“I’m sure that Aby is okay, you know,” Megan said gently. “And she can look after herself...I’m sure she will find us. Just...maybe we should slow down a little. Stop, even.”
“We keep going until we find her,” Jake growled, still not looking Megan in the eye. In the moonlight, his eyes seemed bloodshot and feral. Megan shook her head to herself. How had it come to this?
She couldn’t believe how quickly they’d all come undone. Since they arrived at Dent only a day before, everything seemed like it was falling apart. Jake had been so confident going in, having escaped the police and numerous fights. But when they were attacked by the city folk and the prisoners from the local jail, everything fell apart. Jake’s confidence was quickly chipped away until there was nothing left. He almost died in a car fire and he didn’t even seem to care. It baffled Megan. She’s spent the whole time she’d been with Jake and Aby feeling like a liability, letting her emotions get the better of her and being judged for it. But she was the one who hadn’t lost her mind. She was scared and she had no idea what the future held for her, but she wasn’t letting it stop her from moving forward. If anything, Megan felt like she was getting stronger while everyone else was quickly crumbling to pieces. She glanced at Jake and his wild eyes.
Who is the weak one now? She thought.
She regretted the bitter thought immediately, and it played on her mind as they continued walking. She’d never been a bitter person before, and yet the new world was making monsters of them all. She let guilt wash over her for the rest of the walk, telling herself she deserved the aching in her body as night turned to day and they still hadn’t stopped walking. She kept hesitating from asking Jake to stop. She was worried that anything she might say would set him into a fit of anger. She knew from experience how to tread carefully around angry men.
Jake eventually stopped in his tracks and Megan glanced up from the ground to see what he’d spotted. They had reached a gas station. Megan knew the gas station itself was useless now, but she hoped that maybe the store inside might be of use. She tugged on Jake’s sleeve like a child about to ask their father for sweets.
“We should go in...see what there is for us to eat inside.”
Jake didn’t say anything, but he headed toward the door silently. Megan scurried after him, glancing nervously around them. She was worried that they might run into someone along their way, and she knew from experience that strangers never turned out to be friends anymore. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. She remembered their friends from Dent, the ones who took them to safety while they were on the run. Sarky Abigail, sweet as sugar John, strong-willed Perry. They had been the good kind of strangers...and over the time that Megan spent with them, she felt like she’d known them a lifetime. Time was strange those days. It felt like every day lasted for years. And when they all died trying to protect their town, Megan felt their loss like a stab to the heart.
She swallowed back tears as she and Jake silently walked around the store. She had to keep herself together. Now more than ever since Jake was incapable of leading them.
The shelves they passed were depressingly empty. The stockroom was, too. Megan was tired and hungry, but she didn’t complain. She didn’t want Jake to see how dire their situation was. If they didn’t find water and food, how would they survive?
“I guess someone else got here first,” Megan said with a sigh. “Why don’t we take a rest now and start afresh in a few hours? I’m sure we’ll come across somewhere similar soon enough…”
Jake opened his mouth and Megan prepared to receive an angry rant from him, but he stopped before he said anything. Then he just nodded and stalked out of the store again. Megan followed him around the back of the gas station to the clump of trees behind it. Wordlessly, Jake nestled himself in the roots of a tree and closed his eyes, wrapping his arms around himself. Megan sighed. She couldn’t believe how he was acting. He was like a spoiled child. He was completely different to how he’d been even a few days before. Megan sat down beside him and rested her weary head against the tree. She just wanted to shut off for a few hours and not think about anything. It had been days since she’d had a decent sleep. She felt her weariness pulling her under and she didn’t even have time to worry about what would happen if they were found as they slept. She just let her exhaustion take over…
When she woke again, the sun was beating down on her face, and Jake was staring at something in the distance. She sensed that something was wrong right away.
“Jake? What is it?”
He didn’t reply. He was getting good at tuning her out completely, like she wasn't even there. She grabbed his shoulder and shook it, irritated and afraid.
“What is it?”
He got up and began to walk off. That was when she saw the car parked outside the gas station. It was beside one of the gas terminals, as though hoping that the pumps would still work. Megan frowned and stumbled her feet. Why was Jake trying to interfere with the stranger?
She ran after him and found him facing off with an older man. He
