Matty stopped balancing and stared at them both.

Jack hobbled across the room to the duffel and began stuffing things inside, unsteady on his legs. “Thanks for all your help, really, but we need to leave.”

“Okay,” she said. “Where?”

“Not you.” He put the medicine in the duffel. The bandages. “Just us.”

She folded her arms and watched him.

“You’re here,” she said. “So I’m guessing you can’t go home. Or to a doctor.”

He tried to not look at her. It was hard.

He went to the fireplace and packed the food. Maybe the jug of water ought to be left. Nothing too heavy.

“Get the blankets,” he said to Matty.

Matty didn’t move.

“What about family?” she asked.

The room fell into a slow spin. Jack needed to sit. He could see her, wrapped in the rainbow blanket. Hear the dead smack of the shovel striking frozen ground. Don’t think about that now. Don’t.

Pack. Leave.

“I haven’t seen a car,” she said. “Are you planning to walk?”

Jack looked at Matty. “Hurry up.”

Matty stood there. He was ready to cry.

Wind gushed and rattled the walls. Ava went to Matty and bent down beside him and folded a blanket. She looked at Jack.

“So where will you go?”

Jack stood. Feeling nothing inside these walls. His head hurt, his side. The bandage leaked tendrils of red. Where will you go? He didn’t know. Where? How? Beyond this was the perfect certainty that the hatted man and his friends were looking for him. They knew who he was, and they knew what he wanted, and they would never stop looking for him—never.

There was no place to hide. Except maybe China.

“You can barely stand,” she said.

He picked up the duffel, then put it down. Pain in his ribs.

Quiet.

Above them, the cold sun was rising. It shone through gaps and cracks in the roof to light up the room strangely. The wind puffing up snow, a sparkling white. Like some beast with bright-seeing eyes breathed down at the holes of the house. Hunched and translucent. Soundless.

Jack dragged his attention from the ceiling to look at Ava.

“The people who did this,” he said. “They’re coming. I don’t know when, but they are. They think I know something. I think they want to teach me a lesson. Or something.”

She searched his face and said nothing. Then she stood and got a cup and filled it with water. She handed it to him. “Drink.”

He took the water.

“You should go to the police,” she said.

He shook his head, and water splashed from the cup. “No.”

“Why?”

Jack didn’t answer.

Matty whispered, “It’s a secret.”

She paused. She said, “I’m good at keeping secrets.”

Jack watched her. Those hazel eyes. Her intent face. He felt cagey, suspicious. And he liked her.

“I can’t tell you,” he said.