Just as he was lifting it up to take a sip out of it, we heard the distinctive sound of motorboats nearby. We jerked toward the fire escape, and as we did, the bottle slipped from Jaden’s hand. We watched the water glug out of the jug onto the floor, and were torn between it and the window. We chose the window. We rushed up the ladder, to the roof. The boat was close, right on top of us it seemed from the sound. We climbed as fast as we could, and ran to the edge of the roof, waving our arms. But it was too late. That second we had hesitated had given the boat just enough time to pass us. We stared at each other before slowly descending the ladder.

There was a wide pool of water on the ground in Jaden’s living room when we got back down there. The jug was mostly empty. We had missed the boat, and now we wouldn’t have enough water to make it through the day.

“What are we going to do?” I asked, looking down at the bottle. I righted it, and what little was left sloshed to the bottom.

Jaden didn’t have an answer.

6 By noon the next day, the water was gone, and our throats were dry. While the slurree might technically keep us from dehydrating for a little while if it came down to it, the thick consistency of it only made us thirstier. As did the cereal and protein bars and nuts that we were eating. We had to come up with a plan. We sat across from each other in the living room, not jawing at all.

“We’re going to have to go into other people’s apartments,” Jaden said finally.

“Like, break in?” I asked.

“Well, we can try knocking first,” Jaden said.

“We can’t just go stealing from your neighbors,” I said.

“Neighbors?” Jaden said. Now he had an edge to his voice. “All my neighbors are gone. These people left, they’re not my neighbors, or yours. They’re just people who left us here to die while they went to their fancy houses in other places. This isn’t their neighborhood.”

I saw his point, but I still felt uncomfortable. What if we broke into a house where not everybody was gone? And what if those not-everybodies had guns or weapons? And what if they were the kind of people who looked at our brown skin and our dark eyes and shot first and were sorry later?

“It’s not like we’re looting, Makayla. We need water. We have to get it somewhere. That’s all we’ll take.”

I put my boots on and started looking around for something to carry. There was the hammer we’d used to put the door up over the window, and a crowbar in a closet. Both would come in handy. I handed the hammer to Jaden and took the crowbar myself.