“Are you serious?” said Ashley.

But he had already wandered off, and crouched by a bottom shelf. “Look at this.”

It was a map, hand-drawn with ink on a sheet of lined paper. A map of the area, ranging from crew camp to the survivors’ camp and a bit beyond. Their shelter was marked with an X, and a smaller x for the outdoor fire. The fish trap was sketched into the water with dotted lines. Other places were marked, too. The bog, and Mara’s usual foraging spots, with a skirted stick figure and doodles of plants. Kyle’s deadfall traps. A shaded area with the word firewood in tiny letters.

Then there were other markings, in pencil, that seemed to have been drawn and erased. Words, maybe—it was hard to tell.

Kyle touched the smudged marks. “Maybe there’s something hidden here.”

“It’s not a clue,” said Ashley. “It’s how they planned their days. Their assignments. Who would follow us where.”

“It could be a clue,” he said.

“Not everything is a fucking clue,” she said. “Fuck!” And she walked out of the tent, the door flapping behind her.

Now the guys looked at Mara.

“She’s your girlfriend,” said Bullfrog.

“I know,” Mara said, blushing. “I don’t know. Maybe she needs space.”

“Trouble in paradise?”

“Shut up,” she said.

She felt helpless. She took another sip of the awful Mountain Dew, and the bubbles tickled her lips.

“Ashley’s just stressed,” said Kyle. “She’ll be okay. It’s a lot to adjust to.”

“Thank you,” said Mara. “That’s nice of you to say.”

He nodded. “My dad gets like that. Angry. He always comes around.”

“Angry at you?”

“Sometimes.”

“That sucks.”

“It’s okay.”

“My parents never got mad at me,” Mara said. “They just got weird.”

“We should keep looking,” said Bullfrog. “Make a plan.”

“Do you think I should follow Ashley?”

“No,” said Kyle. “It’s better if you don’t.”

They kept looking. Mara found electrolyte salts, a jar of jam, and a box of super-plus tampons. She’d skipped her period from not eating; she put the box back on the shelf. Bullfrog found mosquito repellent and twenty dollars. Kyle found flares wrapped in cardboard on a bottom shelf.

“Aha,” he said. “Here we go. This is what we needed.”

“Do you think we should sleep here?” Mara said. “I mean, it’s a better camp.”

“And she’s ungrateful,” said Bullfrog.

“Nothing against the shelter,” said Mara. “It’s just that there’s cots here. You know what I mean.”

“I think we should go home,” said Kyle.

And so they did, with full arms. The walk felt longer on the way back. They’d been standing for a long time, and the standing took more out of Mara than she realized. Ashley had come back before them and stoked the fire, boiled a pot of water, and now she floated in the lake in her underwear. The water flashed silver in the sun.

Mara wanted to crawl inside and go to sleep. But now Kyle was pumped and had a plan.