Cy shook his head. “I’ll let him tell you.”
“He’s not Majestic. I know Benji. He wouldn’t hurt me. He wouldn’t hurt anybody.”
Cy didn’t answer, and I began to wonder if I was trying to convince him or myself.
Mud, cold temperature, and brush began to wear on all of us. We’d only been walking for twenty minutes when the professor began to slow his pace. Cy and I tried encouraging him, but the longer we walked, the more he struggled.
“I just…can we rest? Just for a moment,” the professor said.
“Just for a moment,” Cy said.
Dr. Z leaned against a tree and then slid down to the ground. His breathing was labored.
“Are you all right?” I asked, touching his shoulder.
He chortled. “Not as young as I thought I was.” He looked up at Cy. “How old are you?”
Cy smiled. “We have a longer life span. In your years, it would be equivalent to my early twenties.”
“What is it in your years?” I asked.
“Our cycle is different. But if I calculated my age in twelve-month cycles, I will turn seventy-five this year.”
Dr. Z and I both looked at each other, and Dr. Z smiled. “Well then, I’m not the oldest here.”
I made a face. “It’s not funny anymore, Cy. What’s really going on?”
Cy didn’t flinch. “I can understand the skepticism, but you know me. It’s all true.”
I frowned. “Break’s over. Let’s go.”
We continued through a slice of wooded area next to the highway, hiding when cars passed. It was more grueling than walking along the asphalt, but it was better than getting caught.
“What will happen when we reach the bridge? If she’s there?” I asked. My voice sounded small.
Cy didn’t answer right away. He cleared his throat. “I’ll go with her.”
“Will you even say good-bye?”
We walked in silence for a few minutes. It occurred to me to prod him for an answer, but I just couldn’t. It seemed trivial with everything else going on. But when Cy stopped, turned, and pulled me into his arms, I was glad I had given him the time he needed. I was melting in his arms while he held me exactly the way he had at the bottom of the steps the day I didn’t know I needed him—the first day he walked me to class. Back then, that embrace was letting me know that he was there. Now, it was an apology that he couldn’t always be.
“Good-bye,” he said quietly. His voice was quiet and sad.
“Even though your story is the craziest load of crap I’ve ever heard, I’m out here, walking around in the dark, through the mud, with you. I came for you, Cy. We’re all probably going to prison. You’re just going to get in that ship…and what? Wave and say, ‘Thanks for risking your lives for me.’”
“You don’t even believe in that ship.”
“I believe in you.”
“This is not easy for me, if that’s what you think.”
“Then…let’s make it easy.” I shrugged, forcing a hopeful smile. “I just don’t want to miss anyone else. I know what it’s like. It’s too hard.”
Cy stared into my eyes, every regret and sorrow scrolling across his face. “I will miss you, Rory. I will miss you most of all.”
I nodded and then let my arms fall to my thighs. “Okay then.”
“If you want to turn around and go home, I would understand,” Cy said.
“I don’t need you to love me to love you,” I said, remembering Benji’s words and, for the first time, understanding what they meant. There were so many different kinds of love. I didn’t have to love him romantically. I could love him enough to see him home, wherever that was. “You’re still my friend. I care about what happens to you, and I’m still going to see this through to the very end.”
Before Cy could respond, a familiar engine growled, and I spotted headlights down the road.
A broad smile spanned across my face. “It’s Benji!” I said, running toward the road. Relief rushed over me. They hadn’t taken him. He was okay.
In the next second, Cy wrapped his arms around mine and lifted me off my feet.
“What are you doing?” I asked, struggling.
“You might trust him, Rory, but I don’t.”
“But—”
“Shh!” Dr. Z said, ducking behind a bush as Cy pulled me down and covered my mouth.
The Mustang passed slowly. Cy and the professor ducked when they realized Benji had a flashlight and was shining it into the woods.
“Rory!” Benji called in a loud whisper from his orange Mustang.
“He has a car,” I said through Cy’s hands. “At this rate, we won’t make it by Christmas, much less the morning.”
Cy shook his head.
I begged Cy with my eyes. “He’s worried about me. Please let me let him know I’m okay.”
“Rory!” Benji called again. The Mustang passed us, continuing down the road.
Cy let me go, and I sat on the ground, devastated and angry. I wanted to run after Benji, to ask for his help. My gut said that he could be trusted and that he would do anything he could to help.
A tear fell down my cheek, and I wiped it away.
“You should forget him,” Cy said. “He’ll only hurt you.”
“Why are you so threatened by him?” I asked, shaking. “You don’t know everything, Cy. You said it yourself. No one knows everything. And I’m telling you, whatever you think you know, you’re wrong about him.”
“I know that you’re attracted to danger. Have you ever thought that maybe that’s why you’re drawn to Benji? Because he is on the wrong side?”
I stood up, wiping the mud off my hands onto my jeans. Benji was so far from dangerous that I might have laughed if I weren’t so offended. “He’s on my side.”
“I’m not arguing with you, Rory. We can’t trust him. That’s the end of it.”
We continued walking, cold and exhausted. My breath puffed out a fleeting white mist with every other step. Dr. Z had been wheezing for the last five or so miles. Cy’s encouragements came more often. He stayed at the helm, and the darker the night sky became, the more desperate he became.
When the sky began to show the first signs of daybreak, Cy’s encouragements were louder, and he sounded more like a drill sergeant. “We must hurry. No more breaks! It’s just over the hill!”