“Everyone get down!”‌

Red dropped to her knees, her chest tightening around her hummingbird heart. She couldn’t breathe, she felt like she couldn’t breathe.

“Maddy, get away from that window,” Oliver said, the panic cutting up his voice. “Come here.”

Simon was huddled in front of the refrigerator, Reyna by the kitchen counter. Maddy crawling up beside Oliver under the dining table. And Arthur was crouched here, next to her.

“I tried to get you,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

“What did you see, Red?” Reyna asked her, her dark brown eyes too wide, shoulders hitching as she spoke. “You saw them?”

Red shook her head, gulping to force the air through. “No. No, I didn’t see anybody. I saw a dot,” she said. “A red dot, on the side of the RV. Before we heard the shot. Someone shot at the RV.”

“A red dot?” Simon stared at her. “Like a laser sight?” “I think so.”

Simon screwed up his face. “This can’t be real,” he said, tilting his head. “No, this really can’t be real. Are you sure it was really a gun? Couldn’t someone just have a laser pointer, and made the sound to scare us?”

“What are you talking about?” Arthur asked him.

“I’m saying, let’s not panic.” Simon’s words slurred as he forced them out. “Maybe it’s not what it seems. This could just be a prank. The guys from school knew we were stopping over near here. Maybe they followed us. Trying to scare us.”

“Why would they do that?” Maddy’s voice shook.

“I don’t know. Rob and Taylor are always pulling shit like this. F**king sadists. And they don’t like me. You know they—”

“It’s real, Simon,” Red said, cutting him off. “I saw the bullet hole in the side of the RV. I was right next to it.”

His face rearranged, cold fear taking over his eyes. It made it all worse somehow, watching the sudden change in Simon.

“Oh my god,” Maddy said, trying not to cry. Red knew that face well. “He shot at you, Red?”

Not really, but it had been close enough. A couple of feet. The red dot must have touched her on its way. She didn’t like that.

“Calm down.” Oliver squeezed Maddy’s hand. “Someone shot at us, but I’m sure this is all some kind of misunderstanding, okay?”

Simon scoffed. “Sure, just a misunderstanding. There’s a sniper out there with a high-powered rifle and a laser sight who’s decided to use us as target practice. But yeah, just a misunderstanding.”

He’d changed his tune.

“Maybe it was a warning shot,” Oliver said.

“Six,” Arthur corrected him. “Six shots. He shot out all the tires.” “Right. But maybe we’re trespassing on his land or something.” “Oliver,” Reyna said.

“What? This is the South.” He shuffled forward, out from under the table, leaving Maddy behind. She looked so small under there. “I’ve got an idea,” he said, crouching low as he moved forward, toward the sofa bed, eyes on the window above it.

“Oliver, what are you doing?” Reyna hissed.

“I’m just going to explain what we’re doing here. I’m sure this is all a misunderstanding.”

Not sure enough to stand up, though. Clearly Oliver had never been in a situation he couldn’t talk his way out of. Red didn’t think this would be one of those.

Keeping his head low, behind the sofa, Oliver slowly reached up and unlatched the window, sliding it a few inches open, letting the darkness in.

“Hello!” he called, up and out the gap in the window. “I’m sorry if we’re on your land, we got lost!”

Red should tell him it was pointless. The shooter was using a laser sight to help him aim, which meant he was probably more than shouting distance away, out there in the wide-open nothing. Oliver wouldn’t listen, though, even if she did.

“We were just trying to leave!” Oliver shouted, louder now. “We won’t say anything if you let us leave! I’m sure you have a license!”

Red looked back at Arthur. He was fidgeting, nervously tapping the top of his leg. And so was she, it turned out, picking at the seams of her front pocket. She checked in with Maddy on the other side, half under the table, strange downward shadows on her face.

Then Simon gasped. He pointed, and Red whipped her head around, following the line of his finger. To the front of the RV, and the back of the driver’s seat. Right there, against the very top of the headrest, was the red dot.

“It’s inside,” Simon whispered, terror reshaping his face again. “What?” Reyna couldn’t see.

Red looked away from the dot, tracing it back to its point of origin. “It’s coming through that window. Oliver, watch ou—”

She didn’t finish and the window exploded above him. Shattering into a million million pieces that rained down as he covered his head with his arms. Shards that shimmered as they fell, scattering around Red and Arthur too.

Maddy screamed.

“Oliver!” Reyna shouted. “Are you okay?”

He raised his head carefully, surveying his arms, touching his face as though afraid it might not still be there.

“I’m fine,” he said, his voice emptied out with the shock. “Fine.” He shook his shoulders, glass glittering as it clung to his shirt. He swiped at his

arms, and the last few shards dusting his hair. Lucky he didn’t seem to be cut anywhere. Lucky like a Lavoy.

“Yeah, just a warning shot,” Simon said, a tremble in his hand as he flicked a piece of glass away. Had Red ever seen him scared before? Ever? Simon Yoo was supposed to be fearless.

“Well, you’re the one who thought it was a fucking prank,” Oliver growled suddenly, coming through the shock. “F**k this. There’s obviously some maniac out there. We need to get out of here, right now. First we need to cover the windows. Turn down the lights so he can’t see us inside. Simon, can you?”

Simon was closest to the light switches. He glared at Oliver.

“Just reach up and dim them. You aren’t by a window. You’ll be okay.”

Simon’s legs shook as he raised himself up from the floor, using the handle on the refrigerator for balance. He reached out to the panel of switches beside the fridge, quickly turning the knobs as far as they would go without clicking off. The lights in the living area of the RV lowered to their darkest setting, a weak, murky yellow.

“Good. Okay.” Oliver nodded to the rest of them, digging a small shard of glass out of his collar. “Right, now we need to close all the blinds and curtains.”

Red nodded. They had to keep out that deadly red dot.

Oliver saw her. “Okay, Red, you do the blind on the broken window.” Why? He was right next to it.

“Arthur, you take the curtain on the front right window.”

“I see,” Arthur said to Red. “We get the side with the sniper.”

Oliver ignored him. “Maddy and I will do the windows by the dining table.”

Yep, on the safe side, Arthur had called it.

“Reyna, you take the curtain front left, by the driver’s seat, once Arthur has closed his. We’ll leave the windshield so we can drive out of here. And Simon, you get the one by the bunks.”

So Simon had made it to the non-sniper side too, then.

“Oh and close the bedroom door while you’re there; there’s a big window at the back there too.”

“What about the window on the door?” Simon said, gesturing to it with his head.

“Oh yeah. Red, can you grab that one too?” Sounds fair.

“Okay, everyone.” Oliver clapped his hands and they all flinched at the sound, too close to the crack of the rifle. “Let’s do it. Go, go, go!”

Red pushed up into a low crouch, her shoes crunching against the sparkling glass as she lunged forward, passing Oliver. She took a breath and stood up, slowly, her leg catching on the small fire extinguisher mounted to the wall here. She turned and tucked herself sideways in the thin gap between the blown-apart window and the one in the door. Trying not to think about the red dot, but of course now she had. With her left hand, she reached out for the chain hanging by the window, quivering in the outside breeze that wasn’t outside anymore. She pulled, and the cream-colored shades started to descend. Too slowly.

“Come on,” she willed it, glancing aside to see Arthur ripping the black curtain closed ahead of her in the cockpit, Reyna now venturing out to hers.

Red pulled, too hard, the shade jamming. “F**k you,” she said, reversing the chain a few turns to set it right and then drawing it down the rest of the way. The wind laughed at her, playing with the bottom of the shade, pushing it out a few inches and sucking it back in.

Red turned her head the other way, catching Simon as he closed the door to the bedroom at the back. She reached up with her right hand, over and out to the catch at the top of the window in the door. She held her breath and dragged it down in one quick movement, the dark shade locking in place at the bottom.

Only now did Oliver rise up, beckoning Maddy to do the same. They leaned over the booths at the dining table, unhooking the tiebacks and pulling both sides of the curtains across. Red still couldn’t work out what the patterns in those curtains reminded her of. It was on the tip of her brain, really. So annoying. It wasn’t that guy from SpongeBob, was it? The grumpy one with

the clarinet. Oh, damn it, what was his name again? And what was that smell that was following her, bittersweet and cloying? Was it coming from her? Red looked down and raised her shoe. The bottom of her sole was dirty and wet with something. She sniffed. Was that gas?

“Okay, good work everyone,” Oliver said, out of breath, like he’d had the difficult job there. A thanks would be nice. “Right, let’s get out of here. Reyna, where are the keys?” He held out his palm toward her.

“How?” Maddy asked him. “All the tires are blown out.”

“The RV will still move,” Oliver said. “Slowly, and it will likely cause irreparable damage to the wheels, but I think we have bigger problems right now.”

Why would there be gas on Red’s shoes?

“Reyna, keys!” He snapped his fingers impatiently.

She patted the pockets on her hoodie, at the back of her jeans, a look of horror dawning in her eyes.

“I don’t have them. I don’t know where they are.”

Red had seen her take them, after the four tires were shot out.

“What do you mean?” Oliver rounded on her. “You had them. You were driving!”

“I know, I know.” She ran her hands nervously through her black hair. “Maybe I dropped them when I was running, I don’t know.”

“Outside?!” Oliver was shouting again. “Maybe, I don’t know, I’m sorry!”

“Well, who’s going to go outside and get them, Reyna?!” “Nobody’s going outside,” Simon interjected.

“I’ve got them,” Arthur said. Nobody listened except Red. “I’ve got them!” he shouted over the others, pointing to the kitchen, behind the counter where Reyna had hidden. Arthur stepped forward and picked the keys up, rattling them to make the point. “Here,” he said, chucking them over to Oliver, who barely caught them, fumbling them against his chest.

“Okay, fine,” he said, shooting a quick “Sorry” over in Reyna’s direction. And Red couldn’t help but wonder: Who would Oliver have made go outside to get them?

“I’ll drive,” he said, passing his sister and his girlfriend on the way up to the driver’s seat. And Red hadn’t noticed before, but there was now a bullet-sized hole in the headrest, white stuffing escaping through the ripped plastic. Imagine if that hole was inside one of them. No, don’t, because then she’ll think of two bullets to the back of the head…right, see? And anyway, she needed to concentrate on thinking about why her shoes smelled like gas, and everything else.

Oliver settled down into the seat, cricking the bones in his neck. He cleared his throat. “I’ll get us out of here,” he said, like a promise or a threat. He pushed the key into the ignition and turned it.

The engine coughed, empty sputters one after the other. That sound you never wanted to hear.

“What?” Oliver said, staring down at the key in disbelief. He tried again.

The engine gasped and spluttered, taking its dying breath.

“What?!” Oliver roared. He flicked his head to check the fuel gauge. “We’re out of gas. That doesn’t make sense. We filled up again at nine o’clock. It should be three-quarters full, at least. How is it empty?”

He punched the steering wheel. Again. And again. An inhuman sound in his throat.

“That’s what he was aiming for,” Red said, glancing down at her shoes, understanding now. “Not me. He was aiming for the gas tank.”

“What?” Oliver turned back, his face patchy and red. “He shot out the gas tank,” she said.

“Why?” Maddy asked.

Red had an answer. The others probably did too, but Simon was the one who gave voice to it.

“So we can’t leave.”

The RV was going nowhere. And here they were, the six of them, trapped inside it, the wide-open nothing and the red dot waiting for them out there.