She didn’t argue, and her head slipped to the side as they drove south, the heater lulling her into a much- deserved rest. When the truck came to a stop she jerked awake, disoriented by the strip of sun rising. Eli turned off the engine and rested his forehead against the steering wheel. “You awake?” His voice reverberated off the dashboard.
“Yeah.”
“Good. I dropped the medicine off at your place. Right now I need your help.”
“Help?”
Eli nodded and got out of the truck, motioning for her to follow. Neva lay on the ground, the derringer frozen in her palm. Even though Green Hat had done his best to cover her, a hard frost had fallen in the night, closing the wound in her temple and freezing her unseeing eyes open. Eli wordlessly scooped the lifeless body from the ground.
They laid her in the back of the truck gently. Lynn pried the gun loose from her fingers and put it in her own pocket, tucking Neva’s hand under the coat. She rode in the back with Neva as close to the stream as the truck could go, and then took turns with Eli dragging the stiff body back to the grove of ashes. They hacked away at the ground through the morning hours, placing Neva next to her nameless little boy.
“Seems like we spend a lot of time digging graves together,” Eli said, wiping the cold sweat from his brow.
“I don’t think I can do another.”
“She’ll make it.” Eli gathered the exhausted Lynn in his arms. “She’s a strong kid.”
They left the graves, walking hand in hand past the log where Neva had refused to leave her baby, now the sole sentry keeping watch over them both.
Lucy’s fever broke in the river of sweat and vomit that Vera had promised. Stebbs was kept busy running stinking bedclothes out to the cast-iron pot suspended over the fire. Lynn held Lucy in her arms in between bed changes, cradling the blond head in the crook of her elbow and rocking her gently back and forth. As the sun went down, fatigue caught up with her, and Lynn collapsed onto her own cot.
She woke in the dead of night to feel little fingers combing through her hair. “Lynn?” The parched little voice was barely a whisper.
“Hey, little one, what are you doing up? You should be in bed.”
“Thirsty.”
“Okay. You lie down.” Lynn pulled Lucy into her own cot and got to her feet. Eli and Stebbs were slumped together against the stone wall, their heads leaning against each other. Vera was on the floor at the foot of Lucy’s cot, her head resting on the frame. Lynn tiptoed past everyone for Lucy’s cup. She knew she should wake the others and share the relief of Lucy’s recovery, but she wanted the small miracle to herself. Lynn filled the cup with clean water from the pantry, then propped Lucy’s head in her hands while she sipped at it.
“Done,” she said, and fell weakly back onto the pillow. “Can I sleep here with you?”
“Sure.” Lynn slid into bed, and Lucy cuddled against her, the warmth that radiated from her small body no longer carrying the taint of fever.
“You said my mommy was coming. Where is she?”
Lynn rubbed Lucy’s back quietly for a moment. “How much do you remember?”
“Just that you said mommy was coming, and then I didn’t feel so good. I thought I saw mommy, but then when I woke up just now I saw Grandma is here sleeping, so I think maybe I was just confused.”
“No baby, your mommy was here to see you.”
“Is she gone now?”
“Yeah, sweetheart, she’s gone.” Lynn kept rubbing Lucy’s back in concentric circles, trying to lull her back into sleep.
“So Grandma found us?”
“She did and she saved you from your fever. You’re sick, little girl. You’re going to have to take some medicine.”
Lucy stuck out her tongue.
“Eli and I had to drive a long way to get the medicine, so it’s important, all right? I want you to take it and no argument.”
“’Kay,” came the halfhearted reply, followed by a light snoring moments later. Lynn wrapped her long arms around her, muscles tightening in a futile attempt to shield the girl from all dangers.
“I’m going to make sure nothing can hurt you ever again.”
“It’s insane,” Eli protested the next morning as Stebbs eyed them both over coffee. “I can’t believe you’d even consider letting her go.”
“I’m not in charge of her,” Stebbs said. “If Lynn wants to go, she’ll go, and neither of us can stop her.”
“You could at least tell her you disagree.”
Stebbs took a long drink before answering. “I’m not so sure I do.”
“Thanks,” Lynn said.
“You’re kidding,” Eli said in disbelief.
“Quiet,” Vera chided them from Lucy’s bedside, where the exhausted patient slept restlessly. “She’s out of the woods but can still see the trees. Would you go outside?”
“Sorry, ma’am,” Stebbs said, rising to her feet.
“Stop calling me that, mister,” Vera said, and tossed a dirty pillowcase his direction. “Feel free to wash that once you’re done with your coffee. And once she’s asleep, your pants are coming off.”
Eli and Lynn both froze in mid stride, looking at each other in shock.
“I think she means to look at my leg,” Stebbs explained, and winked at them.
“I might be able to rebreak the original injury and set it correctly,” Vera said in an attempt to cover the blush that crept across her cheeks.
“Well, that’d be good,” Lynn said lamely, and hurried up the stairs, Eli close behind.
Stebbs ignored their teasing glances when he followed them outside. “Look, Eli, I know you don’t like the idea of Lynn going over there to check out their camp, but she’s right. Their strength will grow. If we’re going to do something about it, we need to do it now.”
“And what will we do?”
“I can’t say for sure until I go and look,” Lynn answered. “Could be they’re so strong we can’t do anything. Except leave.”
Hope sprang into Eli’s gray eyes. “You’d do that?”
“Worst-case scenario—maybe.”
“Listen, both of you,” Eli said, glancing between them as he spoke. “In Entargo, there was always this rumor that California was still . . . normal. That they had so many desalinization plants by the sea that they were self- sufficient, had excess even. If that’s true, we should go.”
“Rumor?” Stebbs asked, hitting hard on the word. “Where’d you hear this?”
“It was something that would get repeated a lot, you know? Bradley had heard it through military sources, but he said mostly it was kept quiet so that people wouldn’t leave, to keep them paying for water.”
“Or it’s a mercy to keep fools from wandering out west in search of something doesn’t exist,” Stebbs said. “You’d take Lynn and Lucy thousands of miles on foot without water, exposing them to God knows what on the road?”
“It’s an
“Sorry, Eli,” Lynn said. “I’d rather shoot people in Ohio than walk to California.”
Eli snorted and looked at the ground.
“Look,” Stebbs said, trying to ease the tension between them. “I know you’re not used to the way we live out here. You’ve learned a lot, but the next lesson is a bitch. We’ve got to defend what’s ours, or we die. Lynn’s
