“How old are you?” I asked.
“Nine.” He peered at me with wary brown eyes, trembling.
When we got to the vehicle, he seemed to wake up, and he wiggled out of her arms, looking around.
“Where my mama?”
Shavontae knelt before him. “When’s the last time you saw her?”
“When them people came to get us eleven days ago. I got a calendar down there. Mama told me stay put. She’s coming back.”
Shavontae’s eyes were full of knowing sadness. Oh, my heart.
The ground seemed to shake as the five guys jogged over. Tyree went behind Shavontae and peered around her arm at them. He was as tall as her elbow.
“They’re nice,” she told him. “Nobody’s gonna hurt you.”
“All clear,” Tex said. The five men circled us, all looking for answers, so I caught them up on the little I’d just learned.
“Hey, big man.” Devon crouched down to face Tyree. “You seen anyone else since your mama told you to stay here?”
The boy shook his head.
“This your house?” he asked him.
“Nah, they kicked us out our house. Mama’s best friend lives here. Me and her kids were supposed to stay down there, but they left last week and didn’t come back.”
“They left to look for your mamas?”
“Yeah.” Tyree wiped his nose. “And to look for food.”
“You ain’t got food and water down there?”
“I got some water, yeah, but I ran out of food.” His glassy, hopeful eyes slowly went around our group.
Devon gave a bemused smile and rubbed the boy’s arm. “We got some food. But first, I need you to listen up.” Devon looked up at Shavontae, then me, as if asking for permission to say something. We nodded, trusting him with wherever he was going with this.
“You can’t stay here.”
“I gotta wait for my mama.”
Devon’s voice was gentle, but firm. “And I know this is hard, bro, but the DRI—you know who that is?”
Tyree nodded.
“They took all the people away, and they’re not letting them come back.” Tyree began to tremble harder and his chin quavered. “All of us here got separated from our families, so we know how you’re feeling. We’re on our way to someplace safe. You’re not safe here, my man.”
The boy sniffed now and wiped his nose and eyes on his sleeve. His voice got stronger. “I’m not leaving her.”
We looked around helplessly at one another.
“I can’t leave. I don’t have my stuff. We didn’t have time to get nothing.”
Shavontae gave me a heartbroken glance as she lifted the crying boy into her arms and held him while he sobbed. Every single one of us was at a loss.
“I have an idea,” I said, then looked at Tyree. “Can you show us how to get to your house?” He gave a small nod.
“I don’t know,” New York Josh said. “We need to get him back as soon as possible. Doesn’t feel right having a kid around when we might run into rebels.”
