Crayton turns around and breaks the back window with the butt of his gun, then fires. The lead vehicle is upended, which makes us all cheer in celebration.

“That should keep them far enough back,” Crayton says, quickly reloading the gun’s clip.

And it does for a few minutes, but as the road grows more precarious and twists down the mountain at sharp declines, the vehicles catch right back up to us. Héctor mutters under his breath as he whips around each bend, the gas pedal buried, the truck’s back tires swinging frighteningly over the edge of the towering cliff.

“Careful, Héctor,” Crayton says. “Don’t kill us before we get there. At least give us a chance.”

“Héctor is in control,” Héctor replies, bringing no comfort whatsoever to Crayton, who keeps a white-knuckled grip on the headrest in front of him.

The only refuge is the road’s perpetual turns, which keep the Mogadorians from getting a straight shot, though they try anyway.

As we race around a particularly sharp bend, Héctor can’t turn us quickly enough and we go off the edge of the road. At a seventy-five-degree angle, the truck races down the dense mountainside, smashing through saplings, bouncing off boulders, barely avoiding thick trees. Ella and I scream. Crayton yells as he flies forward and slams into the windshield. Héctor doesn’t say a word; he clenches his teeth and maneuvers us around and over obstacles until we miraculously land on another road. The truck’s hood is severely dented and smoking, but the engine is still running.

“This is a, uh, shortcut,” Héctor says. He tries the gas pedal, and we quickly rumble down the new road.

“I think we lost them,” says Crayton, looking up the cliff.

I pat Héctor’s shoulder and laugh. Crayton sticks the barrel of his gun out the back window and waits.

Eventually the lake comes into view. I wonder why Crayton believes the lake will save us.

“What’s the big deal about the lake?” I ask.

“You didn’t think I’d come to find you with just Ella, did you?”

For a moment I think to tell him that up until a few hours ago I thought he had come to kill me. But soon the Mogadorians appear behind us again, and Crayton turns around while Héctor’s eyes dart up to the rearview mirror.

“This is going to be close,” Crayton says.

“We’ll get out of it, Papa,” Ella says, looking at Crayton; and hearing her call him that fills my heart with affection. He smiles warmly at her, then nods. Ella squeezes my hand. “You’ll love Olivia,” she says to me.