Passenger

“Fucking sick,” he said.

I stopped, shined my light on him. “What?”

“There’s a dried-up kid’s hand inside this thing. Look.” Griffin turned the pouch over and something that looked like a large gray spider fell out onto the ground at his feet.

My stomach turned.

“But I think this is a map, Jack.” He carefully pulled out a yellowed clump of folded paper, pinching it between two fingers like it was poisonous.

“Let’s see that.”

Ben and Qui

Griffin screamed and kicked wildly at the air. “Fuck! Shit!”

He looked like he was dancing, and the paper he’d been holding fluttered away into the nothingness.

“I don’t think that was a hand, Griff.”

“What the fuck was that?”

I could see Ben’s silhouette in the light cast by Qui

“Griff picked up something that was alive. It ran off.”

“What was it?”

“Shit!” Griffin said, backing away from his spot. “It was fucking disgusting, Ben.”

Ben looked at me. “Harvester?”

I shook my head. “We thought it was a kid’s hand. It looked like a hand. I don’t know what it was.”

“Welcome to the fucking Nature Cha

He had to say it. I was certain at that moment we all were thinking about that kid’s skull hanging on the hook we passed.

“But there was a map or something in there, too,” I said. “Griff flung it over there. Help me look for it.”

I began sca

Click. Click. Click. Click.

Qui

Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.

Ben eyed the kid. He had a button-pushing, fuck-with-you look on his face. I’d been through enough with Ben that I could see what was coming, and I dreaded it.

The last thing we needed down in the Under was for all of us to start getting on each other’s backs.

And Ben said, “You shake that thing pretty good, Red. I bet you practice a lot, don’t you?”

“Huh?” Qui

Griffin laughed and spit. “Fucking grab my balls, pervert.”

Qui

“Hey!” I spun around and aimed my light directly into Qui

He stopped cold. Done.

Click. Click. Click. Click.

“Oooh … Ahhh … Rrredddd…,” Ben moaned.

I felt myself getting hot. “Cool it, Ben. Please.”

Qui

Qui

Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.

Griffin whispered, “What a fucking dork.”

I ignored them. I sca

I bent down and picked up the folded paper. It could have been a hundred years old; it was so faded and clumped together. But it was a map. I glanced back to where Qui

Where the light hit the ridges of the steel wall, I saw writing.

“Holy shit.” I dropped onto one knee and aimed my flashlight at the words.

Qui

Griffin caught on first.

“What the fuck is that, Jack?”

I could only shake my head and stare.

Qui

“Don’t mind that, Billy. We sometimes used to come down here to play, is all.”

“He’s a fucking liar.” Ben started across the dirt floor toward the smears of graffiti.

I said, “What’s it mean, Qui

The kid dropped the beam of his flashlight down onto his feet.

Qui

And on the wall, scrawled in thick rusty letters that advertised a kind of urgent warning:

I WILL KILL YOU IF I CATCH YOU DOWN HERE AGAIN, QUINN

Below it, in another hand, a response. Some of the letters were backwards, a jumble of lowercase and capitals:

We all saw it.

I shined my light directly at Qui

“That was a game, Qui

“I told you it was,” Qui

“You and someone named Billy?”

Qui

Ben stormed toward us. Even in the starved light cast forward by the torches I could see the great clouds of dust he kicked up with his feet.

“He’s a fucking liar, Jack.”

“We shouldn’t have brought him,” Griffin said.

Qui

Griffin grabbed the collar of Qui

Qui

Then Ben was all over Qui

“You fuckin’ kill that kid, you piece of shit, Red?” Ben panted and swung. “You fuckin’ kill your friend?”

Ben brought his knee up, again and again into Qui

“Get off him, Ben,” I said.

I didn’t care what Ben did to Qui

“Ben?” I said.

Ben Miller shoved himself away from Qui

His arms were streaked with Qui

He said, “I think we should kill him, Jack. I’ll fucking kill him if you think we should.”

This is what Marbury does to boys like Ben.

I looked at Griffin. I was taking a vote, and Griff knew it.

Ben said, “We’d be better off if we just do it quick.”

Griffin shook his head.

“I don’t think we should kill him,” Griffin said.

I stood over Qui

I nudged Qui

“Get up, Qui

Ben walked out into the dark and threw up.

This is what Marbury does to boys like Ben.

I shined my light on Qui

The kid was a mess.

He lay on his side on the ground, curled up with both hands inside the rip in his jeans, holding his nuts.

“Get up,” I repeated.

eighteen

We were tired.

If we were above, we’d have been asleep for hours by now, but we pushed ourselves beyond exhaustion.

We had no choice.

And now we had learned a little more about Qui

Like Ben said, welcome to the fucking Nature Cha

Qui