What she can see, though, is that the blue sky and warm sunshine the Pack was enjoying on their climb is now disappearing, replaced by ominous, swirling gray clouds.

The boys are almost at Christian’s tent, and that makes Dawn hurry up, even though her knees are killing her by this point and she has blisters on her feet and her back hurts and she’s tired as hell. Also, she’s now walking through a boulder field, where the smallest rock underfoot is like the size of a soccer ball, and most are, like, fridge-sized, or even Volkswagen-sized. It’s dangerous ground, lots of chasms to slip into and uneven ground to trip over. But somewhere, Dawn finds some last reserve of energy, some adrenaline she hasn’t already wasted. She’s struggling into the circle of tents just as Alex emerges from Christian’s tent, holding the orange emergency beacon aloft.

She’s almost caught up to Alex when Brandon and Evan tackle him to the ground.

Chapter 48

DAWN DOESN’T UNDERSTAND AT FIRST.

Brandon and Evan launch themselves into Alex, and they collide with the new Bear Cub and knock him backward into Christian’s tent.

The orange emergency beacon goes flying, and Brandon bolts up and runs to it, picks it up as Evan stays on top of Alex, pinning him to the ground.

Dawn sees it happen, but it doesn’t quite register.

Not until Brandon hurls the beacon into a rock.

No, Dawn thinks, feeling paralyzed and suddenly sick. No, Brandon, what the hell are you doing?

The beacon explodes against the rock. Clatters to the ground as Dawn and Lucas watch, incredulous—

(and Brielle and Kyla pick their way into camp behind them)

(and Alex struggles underneath Evan, who still has him pinned)

—as Brandon walks to where the beacon landed.

He kneels down.

He picks up a nearby rock, about the size of a grapefruit.

And slowly, methodically, he begins to pound the beacon into tiny, useless pieces.

Chapter 49

DAWN SCREAMS, “What the fuck are you doing?”

She runs across the uneven ground past Christian’s tent and Alex and Evan to where Brandon stands, triumphant, over the useless wreck of the beacon.

She kneels down amid the rocks and picks up what’s left of it, and the beacon is in pieces and the pieces are small, and it will never, ever make an emergency call again.

She stares at the pieces.

Lets them fall from her hands.

Feels suddenly very cold, and it has nothing to do with the storm blowing in.

She stands up slowly and turns around to see Alex shove Evan off from on top of him. Watches the new guy push himself to his feet, wincing.

Brandon and Evan just stand there with smirks on their faces. Lucas and Brielle and Kyla stare back, disbelieving.

“What the fuck, Brandon?” Kyla says after a beat. “Have you gone completely insane?”