“Come in,” she said. Her hands trembled like Jello that hadn’t set.

“Look,” I said. “We need to talk. We’ve been up all night, and dawn is coming soon, and as soon as the light comes, the cops are coming in here. And we’re probably all going to die if that happens. What if we leave? What if we find a new place, somewhere else? We shouldn’t fight them.”

“What?” Makayla said, livid. “These two have been leaving fucking formations and rallying people to fight for weeks and now you’re backing out? What are people supposed to do?”

“I won’t lead any shield formations,” José said. The way his head hung down, I could tell he still wasn’t convinced he shouldn’t. But after a night of talking to his brother, he had made a decision.

“We aren’t proving anything this way,” Sebastian added.

“Fine, we find another sienty building and make it what we made here. Who says they won’t come and take that one from us, too? Where can we go that they don’t own?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But we’re not fighting today. We’re not leading that kid in the next room into death, or anybody else. This isn’t some protest where they’ll fire rubber bullet at us. They’re going to kill us all and drag our bodies out of here if we don’t leave.”

“Fuck,” Makayla said, pacing around the room. “Fuck. Fine. Fine. One of you go out there. Get everyone and head out. Take Ale first. But if they shoot when you go out there, don’t look at me for help.”

I thought about it for a minute. “I should go first and tell them we’re coming. I’m the last white person in the building, and they might think I’m some kind of freak, but we all know that the chances are less that they’re going to shoot me. I’ll go. I’ll take Ale. José, Sebastian, you round everybody up and follow me.”

Ale felt lighter than I would have imagined him to in my arms. He was still sleeping, his dark eyelashes barely fluttering as I lifted him. I walked him out the door, down the hallway, down the stairs, and to the lobby. As we went down the stairs, something clattered out of the pocket of Ale’s jeans and he woke to grasp for it. The phone he’d been holding onto since I’d known him. I slipped it back in his pocket and he curled back up to my chest, content.