The least I could do? The least you could do is give me the benefit of the doubt over Charlie. But why should she in all honesty? My life choices hadn’t exactly made it easy to trust my judgment. I let out a slow breath. Whether I was justified in my bitterness toward her or not, I didn’t have to be rude. I’d already determined that I owed it to her parents to get her to safety, and since that was my decision, I could act cordial until then. Emily and I were at odds, but she also surprised me sometimes with her depth of feeling, like the night before when she’d stood crying in the woods over Russell’s death. As I’d cared for her wound, the moment had felt…almost intimate and maybe I was extra irritated because I wanted to stay mad at her, but there were these times where protectiveness and affection and unwanted emotions regarding Emily snuck up on me. And some part of me welcomed it. But another part wanted to growl with frustration.

I glanced over my shoulder to see Charlie with his phone raised to the sky again, walking in circles. I almost rolled my eyes. He hadn’t even gotten it to turn on. How was raising it to the sky going to do anything? But…hell, it couldn’t hurt to keep trying. Maybe the dirtbag would end up getting reception somewhere along the way and have the last laugh.

In this case, I hoped he would.

I turned back to Emily, who was staring out at the dirt road in front of us and the sky that stretched beyond. I seriously hoped Charlie wasn’t right about this road going on for thirty miles—or more—but it was definitely possible. I didn’t see any tire tracks whatsoever, so either weather had erased them, or no one came out here very often at all.

It was well into the evening now and though the vibrancy of the sky had dulled, the orange hue still remained, just like the day before. I’d never seen anything like it, and it kept making me wonder if my internal clock was off. The moon had been different too, unusually bright so that the nighttime hours seemed like eternal dawn. “I don’t know what to think about what happened—” I waved my hand around “—here or to our plane. I’m not even sure they’re connected, although…it’d be a big damn coincidence if they weren’t.”

“Any guesses at all?”

I shrugged. “I thought about an electric storm, or something bigger like a meteor that worked to alter the weather in some way.”