Excerpt from Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

There was no trail, and it was painful, climbing barefoot over roots and fallen trees. Beneath the undergrowth, things scuttled away. Penny saw ants marching in a column, carrying green pieces of leaves over their heads like sails. She took Sebastian's hand, a thing he would not usually tolerate.

They stumbled out into a clearing, where a Jeep was parked. Two men sat on the ground drinking bottles of Coke. They stared as if the children were fairies, materialized from the woods.

"Say something Spanish," Penny whispered to Isabel.

"No," Isabel whispered back.

"Hola!" Penny called.

The men just stared. There were two shovels on the ground and their clothes were dirty.

"Can I have a Coke?" Sebastian whispered to Penny.

The door of the Jeep opened, and a woman got out. She had strong brown arms, and she wore a beige tank top and cargo pants. Penny thought she looked like the girl action figure that goes with the toy Jeep. The woman asked them a question in too-fast Spanish.

Isabel didn't answer.

Penny said, "We're Americans." That seemed important to say.

"How long you stand here?" the woman asked in English.

"We just got here," Penny said. "We walked from the river."

"Why?"

"We were looking for a road."

"Is no road," the woman said.

"We heard an engine," Penny said, looking pointedly at the Jeep.

"Where are your parents?"

"At the big beach, down the river," Penny said. "We came from the ship, a big cruise ship, but then we had a car accident. We were swimming. Mi hermano es diabético." She'd been taught that sentence before they left, for emergencies.

Sebastian leaned into her. "Can I have a Coke?" he asked, louder than before.

The woman in the tank top frowned, then reached into the Jeep, brought out a bottle, and twisted off the top. Sebastian ran forward to grab it, then ran back to Penny's side and drank. She wished her mother were here. If Sebastian was low, the Coke would be good, but if he was high, it could make him feel worse.

"Will you give us a ride?" Penny asked.

They were not supposed to get in cars with strangers, but there were five of them. And they were asking for a ride. That seemed to make it safer. And the driver was a woman. You were supposed to ask a woman for help, if you got in trouble. Preferably a mother, but this was who they had. And maybe she was a mother. Although Penny doubted it.

"Okay," the woman said, waving toward the Jeep.

Penny and Sebastian got in front together. The Jeep had an open top. Isabel looked toward the river and seemed like she might run, then got in the back seat with Marcus and June. The two men with the shovels crouched in the cargo area behind them. The woman reversed the Jeep.

Penny pulled the seatbelt over Sebastian's bare chest and buckled it over herself, too. "Are you okay?" she asked him.

"I'm a little sleepy."

"You should stay awake."

"Okay."

His blond hair was limp and damp on his forehead. Penny pushed it off his face.

"I have to poop," June said, in the back seat.

"Hold it," her brother said.

Penny looked back and saw June with her hands clamped on the crotch of her blue swimsuit, Marcus looking anxious beside her.

When she looked out the windshield again, they didn't seem to be going in the right direction. "We're going back to that beach, right?" Penny asked.

The woman nodded.

"I don't think this is the right way."

"We call them," the woman said.

"But their cell phones don't work here."

"We call the ship."

"But they aren't at the ship."

The Jeep was driving down a paved road among trees, just like the one where the tire had blown up. That seemed like a long time ago now. Would her mother have gone back to the ship?

Excerpted from Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy. Copyright © 2017 by Maile Meloy. Excerpted by permission of Riverhead Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.