He held the device out to Eden, and she took it and said, “Maybe I should throw it? Get it farther out there? Somewhere even we can’t find it again?” They couldn’t realistically cut in much farther without sinking. “Or should I sink it in here?”

“Throw it,” Marwan said.

“Sure,” Eli said. “Either way, no one’s going to find it.”

“Okay,” she said. “Here goes.”

She drew her right arm back and stepped forward with her left foot and let it fly. She had a pretty good arm, because it got real high, but then …

The device lit up the air and made a buzzing sound—Marwan said, “What the hell?”—and it sprouted propellers and hovered like a drone.

It came back toward them like a boomerang, paused in the air over their heads, then dove at them.

“Run!” Eden screamed, turning and pushing past Eli who took off after her. Marwan was behind him—the ground beneath them squishing—and the device buzzed over their heads, nearly grazing them, then circling back and doing it again and again. It felt like being attacked by a swarm of bees; it seemed impossible it was just one thing.

Finally, it landed on the narrow path in front of them—the only way out. It sat at Eden’s feet beside a glossy business card for some car service company: yellow letters over a photo of a long black car. Winded, they all shared a look of bewilderment.

Eli was about to say, “What the hell do we do now?”

The device’s buzzing seemed to die out, and it went quiet and dark again; the air smelled vaguely of smoke.

Eli said, “I think it overheated.”

Eden said, “Let’s just leave it and go.”

Eli walked off first, prepared to duck and dart again if he had to. Eden followed and Marwan after her. Was it just going to let them leave? For a moment, at least, it seemed that way. But then …

“Wait!” came the voice. “Where are you going?” It was high-pitched, like a small child’s.

Eli looked around for a child, but found only baffled looks on Eden’s and Marwan’s faces. So it was the device?

Yes.

It cried like an inconsolable child—sputtering sobs—and said, “Please don’t leave me here.”

Marwan

MARWAN

“Just leave it, guys,” Marwan said. Neither of the others moved or even looked at him. “Now!”

“I seriously cannot believe this is happening,” Eli said slowly.

“Why are you being so mean to me?” the device whined.

“We’re not being mean.” Eden stepped toward it.

“Don’t get any closer to it,” Marwan said. “Come on, let’s just go.”

“Please don’t,” the device said.

Eden bent near it.