alive.” Olivia started to cry, though whether the tears were happy ones or sad ones, I couldn’t tell.
“What do you want to do, Olivia?” I said. The other girls watched with wide eyes.
The room was quiet. Every eye turned to Olivia and me. Olivia stood and wiped away her tears.
“Well,” she said. “Pack your bags, kids. We’re headed to Elysium.”
Our bags were few, of course. As we went out to the horses before the sun rose, loaded up with bindles and old suitcases, we looked like hoboes on our way to jump a new train. Judith and Susanah also rigged together a makeshift sleigh that could be pulled behind one of the horses. This would carry the remaining supplies from the train. It wasn’t as good as the stolen goods, but any leverage we could get would help us, we thought. Plus, if we left it, it would only go to fill the Laredo Boys’ stomachs if and when they actually came after us. So we loaded up the horses, hitched the sleigh of supplies to one of them, and said our goodbyes to the train.
Then Judith and Zo doused all of it in what was left of the homemade moonshine. Olivia lit up a hand-rolled cigarette, took a long, sad, indulgent drag, then tossed it at the foot of the train.
The flames started small, then grew higher, hotter, pushing us back to stand and watch everything that we had had blaze orange in the sunset. The crackling grew to a roar, and the metal buckled and groaned in the heat of the train’s funeral pyre.
Asa and I stood back from the others as they stood there before it, silhouetted in the orange light. We were part of the group, yes, but the train wasn’t to us what it had been to them. I saw Zo put her arm around Judith as though steadying her. Mowse reached up for Susanah’s hand. Cassandra shifted from foot to foot. Only Olivia stood still as it blazed, holding her hat over her heart.
“Come on,” Olivia said finally. “Let’s get going.” And we turned and began the march toward Elysium.
We set out, winding through the crags and boulders and into the flat expanse of no-man’s-land, taking the straightest, most open route we could, lest anything try to attack us. Olivia rode in the lead, her eyes on the horizon as the horses cantered onward, never stopping, never tiring. And as we rode toward the horizon, we could see giant chunks of the land missing, only sky in the places they had been. It was stark and ugly and our brains seemed to reject it, but it was true: Pieces of the world had fallen away—and no matter how unsettling it was, more would follow.
“Are you sure we have to do this?” said Mowse when we finally stopped to rest.
“There will be other kids there,” said Susanah. “You want people to play with, right?”
“I wanted to stay,” Mowse said.
“Don’t pull that foolishness with me right now just because you’re scared,” Susanah said.
Mowse was quiet for a moment, then said, “What if they shoot us?”
“They’re not going to shoot us,” I said. “Not with the supplies we brought for them.”
Mowse didn’t reply, but it seemed to be enough for her. She finished the rest of her lunch in silence. Susanah looked at me as though to say, I hope you’re right. I hoped I was too.
Asa shuddered, but kept quiet.
“Let’s get going,” Olivia said. “We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.”
“Wait a minute,” Asa said. “Do you hear that?”
There was a rumbling in the distance, but no vibrations underfoot, no cracking earth beneath our feet. It was not another earthquake. It was the sound of chariots—makeshift chariots made from the skeletons of cars and drawn by strange, scaly, two-legged beasts with no eyes and mouths full of teeth. At the reins were men painted with black axle grease, holding spears and machetes and guns. Men screaming for our blood. And in the leading chariot was Samson, his broad body unmistakable even at this distance.
“The Laredo Boys!” Zo said. “They must have tried to ambush us and found us gone!”
“And now they want to pick a fight when we try to leave,” Olivia said. “Typical men.”
“We’re just under a mile ahead,” said Susanah. “We can beat them to Elysium.”
“And then what, fight them at Elysium’s door?” Olivia said. “Fight Samson while we duck under buckshot from the guards? No.” Olivia pulled her horse to a stop