They Both Die at the End (Death-Cast #1)(18)

Both Malcolm and Tagoe are currently being taken to the police station.

“This is pointless,” Tagoe says in the back of the cop car. He’s no longer sucking his teeth or shouting about how he did nothing, the way he did when the handcuffs first went on, even though Malcolm and Aimee urged him to shut up. “They’re not gonna find Rufus. He’ll dust them on his—”

“Shut up.” This time Malcolm isn’t worried about extra charges coming Tagoe’s way. Malcolm already knows Rufus managed to get away on his bike. The bike wasn’t there when they were being escorted out of the house. And he knows Rufus can dust the police on his bike, but he doesn’t want them keeping an eye out for boys on bikes and find him. If they want him, they’re gonna have to work for it.

Malcolm can’t give his friend an extra day, but he can find him extra time to live.

This is assuming Rufus is still alive.

Malcolm is game to take this hit for Rufus, and he knows he’s not innocent himself, that’s common sense. The Plutos snuck out earlier tonight with the intention of kicking Peck’s ass, which Rufus did a fine job of all by himself. Malcolm has never even been in a fight before, even though many paint him to be a violent young man because he’s six feet tall, black, and close to two hundred pounds. Just because he’s built like a wrestler doesn’t mean he’s a criminal. And now Malcolm and Tagoe will be tagged as juvenile delinquents.

But they’ll have their lives.

Malcolm stares out the window, wishing he could glimpse Rufus on his bike turning a corner, and finally he cries, these loud, stuttering sobs, not because he’ll now have a criminal record, not because he’s scared to go to the police station, not even because Rufus is dying, but because the biggest crime of all tonight was not being able to hug his best friend goodbye.





MATEO


3:42 a.m.

There’s a knock at the front door and I stop pacing.

Different nerves hit me all at once: What if it’s not Rufus, even though no one else should be knocking at my door this late at night? What if it is Rufus and he’s got a gang of thieves with him or something? What if it’s Dad, who didn’t tell me he woke up so that he could surprise me—the sort of End Day miracle they make Lifetime movies about?

I approach the door slowly, nudge up the peephole’s cover, and squint at Rufus, who’s looking right at me, even though I know he can’t actually make me out.

“It’s Rufus,” he says from the other side.

I hope it’s only him out there as I slide the chain free from its track. I pull the door open, finding a very three-dimensional Rufus in front of me, not someone I’m looking at through video chat or a peephole. He’s in a dark gray fleece and is wearing blue basketball shorts over these Adidas gym tights. He nods at me. There’s no smile or anything, but it’s friendly all the same. I lean forward, my heart pounding, and peek out into the hallway to see if he has some friends hiding against the walls, ready to jump me for the little I have. But the hallway is empty and now Rufus is smiling.

“I’m on your turf, dude,” Rufus says. “If anyone should be suspicious, it’s me. This better not be some fake sheltered-kid act, yo.”

“It’s no act,” I promise. “I’m sorry, I’m just . . . on edge.”

“We’re in the same boat.” He holds out his hand and I shake it. His palm is sweaty. “You ready to bounce? This is a trick question, obviously.”

“I’m ready-ish,” I answer. He’s come straight to my door for my company today, to lead me outside my sanctuary so we can live until we don’t. “Let me grab a couple of things.”

I don’t invite him in, nor does he invite himself inside. He holds the door open from the outside while I grab the notes for my neighbors and my keys. I turn off the lights and walk past Rufus, and he closes the door behind me. I lock up. Rufus heads toward the elevator while I go the opposite way.

“Where you going?”

“I don’t want my neighbors to be surprised or worried when I’m not answering.” I drop off one note in front of 4F. “Elliot cooked extra food for me because I was only eating waffles.” I come back Rufus’s way and leave the second note in front of 4A. “And Sean was going to take a look at our busted stove, but he doesn’t have to worry about that now.”

“That’s chill of you,” he says. “I didn’t think to do that.”

I approach the elevator and peek over my shoulder at Rufus, this stranger who’s following me. I don’t feel uneasy, but I am guarded. He talks like we’ve been friends for a while, but I’m still suspicious. Which is fair, since the only things I know about him are that his name is Rufus, he rides a bike, he survived a tragedy, and he wants to be the Mario to my Luigi. And that he’s also dying today.

“Whoa, we’re not taking the elevator,” Rufus says. “Two Deckers riding an elevator on their End Day is either a death wish or the start to a bad joke.”

“Good point,” I say. The elevator is risky. Best-case scenario? We get stuck. Worst-case scenario? Obvious. Thankfully, I have Rufus here to be calculating for me; I guess Last Friends double as life coaches that way. “Let’s take the stairs,” I say, as if there’s some other option to get outside, like a rope hanging from the hallway window or one of those aircraft emergency slides. I go down the four flights like a child being trusted with stairs for the first time, its parents a couple steps ahead—except no one is here to catch me should I fall, or should Rufus trip and tumble into me.