“Oh, come on now. Don’t treat them like you’ve just seen a ghost. They’re just like the rest of us,” Cooper says.
“My apologies,” one of the girls says. She has a short blonde bob hair cut and shining blue eyes. She places the shirt she was cleaning on the edge of the old wooden bucket and wipes her hands on her own old dress. The ends are tethered and covered with loose strings. Dirt patches, I’m sure they’ve tried scrubbing clean, rim the dress.
I realize they were kids when they were brought here, but in the seven years, they’ve grown. They had to gather old thrown out garments from Garth and sneak them back here for them.
She extends her hand out to me and says, “I’m Essie. It’s an honor to meet you both.” I accept her hand and she gives it a tight squeeze. She does a similar gesture for Alexander and I am almost certain I can see tears brimming her eyes. I realize how crazy it must be to finally see the faces of the people you’ve been waiting seven years for. We are their key to freedom, to finally leave these woods. Essie lets a smile fall across her lips and I can see the happiness in her eyes.
She gestures to the two girls behind her who have also dropped the shirts and pants they were cleaning and stand to greet us. “These are my sisters. Cassandra,” she gestures to one of the girls who has very long and thick blonde hair and brown eyes. “And this is Sarah,” Essie says, gesturing to her other sister who has thin red hair.
“It’s nice to meet you all,” I say and smile as I shake Cassandra and Sarah’s hands.
“That’s an excellent stitching job,” Sarah says, looking down at Alexander’s leg. “Who did that?”
“Oh, Adaline did,” Alexander says and my name sounds odd coming from him.
“Where did you learn to do that?” Sarah asks, impressed.
“We’ll I watched my mother do it on me once before. I really wasn’t taught,” I admit.
“It’s a very nice job. You probably saved his leg,” Essie says to me. “What medicine have you taken for it?” she turns and asks Alexander.
“I took medicine for the pain right after we stitched it up. That’s it,” Alexander says to Essie, thinking back to now two days ago.
“You should take some more pain medicine and some others too, in case of infection. Giving stitches in these conditions is dangerous,” Essie says. She walks around us into the tent and then emerges with two pills. Alexander swallows each of them and thanks Essie. “If you need more for the pain let me know. You should take the one for infection every 24 hours.”
“I’m fine really. I don’t want to use up what little medicine you have,” Alexander says sheepishly.
“But you’re our key to freedom,” Cassandra says shocked by how humble Alexander is trying to be. “We would give up anything for you.” I look around at the makeshift home they have here in the woods and recognize that they already have.
Her comment leaves an awkward feeling between the group and Cooper steps in, “We will be leaving first thing tomorrow morning so make sure to distribute the rest of the garments out and pack up whatever you have to take with us.”
We make our way to the second tent in the clearing and encounter a very similar greeting. This tent serves as the kitchen and food storage area. There are four guys working here. Two of them, Albert and Andy, are brothers and the other two, James and Bren, were neighbors before coming here. They ask what we’ve been eating and we explain to them it has been a mix of ray berries and turkey meat. We show them the rations we found at the bunker and they are as confused as we were.
“You found a bunker?” Cooper asks curiously.
“Yes, not far from here. Just over a days hike probably,” I say. “We took most of the useful items. We could have brought more clothes if we had known,” I say, trailing off. I don’t want to insult the conditions they are living in. It’s far better than the prison cell I was in, but the quality of clothes Alexander and I have are leaps and bounds from theirs. “We could go back,” I start to consider. It’s honestly the last thing I want to do. I want to find Zavy and keep moving forward. Cooper said their plan is to get me to Libertas which is where I was headed anyway, but I feel responsible knowing there are better resources not too far from here.
“Not necessary,” Cooper says, interrupting my thoughts. “We’ll leave tomorrow for Sard and replenish our supplies then.”
“But the rations have been safe to eat?” Albert asks, cautiously sniffing the bag.
“We’ve been eating them all morning,” Alexander offers.
“It’s just dried food, it doesn’t actually taste like anything,” I say and watch the four boys test the rations for themselves. They shrug their shoulders not, nearly as interested as they were before.
“They’ll still be good to have, in case of an emergency,” Albert nods.
We follow Cooper out of the kitchen tent and over to the two people I had noticed before leaning over a table looking at a map. We walk around the edge of the clearing and I glance at the trees. I stop at one and scan the thin lines carved in its trunk. My eyes sweep to the neighboring trees and I see they are covered with gashed lines. My finger lifts and rubs over the groove.
“Just something to keep time moving,” Cooper says softly. My eyes feel wet as I remember the cell I left behind, marked with thousands of lines.
“I used to make a tally on the walls of my cell,” I
