The three of them would need the cover of darkness if they planned to jump off the back of the truck. Matthias had a picture in his mind of exactly how their escape should go: As soon as they were all free of the seat belts, they'd move to the very back of the truck. None of the children they stepped over would wake up. Then, when the truck slowed down going around a curve — or, better yet, came to a stop at a road sign — Alia, Percy, and Matthias would roll off into the shadows. Easy as breathing, as Samuel used to say.

Tears stung at Matthias's eyes, but he wouldn't have been able to say whether they were from missing Samuel or from exhaustion and fear — fear that they'd reach the work camp before he cut through Percy's seat belt, fear that the sun would come up too soon, fear that he'd fail Percy and Alia once again. Frantically, he brushed the tears away and went back to scraping the nail against the fabric. Harder, faster, harder, faster…

Percy woke up.

"What's wrong?" he asked, as calm as ever.

"Sun's coming up, and this stupid nail — I think I could chew the belt off faster," Matthias muttered.

"Let me try," Percy said.

Matthias handed over the nail, though his hand was too stiff to unclench completely.

Percy began sliding the nail against the belt in slow, deliberate slices. Matthias couldn't stand it. He peered out through the cracks in the wooden wall again. He couldn't gauge the position of the sun now because they were driv^ ing through what appeared to be a clump of trees. Then they rounded a curve into a brief clearing, and suddenly Matthias could see far down the road, into a valley ahead. What he saw terrified him even more than the rising sun.

"Percy!" he muttered urgently. "What's a work camp look like?"

Percy looked up.

"How am I supposed to know?" he asked.

"Lots of lights, high fences, guardhouses everywhere?" Matthias asked.