Sleep came quickly, but almost as instantly, the dreams came tumbling in on the back of it, confused and jagged. He was kneeling, holding the makeshift spear, and a body fell onto the point and he rammed it up and forward, feeling the resistance of gristle and bone, hearing it, but when he looked up he saw the young guard’s face, not the older man’s. His subconscious jumped track then and he was in the barn, holding the flare gun, pulling the trigger, but Alice was there, screaming at him to stop and he couldn’t understand why but then the flare tore through the barn and burst into Chris’s stomach where he hung from the ropes that bound him.

Tom woke with a shudder, his entire body taut, his heart thumping violently. He relaxed again as he remembered where he was, saw the gentle beacon of the flashlight beam swaying back and forth, heard the sound of the oars.

His breathing settled again, and Alice’s voice came softly out of the dark, saying, “Are you okay?”

She was sitting right next to him, and he didn’t know whether she’d been there all along or whether she’d moved there while he slept.

“I’m okay.”

“You jumped like you were having a bad dream.”

“Yeah, I was dreaming. It was all mixed up, but… it wasn’t good.”

“About what happened in the cocaine factory?”

“Yeah.”

She didn’t answer, but then he felt her take hold of his hand and squeeze it, and that was answer enough. He was absurdly grateful for that human contact.

She didn’t let go and after a little while she said, “I’m always here if you want to talk about it, but if you don’t, that’s okay too.”

“There’s not much to talk about. But I keep thinking of that kid who was guarding them…”

“I keep thinking about him too. He didn’t look much older than us.”

He nodded, though they couldn’t see each other in the darkness, reassured somehow that her thoughts were aligned with his.

“I’m sure he still would’ve killed us, I’m sure they all would, but that doesn’t help much.”

“No.” There was another pause, like a held breath, and then she said, “I just hate to think what might have happened if you hadn’t gone in there when you did.”

He thought of Chris and Joel tied to that beam, the bruise around Chris’s eye, Joel’s bare torso and torn T-shirt, thought of the look in the eyes of the men he’d killed.

“Yeah,” was all he said, and neither of them spoke for a while.

Finally, Alice said, “You should try to sleep again. I’m here.”

He knew what she meant, that she was holding his hand, as if offering a way back from the dreams that might come.