“Chloe was only eight,” Ted explained, watching Jackie while she took in the sight of the most precious thing in his life. The thing he’d let die. “I rescued her from her school across town when things went bad. Her mother and I had separated two years before, but I tried to get to her too. No matter where I looked though, I couldn’t find her. Eventually, it was too dangerous to keep trying, so I took Chloe and left with the men on my crew. Most of them had their families with them, and together we made a go of it for more than a month. We hid at a new housing site one of the lads knew about. The whole area was ringed with barbed-wire fencing, and several houses were nearly finished. It kept us safe for a while. Just for a while.”
Jackie handed him back his photograph. “She’s beautiful, Ted. I’m so sorry.”
Ted struggled to fight his tears. He felt them amassing beneath his eyes. “She was destined to do great things.” He looked at the picture for himself and smiled, trying not to let the image of Chloe’s smiling face destroy him. “Look, Jackie, I hate to share bad news, but we don’t have enough food.”
“What?” She looked past him to the food arrayed on the shelves. “We have plenty.”
He nodded. “For now, yeah, but fish and the occasional rabbit ain’t gunna cut it, luv. The kids need vegetables, fruit… stuff beside meat and fish.”
“We have apples.”
“Crab apples. And we’ve only found one tree. If you want to make a go of things here, you need to plant food, crops, or whatever. Fishing and hunting are too unreliable, and impossible if you’re ever put under siege. I think I need to leave the forest and try to find a garden centre. I’ll search for seeds—tomato plants, mint, lettuce, that kind of thing. I’m not green-fingered in the slightest, but it won’t be too hard a job to grab whatever I see.”
“You can’t go out there, Ted. You need to stay here.”
“Who else is gunna go?”
“I don’t know. Just not you. We need you here. You’re getting so much done. The children have come out of their shells with you around. They see you as this mighty guardian from the forest, come to save them.”
Ted chuckled. “They just enjoy having something to do. Put the kids to work and they don’t have time to worry.”
“Well, whatever the reason, you need to stay here, Ted. You’re too important.”
“Then who?”
“I’ll go,” said Hannah, startling them both by coming up behind them. Steven was by her side with a small pile of dried fish to add to the stockpile. He kept quiet while Hannah spoke. “I love this place too much to see it fail,” she said. “If we need supplies, I’ll go get them.”
“Are you sure?” Jackie didn’t sound as though she intended to argue. “Your hands?”
Hannah linked her fingers together and cracked her knuckles. “My hands have been fine for days, and I can survive out there better than anyone. I’ll find what we need. We need medicine too. I just heard from Philip that Emily died this morning.”
Steven groaned at that. He was a quiet man, always in the background, but he worked constantly to provide them food and was often amongst the children playing nanny. Ted liked the man from the little he knew of him, and it was painful to see him so devastated. “She was a sweet girl,” he muttered.
Hannah nodded. “Yeah, she was.”
Steven handed Ted the dried fish. “Sorry,” he said, rubbing at his glistening eyes. “I’ll get out of your hair.”
Hannah patted the man on the back as he departed, then gave Ted a hard stare. “I won’t let another child die because of lack of medicine. I’ll go and get what we need.”
“I’m coming with you,” said Ted. “You can’t take the risk all by yourself.”
“No, Ted! Jackie’s right. The changes you’ve made these last two weeks… Everyone will be rudderless if you leave.”
“We’ll make you a list, Hannah,” said Jackie. “And if things get too dangerous, you come right back to us, you hear? You’re too valuable to lose.”
Hannah appeared touched by that, and she snapped off a playful salute. “Understood. It will be a good opportunity to scout the area for threats. I’d rather know where the trouble is before it finds us.”
Ted nodded. Someone needed to go out, and Hannah was the obvious choice. She moved through the wilderness like a silk-slippered ocelot, and she could kill a dozen demons with her rifle before having to make a run for it. While Ted wasn’t afraid to go, he knew he was a lumbering bull. He looked at Jackie. “Could I have a minute alone with Hannah, please?”
“Oh, um, yes, of course. I’ll, um, go start on that list.” She gave Hannah an affectionate smile and trotted out of the room and into the Great Hall.
Hannah studied Ted expectantly. “What’s up, boss?”
“Don’t call me that!”
“Sorry. What’s up, Teddy?”
“Don’t call me that either! Look, are you sure you want to go out there? Two weeks ago, you were desperate never to be alone again. Why do you want to leave suddenly?”
“I don’t want to leave, Ted. I want to be of use. You have the whole master builder thing going on, and Kamiyo is a doctor. Steven’s a butcher. Frank is… well, Frank is Frank, but this is how I can help. This place needs to survive, and unfortunately, I’m the soldier in the group. It kinda feels like my gig.”
“You’ll be on your own again.”
She nodded. “But now I know I’ve got people to get back to. It’s different.”
“I suppose it is.” He reached out and touched her shoulder. “You make sure you do come back.”
She gasped. “Ted, are you showing concern for me? What happened? Are you ill? It’s hemorroides, isn’t it?” She put on a
