The kids weren’t allowed to go to the funeral the following weekend. The parents thought it’d be best if they just said Charlie and his parents would be in their new house far far away. The kids bought it, but still wondered were all their parents went that day.

“They probably went to lunch or something,” Marie says to the three boys sitting on the busted old couch inside their clubhouse, hidden deep in the green forest—the one Charlie helped make out of the scraps of the nearby junkyard. Sometimes they would even pretend they were defending their HQ from evil zombies, even if they didn’t want to admit it.

“Whatever, Charlie ditched us for some little kids back in, where was it? Ohio or wherever,” Marc says secretly hurt.

“Don’t say that, Charlie just—” Gabe begins.

“Don’t defend him! He ditched us,” Marc says angrily.

“Don’t yell at him,” Ayden warns.

“Guys, calm down!” Marie says. She’s worried that without Charlie chaos is bound to erupt from the depths of the forest.