Xeke racked his brain to come up with some way to get Ruddy to let him drive without pissing him off.

  I got nothing, he thought.

  Ruddy drove like he did everything else—in extremes. He was either hitting the gas too hard or braking too hard. It was annoying under normal circumstances—but here, on a narrow road on the side of a mountain in a snowstorm, it was going to get them killed.

  “I can’t see anything!” Ruddy said. “This is insane. I don’t understand why this stuff keeps happening. I mean, a blizzard? Now? Why now?” His knuckles were white on the steering wheel as he hunched forward with his shoulders bunched up to his ears.

  It was snowing so hard they couldn’t see more than a few inches past the windshield. “Slow and steady,” Corey said. “Don’t be nervous, you’re doing fine.”

  Xeke didn’t agree, but he kept his mouth shut.

  “I’m not nervous!” Ruddy said. He jerked the wheel to the right, then corrected.

  The wind rocked the truck. It was a safe bet there would be pullouts and runaway truck ramps somewhere, but Xeke wasn’t sure how they would even see them in this. Before the Event, this had been a well-maintained road. But now … if a section of road had fallen off the side of the mountain in the last few years, it was probably still gone.

  This really is insane, he thought. There was a reason no one would look for them in the mountains—nobody in their right mind would come here. This entire plan was suicide.

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  “Xeke, use your powers to clear the way so I can see,” Ruddy said.

  Xeke created a dome to block the snow falling in front of the windshield and revealed more snow.

  “Shit shit shit.” Ruddy smacked his palm against the steering wheel with each word. “Is that the best you can do?”

  “Hush,” Corey said. Teri was tossing and turning.

  “What does that yellow light mean?” Ruddy said. “Check engine? How am I supposed to check the engine in a fucking blizzard?”

  Xeke ignored the cold knot in his stomach. “Probably just time for an oil change,” he said.

  “What if it’s something else?” Ruddy said. “What if we break down?” He looked down at his pink blanket “toga.” “I’ll freeze to death!”

  Xeke grabbed the handle over the door and pushed his foot into the floorboard where a brake pedal would have been if he’d been driving. “Watch it! We’re sliding!”

  “Fuck!” Ruddy yanked the wheel and gunned it, then stomped on the brakes. The car jerked, then slid faster in a different direction.

  “No, Ruddy, pump the brakes gently. I said gently!”

  “But we’re going off the road!” Ruddy said.

  Xeke reached out with his power but he had no sense of what was around them. There was nothing he could do that wouldn’t make it worse.

  Teri tossed and moaned.

  A gust of wind hit the truck and spun it on the ice. “Shit!” Ruddy jerked the wheel in the opposite direction, but the truck spun faster. “Shit shit! Shit!”

  The truck thudded into a snowbank. The engine died.

  “Dammit!” Ruddy said. He turned the key and pumped the gas. Nothing happened.

  “Ruddy, stop,” Xeke said. “We’re stuck. You’re going to drain the battery.”

  Ruddy was wide-eyed. “Why didn’t you help me? All that power and you can’t straighten out a sliding truck?”

  “Don’t blame this on me,” Xeke said. “If you’d let me drive in the first place, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

  “Oh, sure. You’re always telling me everything, aren’t you? Maybe you don’t know everything there is to know, have you ever thought of …”

  “Stop!” Corey said. He held Teri as she thrashed in her sleep. “This isn’t helping. This wasn’t anyone’s fault. We’re in real trouble, guys. I need the two of you to stop acting like children. Do you think you can do that? If not for me, for Teri?”

  Xeke blushed. “Sorry, Corey.”

  Ruddy crossed his arms and turned his back on Xeke.