My jaw hit the floor when I opened the cupboards. They were practically empty. Two boxes of macaroni, a bag of pasta, five cans of vegetables and one can of pears. That’s it. No bags of sugar or rice, not even a bag of flour. I just stood there in shock as Susan hobbled into the kitchen.

“Yeah yeah, I know I don’t have any food. Close your mouth. You are gonna start catching flies.” She says while gathering all of the food in two arms and tossing it into the duffel bag. “So you got a plan to get out of here?”

I nod and check the back window. Backyard is still clear. I open the first floor window and signal James, who is doing the peepee dance over by the ivy wall, He looks around the yard and walks over to me. I hand him the duffel through the window and half fall, half leap out the window then turn to help Susan. Somehow she thought the safest way out was to inch herself head first out of her window that sits four feet off the ground.

Knowing it’s too late to correct her I turn to James “Can you pull her out by the waist I’m too short” James just smirks, drops the duffel bag and lifts Susan out of the window and puts her on the ground as if she weighed nothing.

Suddenly Susan is stiff as a board, her eyes filling with terror as her line of sight narrows in on something behind James.