“I know she’s a dog!” Sofía said. “But we’re just humans, and that doesn’t stop you from giving the streetlights of Splendor electroshock therapy! Droog just led a stampede to break us out! I thought she had a plan.”
Droog came to an abrupt stop in front of the cave, pitching her front paws onto the ledge over its mouth.
“Shh!” Levi waved a hand toward the pinprick of light visible beneath the lip of the cave. The light turned off before our eyes.
“There’s someone in there,” I whispered.
Droog pushed off the rock and sprinted another circle around us, trying to draw us in toward it. Sofía crept forward, and when Levi reached for her elbow, she shook him off and kept going. I wasn’t sure why we were bothering to move so stealthily.
Whoever was in there had clearly heard our approach—why else would they have turned off the light?
Sofía caught my eye and tipped her chin toward a pile of brush just behind the thicket of trees. Something was hidden under the tangle of fallen branches and dead leaves. I moved closer.
Bikes?
I leaned toward the bramble, peering through the darkness at the battered blue Schwinn underneath. I recognized it. It belonged to—
“Nick?” Sofía said, surprised.
“Franny?” a boy’s voice called from inside.
“Wait, Arthur?” Levi called back.
Droog’s tail wiggled, and she let out a cough of a bark in greeting.
“Did I just hear Droog?” Nick called, and with her tail wagging and nails clacking, Droog crouched and darted into the darkness.
“What is this, some kind of demented tribute to ‘Who’s on First’?” I said.
There was a shuffling from within as we approached, bent low, and finally a lantern went on inside, casting Nick’s and Arthur’s faces in a golden glow. Relief throbbed through me at the sight of them.
A part of me, I realized, had been braced to never see either of them—but especially Nick—again.
Something came over me, and I dropped onto my knees and threw my arms around Nick under the low overhang of the cave entrance. He blinked his surprise at me for a few seconds before hugging me back. “Well, nice to see you too.”
“What are you guys doing here?” I asked, pulling back.
“Especially you,” Levi murmured, kneeling awkwardly beside me so we were on the same level. “I thought you were ‘done.’”
Nick grimaced. “I thought I was too. I went home last night, and I slept like a baby for the first time all week, and this morning, I was sure I’d made the right decision, getting out while I could.”
“Wow, great story,” Sofía deadpanned, still standing, and crossed her arms. “Glad you found your bliss.”
“And then,” Nick twanged, “I went to work. And there was a power surge and a blackout, and I knew it must mean Wayne was there. That he was up to something. I told myself it didn’t involve me. And then the texts just kept coming in. About Remy waiting for his dad to come home, and from Franny, warning us not to go home, and Sofía having her vision of Franny at the mill.
“And every message that came in, I told myself it wasn’t my problem. My family is my only problem, my responsibility. But then Levi sent us the message about that Black Mailbox Bill guy, and how his wife was worried he might’ve come after Franny, and I looked across the store and watched Arthur just walk out. Just leave work, and it hit me.”
“That you were a giant selfish idiot?” Sofía said.
Nick rubbed his scalp. “That I would’ve chosen y’all too. If I were an alien who wanted to save the planet Earth, and I could only have five people—and one dog—I would’ve picked you. Because no matter what we don’t say, I know you all. You’d walk away, in the middle of anything, if one of us needed you. I guess what I’m saying is, you’re my family too, and I’m sorry.”
Levi shifted between his knees and cleared his throat. “I meant literally, how did you end up here, in this cave, but I guess that’s all good to hear too.”
Nick and Arthur exchanged a look. “That question’s a little trickier,” Arthur said. “And a long story. What about you guys? How’d you find us?”
“Ditto to Arthur’s answer,” Levi said.
Overhead, the steady beat of helicopter blades was sweeping back this way.
“Let’s get into the cave,” Sofía said, “where they can’t see that light.”
We crawled inside then got to our feet and made our way to the waterfall in the back hollow, but as we were going, my ankle screamed and another blow of vertigo hit me hard, knocking the world off balance.
The shadowy cave slanted, the ground rising up beside me like a wall, and my cheek, my ribs and side slammed into it.
Sofía yelped my name and hurried to where I’d fallen, and even she was rocking like a pendulum in front of me. Her voice was warbling. The world was in flux in front of me.
Levi, Nick, Arthur, and even Droog crowded around me too.
“Stay with us, Franny,” Nick was saying. “We’re here, so just stay with us.”
Remy, I thought. What about Remy? We needed to get Remy.
I started to push myself up, but Sofía eased my shoulders back against the wall as she leveled her gaze on me. “It really is making you sick,” she said. “Whenever you use the power?”