Then there was Drei, a woman who smoked, who scared the shit out of me every time she shone her flashlight around. The smoke and the light of the constant beam flicking around the corner of the building and onto the ground at the base were the closest things I had to a warning to get Rain and I down and into a position by the base of the wall where empty cans of fuel for the generator were stacked. Sometimes the wind didn’t let me smell the cigarette, or she wasn’t smoking, I couldn’t be sure which. Sometimes she didn’t aim the flashlight down until she was at our section of roof. Usually one of the two things was true. Still spooky, because the flashlight was mounted on her gun, and there would be a mere instant between the second we were illuminated and when she pulled the trigger. Would I manage? Maybe. Would Rain? Probably not.

Four and five—I’d wracked my brain for Chinese numerals, to change it up and serve as a mnemonic, then settled on the English ones instead. They were a pair who were mostly engaged in a back and forth, the English speaker was an ex-gang member, based on things he’d said, and half the time he’d be rattling off words in one language, while his Chinese buddy answered in another, or vice versa.

Sechs was a guy who had urinated off the edge of the roof twice in the last twenty minutes. His heavy footfalls were tell enough that he was coming, but sounds were unreliable, because the radio static or louder voices of others would drown things out. He was also most likely to change up the schedule or approach from another direction.

Sieben was the one to watch out for. Alone, so nobody to chat with. Not even a whiff of cigarette smoke or alcohol. She—I’d had enough of a glimpse of her to know she was an apparent she, tall, skinny, black, with only nose, eyes, and precariously high cheekbones visible behind her scarf and hat, a gas mask pulled off and set aside—was prone to walk on the lip of the roof rather than on the actual shingle-like pads. She didn’t make a sound, as a consequence, and she didn’t give her location away with a flashlight like Drei did.

We’d been on our way back from hiding from Drei’s flashlight when I’d first seen Sieben crouched at the edge of the roof, looking down. If she’d been three or four paces further down the roof, she would have seen us.

No exact patrol order. I could only feel out the gaps in between appearances and imagine that Sieben was filling in those gaps, I could pay attention to the details, and try to visualize the routes they preferred.

“Er bi.”

“Double vagina.”

“Sha bi.”

“Stupid vagina.”

“Ta ma de.”

“Yo mama?”