32.
Driving through the pass, I pound
my fist against the pickup truck’s metal roof, signaling Manion to stop at the
designated rallying point which is located at the base of the hill.
He stops.
I look one way, then the other.
Sameh and Anya are nowhere to be found. I pull my radio from my belt once more.
“Sameh,” I speak into the
transmitter. “Speak to me.”
Releasing my thumb, I get nothing
other than more static. Until the sound of static is broken by a voice. But the
voice isn’t coming from the radio. It’s coming from on high.
I turn, look up.
Sameh is standing at the top of the
hill, Anya right beside him.
“Coming down!” he shouts.
When he gets here, he shows me his
radio which has been impaled with a bullet. He holds the palm-sized radio up
like it’s a sacred talisma
