Nick’s head bobbed up like a target in a whack-a-mole game. He extended his arms toward Archie. The trouble was, Archie was running in place in one direction, and Nick was trying to run in place in the other.

Attempts to lock arms failed. Their fingertips touched for a millisecond.

Another car was coming.

“DUCK!” Archie shouted again.

Nick’s head went down as the car passed over him.

“NOW!”

Nick shot upward. Archie had run several steps down, so that when Nick popped up, he’d be just in the right spot. He threw his body over the rubber railing, his feet coming off the escalator steps, arms outstretched.

Nick reached for his friend’s hands.

His right hand grabbed on to Archie’s left, but his other hand failed to make the connection. It didn’t matter. Archie grabbed on to that one hand with everything he had and pulled at the same time as Nick pushed himself off his escalator. He scrambled over the shiny metal median, now smudged with tire tracks, and tumbled into the other escalator on top of Archie.

Without a second to spare. Another Arrival zoomed past on its way to the lower level.

“Thank you!” Nick shouted, disentangling himself from Archie as they rode toward the upper level.

Archie surveyed what awaited them. The top of the escalator was clear, but only steps away, Arrivals were lined up to make the trip to the lower level. One could easily steer out of line to chase the boys.

“Where’s Rory?” Nick asked. “Did they get Rory?”

“He got away,” Archie said. “I’ve got an idea.”

“Yeah, but what—”

“Follow me!”

The second they reached the top of the escalator, Archie ran straight for the Arrival that was next in line to crawl over the crushed one.

“Archie, no!” Nick said.

But Archie had already jumped onto the hood. He ran up toward the windshield, onto the roof, down the rear window, leapt off the trunk and onto the hood of the next car.

“Come on!” Archie said, stopping briefly on the roof of the next Arrival to wave his friend on. Nick took half a second to summon the courage he needed before following Archie’s lead. He had a memory flash of a video he’d seen online of a chipmunk who’d avoided capture by a cat by jumping onto its back.

Archie kept running, car over car, his footsteps thudding on the metal surfaces. Nick had poured on the speed and was only one car behind him.

The Arrivals beneath their feet seemed to stir, not so much with menace, but with frustration. How were they supposed to run these kids down if they were running on top of them?

Archie could see the end coming. Four more cars to go.

The car at the tail end of the line suddenly backed up, creating a space between it and the car ahead.