He yelled back, “Samuel.”

“Where are you from, Samuel?”

“From New Jersey,” he said.

My face got hot, knowing I’d asked a stupid question. “Why are you still here? Why didn’t you get out?”

“I don’t get my paycheck until tomorrow.”

Well if that didn’t just beat all things, I didn’t know what did. I walked back to the far corner of our roof where I couldn’t see him, where he couldn’t see me ball up a fist and punch the ledge of the roof. There were another couple people across the alley on that side, and they waved their hands and called out to me. I ignored them. I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want to care about any more people until the ones I was already caring about got out.

Before an hour passed, Jaden and I got hungry again and went down the ladder into the apartment. We turned on the camping stove and boiled some water from a plastic gallon jug and made some macaroni and cheese from a box. We realized as we poured the water that there had been one flaw in Jaden’s survival plan—there were only two gallons of it in the house. We paused for a moment, looking at the water and waiting for it to boil. We didn’t say anything, but both of us knew that it might come down to those scant two gallons being a problem. Finally the water boiled, and we cooked our food. It was processed and gross and tasted delicious. After, we turned the water from the sink on to wash the plates, and what came out of the faucet was brown.

At around three o’clock, a boat came powering down our street, leaving a wake of water behind it that lapped up against the building below us. There were three men in it in combat fatigues. I wanted to make a joke about how I couldn’t see them in all that camo, but it seemed pretty stupid, and I was petrified that they might just power away on their boat. There were other people in it, too, people crowding against the sides of the boat looking defeated and desperate. The man in combat fatigues who was piloting the boat stopped it underneath the fire escape.

“We’re taking people to the shelter,” he yelled up to us as we leaned over the side of the roof. “Come on down.”

I turned toward Jaden and we hugged each other excitedly. I could feel his heart pounding against me, giving away how happy he was to be getting out of there. We started climbing down the ladder, me first. We were only a few feet down when I stopped.

“Wait,” I called up to Jaden. “Go back up.”

“What?” he said. “Are you outside your mind?”