Miig said nothing, but he kept his hand on me, so I knew it was still there. Even now, now that he knew everything, all of it, he was still there.

✦✦✦ ✦✦✦ ✦✦✦

I jogged ahead and caught up to Rose, who was walking with Nam. I wasn’t sure if I could keep a secret from her, but I knew I couldn’t stay away, not for another minute. Nam smiled and then split as soon as I fell in beside Rose, catching up to Slopper, who lit up a bit when they fell in step with him. Being so close to Rose was maddening, and we had to stop walking. She grabbed my hand and pulled me from the group, running just far enough away that we felt privacy.

“Rose, oh my god, Rose.” It came out as movement pushing me into her. She touched my hair, the line of my cheek, my lips, and then met me halfway. And oh, it was everything.

“I knew it.” She pulled away and spoke into my neck, arms wrapped all the way around me. “I friggin’ knew there was no way you’d join them. Not you. Not after Riri. Not ever!” She squeezed me tight, and I couldn’t breathe. I could barely stand.

She took my face in her hands. They were shaking. “French, I never gave up. They told me some bullshit story about you bringing in some people, but I knew it wasn’t true. I knew they were wrong!”

I tried to respond. I tried to tell her that I knew she would never give up, that she was the very best of us, but there was too much in between the thought and the words. If I opened my mouth, I would scream.

“I almost stayed at the camp,” she said, pulling her shoulders down and then back. I wondered if by “camp” she meant “with Derrick.”

“But it just wasn’t home. And Nam”—she turned a bit to indicate the slim figure walking with Slopper—“they came with me. We followed the map Miig left and ran into an old guy who told us—”

“You can’t just talk to anyone out there! You never know who’s real and who’s…not.” I grabbed her arms as I spoke. The thought of her stumbling into JP or someone like him made me panic, even now with her safe in front of me.

“Jeez, I know.” She shrugged me off. “God, like I’m new to this?”

“How did you get across the border?” Fear had given me use of my voice again, and I needed to know everything that had happened every moment that we were apart, no matter how horrible or heartbreaking. “Did you…did you come with Derrick?”

“Derrick is not with me.” She took a moment to make sure I was really seeing her. “Derrick was never really with me, French.”

“But how’d you find us here, at that place?”

“Found the network, and they had information about a captured group. I knew it was you. I just…knew. So we made our way in. Then we had an opening, and we took it. And you, French? How did you get out of the school?”