Wat scratched at the armadillo's face with the dull edge of his knife. The armadillo's name was Archibald, and he had something to do with a place called Taco Trails. At least, his picture was all over the shiny little cards they'd found last week. As Wat scratched, Archibald's face disappeared in a smear of sticky gray particles, revealing the message underneath.

Instant Winner. X-Box.

"What did you win?" Mags asked him, looking up from her own stack of cards.

"An X-Box,' he told her.

'Like it used to be a box?" Mags asked.

"No. X like the letter," he said.

"How much is it worth?" she asked.

"I don't know, but it must be a lot,' Wat said.

'How do you know that?" Mags asked suspiciously. She was probably afraid she was going to lose.

"In all those old stories, an X tells you where the treasure is buried, so it must be a treasure box. It has to be worth a lot,' he said.

Mags looked reluctantly convinced.

'What about you?" Wat asked.

"A taco," she said, a disappointed look on her face.

"How many is that?" he asked.

"Twenty six. Plus eight years of Hulu, a convertible, and ten thousand dollars. And I have 300,000 Road Rally points, which can be exchanged for branded merchandise and food prizes," Mags said.

"I have nine, plus four breakfast platters. A skateboard. A trip for two to Cabo San Lucas. Five thousand dollars. My treasure box. A year's supply of Diablo Popcorn TM. And 210,000 Road Rally points," he said.

'I want a breakfast platter,' Mags said, munching on another green bean from their stash.

Wat's mouth watered at the thought of a breakfast platter. He wasn't sure exactly what it was, but if it took up a whole platter it had to be delicious. They had managed to help themselves to a few handfuls of green beans from a farm they passed the night before, so they weren't going hungry. But green beans weren't really satisfying. Not like a breakfast platter.

"So who wins?" he asked, mostly to take his mind off his rumbling stomach, and the tragic lack of a breakfast platter.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"I do," they both said at the same time.

"Jinx Lynx, now she gets to eat your face,' they both blurted out, as quickly as they could. Wat thought she might have beat him by a beat, but he wasn't going to back down. He stared at her intently, and Mags stared back. Wat narrowed his eyes, and scrunched up his face. Mags' lip quivered, and a moment later they were both laughing.

When they stopped, Mags looked up at him and asked a question.

'Do you think it's still there?"

Wat wasn't sure. The cards had provided a nice distraction, but they hadn't forgotten why they were hiding.

He struggled to his feet, rubbing his right leg to get the pins and needles out, and walked toward the mouth of the cave. Wat had to bend slightly to keep his head from scraping the rock.

"Careful,' he heard Mags say behind him.

He turned around. She was eating another one of the green beans.

"Stay out of my half," he said.

'We'll see,' she said.

Wat glared at her, turned, and started walking again.

It was still hot in the sun, even though it was creeping toward dusk. Wat put his hand above his eyes, and looked out across the Breaks.

The God was still there. Its back was turned to him, and he could see its broad shoulders covered in spikes. Wat felt the same plummety, falling feeling he always felt when he actually saw one in person.

It was walking away from the little cave they were sheltered in, but it wasn't far away enough for his liking. Wat never felt safe until he could cover them with his thumb, and he wasn't there yet. He didn't stay and watch for long. The God hadn't seen him, and Wat intended to keep it that way.

He backed into the cave, trying not to make any noise. He found Mags where he left her, absently picking through her Road Rally game pieces. If she was stressed, she wasn't showing it. Wat was impressed, but wasn't about to tell her that.

Mags was his twin sister. At least, that's what they told him. Wat wasn't sure how you really knew a thing like that. Until two years ago, they had lived in Survivor City, a place for orphans. He and Mags had been left there shortly after their birth. No one ever told them who their parents were. Survivor City had burned down during a storm two years ago. Wat would never know for sure, but he would always assume that Creepy Carol had finally gotten her hands on some matches.

Wat and his sister had spent most of the last two years on their own. They had lived with a farm family, the McQuillins, for a few months last winter. But Wat didn't like the way Mr. McQuillin started to look at Mags whenever she would stretch or brush her hair, so early one morning, they had left.

"You didn't let it see you, did you?" Mags asked when he sat back down.

"No,' he said.

"Because you're wearing a blue shirt," she said.

"So?" he asked, even though he knew the answer.

"Miss Wendy said they're attracted to blue," Mags said.

"That isn't true," Wat said.

"You don't know that," she said, like Wat was the dumbest person on Earth.

"Well, Ezra said those little piles of rocks will keep them away,' Wat said.

Mags pointed to a small pile of rocks to her left.

"And that old man, the one by the side of the road who was shouting crazy nonsense and wanted my shoes, said you have to write down the names of all your ancestors, so they can protect you, or make you invisible or something," he said.

Mags jerked her thumb over her shoulder. Wat looked up and saw that she'd written a bunch of names in chalk on the cave wall.

"When did you do that?" Wat asked, exasperation creeping into his voice.

"When you were asleep," she said.

"We're orphans. We don't even have a family. Whose names are those?" he asked.

Mags shrugged.

"You know all of these can't be true, right?" he asked.

"We agreed to do them all until we knew for sure which ones worked,' she said.

Mags held his gaze for a moment. Wat sighed.

"That's true,' he said, letting the matter drop.

"Do you think we'll be able to leave in the morning?" she asked.

The plan was to head north, toward the fishing village of Eleanor. Just the thought of fish, freshly pulled from the lake, made Wat's mouth water again. It would be crowded this time of year, but that was all right. It would make it easier to beg or borrow fishing gear. And if they couldn't, well, Wat had quick hands and quiet feet, and Mags was great at creating a distraction.

"Sure, as long as Jake and Bruce do their job, and make it go away," he said, pointing at the list of phony ancestors.

Mags stuck out her tongue.

Wat sat down, reasonably satisfied with himself. He hoped they would be able to leave in the morning. The green beans wouldn't last much longer, and they were almost out of water. Things could get bad.

At some point, they would have to discuss the possibility of making a run for it, even if the God was still there. But it was.conversation he didn't want to have. Not yet anyway.

For now, they would keep waiting.

He looked down at his pile of Road Rally cards. There were still a few that hadn't been scratched, and they were running out of light.

Wat picked one up, and scraped away the armadillo's face.

Instant Winner. One Million Dollars.

Wat wondered if that was a lot.