Claudine sprang to her feet, and a shotgun boomed. Jesse caught a glimpse of her in mid-air in the muzzle flash. Buckshot tore through her, nearly cutting her in half. She dropped to the ground, and Jesse ran to her. The other men fired. One blast shredded Jesse’s left arm, the other struck him full in the chest. After an instant of scalding pain, he lost consciousness.

He stops here, can go no further.

“I couldn’t do anything to save her,” he says.

“I’m sorry,” Johona says. “I won’t ask you about her again.”

Jesse manages to get back to sleep, this time dreamlessly. He has no idea how long he’s been out when the sound of the door being unlocked makes him sit up as awake as if he’d never closed his eyes. Johona is fumbling with the security chain. The sun is still shining.

“I’m gonna get something to eat,” she says.

“We have to lay low,” Jesse says. “The Fiends.”

“I thought you said they can’t be out in the daytime? I’m just going for Fritos and a Coke.”

“There’s candy on the table and some jerky.”

“I need cigarettes too.”

Jesse hesitates, unsure whether to push it.

“I’ll be back in five seconds,” Johona says. She opens the door and takes care to block the sun with her body as she squeezes through it.

As soon as she’s gone Jesse kicks himself for letting her go, worried he’s put too much trust in her. He paces the room, thinking of all the ways she might betray him. His anxiety turns to relief when she taps at the door ten minutes later and says, “It’s me.”

“I got you these,” she says and hands him a pair of mirrored sunglasses.

“What do you expect I’m gonna do with them?” he says.

“Some people wear them at night.”

He slips the glasses on.

“Check you out,” Johona says. “Joe Cool.”

“Joe Cool,” Jesse says. “Okay, then.”

They lie on the bed, and Johona tells him about growing up in Phoenix, chattering away until she dozes off in the middle of a story. He curls around her and buries his nose in her hair. He shouldn’t have gone back to the bowling alley, shouldn’t have taken her out afterward. Her resemblance to Claudine clouded his judgment, and now here they are in a world of trouble with the Fiends.

He recalls the threat the biker made before he jumped and the story of the stolen motorcycle and similar savage tales he’s heard and knows that even if he puts Johona on a bus to Los Angeles, she’ll never be completely safe. And neither will he and Edgar. They’ll always be looking over their shoulders, worried the Fiends will catch up to them. And one night they will.