I go cold all the way down to my toes. How did I not notice it before? I guess I was so busy being totally overjoyed that my mom was alive and my dad was here that I didn’t notice my dog was gone. “What the hell happened?” I want to shove him, hard. But I’m not that far gone yet. “How the hell do you lose a dog? Is she dead? Oh my God.” He turns back, hands on his head. “No. I don’t think so. You don’t understand. You weren’t there. I had to get all our stuff, get rid of the last bomb, get Gabriela and Chance and the other kids, get in position so I could see everyone running out of the woods once the shit hit the fan. I had to look for your mom, just wandering around the woods in the dark. I couldn’t find her. And I was holding Matty’s leash, and then the bombs went off, and she bolted.” I take a deep breath through my nose. “She bolted. That’s it?” “You don’t know how big the explosion was. I mean, they must’ve been hiding C-4 in one of those rooms, because it wasn’t just, like, BOOM.
