“I’ve got an idea,” Archie said. “Next time it does that, I’ll jump on the hood, jump off when it backs up, and see if I can find the key.”

“That’s insane,” Rory said.

“No shit. But if I find some keys, I can throw them to you, and you can see if one of them opens that door.”

“Man, if you can get as far as the cash, you could run back into the mall.”

“And what’s waiting for me there?” Archie said. “Hundreds more picking people off one by one.”

Rory nodded solemnly, but then remembered something. “If Nick got to the lower level, and we joined him, we could hang with him until help came. These stupid cars haven’t got any way to get down there.”

Archie thought Rory was right about the lower level of the mall being a safer place, but he was less confident about his friend’s expectation that help was on the way. What if this shit was happening all over the island? How many cops did Garrett Island even have? There was Chief Joe What’s-His-Name, that guy who came to see them the night his dad died. And he probably had half a dozen working under him. What the hell were they going to do? They needed to bring in the army or the air force or something.

“Okay,” Archie said. “Joining Nick can be our backup plan.”

The Arrival backed out of the room. It reversed over about ten feet of debris, stopped, readied itself for another charge forward.

Archie whispered, “Get ready to catch some keys.”

Rory nodded, eyes wide.

The Arrival suddenly sped forward. There was a deafening crash as it made a larger hole. A couple more runs and the entire car would be in the stockroom.

Archie came running out from behind the shelves. He leapt onto the front of the Arrival, grabbing the edge of the hood just below the windshield, where the wipers were tucked away, and held on tight. He stayed down low, pressing himself up against the glass, so he wouldn’t hit anything when Pamela backed out.

The car reversed. Once it had cleared the damaged wall, Archie leapt off and ran to the space behind the long checkout counter. It was narrow enough that Archie thought he’d be safe there, at least for a couple of minutes.

The car stopped, but instead of charging into the back room again, it sat. Archie had the sense it was watching him. The cars had tiny, invisible-to-the-naked-eye sensors mounted all over them, so even though Archie was off to one side, there was every reason to believe the car was monitoring his movements.

Archie opened the first drawer, where he found price stickers and scissors and rolls of receipt paper and pens, but no keys. He went to the next drawer. More of the same.