“What about Luke? Is he tough, too?”

“He wants to be, but he’s really scared.”

“We’re all really scared. Honesty, remember? You telling me you’re not scared?”

Caleb took a few seconds to get to the answer. “No, I’m a little bit scared.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being frightened, Caleb. You can’t survive if you let it paralyze you, but being scared is healthy. Fear is God’s way of telling us when to duck.”

“I just wanted you to know,” Caleb said. “It’s not just you and Paul. I’m here, too.”

“Duly noted,” McCrea said. He considered giving the kid a playful shoulder bump, but didn’t. They seemed to be having the beginning of a thing going between them and he didn’t want to screw that up.

Behind them, Luke said, “I’m hungry.” For at least the fifth time.

“No food till noon,” Victoria said. “Get used to being at least a little hungry pretty much all the time.”

Caleb spun around and walked backward. “We can hunt,” he said.

“Not until we’re settled someplace,” Victoria said. “Let’s focus on getting to Ortho and then figuring out the next step from there.”

“What’s so special about Ortho?” Luke asked. “Do we even know what’s there?”

“It’s a place,” Victoria said. “A destination.”

“How far are we from Top Hat Mountain?” Caleb asked, still walking backward.

“Please turn around before you trip over something,” Victoria said. “A couple hundred miles.”

“We’re going to walk hundreds of miles?” Luke sounded horrified.

“It’ll take a while,” Victoria said.

Up ahead, on the right, a patch of grass and scrub growth looked as if it had been shredded. Deep trenches through the dirt and gravel were testament to a vehicle that had careened over the embankment and disappeared.

“Good Lord,” Victoria said. She took off at a trot to investigate.

“Ma’am, don’t!” McCrea commanded.

She never slowed, and her kids followed her.

“Vicky!” McCrea shouted. “Stop!” He knew he was wasting his words. He took off after her and Copley followed.

He caught up with the Emerson family as they skidded to a stop at the brow of the embankment. A red Toyota sedan had skidded down the steep hill and bent itself around a stout tree. The roof was crushed on one side, the windshield had spiderwebbed into an opaque mass. The axle clearly was broken. Bodies lay motionless in the front seat. It was hard to tell from this angle, but it appeared to be a man and a woman.

“Let it be,” McCrea said. “We can’t help them.”

“You don’t know that,” Victoria said. She started down the hill, but McCrea grasped her arm to stop her.

“Please don’t,” he said. “They’re dead. You don’t need your kids to see—”

The lady in the shotgun seat stirred. “Oh, thank God,” she yelled. “Help me!”