Mia, when she finally accepts that there are no food packets in the wrecked van, agrees. “We leave them the pot, matches, one packet of freeze-dried. Less reason for them to attack, if they have food and a way to cook it.”

I’m not so sure. My guess is, it doesn’t matter what we give him, Deke wants it all.

Working our way around the splintered trees, we find our way back to the base of the ravine. It’s going to be harder going up than coming down, but maybe the rope we recovered will be useful. I’m thinking we should yoke ourselves together for the climb, just to be on the safe side, when a rock hits the ground at my feet.

Barely missed my head. I look up to see where it came from, and suddenly the sky is full of stones.

“Surrender!” Deke shouts from the top of the ravine. “Surrender or die!”

21. Run or Die

I gotta say, an enemy raining stones down on your head is even scarier than confronting a mountain lion. We flee in panic, screaming for them to stop, and take refuge behind a cluster of shattered trees.

It’s a miracle none of us got injured. Unless they’re throwing not to kill, but to scare. To force our surrender. Once we’re a safe distance away, we scan the top of the ravine and spot Deke and Tony, stones in their fists and grins upon their faces.

“Give up, losers!” Deke struts along the edge, brandishing his rocks. “Next time we won’t miss! And don’t even think about shaking those stupid spears because rocks break sticks!”

He slams the stones together, making his point. He looks jubilant up there, on top of the world.

Mia’s voice is hushed. “Imani? Daniel? Any ideas?”

“Not really. If we run away, they’ll keep following us. And maybe next time we get hurt. Or worse.”

Imani says, “We give them something, like we talked about. And then we get as far away from them as we can.”

From the top of the ravine, Deke shouts, “You better be talking about surrender, because that’s the only way this ends!”

Tony’s job seems to be gathering rocks. He has quite a pile ready to go.

Mia unzips the backpack and prepares an offering, as Imani suggested. I feel like I should say something, make a plea for sanity, but don’t want to make things worse. But I can’t stop myself.

“Deke! Deke, this is crazy! We’re stronger together than apart!”

He shakes his head. “You had your chance and you blew it! You voted to stay with those losers!”

Tony lopes along the edge, chanting, “Lose-ers! Lose-ers! Stupid girly lose-ers!”

Mia says, “I’ve got this, Daniel.”