Sanctuary: Chapters 5–10

I swear that boy could have eaten even if he was being chased by a pack of ravenous wolves.

He could always remember exactly when the next World Cup was going to start and, of course, his birthday and Christmas, but he couldn’t really fathom that a whole world existed before he was alive.

Our apartment was on the second floor of a pretty dilapidated brick building.

Two of the Morrow janitors and our beloved math teacher, Ms. Kochiyama, were led out of the school with their arms bound behind their backs.

I tucked my hair behind my ears, threw back my shoulders, and set my lips in a tight line. Kenna called this my SuperVali stance. She said I could take on anyone when I wore that expression.

Although she did add to her pack a copy of the Bible, my abuela’s silver spoon, a set of rosary beads, a flashlight, and a kitchen knife—the sharpest one we owned.

The anthem sounded ten decibels too loud as the President’s floating face took shape in front of us. His narrow, pasty face leering.

The anthem sounded ten decibels too loud as the President’s floating face took shape in front of us. His narrow, pasty face leering.

I have also deployed twenty-five hundred specialized emissaries to not only safeguard this process, but all of the surrounding populace.

I have also deployed twenty-five hundred specialized emissaries to not only safeguard this process, but all of the surrounding populace.

Anyone attempting to enter this rogue state will be subject to arrest, detainment, and all measures of martial law.

As the President’s hologram started fading, I saw Mami trying to parse out exactly what he was saying.

CALIFORNIA SECEDING TO FORM SANCTUARY.

“Go! Get!” she ordered. As if we were a pack of stray dogs or mangy cats rifling through her trash.

I heard the scanner click and practically swooned with relief.

The officer closest to us gripped Ernie’s wrist so tight, I could see his skin blanch.

Alien apprehended! Alien apprehended! Secure all entrances and exits for possible conspirators.

I squeezed Ernie’s hand and forced out a grim smile, even as my insides were churning, convulsing.

I squeezed Ernie’s hand and forced out a grim smile, even as my insides were churning, convulsing.

Eventually the trees thinned out and the scrub emptied into a dried-out aqueduct.

“I want Mami!” he bleated over and over. “Mami! Mami! Mami!”

Over Ernie’s sobs I could make out a rumbling noise that I was sure was DF helicopters and the yowling of some feral-sounding animal.

I got the knife up above my head and held it there, poised to stab.

I swear, it was sizing up whether to eat me too, with its tiny black-hole eyes. But I was so relieved that it was walking on four legs, I felt almost giddy.

It was bleaker than bleak. In with the mounds of burnt wood and shattered glass, there were also metal shelving units and mannequin limbs, twisted and mangled.

Consigned to the shadows, with barely enough food and water to keep us alive, hiding from officers who only wanted to hurt us because of where we were from.

Piles of bodies twisted together on frigid concrete floors. People keening and coughing, maybe a hole in the middle to serve as a toilet.

I told her how petrified I was.

I felt a sort of weary pride for coming up with this solution, but when I handed the sneakers back to Ernie, he could barely muster a smile.

Or maybe we were just moving in slow motion through this maze of rotting foliage and broken rock.

I kept plodding forward, humming his favorite song for motivation.

That’s what some preacher was bellowing from the pulpit as Ernie and I stumbled into this little New England town.

I felt like she was the only one on the bus talking this loudly, and I needed to get away from her before we became a spectacle.

I looked at Ernie, slumping against one of those bedraggled trees, and just took him in my arms so he could cry.

Hearing probably a thousand different nocturnal creatures roaming the earth, hunting and gathering.