“I’ve been thinking about this,” Wyatt says. “Paige can’t go entirely alone. For one . . .” He ticks off a finger. “She needs a way off that barge after she’s ignited the lighter fluid. For two, as soon the Farmers realize they’re in danger, they’ll attack the barge, whether they sense her or not, so she needs a distraction.”

Trey is nodding along. “She needs cover and an exit strategy.”

“Well, don’t look at me,” Tanq says. “I’m not going any—”

“You can help from right here, Tanq,” Manny says. “You can set off the fireworks at Cedar Point when you see the barge come into view of the tower camera.”

She cocks her head, considering. While we were gone, she showered again and applied thick black eyeliner with swooping wings. I have no idea where she got the eyeliner, but she looks amazing.

“I can do that,” she says at last.

Emmaline hops up onto the bunk beside me, letting out a whine. It’s an odd little vocalization I haven’t heard much from her, and something about it gives me a chill. I scritch her head.

“So that’s one distraction,” Trey says. “Maybe the rest of us take the Tardis along, get close enough to be tempting, then run off and try to draw them away.”

“That sounds really dangerous,” I say.

“We have the guns,” Wyatt reminds us. “The AR-15 and Paige’s pistol. We can hold them off for a while.”

“What if dragonflies destroy the Tardis?” I ask.

“We’ll bail before that happens,” Trey says. “We have—”

I follow his sudden shift in gaze to the monitor. The white tower has begun its daily journey out of the lake’s surface and into the sky, pouring water.

“Uh, we have life jackets,” Trey finishes.

“There was a small rowboat on the barge,” Wyatt says.

I gape at them. We know the walkers can swim. Life vests won’t protect us. And if a dragonfly can blow up a yacht, it can certainly blow up a rowboat. I’m about to tell them so, but I catch a look passing between them, and I realize it doesn’t matter. They’re committed to this plan, willing to risk their lives. They understand the dangers as well as I do.

“I’m going to grab some Red Vines,” Tanq says, standing. “Anyone else want some?”

Emmaline whines again as Tanq steps toward the kitchen door.

“Sure,” Wyatt says, but he’s hardly paying attention because he’s thinking so hard.

I say, “Hey, I’ll take some too.”

Tanq reaches for the door. Emmaline growls.

A scent wafts toward me—lake water, and hot metal, and something like talcum powder.

“Tanq, wait—”

She opens it. A walker stands in the doorway, dripping water and algae, bluish-green stains darkening its ephemeral cloak. In one “hand,” it holds a round, metallic object that shifts in my vision like quicksilver.