Everwild

Allie caught up with Mikey. "You could make the best of this," Allie said, "instead of being so unpleasant."

"I don't like this," he grumbled."I don't like him. He's much too friendly."

"You lost the right to be a judge of character when you became the McGill."

"So when do I get it back?" "You don't," Allie told him, intentionally flip. "I do all the judging, and I say Milos's character is acceptable."

Mikey grumbled something under his breath, and Allie nudged him. "You're just mad because he's handsome and charming."

Mikey wouldn't look her in the eye. "Really? I hadn't noticed."

The interstate exit was the only one for miles, and around it were clustered fast food chains, gas stations, and uninviting motels. Cars from dozens of states flowed on and off the interstate in an endless stream.

Milos surveyed the scene, then turned to Moose and Squirrel. "You check the south side of the highway; we shall check the north."

Moose and Squirrel obediently trotted across the highway, ignoring the traffic whooshing through them.

"Would you mind telling us what we're looking for?" asked Mikey.

"Family of five," Milos said, as if it was obvious, "or, if not a family, then five people traveling together."

"I don't understand," said Allie.

Milos looked at her and shook his head. "You have much to learn about skinjacking." He turned to look at the Burger King parking lot in front of them. "We shall skinjack five people in the same car," he explained. "Then we drive to Memphis."

Allie was appalled, and didn't try to hide it. "Is that how you travel? By ripping people out of their lives?"

"This is one way we travel, yes," said Milos, matter-offactly.

"That's terrible!"

Milos looked at her, a bit stu

"Yes, but hundreds of miles away from where they started, never knowing how or why." Allie looked at a family leaving the Burger King. She wondered where they might be going. She wondered what it would be like to be traveling to one place, only to find yourself somewhere else entirely. "People have plans!" Allie insisted. "It's one thing to borrow, it's another to steal."

Milos smiled at her, and crossed his arms. "So Allie the Outcast has a conscience."

Allie couldn't tell whether he was impressed or mocking her.

Mikey, who had been happy to watch them argue, now stepped between them. "Forget it, Allie, let him skinjack whoever he wants--we don't need to go with him." And then Mikey added, quietly so only Allie could hear, "It's not going to work for us anyway, if you know what I mean... ."

But Allie found herself too irritated by Milos's smug expression to back down now. "All I'm saying is we have a responsibility. We have to be ... good stewards."

This time Mikey stepped right in front of her, eclipsing her view of Milos completely. "Let's just go, okay?"

Milos took a step around Mikey, back into her view. "Perhaps my time in Everlost has made me callous," he said. "Maybe we should give more care to those we skinjack. So then, as a good steward, how would you suggest we proceed?" Allie looked to the interstate. "Let's take the time to find a family of five that's already going to Memphis."

Mikey threw up his hands. "You're forgetting one thing!" he said angrily. "I can't skinjack!"

Allie found herself speechless--in her frustration she had ignored the single fact that made their skinjacking jaunt an impossibility. When she turned, she saw Moose and Squirrel standing there dumbstruck as well.

"Did he jusht shay he can't shkinjack?" asked Moose, pointing at Mikey.

Mikey turned on Moose as bitterly as the McGill would have. "What's wrong?" shouted Mikey. "Can't hear through that stinking helmet? Maybe I'll rip it off along with your head and shout down your neck!"

Allie grabbed Mikey's arm and held him firmly. It was enough to ratchet him down to a simmer.

Milos didn't say anything, he just stroked his chin, pondering the change in circumstance.

Squirrel looked at Allie, confused. "So why are you even with him if he can't skinjack, huh, huh?"

"There are more important things than skinjacking," Mikey snapped.

Squirrel shook his head. "No there's not."

Allie was about to launch into a hundred defenses of her relationship with Mikey, but Milos cut her off by saying, "Then we shall walk."

Squirrel looked at him slack-jawed. "But-But--"

"Did he jusht say we're walking?" asked Moose.

"Is there a hurry? No!" said Milos. "And it is a beautiful time of year. I see no problem in walking." "Yeah, yeah, but what about Jackin' Jill?" said Squirrel. "We still gotta find her and teach her a lesson."

"We will find her when we find her," Milos said. "A few days won't make a difference." Allie couldn't help but notice how he bristled at the mention of her name. Milos then looked to the highway. "We shall travel on the interstate--it will take us straight there."

Squirrel shuffled his feet, and Moose just looked down, slowly shaking his head.

"If you have a problem with this, then leave," Milos said to them sternly. He looked around, then pointed at a car just arriving in the Burger King lot. "There--a man and a woman in a Miata. Be my guest." He gave them an elaborate but a

"No?" said Milos. "Then you will both kindly close your mouths, and accompany our friends to Memphis." He turned his back on them and strode off toward the interstate.

Moose looked at Squirrel, and Squirrel hit him on the helmet. "What are you looking at, huh, huh?" He followed Milos, and Moose lumbered off behind him, all shoulder pads and shame.

Allie turned to Mikey. "Are you coming, or are you just going to stand there and sink?"

"Of course I'm coming." Mikey pulled his feet out of the ground, and the two of them headed off after the others.

"You should thank Milos," Allie said. "He just stood up for you."

But Mikey clearly wasn't in a thanking mood.

Mikey McGill had been in Everlost for a very long time, and had experienced a great many things. He had captained a ship, he had sunk to the center of the earth, and climbed back again, he had been a boy, a monster, and a boy once again. He had amassed a fortune of crossed objects, and had lost that fortune as well. He had endured. Yet through all of it, no experience was as confusing and unreasonable as the experience of love. He had denied for the longest time that he loved Allie. He had told himself their relationship was of no great consequence--that he was merely grateful to her for having saved him from being a monster. He had told himself that their companionship was merely a useful arrangement, while he considered what to do next.

All of these were lies.

The fact was, he loved Allie so intensely it frightened him. There were times when he looked at her that his own afterglow mellowed from pale blue to almost lavender. He realized that love must have its own spectral shade, and wondered if Allie ever noticed it.

His own reaction to Milos caught Mikey off guard. When he was the McGill no one dared challenge Mikey's authority. He ruled supreme. Although things were different since teaming up with Allie, in all this time, no one had penetrated the little circle he and Allie had made. The two of them were always on the move--other Afterlights they met passed in and out of view like the scenery.