“And who gave you a say in this?” Maxie jumped up and shoved Jester.

“He’s right,” said Blue, pulling Maxie away. “We’ve discussed it. We go back we could be attacked again, lose more kids.”

“So we just leave them? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Yeah,” said Blue. “It is. We got to assume they’re dead.”

“And what if they’re not? Put yourself in their position— wandering around out there. Lost and alone.”

“Put yourself in the position of the other kids here,” said Jester. “The ones we know for sure are still alive. The ones sitting all around us. You think they want to go back?”

“You can take a vote on it if you want,” said Blue. “But I guarantee most kids will want to push on.”

“How can you be so cold?”

“Cuz I want to survive, Maxie. Don’t you?”

“At what cost?”

“Whatever it takes.”

Maxie looked to Ollie for support.

“Blue’s right,” he said. “It’d be crazy to go back. It’s not that we don’t care, but there’s fifty-three of us in the group now. Those fifty-three are more important than one or two kids we left behind. Who are probably dead anyway.”

Maxie didn’t know what to say, and was worried about bursting into tears in front of the boys, so she turned her back on the three of them and stalked off to a quiet corner. Ollie exchanged a look with Blue and Jester and walked over to join her.

“Maxie . . .”

“Go away. I want to be alone.”

“I know you do, but I want you to listen to me.”

“There’s nothing you can say.”

“Isn’t there?”

Maxie spun around. “Go away.”

“How do you think this looks?” said Ollie calmly.

“I don’t care how it looks.”

“Well, you should care. You’re in charge now, Maxie. Now that Arran’s gone. You’ve got to be strong. You’ve got to take charge. Our kids are looking to you for leadership. They want you to tell them what to do. They need you.”

“What do I tell them, Ollie? What’s the right thing to do?”

Ollie sat down. “They all think the same as you,” he said. “They think the right thing to do, the good thing, would be to go back and check. See if we can find any of the others.”

“Then why did you—”

Ollie cut her off. “That’s what they think would be the right thing to do,” he said. “But deep down, secretly, they would all much rather get out of here and put the park behind them. They’d rather not take any more risks. And as the leader you can make that harsh decision for them. You can order them not to go back. Then they won’t feel so bad about it all.”

“You mean I need to show them I’m tough?”