“You want to go around?” asked Marcus, crouching down to catch his breath. “Or just turn west? We’ve been walking north for miles now, surely we’re close to the bay Jayden was talking about.”

“That or we’ve gone too far,” said Jayden, “and we’re about to run straight into the farms.”

“I don’t know how much longer I can go,” said Xochi. Kira could barely see her face in the darkness, but her voice was starting to slur with exhaustion.

“We can’t stop,” Samm insisted.

“We don’t have your endurance,” said Jayden. “I’ve trained for this, but they could collapse at any moment. We’ve been running for what, nine miles? Ten?”

“Eight point four,” said Samm. He didn’t even seem tired.

“I’m fine,” wheezed Marcus, but Kira thought he looked ready to fall over. Xochi could barely even talk.

“We go west,” said Kira. “The sooner we get into a boat, the sooner we can rest.”

Xochi nodded and lurched forward, pained but determined. Samm jogged forward to take the lead, and the rest fell into a slow, limping line behind him.

The side road slanted west around the strip mall, then slowly curved south again. Samm gave another signal and then dropped into the bushes, waiting in tense, rasping silence as a pair of horses clopped past them. They waited longer, giving the horses time to get far ahead, then crawled to their feet and pressed forward, shambling painfully on legs too tired to move any faster. Kira’s burn was agonizing now, an unrelenting fire deep inside her leg. She curled her hands into tight fists, taking short breaths and trying not to think about it. I just need to make it to that tree. Just that one tree, and then I’ll be fine. Just a few more steps. Now that tree, just beyond. That’s all I have to do. One tree at a time.

“I can smell the ocean,” said Samm, and soon Kira could as well—salty and heavy, cool and bracing in the night air. They redoubled their efforts, panting loudly, no longer caring about stealth but simply trying not to stop. The trees gave way to another shopping center, and another beyond that. Marcus walked closer to Kira now, shaky as well but doing his best to support her. She clung to his arm and hobbled forward.

“This way,” said Samm, turning north on the next road. Moonlight glistened on a silver expanse of water, smooth as black glass, and Kira looked eagerly for a boat. There was nothing.

“It’s too shallow here,” she panted. “We have to keep going.”

“‘Boats all over the North Shore,’” Jayden muttered. Kira didn’t have the breath to respond.