The voice inside the phone says there's only one GameStop, and it's a few miles out from here. It's on a line of stores with the grocery store, plus, all the other stores in the area are dusty garbage and old people. Maybe there are a few restaurants but it's not like you can steal from or bargain with restaurants, and since we spent all that money on the hotel, that's all we can do, anyways.

We've been eating deer out on the road. Kali sets the fire, but Kali burns everything when she cooks. Not by accident. No no no. Kali burns everything deliberately. I really like black deer leg. It's already got all the hair burned off of it! Real considerate. "I'm going Veritas," I say. "I want a whole leg. Leave it raw."

"I don't have to give you anything," Kali says. Her voice sounds like she's got a snake rattle in it, all husky and smooth at the same time. Shaka shaka. We've seen a few rattlesnakes since we got over the peaks, but Mimsy killed one and another bit Mary. Don't think we can die of poison. Mary yelled for hours though. "You're the one who got bit," Kali had said. "Shut up."

Then Angel came in with all her angry mama bird noise and bandaged it up, talking to Mary about books all the while. Angel had to walk real close to her because the bandage was attached to her body, like our clothing. Angel only ever does that for Adaline and Trace, who she's attached to at the hip anyways. Red says we're lucky we haven't run into any grizzly bears yet, which I responded to like whaaaat? No grizzly bears? What's so happy about not meeting some cool bears? but I said that part in my head. I should start saying more things in my head. There are no consequences. Speaking out loud, though? That'll get you in trouble. "Yeah you do have to give me something. If I can't recharge my phone, you're all going to get lost in the Rockies. Then I bet a bear will eat you all."

"First of all, Kali, give him the leg. Second, no need to panic, I'm sure that if we did encounter a bear, we'd be well equipped to handle it," Red says when all the little kids look up, even Mimsy, who has been around, a little.

"Yeah, the bear would probably just eat someone weak. Like Adaline," Mary suggests.

Angel gasps and covers Adaline's ears. Adaline herself doesn't look too upset about getting eaten by a bear. If I had to deal with Angel everyday I think I'd welcome the jaws of the bear. At least the bear would be done torturing me in a couple minutes.

Red gives me a look and makes a swinging gesture across his neck. Kali smirks and tosses me the leg, which means it's now covered in gravel. We're lucky it didn't slide back down the hill, because most of the ground is slanted here and relatively stable still means someone could trip and slide a few tree lengths down the side of the mountain. I am a good candidate for falling. I don't know how durable the phone is but the screen crack it already has says only bad things.

"Damien's missing again," Mary slides in beside me and takes some roasted leg right off the bone, chewing it. She takes another bite of my leg. "Damien's getting to be a real pain. Don't you think? First he doesn't even thank me for the openmic and now he's wandering off without us."

"Guess he has been gone a lot," I say. "That's my leg. I need it for my elek-tro-kin-esis."

"That's a dweeb name," Mary says. "You're a dweeb. Anyways it's not like anyone has even gone to get him. No one even cares because all the big kids are fighting again."

"Mary," says Red, kindly, "We're all right here. Furthermore, there hasn't been any fighting. We're all a big family here, and even when things get rough, we know to settle things with dignity. Elle might have been sneaking off and Angel might have been a little restrictive, but we all have things to work on. I know that I could serve to be less patronizing."

"You're doing a great job," calls Kali from the corner.

"You could definitely work on being less of a bitch," suggests Dylan.

"Uh huh." Kali leans in, her voice low and dark like Gillian's. "Remind me never to take your side again. Red, what does Dylan have to work on? Turning you on?"

"OH!" I bark like a dog.

Red's face blushes violently.

"That's a dirty subject for humans," Angel complains, her voice perking up all over the place in hiccupy distress. "You can't just talk about that in front of children so-- so-- we're going to be off now. You be as vulgar as you want around your animal carcass, but when you're ready to rejoin po-lite society and advance to our next objective, Adaline, Trace, and I will be waiting." She ends with enough finality to bring a house down and a big huff.

"What we really need is a grocery run," Elle's voice is lower than the hiss of smoke.

The fire cracks.

"It'll be quick."

Dylan's face cracks a nervous half-grin, showing off all his big scary teeth. "I'll take this one. Alex, navigation."

Red pushes his glasses back. "Dylan, as always, you have my utmost thanks and appreciation." Tastes like syrup. Red's gushing. Wowsa.

"I know. You're lucky to have me," Dylan says, but the usual humor is bleached right out of it. Instead, the smile he gives is exposed bone, and he doesn't quite grab me but instead sort of jerks his head forwards in the direction we have to go.

"Gillian. Commigo?" I ask. I'd been saving this one for a special occasion. It's one I heard once and kept, because it's 'come' and 'amigo', which means friend. It's the perfect word.

Gillian cranes her neck towards the circle and the remains of the deer. Her nostrils dilate. "I will pass."

"Gillian, Gillian, you can't do this to me!" I plead. "Come on."

Gillian dislodges herself from her position and goes to sit on the other side of Mary. The whole group is looking at us now with all of their fake pity. I feel my lip quiver but there's nothing you can do when someone like Gillian says no to you. I could push her over about as easily as I could make the mountains lie sideways.

"Mind leaving sometime today?" Dylan asks.

"Jeeeeeeeeeez," I say, stretching the e out into a plea as I follow him out of our deer carcass circle and into the angry scrublands past that. "I didn't even get my leg."

"Sorry," Dylan says. He walks faster. "This is the right way to go, right? If we get off course... send me a sign."

Dylan's talking all weird. Usually he's a river full of small waves, bobbing up and down while he pulls you along, but right now he keeps stopping and starting. He watches the grass and I get my phone on. I'm almost out of battery and I'm too hungry to recharge it. Whatever. It's a strong phone. It should stop depending on me for help and just do its job.

Dylan pulls back a branch, which hits me in the face. I spit out a bunch of stick that I swallowed with my dumb open fish mouth and stagger around it. Another branch hits me in the face. Dylan is walking faster. I follow in his wake, a little to the left or right, dodging trees who seem intent to kill us today. I have other things to do besides dying by tree-fall, so, I keep moving.

"Is Red good?" I ask.

There are no birds to call out to break the silence, but the emptiness sings its own loud, lonely tune. It's a big gray expanse, the opposite of cities, which are rectangular and crooked with noise. I couldn't be less happy about being out here if I tried, but here in our family, we like being inconvenienced and spitting out sticks in the middle of nowhere.

"Red? Red's fine," Dylan says.

"You guys don't fight ever," I say.

"I said Red's. Fine." This time the branch is nice and deliberate when it hits me in the face. All the plants are upset with me too.

"Are you two... fighting?"

"No. We are not."

"But you yelled at him! And he yelled at you! In front of eeeeveryone. We all saw it! And then today you were acting like nothing happened, but it so did happen! And we all saw it! E-v-e-ry-one did!" I don't think I can spell it out any harder.

Dylan sucks in a big angry breath. He puts one foot on the asphalt of the road like he's asking the cars to run him over. "Red doesn't usually get angry or upset. Whenever he does, it's almost like... he's giving you the benefit of letting you feel how he feels, so he's still in control of the situation even when he isn't. He's dropping you his feelings as a little present for paying attention, and you can see him on the inside. He gets scared. He gets hurt. He's just... it's almost like he knows when to pull the right strings, and the rest of us are just nodding along as he pulls them. What else can we do? He's never wrong. When he falters, it's on purpose, and we all just needed to learn some lesson. How am I supposed to get through to him when he's not even--"

"Human?" I ask.

Dylan and I follow the side of the road. One car passes by on the opposite side and doesn't stop. I used to imagine sucking the people out of the cars like noodles when I was in my Veritas, smiling down at the with all my teeth before I ate them alive. It's the kind of thing Mary would do, but Mary can't really do anything. Red would never let her!
Red wouldn't... be able to stop her.

Yet he has.

Dylan's hair blows in the breeze. "Are we almost there? I'm thirsty and the only thing that's going to assuage it is alcohol."

"What's an ass-auge? Is it like sausage with more butt?" I ask, slapping my side.

Dylan chuckles. "You are exactly wrong."

"Can I have some alcohol for making you laugh?"
Dylan looks me over, a wicked grin forming across his face and shining across his teeth. They are bright and scary in the dead sun of the winter desert, like us. "To think I was just keeping you along for navigation. You're one heck of a time, Alex, do you know that?"

"Thanks," I say. "You're uh, you're fun to hang around with... too."

Dylan looks like a coyote as he wanders down the road to nowhere, emerging in a one-street area with a GameStop, a grocery store, and enough houses that it counts as a city, kinda, we guess. The cities out here are kind of small. A lot of the houses look like they're waiting to have their windows knocked in like teeth. The air smells hollow and old. People who pass actually see us but they don't stop. (Doesn't mean it's not scary.)

They kinda point at me, but Dylan's worse. he's got visible skin stuff so he doesn't even look one way or the other. He keeps walking and pulls up on the grocery store. The GameStop is in the same little center, all neglected in the corner. This might be my one chance to play some of the demos they have. "Dy-y-ylan," I plead. "Let me go to GameStop. Please? You won't even have to tell anyone you let me go. I won't tell anyone!"

Dylan rolls his eyes hard as eyes can roll and then some. "Quick."

I give him the biggest exposed bone smile I can and dash out of there with my dying phone. The GameStop is smaller than the others I've been to, not that I get to go often on account of my family being the worst, but by far the saddest thing about it is that there are just games at GameStop. I can't even play them. The demos are gone, reminding me I don't have systems besides a phone and I can't even download apps because I don't have the password and Red says I can't go in the Apple stores. I pound my foot against the ground.

The guy at the counter looks up. He's covered in face warts, the red teenager kind that are contagious, and his eyes are half shut and half red. "Caaaan I help you, suhr?" He breathes the last bit out like smoke.

"Uh--" I start. "No."

My phone rings in my pocket. My heart freezes. Never has it ever rung, in my life. I swear to the thing people say after they swear, which starts with a G, I think, it doesn't make any sense to me. I fumble with my phone which is wriggling around in my grip, getting all nice and toasty in there, and it mutters angrily. I pick it up and click the green button, holding it away from me.

"Grace. Your number's still active? Okay. They're going to track your calls. Okay. Okay! This isn't some new person, is it...? (They don't give numbers with that extension away.) This is Fitzgerald. Twelve are at large. Wait, no, you didn't... give your phone to one of them, did you?"

I feel my breath hold in my throat.

"Hey buddy. I'm not your enemy," says a soft voice over the phone. "Now, just say something. I'm a friend of Grace. Grace? Which one are you? 010? 06?"

The man in the room is staring at me. "You have kooky friends," he says. "Ma-an, this is a bad joint."

"Hello? Is that? Excuse me, is anyone there? I can hear your breathing." His voice on the phone changes.

The phone shuts off. Out of battery. I am a big scared ice statue.

Maybe Red has been right the whole time and the phone is dangerous. Maybe we are tracking them to us. We'd have to go on the run again. I can just drop it, get rid of it, and we'll go on without it. I am more than a battery. Things will be fine without the phone. Things will be fine and the man will not talk again to us, ever.

Nooooo. No no.

Dylan wouldn't have even taken me out if I hadn't been the guy with the phone. I would have just stayed back at the campfire with the dead animal and Gillian's dead eyes and Elle's dead voice and dead dead dead things like Adaline almost was. Everything is dead. I hate winter. I hate the scrub. I hate that someone called and the phone looks back at me, dead. If I tell anyone, I will be dead. Red will throw the phone into the sky and Kali will set it on fire because Kali is mean like that. I will cry big salty tears but no one will hear me because the only reason anyone cares about me will be dead.

Dylan peeks into the store. My body is shaking like radio static. I clear the moisture around my eyes. "Let's just go," I say. "They don't even have demos here."

"They let you play the games in the store?" Dylan asks, peeking around. "Humans get to play with all these?"

The man at the counter looks up through lidded eyes.

"Other humans. Like us." Dylan We're poor and our families are starving."

"Allllright," says the man.

Dylan escorts me out of the shop. We stand on the outside, looking over the five people in town, and Dylan asks, "Which way home?"

"Phone's dead."

Dylan doesn't skip a heartbeat. "Oh, what? That's totally fine. I can't get us places, but you better believe I can get us back. I think we can all sense each other. Makes sense, wouldn't it? That way we can never... leave."

We trail back through the brush and the dead bushes crackle and laugh at us, their sound a constant hah hah as we track back through them.

"You know, we could play demos sometime we hit a bigger town. I bet I could convince the big kids to let us go."

I jolt up. "Okay."

Dylan frowns. "Alex, are you alright?"

"I'm sorry, I'm hungry--" This is true. "--and also, my phone is dead, and I'm a little nervous without it."

"We can fix both those problems when you go Veritas back at home. How does that sound?" he asks.

"That sounds good." Whatever home is. Whatever home means anymore.

Does the person on the other side of the line... know where we belong?