41

NOAH

The branch nearly struck me in the face.

I ducked just in time, shooting a glare at Mike Nolan, who smirked over his shoulder. He walked along the trail ahead of me, a handgun bulging from his jeans. We’d arrived south of the lake only minutes before, and things were already tense. I rounded the next tree carefully, unable to shake the feeling that I was a traitor.

What was I supposed to do? Take on the whole church?

Tack is dead. He’s freaking dead.

Ethan had stabbed him in the heart. In front of dozens of witnesses!

A kid he’d known for most of his life. It was impossible. I’d thought Ethan’s crew would abandon him right there, given their expressions, but Toby kept them in line. In the end, no one but Min had said a word. I still couldn’t believe it.

Min had gone after Ethan like a banshee, clawing at his face. He’d had trouble defending himself, blinking and moving robotically. I think he’d been as shocked as everyone else. Then Toby and Mike had wrestled Min away and marched her off to jail.

We all watched a murder. And did nothing. Not even me, not even when they manhandled Min from the building. Spineless Noah Livingston strikes again.

Things happened quickly after Tack fell. Ignoring the execution that had just occurred, Sarah ordered everyone to gather supplies from lists she’d drawn up. We were supposed to meet back in an hour. I’d stumbled to the sporting goods store in a daze, filling buckets with batteries, unable to make my brain work.

I couldn’t believe how many people actually returned. Only a dozen had gone missing, which was crazy to me, even though I was there, too. I’d told myself I had to cooperate so I could help Min, though how following Ethan’s orders was going to improve her situation, I still couldn’t say. Ethan had blown a gasket at the absences anyway. Which was why I found myself on the opposite side of the valley, inspecting a shuttered summer camp.

Ethan had assembled a “tracking party” to find our “delinquent” classmates. Mike led, assisted by the hulking linemen Tucker and Josh, along with Charlie, Lars, Leighton, and Ferris.

I’d been sent along too, likely to keep me busy. And under watch.

Hector and Darren were also in the group because they lived south of the lake and knew the area. Neither looked comfortable. We were searching for the Nez Perce cousins, Carl and Sam—rumor had it they’d bolted as soon as the doors opened, whispering they were headed for the summer camp and that others should join them.

Several girls apparently followed. Piper Lockwood. Maggie Knudson. Kayla Babbitt and Cenisa Davis. Jacob Allred was also missing, along with his best friends Hamza Zakaria and Floyd Hornberry. Ethan wanted them all rounded up and returned, even against their wills.

Personally, I hoped we didn’t find a soul. Carl and Sam weren’t fools—they’d have armed themselves the minute they disappeared. No one was going to order those two anywhere, and I wasn’t about to try, regardless of the company I was keeping.

One person was already dead. This was doubling down on insanity.

We reached the field surrounding Starlight’s Edge. Mike and Charlie ordered everyone to sit tight in the woods while they scouted. The camp looked abandoned—no lights, fires, or visible signs of occupation. I smiled. The cousins had probably laid a false trail—they could be anywhere in the valley by now. I wished them luck.

I bumped into the person next to me and whispered an apology. It was Hector. He barely noticed, his light brown eyes fixed on the ground. He wore black jeans and a bright orange T-shirt that was less than ideal for sneaking through the woods.

“You okay, Hector?”

Hector looked up, and I was startled by the pain in his eyes. “How can I be okay? Despite everything I did, I’m here. Did you know today is Sunday?”

I didn’t understand, but Hector was obviously struggling. I know what that’s like. “We’ll figure out what happened, man. Everyone’s working on it. You just have to have faith. That things will work out.”

My words had the opposite of their intended effect.

“Faith.” He covered his face, his voice cracking. “You don’t get it. None of you do. I already know what happened.”

My eyebrows rose. “You do?”

Hector nodded. “This is purgatory, Noah. We were murdered by those men, and now we’re chained to this place. A private hell. I . . . I thought I’d lived a good life, but I was wrong. This is our punishment.”

I relaxed. He was talking crazy. Hector was leader of the youth group, so I wasn’t surprised he was acting all religious. That was his thing. “You’d know better than me, but I don’t remember the Bible mentioning an eternity kicking around your hometown with classmates.”

Hector shook his head. “It’s a holding place. Somewhere you’re judged. And tested. I think . . . I think it’s going to get very bad, Noah. Tack was just the beginning. His blood stains all our hands.”

I didn’t like that talk. “If we’re in purgatory, how could Tack die?”

“I don’t pretend to understand, but I know the truth.” His head dropped. “I miss my family. I . . . I don’t think I can survive this place.”

“Hey, Hector, listen—”

But whatever I was going to say was cut off by a shout up ahead.

“Let’s go!” Lars called, and we emerged into the bright sunshine. Mike and Charlie were waiting in a dell behind the camp. “Nobody’s here,” Charlie said as we joined them.

I almost sighed in relief. Maybe I could go straight home.

Mike dashed those hopes. “Ethan said to check the woods behind the camp, too. In case they’re hiding in there to wait us out.”

Groans, even from the security guys. No one wanted to bushwhack through the forest all afternoon, chasing shadows. “This is pointless,” Lars grumbled, scratching his beard. Leighton and Charlie nodded in agreement.

“We should go back,” Ferris whined. “I forgot to put on sunblock.”

“You guys hear about Town Hall?” Darren said, his coal black hair swirling in the breeze.

“What about it?” Lars asked.

“It won’t open. My group was supposed to check inside, but we couldn’t get the doors to budge. We tried for an hour and got nowhere.”

Leighton’s blue eyes rolled. “You couldn’t open a door. Great story.”

“I wasn’t finished,” Darren said matter-of-factly. “After a while, we said screw it, and went to bash in one of the windows. But those wouldn’t break, either. Any of them. We couldn’t even scratch the glass.”

I rubbed my chin, intrigued in spite of myself. “Bulletproof, maybe? Like, for terrorism or something like that?”

Darren shrugged. “I guess it’s possible. The point is, there’s no way to get inside. We tried everything we could think of. Kinda creepy, actually.”

“Did you climb the walls?” Lars asked. Darren shook his head.

“There’s gear at the sporting goods store,” Ferris said. “We could get up on the roof and see if there’s a way in from there. That’d be way more interesting than rooting through the bushes for Sam and Carl and a bunch of chicks. Honestly, who cares if they took off? I never liked those guys anyway.”

Mike’s eyes narrowed. “You want to tell Ethan we quit?”

That silenced the group. “I didn’t think so,” he said, rubbing his gelled red hair. “Let’s get this done and report back. We can try to crack the hall later. Three other parties like ours are out looking. We can’t quit early, or everyone will know.”

With a last few mutters, we divided into pairs and spread out behind the buildings. I ended up with Ferris, who sighed loudly and started into the forest, not looking to see if I kept up. I followed his beanpole frame a dozen yards, then stopped.

Three other parties?

I hadn’t known there were other teams besides ours. Three other groups meant at least forty people were out combing the valley. And they’d need nearly every reliable guy to fill them out, if they wanted enough muscle to intimidate the cousins into coming back.

So who’s watching Min?

I felt a jolt in my system.

What was I doing? Searching the forest for people I didn’t want to find?

Min is being held hostage.

Ferris glanced back at me from the shadow of a giant cedar. He was twenty yards ahead, barely visible among the trunks. “You coming, Noah?”

I plastered on an apologetic smile. “Give me a minute. I have to take a leak.”

“Whatever.” Ferris resumed his desultory march into the woods.

The minute he disappeared I turned and ran, across the field, around the camp, and over to where I’d parked my car by the side of the road. Thank God I’d agreed to drive. I slammed my seat belt on and peeled out, carving a rut in the gravel as I raced back toward town.

I was abandoning my team.

Ditching out on my job.

Maybe even committing “treason.”

But I wasn’t going to leave Min alone in a jail cell. This time, I was going to fight for what I believed in, no matter the consequences. I was going to do something.

I just didn’t have any idea what.