“Still breathing.”

“But at least he’s out,” Todd said.

They both looked over at Oscar. “Hey, great job,” said Todd, giving him a fist-bump. His newfound respect was evident in his voice.

“You too,” Oscar replied. “Both of you.”

“How the hell did you know to do that?” Gwen asked. She picked up the flashlight and aimed it between them, creating a circle of light.

“I didn’t know,” Tracy said. “We just did it.”

“When you slipped behind that tree,” Todd said, “shit, I didn’t know what we were going to do.”

“That was crazy!” Gwen said this admiringly, not knowing whether Tracy had been brave or stupid. Was there a difference? she wondered.

“I figured you guys would step up,” Tracy said. She stood and clapped both Oscar and Todd on the back. “You took care of business!”

Todd examined the satellite phone, and Gwen felt a surge of hope. Maybe it was as simple as calling someone; maybe they’d be able to connect to the outside world.

“I don’t know how to work this,” Todd said. He fumbled with the buttons and Tracy looked over his arm.

“It’s password protected,” she said.

No one spoke, but Gwen saw her own despair reflected in the others’ faces.

There was movement on the ground and they all jumped. A.J. twitched and Tracy kicked him hard—in the side, in the head. His lifted shirt revealed a few inches of stomach, and his flesh there was shockingly pale. A bit of blood streamed down from his temple. But he stayed out.

“What are we going to do with him?” Oscar asked.

“I don’t think there’s any choice,” Tracy said. “We have to kill him.”

“We have to what?” Gwen said. Her heart was beating out of her chest. “What are you talking about, Tracy? That’s crazy!”

“Is it?” Tracy’s features were clear and sharp-looking by the light of the flashlight. She stroked her chin as if the question was merely academic, but she looked like she was enjoying herself. “Think about it. He’s already killed a man. And from the way he shot that rifle, it probably wasn’t the first. He thinks we all deserve to die—and now we know about his business. There’s no reason to believe he would have let us live.”

“But still,” Todd said, “all we’ve done is show up in the wrong place at the wrong time. If we kill him, it’s a whole different story.”

“Exactly,” Gwen agreed. “We don’t want that on our hands. José’s death is on his hands. We had nothing to do with it.”

“But who’s to say that anyone will believe that?” Tracy argued. “The kid is dead, and there’s no way to prove who did it. Look,” she said, leaning toward them, “right now, the main issue here isn’t who gets blamed for the kid’s death. The issue is us getting out alive. We need to get the hell out of here before A.J.’s brother shows up. Not to mention the kid’s people. And we need to fix it so this piece of shit can’t follow us.”

“Agreed,” Todd said. “But we can do that without killing him.”

“I’m not so sure we can.”

“This is crazy, Tracy,” Todd said, echoing Gwen. “You’re fucking batshit crazy. We can’t do this. I can’t do it. I’ve got a family to go back to, children, a job. Whatever you’re thinking of doing, I can’t be any part of it.”

“You’re already part of it,” said Tracy. She gestured at the man on the ground, and then up toward the slope, where somewhere José’s body lay. “Everything has already changed.”

They let this sit, averting their eyes. Gwen felt a chill go up her spine, an opening into another kind of fear. They’d gotten past the immediate danger, two direct threats to their lives. But the fact was, they were out in the wilderness completely on their own. The phone was useless, and there was no other way to reach out for help. No one—at least no one good—was coming for them.

Now Tracy turned to Oscar, and the shadows from the flashlight made her cheeks look smooth and hollow, her entire face more angled and wolflike. “Oscar, what do you think?”

“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “My mind says you’re right. But my gut . . .”

“Look, there’s plenty we can do to incapacitate him,” Todd said.

“Like what?”

“We could tie him up and put duct tape over his mouth.”

“But then he could die out here,” Tracy said, with a tone of interested pleasure. “So what would be the difference? Why not just kill him now and get it over with?”

“Stop,” Gwen said. “Just stop.” Her head felt like it was about to burst. “I can’t believe we’re standing here talking about killing a person. Debating it like we’re talking about which trail to take. Tracy, we can’t do that. It’s not even an option. We’ve got to figure out something else.”

They were all looking at her quietly. Gwen was sure that Tracy was going to overrule her. But something shifted in Tracy’s face now and she looked human again.

“All right, Gwen,” she said. “We’ll figure something out.”

They dragged A.J. over to a tree, the two men holding onto his shoulders, Tracy and Gwen each taking a leg. They emptied his pockets, recovering Oscar’s knife and Todd’s Leatherman, plus a worn Swiss Army knife and some matches. Tracy covered his mouth with duct tape. They leaned him back against a tree in a sitting position, his chin falling onto his chest. Then they double-tied him—first binding his wrists together behind the tree and then wrapping his upper body with rope. Tracy and Todd both knew complicated knots to secure both sets of bindings.

When they were done, there was no way he could get his arms loose. They stepped back and examined their handiwork. Gwen felt queasy looking at him—he could die like this, and they would have done it; she knew Tracy was right. But there was still a difference, she told herself, between leaving him to luck and actually killing him.

“Where’s the dog?” she asked now.

“I don’t see her,” Oscar said.

“Me neither.”

Todd walked over to where Timber had been tied up and lifted a frayed rope end. “I guess she had better places to be.”

“Should we worry?” Oscar asked.

“No. We’re not going to be able to find her anyway.”

Gwen felt mildly disappointed about the dog being gone. But it was probably better not to have to worry about her.

“I still think we should do something else with A.J.,” Tracy said. “Make it impossible for him to follow us.”

“Yeah, I think so too,” said Oscar. “He’s not really incapacitated. Hopefully his teeth aren’t as good as his dog’s.”

“I could shoot him in the leg,” Tracy offered.

Gwen thought, Are you crazy? You must truly be crazy. Tracy seemed almost cheerful about this turn of events, as if it were part of a grand adventure they’d all laugh about later at the bar. But Todd had a more practical response: “Someone could hear the gunshot, though. Not a good thing if other people are coming.”

“You’re right,” Tracy conceded. “Then what? Break his leg? Cut him?”

“How about we just break his glasses?” Gwen suggested. They all looked at her blankly. “The way he squinted when they fell off, I don’t think his vision is too good. He probably couldn’t make his way through the woods without them.”

“Even if he could,” Todd added, “he wouldn’t be able to see well enough to shoot us.”

“Good idea, Gwen,” Oscar said, and so it was decided.

Tracy went over to the spot where they’d first knocked him out and picked up his fallen glasses. She brought them back to where the others stood and crunched the lenses under her shoe.

“That’s for my compass,” she said, with one twist of her heel. “That’s for Oscar’s GPS.” Then: “Let’s go get our stuff,” and for a moment Gwen didn’t know what she was talking about. And then she remembered their packs, farther back in the clearing where they’d first encountered José, left there what seemed like a lifetime ago. Tracy was right about one thing: everything had changed.

“We should figure out what we really need to take,” Todd said. “We should probably travel light.”