“But you don’t want a child,” I said with widely surprised eyes as I lifted my face and rested my chin against his chest to look at him. “And besides, it’s not like we would ever make the best parents of the year with the kind of lives that we’ve had.”

“I know,” he said his eyelids began to close. “It was just a thought.”

Before I could even say anything else, the sounds of his heavy breathing filled the air. He was asleep and I was left wide awake with so many questions running crazily around my mind.

At the very first splinter of light that entered the cave and opened our eyes, everyone began to pack up and get ready to leave the cave as quickly as possible. Not only would it be easier for the cops to come for us and find us here in the daylight, but it would be much more difficult for us to hide and cover our tracks. The snow was melting too, which made covering footprints nearly impossible without slowing us down too much. We had everything packed, and our winter gear back on within moments.

“Which way?” Stacy asked as she slung her pack onto her shoulders and tossed a bucket of snow onto the smoldering ashes of the dying fire.

“We need to get out of the mountains now,” Rob said. “We need to get back down into the towns and cities so that we can get to the northern border faster. We’ll head north and take the first slope down into the nearest town that is away from here.”

“Won’t we be easier to spot in the city?” I asked. “Shouldn’t we stick to the forests for cover?”

“We don’t have the luxury of time to traipse through the woods,” Michael interjected. “Rob is right. We need to get away from here, and head to the nearest northern town and find a car. We don’t have the time to keep going on foot.”

The five of us headed north through the mountains, treading downward wherever there was a path to do so, until we were almost at level with the main highway that ran alongside the mountain range. After a while, signs of a small, rural town came into view—first hinted at by a very tall and rusted-out gas station sign. We made our way down toward the town, sticking to the line of trees until we had reached the dirt road that led into the gas station parking lot. There were only two cars there, one of which must have belonged to whoever was working at the gas station, and the other to a customer.

“We need a car,” Rob said as he looked over at Michael.

“Stealing a car will flag the vehicle,” Adam said. “We’ll be caught in a matter of minutes if we do that.”

“Agreed,” Michael nodded. “But buying one wouldn’t.”

“How are we going to buy a car?” Stacy asked. “For one thing, I wouldn’t guess that these random people are going to want to sell what is likely their only source of transportation to a bunch of strangers. And for another, how are we going to come up with enough money for a car on the spot?”

Michael reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a thick wad of hundred dollar bills.

“How in the world do you happen to have that much money in your pocket right now?” I asked him.

“I told you to come prepared with whatever you thought you might need, remember?” he asked. “I thought we might need cash.”

There was enough money in his hand to buy both of the two beat-up looking cars in the parking lot and then some. We walked inside the little store and saw the gas station attendant behind the counter. He gave us a smile and then eyed us as we looked around the store to see who else was here. The only customer was a single guy who was reaching for a six-pack of beer out of the refrigerated cooler. He was perfect. If it had been a woman with a few kids, it would have been a lot harder to try to get her to give up her vehicle. But a single guy buying beer was a lot more approachable with such a proposition.

The cashier watched warily as we approached the man. He seemed to think that we were up to no good, although I’m not sure why, since we didn’t look like we were going to try to hold up a convenience store with backpacks on our shoulders and red noses from the hike. We looked more like band of misfits than a threat.

“Excuse me,” Michael said as he went up to the guy.

The man stopped at looked at us and I got worried that he was going to tell us to scram before even hearing us out.

“Yeah?” he asked as he gripped the plastic rings on his pack of beer between his fingers.

“My friends and I are in desperate need of a vehicle. Ours broke down several miles away and we need to make it to the next town over—it’s an emergency.”

I could see that the man was looking at Michael like he was crazy, and he didn’t look like he was even considering loaning us his car or giving us a ride. That’s when Michael pulled the wad of cash out of his pocket and waved it in front of the man’s face.

“I can pay you for your car,” Michael offered. “More than it’s even worth I suspect. There’s at least twenty thousand dollars here.”

The man’s eyes lit up in disbelief as he looked between all of us, then over at the cashier, and then back at Michael again.

“Are you serious?” he asked.

“Yes,” Michael said. “Like I said, it’s an emergency. We aren’t short on cash or supplies, just need a vehicle to get to where we’re going.”

“But my car is a piece of junk,” the man laughed (still in an obvious state of disbelief that he could be this lucky and hit the jackpot with the load of cash being offered to him). “I mean, it runs great, but it’s rusted-out and has more miles on it than the Earth’s rotations.”

“As long as it drives, we’re good,” Adam said from his spot alongside Michael.

The man reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys. He handed the silver ring with a single key on it to Michael.

“Here you go then,” he said. “It’s all yours.”

Michael handed the man the cash and then Adam even pulled a ten dollar bill out of his own pocket and handed it to the cashier behind the counter, who looked every bit as stunned as the other man did.

“That’s for his beer,” Adam grinned.

We took the key and high-tailed it out to the car and piled in. The man was right. The car was old, and rusted, and smelled a bit like the bottom of a bog. But it didn’t matter because the engine started right up and as soon as Michael put his foot on the gas, we took off.

“I’ll bet that man had never seen so much cash in one pile before,” Stacy chuckled from the back seat. She was sandwiched in between Adam and Rob.

“Well at least it has a full tank of gas,” Michael mused. “Get comfortable guys. We’re in for a long drive.”

We drove until the car was almost on empty, then filled up the tank and got ready to drive some more. Rob and Michael switched spots to give Michael a chance to rest while Rob took a turn driving. Stacy went up to sit in the front with him, which left me comfortably between Michael and Adam in the backseat. There was always something about car rides in the back seat that put me in a kind of zoned-out trance. It was like sleeping except with my eyes open.

The guys were calm and quiet beside me. Michael’s hand rested on my thigh and I wrapped my fingers around his palm. Adam’s shoulder pressed up against mine and I thought about how much I loved the feeling of being cocooned by them. It felt safe, and warm, and at ease.

“How did you find out that Michael and I weren’t siblings?” I asked Rob from the back seat as the thought suddenly occurred to me in one of my spaced-out moments of car riding.

The timing of the question was unexpected. The guys had all but forgotten about it, now that things seemed back to normal between Michael and I, but I could sense that my question piqued their curiosity instantly.

Rob looked into the rearview mirror at me as he answered.

“One of the cops at the station said that he had known Michael’s dad. I didn’t believe him at first, but then he went to pull out a file to show me. I think that he just enjoyed being able to prove me wrong and flaunt that he knew something about the people I was hanging around with that I didn’t know. Turns out that Michael’s dad had a criminal record, and that was why his mom never wanted him around.”

“That’s the understatement of the year,” Michael said. “She pretended as if my father never even existed.”

“Well, I can assure you that he did,” Rob said as he turned his look to Michael in the mirror. “And the man was definitely not the same as Lisette’s father. Not that he was much better, unfortunately. But at least the two of you can be assured that you aren’t siblings. Your mother might have had an affair, or hell, maybe even several. She might have even had an affair with Lisette’s dad. But the two of you definitely don’t share the same father. There was an old birth certificate in the file with your name on it. And the man with the criminal record was listed as your birth parent.”

“You risked a lot even telling me that while you were still inside the precinct,” I said. “Thank you.”

Rob nodded and smiled into the rearview mirror at me.

“You’re welcome. I knew that it was important for the two of you to know.”

“I take it back,” Michael said with a slight smirk. “That is the understatement of the year.”

11