“He’s not dead,” I say and hold Mio’s stare.
“You don’t know that Adaline. All I know is that the plan was to get you and Alexander to Libertas, and now you’ve gone away from the plan to rescue your friends and Alexander is gone.” Mio carefully lectures me, trying to keep his voice steady so the panic won’t rise in the rest of our group.
“He’ll meet up with us. He said he would,” I say more to reassure myself than anyone else because he should have been here already. He was supposed to cut straight across to the river.
“Well I hope for all of our sakes that you’re right,” Mio stands and walks away. We watch as he walks over and starts talking with James and Bren, and then they disappear into the woods to find food for today.
“I’m sorry about that,” Cinder finally says, breaking the silence in her sweet voice. “He just doesn’t like it when things don’t go the way he plans.” She pulls a large bag off her shoulder and hands Toby and Zavy each a blanket, pillow, and change of clothes. The same extra items I had found in my bag. I know Mio may not agree with me bringing them here, but it’s a good sign that they are treating them like everyone else and sharing their supplies. I don’t know if that was Mio’s idea or Cinder’s.
“Yeah, I can see that,” Zavy says harsher than she probably intended. “Sorry. Thank you for these,” she says taking the items from Cinder. “I’m Zavy and this is my brother Toby.” Cinder just lets a small smile fall on her face. She nods her head and gets up to go check on the others.
Zavy and Toby pack their supplies into their bags. I notice each of them still have rations from the bunker as well as additional clothes. They were smart to pack those. I hadn’t thought to do that. I guess that shows how different we are. Zavy and Toby have been surviving off of nothing but the woods for seven years. They know when they come across clean clothes not to take them for granted. I wonder what other items around the bunker Zavy saw as treasures while I only saw as useless.
“What were you thinking, Adaline?” Cooper mumbles with his head hanging in his hands.
“I was thinking my friends were in trouble, and they needed my help,” I say strongly.
“Do you realize if I wouldn’t have followed you, you and Alexander would be dead?” Cooper says, looking up and meeting my eyes.
“What do you want me to say? Thank you?” I ask sarcastically.
“No, I want you to stop making selfish decisions. Do you realize how many lives you put in danger?” Cooper asks, and I can see the fear in his eyes from when Codian had almost killed him.
“I didn’t ask you to follow me,” I tell him.
“Well, I kind of had to,” he says under his breath.
“No, you didn’t. I didn’t make you do anything,” I shout back to him because I can tell this is becoming more than the fact that he followed me last night. This has to do with the fact that he’s had to give up his entire life to make sure I survive.
We hold each other’s gaze for a long time until Cooper finally says in a weak voice, “I had to. I’m your brother.” Cooper stands and walks into the woods in the direction that Mio had gone, and eventually everyone else returns to making small talk.
“Well, that was a warm welcome,” Zavy scoffs.
I let myself smile and say, “Yeah, well that’s my brother.”
Zavy and I exchange small talk and I tell her about the others who are traveling with us. She doesn’t ask me any questions about why we are with these people or how I never told her about Cooper, so I don’t bring it up either. I’m physically and mentally too exhausted to have to go into it right now. She doesn’t mind anyway, as long as she’s alive that’s her only concern. From her point of view, she’s free from Paylon, has food, water, clean clothes, and sleeping components.
I feel guilty because I know she needs to get her memories back so she can remember Cooper too, but I don’t see the harm in letting her believe in her fake memories just a little while longer.
Later, Cooper and Mio emerge from the forest with James and Bren, each pair carrying a deer over their shoulders.
“Zavy, look,” Toby says, pointing to the deer. “We’ve never been able to bring one that big down.”
“That’s pretty impressive,” Zavy agrees and notices Toby sitting in shock.
“They must be really good hunters,” Toby thinks aloud.
No one has much to talk about anymore so we all end up sitting in silence and my mind can’t help but think about Alexander. I watch Albert and Andy clean the meat and start up a fire. I cringe, knowing that the smoke from our fire will broadcast our location. That may be a sign to Paylon as to where we are, but maybe it will also help Alexander find us.
When the meat has finished cooking, Cooper calls us to come and take our share for breakfast. I see that they have only laid out half the meat, and the rest they’ve packaged to take with us. Zavy and I grab some of the meat and go back to our previous spot. Cinder walks around the group and distributes some berries to everyone.
“At least we won’t starve,” Zavy mumbles between mouthfuls of food.
“Don’t speak so soon. You don’t want to jinx it,” I say. When everyone finishes eating, Mio announces that it’s time to get moving again.
“We’ll walk for now
