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Jordan followed along, kicking a small chunk of brick in front of him as he walked. If he kicked it just right with the toe of the too-large sneaker, it would skitter out in front of him without hurting his toes at all, and he was making it a challenge for himself. "Maybe it did get bombed," he said. "Maybe there was, like, an invasion."

He hung back a little behind Mel as Mel knocked on the door, not quite wary. He hadn't found much useful, and Mel had made another friend in the time they'd been split up.

There was another boy behind Larry, with red hair, big, sad eyes and in spite of the weather, a light and shimmering scarf that hid his neck. Strangely, unlike everyone else, his clothes fit him as if they had been tailored, although the clothes too had a strange and shimmery quality.

He did not say hello, only looked nervously out beyond them, as though waiting for something horrible to appear.

"Hi," Jordan said, and produced a practiced, friendly smile. "It's nice to meet you." His eyes flickered to the other kid, and he smiled at him, too.

Oh, this was that kind of house. He toed his shoes off and picked them up. "Where do I put my shoes?"

Rodney hid his face as his name was repeated, but finally drew his eyes from outside, and to the two coming into the house.

Every time Larry had ventured outside the house, he'd brought back nothing but tales of horror. Rodney hadn't left since they'd woken up there, and he worried about the other two.

After looking over both of them, he whispered something to Larry.

Jordan likewise put his shoes on the rack and looked around. It was big and spare and clean and sort of reminded him of Uncle Brian's house, with that feeling like you couldn't touch anything for fear of making something messy. Was this really where Larry lived? "It's nice," he said.

He stayed next to Mel, not sure what Rodney was whispering about and feeling like an outsider. Mel was at least familiar, not so much a stranger, even if they hadn't known each other that long. "Do you, um, is this where you woke up?" he asked. The thing about being older probably meant that this was actually Larry's house if that was the case. It occurred to him, very belatedly, that that also probably meant that the room where he'd woken up first was either his or Mel's, but he didn't really remember where it was now and anyway maybe Larry was right about it being safer with more people.

Rodney came out from hiding to briefly help with the shoe rack.

He also closed the door softly behind the other two.

They were probably hungry more than anything else. He had read on Larry's phone that everyone was having trouble finding something to eat. There was no telling how long they would be here, and what they'd do when the food they had ran out, but he didn't want anyone going hungry.

He waited curiously for the beach answer.

"The beach is cool. It's all wild like people don't go there, there's no boats or even piers or anything," Jordan said. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, feeling sort of awkward. "Uh. What movies are there?" Maybe it would feel less awkward if they watched a movie or something. It would give them something to talk about.

He slid a sideways glance at Mel as the other boy failed to mention the treehouse. Had he done that on purpose? It was kind of a relief that it was still a place that they could go if this got too weird.