It had been the best day of Aria’s life. As in Taylor’s situation, the squalor she found herself in seemed more like treasure because of the promise of the way her life could feel with him in it. She walked toward the Land Cruiser with the intention of lying awake, preserving the feeling of being with him for as long as she could before falling asleep. But the bestial cruelty of the reality of her life thwarted her intention.

There was a scuffle of panic near the broken-down black Camaro. Sensing the urgency of crisis instead of conflict, Aria ran toward Anthony and Wolf, who were crowded around the open door of the car EJ had claimed for his own. “He’s OD’ing!” Wolf yelled out to her. “We’ve got to get help quick.”

Though still breathing, EJ was unresponsive, his body occasionally tensing up and going loose again. Wolf was holding him half out of the car and yelling at him to wake up. The sides of his face were tarnished by the acid of his own vomit and he was making choking sounds. Even through the dark, Aria could see his already pale skin turning the color of clam flesh. “We gotta get him somewhere fast!” Wolf yelled, pulling EJ from the car with the help of Anthony. Both of them held one half of his limp body, and they started carrying him as fast as they could in the direction of the city.

It was a sad reality that all of them knew without having to communicate it to each other. None of them owned a phone, but even if they had, they couldn’t risk calling the attention of police to the car lot. It would put every single one of them at risk. So they were rushing him away from the car lot as fast as they could to find help. Aria felt the pit of doom in her stomach. She had a feeling that EJ wouldn’t survive if they took so long.

She looked back to where Omkar had dropped her off and realized he had already left. “Stay on the road and keep walking!” she yelled out to them, turning to run as fast as she could. She ran as fast as her legs could take her toward the city streets she knew would have some life still left on them. The shops and restaurants had all closed for the night. The stale light made them look cadaverous.

Her chest burned and her legs spasmed but she kept on running, flailing her arms to try to stop any cars that passed her, but no one pulled over. She ran across a street, against the red light, toward a group of people waiting to get into a bar. “Help, we need help, someone’s in trouble, I need a phone!” she yelled at the group of startled people.