“And then you told all these mere mortals to take up arms against a superpowered foe.”

“Right, but—”

“So, yeah, I gotta concur this scene here is pretty much all your fault.”

Hmph.

“Well?” he prompted, eyes piercing into me. “What are you going to do about it?”

I was about to protest that I had already done everything I could think of, but then I spotted the single stake he had stashed in the front pocket of his shirt. My eyes flowed over his shoulder to the pack full of stakes on his back, while my hands ran the length of my bandolier. An idea was forming, one that didn’t require me to choose sides at all.

“How many more stakes do you have?” I asked.

Sal shook his head, a look of pity on his face. “Not enough, kid. Not enough.”

“That depends,” I said. “How many does it take to build a fence?”

Thirty-Seven

A Matter of Life and Death

Just minutes later, we were on our knees at the entrance of the broad tunnel that led back to the gym, the battle for Nowhere still raging on the field in front of us. Sal’s backpack and my bandolier were cast to the side, the stakes they once held dumped in a pile between us, as Sal and I feverishly worked them into the ground, turning them back into fence posts. There weren’t enough stakes to stretch all the way across the wide opening, and Sal wasn’t confident that he could re-create what he’d built back at the cottage, but I urged him to try.

Soon, we had a kind of miniature, makeshift fence reaching from either side of the tunnel opening but not quite meeting in the middle. It was a short fence, no higher than our shins, and there was no gate, but something about those little white stakes sticking out of the ground like fangs gave me the same shudder as when I’d first seen them surrounding the cottage, and I had a feeling in my gut that this just might work.

I was shoving my last stake into the ground when Poe and the twins ran up, panting and disheveled.

“You’re okay!” Sydney cried, dropping to her knees beside me and throwing her arms around my neck.

“What’s your uncle doing?” Poe asked.

At the other end of the tunnel opening, Sal was gripping each stake, one at a time, head bent low and muttering some kind of chant.

“I’ll catch you up later,” I said, standing. “Right now, I need your help. I need you to round everyone up—get them to come this way, back toward the gym.”

Poe gaped at me. “But we’ll be trapped. The gym doors—”

“Just do it!” I cried.

The twins moved in unison, racing back into the melee and dragging Poe along with them.

“And find Reg!” I hollered at their backs.