The three fugitives followed the riverbank away from the town, entering the heavily forested hills as soon as they could. They went in just deep enough to keep the road in sight while remaining unseen. Twice they heard voices and the snap of twigs. They froze and the voices moved on. Bandits roamed the woods, mostly just young men trying to avoid military duty. But they were also hiding out, hungry and desperate. The three continued through the night, Sparrow leading the way.

At sunrise, they concealed themselves in a copse of red pine, under the dense cover of wide, fragrant branches. They slept until noon, when Sparrow shared food from her bag, balls of sticky rice wrapped around pickled vegetables.

Lian opened a map. “I’m afraid it doesn’t show the roads all the way up to Changsha,” she said. “I wasn’t planning to travel in that direction when I bought these maps.”

“It’s all right,” Sparrow said. “If we keep the road in sight, we’ll get there.”

“We haven’t gone as far as I’d like. It’s slow when we have to beat our way through the underbrush,” Shao said. “Should we try the road for a while?” The rash on his skin still irritated him and he hadn’t slept much.

They peered through the trees. The road below was busy with foot traffic in both directions. At the sound of a vehicle horn’s repeated honking, the stream of people parted. A jeep came around the bend, followed closely by a second one.

“Saturday morning,” Shao said, “and that second car was the military police. They’re on their way to arrest you, Lian. Wendian did turn you in.”

“We have an advantage, though,” Sparrow said. “Yesterday’s aerial attack went on for a long time, the longest so far. A lot of students were in town when the planes came. People might think we’re missing because we’re injured. Or dead.”

They walked until the sun set, then sat down to eat while there was enough light to see. They continued through the night, following Sparrow, who never hesitated. Wherever the forest canopy parted, the sky above them was awash with stars. They reached Changsha in the early morning hours.

THE HOSPITAL HAD run out of rooms and patients lined its hallways. Stretchers crowded the corridors. Some soldiers didn’t even have blankets or mats; they were just lying on the floor, crimson pooling on the tiles beneath them. The stench in the hospital was terrible, urine and putrefaction overlaid with the chemical tang of bleach. A row of patients sat slumped in chairs lined against one wall. A hospital worker was handing them mugs of hot water.

Lian apologized as she stepped over a bandaged soldier, then realized the man was unconscious. A nurse at the far end of the corridor was directing stretcher-bearers. Shao and Sparrow went over to find out if she knew Daming.