The car smelled like blood and dust.
The man drove with one hand. His other hand pressed against his shoulder where the bullet had gone through. Red kept seeping between his fingers no matter how hard he pressed.
Lily was shaking next to me. Still seeing the fight in her head probably. Still hearing the gunshots.
I was seeing it too. But different. I was seeing how the man moved. How he knew exactly what to do. How he wasn't scared.
"Who are you?" I asked.
The man's eyes found mine in the mirror. "Just a guy doing a job."
"What job?"
"The kind that doesn't involve kids."
But that didn't answer anything. I waited. Sometimes waiting made people talk more.
The man sighed. "I'm looking for someone," he said finally. "Someone who needs to be found."
"Why?" Lily asked.
"My reasons."
We drove through more broken places. Empty places. The sun was going down again. Or still going down. Time was hard to track.
After a while, the man pulled over. Stopped the car near an old gas station with no roof.
"Need to fix this," he said, touching his shoulder.
We got out. I watched while he took off his coat. His shirt underneath was soaked red. He pulled the shirt off too.
The bullet hole went all the way through. Front and back. That was good, I think. Meant the bullet wasn't stuck inside.
He had a bag in the trunk. Medical bag. He cleaned the wound with something that smelled sharp and chemical. Then wrapped it tight with white cloth that turned red pretty fast.
"You've done this before," Lily said.
"Yeah."
"A lot?"
"Enough."
He put his shirt back on. Didn't bother with the coat. It was too torn up and bloody anyway.
We sat on the ground near the car. The man shared some food from his bag. Dried meat that was hard to chew. Water that tasted like metal.
"Those people back there," I said. "The wrapped people. What were they?"
"Scavengers," the man said. "Claim empty territories as their own. Kill anyone who comes through."
"Why wrap their faces?"
"To scare people. To look like something other than human." He chewed his meat slowly. "Makes it easier to do horrible things if you don't look like a person."
That made sense in a wrong way.
"Where are we going?" Lily asked.
The man looked at her for a long time. Then at me.
"I wasn't planning to have passengers," he said. "This job I'm doing. It's dangerous. More dangerous than the facility. More dangerous than wrapped people."
"Everything's dangerous," I said. "At least with you we're not alone."
Something changed in his face. Got softer for just a second. Then went back to being flat.
"There's a compound," he said. "Old military place. Someone I need to find is there."
"Who?"
"Someone bad. Someone who hurt a lot of people."
I waited for more but he didn't say anything else.
"I want to help," I said.
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because you're twelve and broken and you've been through enough."
That should have hurt. But it was just true. I was twelve and broken.
But maybe broken people could still do things. Maybe broken could still be useful.
"I'm small," I said. "I'm quiet. I know how to hide and watch and count things. That has to be worth something."
The man studied me. "You trying to get yourself killed?"
"No." I thought about it. "Maybe I'm trying to not be useless."
"You're not useless."
"Then let me prove it."
Lily grabbed my arm. "Echo, don't. We should just leave. Find somewhere safe and stay there."
But where was safe? The facility wasn't safe. The street wasn't safe. The empty town wasn't safe.
Maybe safe didn't exist anymore. Maybe all you could do was find a purpose and hold onto it.
The man finished his food. Drank some water. Looked at the darkening sky.
"If you come with me," he said, "you do exactly what I say. When I say run, you run. When I say hide, you hide. Understand?"
"Yes."
"This isn't some story where the kid saves the day. This is real. And real means people die."
"I know."
He looked at Lily. "You don't have to come. I can drop you somewhere. Someone will take you in."
"No," Lily said quietly. "If Echo's going, I'm going."
The man shook his head. "You're both idiots."
But he stood up and walked back to the car.
We drove for two more hours. Darkness came and the headlights cut white paths through it.
Eventually we came to a fence. Tall fence with barbed wire on top. Behind it were buildings. Gray concrete buildings with small windows.
Military compound. Just like he said.
The man parked the car far away from the fence. Hidden behind some dead trees.
"We walk from here," he said.
We got out. My legs were stiff from sitting so long. The night air was cold.
The man checked his gun. Checked his pockets. Looked at his bandaged shoulder and made an annoyed sound.
Then he looked at us.
"Last chance to change your minds."
"We're coming," I said.
Lily nodded. She looked scared but determined. That was good. Scared meant smart. Determined meant strong.
We walked toward the fence. Toward the compound. Toward whatever the man's purpose was.
And for the first time since the processing room broke me, I felt like I had a purpose too.
Like maybe I mattered.
Like maybe everything was going to be okay.
Maybe.