

Marie's face became resolute. "You tell me everything, Angela. That piece of s.h.i.t wouldn't dare touch me."

They sat at the edge of Marie's bed, side by side, their backs turned to the kids. Angela took a deep breath and launched into it, starting at the very beginning. Starting with how Bus had really died. Marie closed her eyes as she listened, as though the words brought her physical pain. It was a difficult story for Angela to tell, and it was difficult for her to tell Marie specifically, knowing the danger she was putting the other woman in. But when Angela would stall out, when the words would become too much, Marie would prod her along gently with a nod. Marie absorbed the information silently, bearing the burden with Angela.

When Angela was finished, the two women sat without speaking for a moment.

Marie looked at the ground, rubbed her palms on her legs. "Angela, Keith was helping you."

"Yes. He was talking to people for me."

Marie looked up at her.

Angela covered her mouth, horrified. "No..."

Marie put a hand on Angela's knee. "There are a lot of people around here that can't keep a d.a.m.n secret, Angela. A lot of people that will run to Jerry or Greg as soon as they know something. Given the threats Jerry told you, I don't think he would have let Keith slide if he found out what he was doing."

Angela was stricken. "So what happened to Keith? Do you think they have him locked up somewhere?"

A new voice chimed in: "Mr. Keith is dead."

Both Angela and Marie turned their heads and found Sam standing there, head down.

A simple statement of fact. Like he read it from a piece of paper from which he derived no meaning or understanding. Just sounding out consonants and vowels, making syllables and stringing them together to form a sentence that meant nothing to him.

Angela moved to Sam and knelt down, taking him by the shoulders and looking him in the eyes. Suddenly the reality of his statement crashed down on him. Sam sobbed, choked, stumbled over the words like they couldn't get out of him fast enough. "He's dead! I wasn't supposed to tell you! Greg told me not to tell you, and now Greg's gonna kill us! He's gonna kill all of us, and he said he's gonna smash Abby's skull, and I think he's gonna do it! He's gonna do it, I just know he's gonna do it! They killed Mr. Keith! They killed Mr. Keith and now they're gonna kill us!"

"Alright, alright," Angela pulled him in, held his shaking frame. Her own eyes were squeezed shut and from the creases came wet streaks. Still sitting on the crates in the dimly lit corner of the room, Abby's bottom lip stuck out, emotion welling on her face. Though she didn't quite grasp the details of the situation, she knew that bad things were happening.

"Sam," Marie spoke steadily. "How do you know they killed Mr. Keith?"

"I saw them do it," Sam sobbed. "I saw it!"

"Who did it? Greg?"

"No...the other guy."

"Arnie?"

"Yeah."

"Where?"

Sam hung his head, pointed in the general direction of the Camp Ryder building. "In the back lawn. Way back there."

Marie and Angela glanced at each other. Marie opened her mouth for another question, wanting to know how they had killed him, but she realized that it wouldn't help her piece any more of this together, and Sam probably didn't want to recall what he'd witnessed in any more detail.

Angela wiped her nose, her eyes. "Marie...I have to get them out of here."

Marie looked at Angela like she was insane. "What? No!"

Angela stood. "We're not safe here!"

Marie made a gesture around her. "You're not safe out there! Where the h.e.l.l do you think you're gonna go?"

"But Greg..." Angela cut herself off with a glance back to the two children. Didn't want to say what had come to mind. "We have to figure something out."

"There's nowhere, Angela." Marie was vehement. "OP Lillington is all but abandoned at this point. OP Benson and Smithfield are both run by Jerry's crew. Jerry's pulled back the patrols. Those roads aren't safe anymore. They were barely safe when we were patrolling them. Who knows what's out there? The only route Jerry has patrolled is between us and Smithfield, and you sure as h.e.l.l aren't welcome there."

Angela looked surprised. "What happened to Lillington?"

"I don't know." Marie took a step in, lowered her voice. "Professor White's group and Old Man Hughes' group were the only ones staying there, and White's group has moved back here. Old Man Hughes never supported Jerry, and they've cut him off. There hasn't been any contact between them and us since this s.h.i.t went down. There's no telling what the h.e.l.l happened to them."

Angela raked her hair back, her face flushed. "Well, it seems like we don't have a lot of options."

Marie crossed her arms. "I don't..."

Angela pointed. "Those are my kids! My kids! And I'm running out of options on how to keep them safe, Marie. Because if I can't take them somewhere safe, then what else can I do?" She raised her eyebrows in question. "What else can I do, Marie?"

Marie didn't have an answer for her.

She looked at Marie, angry and ashamed at once. "Look at us, Marie. What are we doing? This is our home. If we can't be safe here, and we can't go anywhere else, then there's only two other options." She held her fingers up. "We can either sit around, scared to death, and hope someone else comes along and solves the problem for us. Or we can start doing something about it. And I'm not prepared to just sit around, Marie. Not when the kids are on the line."

Marie rubbed her eyes. "Angela, you know I'm with you. But right now it's just us."

"There are others."

"We don't know who they are."

"We'll find out."

"And end up like Keith?" Marie shook her head. "Come on, Angela!"

"What about the other groups?" Angela said. "What about the people at Broadway? What about the people at Newton Grove? They're our friends! And you've all but written off Old Man Hughes and everybody from Dunn, but you don't know. They could still be out there. They could still be alive, and wondering if they have any friends left inside Camp Ryder. And we're here, Marie. We're here and we need help. We just need to figure out how to get a message to them."

Marie spoke evenly, but with an edge of irritation. "We've got no access to radios. We can't leave the camp. We can't trust anyone to deliver a message for us. Barring smoke signals, I don't know how else you plan to contact them."

Angela compressed her lips, looked intensely thoughtful. "We don't have the luxury of going on what we know. We're gonna have to take a leap of faith. If any of those other groups know anything about what happened here at Camp Ryder...then maybe they're keeping an eye on us. Maybe someone is watching."

Marie looked dubious.

Angela nodded. "It's a long shot, but do you have anything better?"

Marie considered it for a moment. She mulled some things over in her head. Made a face as she discarded one idea, looked thoughtful again as she considered another. It became obvious by the gravity of her facial expression that she was settling onto one idea. One that could be dangerous.

She glanced up at Angela. "I've got something we can try. But you have to let me handle it."

It was dark by then, but not quite late. People still milled about the camp. The fires had just reached their brightest and hottest points, from which they would gradually die down over the course of the next few hours. Black silhouettes crowded close to the flames, backs turned towards Marie as she strode through The Square, shoulders hunched against the cold. A small child standing beside their parent looked in her direction and Marie couldn't tell whether it was a young boy or girl, their eyes glistening in the firelight, the side of their face a molten glow.

She continued on. Pa.s.sed only one person close enough for them to see her face in the darkness, and they smiled and nodded to her, free of suspicion. She smiled and nodded back. This was the relationship she had with most of Camp Ryder, probably the reason why she'd been able to say the things she'd said to Jerry during the last group meeting and not be shouted down by his supporters.

Or disappear.

There wasn't a person in the camp that hadn't been fed by Marie. Not a child inside these fences that hadn't been by her little kitchen with an empty plate, before Jerry had seized control of all the supplies. She'd slipped extra portions to the people that needed it the most, the hard workers, the growing children.

In the beginning, she'd been one of the only women that knew how to take care of herself without a grocery store and a pharmacy-one of the only people, for that matter. Though a lot of the men around these parts were country boys and fancied themselves some sort of backwoods survivalists, she'd taught them a thing or two as well.

She'd been invaluable.

Now, it seemed she was being forced into some sort of stasis.

Too well-liked to get rid of, and too dangerous to keep around.

It was good to be needed again, Marie realized. Even though her heart jacked in her chest, and she despised the situation she found herself in, hated it not only for herself but for Angela and the children, she could feel the satisfaction of just doing something. Of being integral. Of being useful.

She and her sister alike. Always needing to be doing something. Always needing to be busy. Never a minute for quiet. Thoughts and silence were just what happened when you were going from one job to the next. And that was alright with them. It made life simpler in a lot of ways.

The wind kicked up, seeming to freeze-dry her, leaching both moisture and warmth from her so that she felt the unpleasant burn of her lips starting to chap. She thought of her sister. Wondered where she was and what she was doing. Hoped to G.o.d she was okay. Hoped that she knew that Marie was okay. Hoped she would get to see her again. A big aching want that just wasn't going to be filled. Not anytime soon.

She reached the Camp Ryder building and looked up the stairs. The inside glowed dully from lantern light. There was no one outside the front doors, and a quick glance around her revealed that she was alone. All the others were in The Square or in their shanties.

She took the stairs quickly, head down, hands in her pockets. Shoved through the double doors and into the big cement building. She stopped there, breathing in the heavy air, thick with smoky smells, and she let the door close behind her quietly. Directly ahead of her, she could see the main floor of the Camp Ryder building. The tables and chairs that had been used as a sort of communal dining hall were now mostly abandoned. A few old timers played cards on them, or shared a rare, hand-rolled cigarette that they'd made from tissue paper and the tobacco pinched from old cigarette b.u.t.ts. When they'd been able to scavenge, a pack of cigarettes was a hard find. A carton like striking a mother lode of gold. There wasn't quite enough to feed an addiction, so it was simply one of those luxuries that people enjoyed while they were around, knowing full well it might be their last ever.

Marie looked to the right, to the metal staircase that rose up to the office. She still thought of it as Bus' office, but knew exactly who might be lurking there. That was going to be the problem. If that sonofab.i.t.c.h was still in his office, and if he had his door open, she'd be screwed.

A slew of excuses rolled through her brain.

I needed to talk to you about something...

I left something up here...

I thought I saw something...

She cringed, knew exactly how unconvincing she would sound if she was put on the spot. She wasn't a great actor, especially under stress. But she was committed now. So she swallowed down her hesitation and turned onto the metal staircase, easing up the noisy risers as quietly as possible without looking like she was trying to be quiet.

In her experience, working in the makeshift kitchen which was directly below the stairs, when someone just walked up them it clanged and banged and creaked and made all types of unG.o.dly noises. She hoped to G.o.d that no one watched her now, seeing how she ascended them without making a sound because she knew no matter how hard she tried to make it look natural, it would raise suspicion.

Hey, Marie...what are you up to?

Oh, nothing. Just sneakin' around for no reason.

Halfway up the stairs she could see the door to the office-Bus' office, now Jerry's office-and it was closed. She felt a tense little sprig of hope. The door was closed. All the old timers on the ground floor enjoyed their cigarettes and Gin Rummy. She might make it. She might just squeeze by.

The door swung open.

CHAPTER 24: Pa.s.sING NOTES.

Marie stood there for a half a beat, then turned quickly and clomped down the stairs. She could hear someone's footsteps on the landing above her, the door closing behind them. She found herself shaking, her heartbeat thundering, felt like her pulse was bulging her eyes out and she tried hard to appear calm and normal.

"Hey." A man's voice. Slightly deeper than Jerry's.

Marie halted, turned around with her hand on the banister, trying to hide her jittering legs so that they wouldn't shake her whole body. She looked up the stairs and found Greg frowning down at her.

"Yeah?" she said back.

He descended the last few steps between them, stopping one step above her. "What were you doin' hangin' outside the office?"

She cleared her throat, inwardly screamed at herself for how conspicuous it made her sound. She wanted to brush her hair back but fought off the urge, knowing it would only make her look nervous. "Seemed like you and the Fuhrer were in another super-secret Gestapo meeting. I didn't want to interrupt."

Greg sucked on his teeth, looked out at the ground floor. "You know, Marie. I like you. I always have. You're a good person, and I can appreciate that about you. And that's the only reason I'm going to tell you this." He pointed a finger towards her, looked her in the eye. "You're not making many friends around here talking like that. And if you keep it up you might find yourself losing the ones you got."

Marie tilted her head. "How's Caden doing these days? Seems healthy."

Greg just stared. He knew d.a.m.n well his boy would most likely be dead if it weren't for her. Him and his boy. Back in the day before Bus was truly the leader, and Jerry was still trying to secure that for himself, a beat-up Yankee in his New York baseball cap showed up at the gates with a very sick kid. Jerry-as usual-argued to kick them to the curb, not give them any food, even though the kid seemed like he was on death's door. Dehydrated as h.e.l.l. Marie was the one that snuck them food and water while Bus and Jerry argued it out.