The storefront bore a strange sign.

‘No more staples.’

“Why would a grocery store tell people they don’t have staples?” Evie whispered. “Do they even sell those?”

“No, it means food staples. Now stay quiet,” Abel whispered back.

Abel grabbed his younger siblings by the shoulders and maneuvered them behind him in the darkness. It had been a long time since he’d been to the abandoned store, and he didn’t know whether or not anyone else had been using it in his absence. It was a useful place. After it had gone out of business—around the same time this neighborhood ran itself into the dirt—the old owner had sealed everything with what he called his fancy “hobo-proof” security alarm. Supposedly, it was a high-end deal from one of the black market rings around the area. It must have been expensive.

But what the store owner didn’t know was that Abel had been a resourceful fourteen-year old back then and knew more about cyber systems than public school gave him credit for.

After obtaining the code, Abel had used the abandoned store for years as a personal hideaway when he needed space or wanted to work on secret projects. It had become sort of a haven for him. The city didn’t offer many places to be alone, especially not in districts like this one. Abel knew it was too good to last, and when Mom started getting sick so often, and with Dad gone, and with the other kids struggling with normal teen and preteen stuff, he couldn’t spare the time. So the store had lain forgotten for almost two years.

Now it was their only option.

“Both of you stay behind me,” Abel said.

Wes hung back and kept his arm around Evie, one of the few times he actually took orders from Abel without complaint. Considering what they had just been through in the past hour, he wasn’t surprised. Mom was gone. They were on the run.

By some miracle, Abel’s old entryway was still intact. It showed signs of tampering, but it appeared no one had been successful enough to break in. Abel cracked open the console case and fiddled with some wires.

“I feel like somebody’s watching us,” Wes whispered.

“Don’t scare Evie,” Abel grunted.

“What if someone’s in there?”

“Nobody’s in here. It’s been locked all this time.”

“How can you be sure?”

“The warnings would be tripped. Cut me a break, I know what I’m doing.”

BEEP.

Abel cringed at the piercing sound. The glowing security lock around the doorway vanished, and the doorway popped open a fraction of an inch. Abel swung it open, stuck his head through, and glanced the length of the shadowy store. All was silent.

“Come on.”

The children ushered themselves in, and Abel shut the door behind them, re-enabling the security lock. When he turned back around, Evie and Wes were huddled six inches away.

“Well? What are you doing?” Abel asked. “Let’s go to the back and lay low for the night.”

“But it’s so dark,” Evie said.

Abel sighed. “It’s safe, I promise. There’s no one else here, and what’s more, nobody’s going to find us as long as we’re in here. Got it?”

Lights bobbed outside the window. Gruff voices approached.

“Down!” Abel hissed.

He, Wes, and Evie hit the floor. A stab of pain jolted up his injured arm, making him wince. It had happened when Mom shoved him out of the living room. The bullet meant for her had taken off a small chunk of skin above his right elbow, and by some miracle, the men chasing her hadn’t seen him go tumbling into the laundry room. He’d lain there among the dirty towels and underwear, breathless, shaking hard enough to rattle the plastic laundry basket against the linoleum floor. But then they were gone, and when they didn’t come back, he’d scrambled to find Wes. Later on, he’d bandaged the arm at the treehouse.

Now, flat on the cold grocery store tiles, Abel gritted his teeth against the pain and sealed his lips. Harsh blue flashlight beams were slashing up and down the bare aisles from outside. The voices grunted to each other beyond the glass. Boots scraped off the pavement.

The lock rattled. Everyone looked toward the door, holding their breaths. There was no doubt in Abel’s mind that it was the men from the house. Guns. Trench coats. Dark looks in their eyes as they opened fire in the living room. Bullets ripping into couch cushions. Into Mom.

Wes squeezed his hand. “Calm down.”

He’d been hyperventilating. Abel sucked a quiet breath through his nose and held it. The image faded.

“It’s locked,” one of the men outside said, his voice muffled.

“One of those cyber tech ones, too,” the other one said—a woman. “Probably been here for a few years. No way they’re in there.”

“Are you sure?”

“Hey, you wanna try hacking it without tripping the alarm, go ahead. Striker won’t be happy you wasted time.”

“Fine. Let’s try the one across the street.”

“We’re supposed to split up.”

“Yeah, yeah…”

More thumping. The beams of light vanished, and the sounds of heavy footfalls faded in the opposite direction. All three kids let out a long breath in unison. Abel dropped his head to the dusty floor and closed his eyes.

“That was close,” Wes said.

Evie sniffled, voice trembling. “Wh-what do they want?”

“I don’t know, and we don’t have to care right now,” Abel said. “We just have to stay away from them.”

“Should we hide somewhere?” Wes asked.

“We can go to the back… quietly,” Abel said. “Army crawl. Watch out for broken glass and stuff, don’t cut yourself.”

He started toward the storage room, one elbow over the other, legs dragging behind him. Wes and Evie followed, trying and failing to bite back tears. Abel ignored them as best he could. If he couldn’t hold it together, he would lose his composure in front of his younger siblings. They couldn’t see that. It would fracture what little feeling of stability they had left, and that could cause him to lose them.

The attackers had gotten close. Too close. He couldn’t let that happen again.

They reached the storage room, surrounded by towers of empty cardboard boxes. He had looted them all long ago. Together, the siblings huddled in the far corner, a hugging mass of dirt-smeared hoodies and scraped knees. Abel realized, with dismay, that Evie was wearing shorts. They’d have to find a real pair of jeans for her somewhere before they left—if they could find a way out of this city without being killed in the first place. Abel had no idea how they were going to sneak out of here without being spotted by one of those men. There had only been two of them in the living room, but he didn’t want to assume that was all of them. Just hearing a woman’s voice confirmed that. If there were more, and he made the mistake of walking into their hands, he would never forgive himself.

“You should call the police,” Wes said.

“Didn’t you call them like I told you to when I went looking for Evie?” Abel asked.

“The line was busy.”

“9-1-1 can’t be busy,” Evie said.

“Actually, they can,” Abel said. “And it’s been a while. I’ll try again… you guys be quiet.”

He fished his phone out and dialed the emergency number, putting it to his ear while keeping one arm around Evie.

“9-1-1 what is your emergency?” a woman asked.

“Y-yes, hi… um, my siblings and I are being hunted down by some people with guns. We’re hiding in the abandoned store on Emerald Ave, and they’re still out there. Our mom is missing, too.”

The woman hissed through her teeth. “Look, if you’re the same kid who’s been calling the past hour, you should know this is a chargeable offense. We don’t have time for prank calls.”

“No, no!” Abel cried. “This isn’t a prank call, I promise! We’re actually being hunted out here. These men broke into our house a couple hours ago and shot our mom, and now they’re trying to find us.”

“All right, then, where’s your house?” the woman asked.

“Birch Street.”

“Hmm… we did get a noise complaint from there a couple hours ago. One person said they thought they heard gunshots, but the officer didn’t see anything when he went out there.”

“There was a police officer there?” Abel gasped. “I didn’t see anything… Wes, did you see a police car before I got back?”

“No,” Wes said, eyes wide. “I was hiding upstairs until Evie got home.”

“It was a standard drive-by, I’m afraid. If you’re really in trouble, we’ll dispatch a couple of cars to the house and have someone come get you. You said Emerald Ave?”

“Yes,” Abel said, hope and relief billowing in his chest.

“Okay, we’ll be right— hang on…”

Her voice dropped off for a second. Abel swallowed.

“Okay kid, listen,” the woman said after a moment. “We’re getting a flood of calls right now from the north end of town, apparently someone’s got hostages in a bank and there’s already a couple dead. I don’t know if we can spare anyone to come get you right away. Are you in imminent danger?”

Abel’s heart plunged. “N-no… we’re hiding in the back of the store.”

“Okay. Just don’t move, I’ll have an officer get you soon, no more than an hour, I promise. Can you hold it together until then?”

“I think so…”

“Good. I’m sorry about this, but you’ll be okay. Remember, don’t move. We’ll be coming for you soon.”

“Th-thank you.”

Abel hung up. He dropped his phone in his lap and just stared at it, hollow-eyed, for a couple seconds.

“Well?” Wes asked. “Are they coming?”

“Not for a while,” Abel said. “There’s an emergency on the other side of town, and we’ll have to wait an hour.”

“What the heck?” Wes asked. “Three kids about to be murdered isn’t a good enough reason?”

Abel rubbed his eyes. “I don’t know. They’re probably short-staffed as it is. Look, we don’t have to do anything, we can just sit here and stay quiet for another hour, and she said an officer will pick us up. We can do that. There’s no way the men can get in here. We’re safe until the cops show up.”

“Are you sure?” Evie whispered.

Abel hugged her. “Yes.”

They stopped talking. Abel’s mind was awhirl with a hundred questions about why there had to be a hostage situation uptown right now, but voicing them would do nothing but worry the others. They were already pushed up as close against him as they could get. But in an hour, this would be over and they would be sitting in the police headquarters sipping coffee and tugging blankets over their shoulders while they described the shooters—and got into official contact with Dad.

“Is there anything to eat?” Evie asked after a while.

“Didn’t you see the sign?” Wes asked. “No more staples. That means the food was sold out years ago.”

“We’ll find something eventually,” Abel said. “Go to sleep for now.”

“I can’t sleep,” Wes and Evie said at the same time.

“I know. But try.”

“I wish Mom was here,” Evie said.

Those were the last words Abel wanted to hear. But there was nothing he could do. Mom had made her choice, for whatever reason. They would have to trust her, even if that meant sitting here in the store for another hour without making a sound. She would want him to keep the others safe.

Abel leaned his head back against the wall and drew long, deep breaths until the silence overwhelmed him as he strained to hear the sound of approaching cars.