Chapter 6

I can't say how long it was between the time Daddy dropped me in the grass and Ricky

found us, but I know it couldn't have been more than five minutes. Five minutes. Not even

an hour ago I was dancing around like a normal kid who had no worries in the world. What

happened?

Ricky gently pulls the dart out of Daddy's shoulder and tears a large part of his shirt,

and presses it against the bloody mess. He is still breathing very heavily, like he's in a lot of

pain.

"Richard. Give me the darts." He murmurs—even just speaking out loud hurts. My

brother hands them over without question and then scoots over to me. He looks at my arm

now, which now that I've calmed down a bit, is beginning to ache with my heart beat.

"Mama's dead. Isn't she?" I whisper as he wraps my arm with the other half of the

strip of cloth. He doesn't answer me, not to make me angry, but because he knows I already

know."Why am I not dead? Or Daddy? We got hit too."

Ricky shakes his head. He doesn't know.

We sit there in the grass for awhile, like we're waiting for something. Waiting for

what, I don't know. Every few seconds I hear a single scream stop suddenly, making me

shiver. Ricky has put me in his lap, his back facing all the bodies behind us in the clearing. I

know he doesn't want me to see it all, but he was too late and he knows it. Daddy keeps

trying to read something on the dart, but his eyes move back in forth while his face says he

doesn't understand. His face scrunches up-his head hurts. Right? He asked me if my head

hurt. It didn't make sense at the time but it makes sense to me now: the dart had something

inside it that makes his head hurt.

Now that I think about it, my head does hurt, but I know it's not because of

whatever was inside the dart. When Mama dropped me, I hit my head and when Daddy

dropped me I hit my head again. I also know it's not the dart's fault because I'm not acting

like Daddy.

He has dropped the darts on the ground and is now rocking back and forth with his

head in his hands. He begins to moan, and curse. Without thinking, I reach for one of them

and put it in my hand. It is not very long—it's about as long as it is from my wrist to my

elbow. It is pretty thin too. Metal on its end points like an arrow I would have drawn in the

mud. An arrow from the sky monster.

"Deedee, I'm not sure you should be playing with that." Ricky says tiredly, as though

he knows I won't listen to him. Besides, I'm not playing with it.

"Daddy was trying to read something on it. Didn't you see?" I slowly twirl the dart

on my palm, careful to not let the arrow poke my skin. I find what Daddy must have been

reading, and I understand why he's confused.

VC321xb47

"That's it-just a bunch of tiny letters and numbers that make no sense. What do

they mean?" I try to show Ricky but he takes it out of my hand and throws it in the distance.

So I take the other one and do the same.

Ricky gently pushes me off of his lap so he can crawl over to Daddy. He is still

grabbing his head, and right now he is shaking a little bit.

"Dad. You ok?" He puts his hand on Daddy's good arm. Daddy jerks his head at Ricky

like he's surprised he isn't alone. Then his eyes droop the way they did when he told me I

would never see Agnes again.

"No, son. I'm not okay." He groans as he tries to sit up straight and he massages his

head with his hands. "Those were not just some random letters and numbers, kids."

"Do you know what it means?"

Daddy doesn't answer for awhile. In fact I don't hear the bergs anymore. There are

still some people screaming in the distance, though.

Finally, Daddy responds. "It's buzzing bees. They're in my head." The effort of saying

those words breaks my heart. I'm aching-my head throbs a little bit and my arm hurts too,

but I feel fine in general. Daddy looks like he's hurting so badly. I crawl up to him and hug

him, but he begins to scream. Ricky yanks me away.

"STAY. AWAY." Daddy rocks back and forth again. "They are going to get you too!"

He then gets on his hands and knees and starts banging his head against the ground, yelling

the word "out" each time it hits.

"Daddy! STOP!" I struggle against Ricky's arms, which tighten around me as I try to

run back to the miserable man in front of us. I turn around and look at my brother. "We

need to help him!"

"In my head…in my head…" Daddy starts to chant as he bangs his head against the

ground. His whole body is shaking.

At this point I realize Ricky and I are standing up; Daddy continues his chant and

begins to cough up something that looks green and brown.

"We need to do something!" I look up at my brother pleadingly, but even though his

eyes are welling up with tears as well he shakes his head.

"Time to go." Ricky gathers me in his arms, and runs toward the woods carrying me

like a baby. I'm screaming for him to put me down, but he only runs faster and Daddy

chants and screams louder and the whole world feels hotter and hotter.