We started with the doors nearby. Jaden had been joking, but we did work our way down the hall knocking. When we got to the third door, someone called back from inside.

“Who’s there?” they said, fear in their voice.

“We’re...” I hesitated, thinking of what Jaden had said. “... we’re your neighbors.”

“Go away! Don’t come in here!”

I turned toward Jaden and whispered fiercely, “I told you, I told you no one would think we were upswing coming knocking on their door like this.”

“Come on,” Jaden said.

We knocked on doors all down the hallway. When people answered, they mainly told us to go away, to get away from their apartments. Finally, we came to the last one, a door with a new, fresh coat of paint. I remembered Jaden jawing about the Smiths, a family that had been there for ages, moving out of this apartment recently. There must be new people here now. We knocked on the door and called out again. I put my ear to the door and listened for any sounds, but I didn’t hear any. I turned to look at Jaden. He shrugged. I wedged my crowbar right between the newly painted door and the jamb. As I pushed with all my strength, the door screeched open.

It was dark inside. I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight, illuminating the darkness with a weird bluish glow. The light bounced off shelves of knick-knacks, figurines and antique bottles and silver statues. It was the kind of stuff you would only spend money on if you had it to burn. I felt that heat and tightness again, mixing up in my head. These were the kind of people who lived in our neighborhood now.

“Come on,” Jaden said, pushing me forward. We went through the living room to the kitchen. We rummaged around but didn’t find anything useful. There was a rotten smell that came out of the refrigerator when we opened it. All the rich-people food, meats and cheeses and delicate little fruits that were like something in a painting at the Met—they were all rotting away in there.

We went through the cabinets. Finally, in one near the floor, we found a six-pack of water. Not water like they sell at the 24/7, either, but that mineral stuff that comes from springs up in the God-knows-where mountains. Traveled stuff. Stuff in glass bottles. Jaden grabbed the case and we started making our way toward the door.

As we were leaving, I took the crowbar and ran it all along a shelf, smashing the glass figurines to bits.

7 We tried not to drink too much, but two days later, the water we’d stolen from the goodbreeds down the hall was dwindling. Jaden’s eyes were beginning to look sunken. We walked up to the roof every morning and stayed there for hours. We were freezing.