Lucy watched uneasily as Lynn lowered herself to the ground, still crouched, knife in hand. “What makes you say that?” Lynn asked.
“Just a way you have about you.” Joss shrugged. “Wouldn’t want to run into you in the woods alone at night.” The fire flared, filling the crevices of her face with light and revealing a stunning pair of penetrating green eyes.
“My people were booted when I was out hunting. Came back and found their fire all kicked to hell, everybody gone. World being what it is, I’d rather not be on the road alone trying to catch up to them, and I thought you two wouldn’t mind another pair of useful hands.”
“What can you do we can’t?” Lucy asked.
“I doubt there’s anything I can do that either one of you can’t,” Joss answered. “But a woman traveling alone is done for, and two is only one better.”
“And three only one better than two,” Lynn said.
“Maybe. But there’s safety in numbers, and three is bigger than two. I’ve been traveling awhile now, and I’ve seen some things.” Her gaze shifted away from Lucy and back to Lynn.
Lynn return the glare without a flinch, but she sheathed the knife. “Having you along couldn’t hurt, I suppose,” she said, to Lucy’s surprise. “Till you find your own people?”
Joss nodded. “Assuming, of course, we’re all headed the same direction?”
“We’re going to—” Lucy began, but Lynn cut her off.
“We’re headed west,” she said, silencing Lucy with a glare. “Trying to get away from a sickness.”
“Who says there isn’t sickness in the west?”
“Who says there is?”
“Life’s a gamble, isn’t it?”
Lynn shifted away from the fire to move over next to Lucy, dragging her blanket with her. “We’re going. And I’m sleeping for what’s left of the night.”
Lucy bundled her blanket around her and curled into a ball, her back pressed against Lynn’s for warmth, their sleeping forms fit well from years of huddling together for heat. The familiar feeling of Lynn’s breathing moving in time with her own pulled Lucy back to simpler days, when life was a string of sunrises and sunsets, with long afternoons in between spent with Maddy and Carter.
She snaked her arm out from under the blanket and curled a fist in Lynn’s long hair, a habit from childhood. Lynn’s hand covered her fingers and squeezed back in reassurance.
“Are we out of Ohio yet?” Lucy sat in the shade of a pin oak, grateful for the escape from the beating sun.
“Not yet,” Lynn said testily, the map spread over her knees once again.
Joss sat near Lucy in the shade, her water bottle resting nearby. She had filled her bottles at Lake Wellesley but had no food of her own. Joss had taken on all the duties she could to make up for her lack; she gathered kindling if Lynn felt safe enough for a fire, and always volunteered to take the first watch. She’d even ventured into the kitchen of an abandoned house and made a paste of vinegar and baking soda that had cured a nasty poison ivy rash on Lucy’s arm. But none of Joss’ good points seemed to have an effect on Lynn. She’d been quiet and guarded since the new addition.
“Let me know when we are,” Lucy said, trying to get Lynn’s attention.
“When we are what?”
“Out of Ohio.”
Lynn glanced up from the map. “I will.”
“Being out of Ohio will be interesting.”
Lynn ignored her, immersed in planning their route.
“I’ve been out of Ohio,” Joss offered.
“Really? Before or after the Shortage?”
“Before. I’m not from here, actually. I grew up in Florida.”
“Florida . . .” Lucy let the word slide off her tongue. Lynn had forced something of an education upon her, mostly revolving around a musty set of encyclopedias her own mother had stored in the basement. She knew Florida existed, and that it was south, but anything more was new information.
“What’s it like?”
“I can’t tell you what it’s like now, I haven’t been back. But I’m sure it’s still hot, and there were crocodiles thick as your coyotes.”
Lucy shivered, relishing the little chill of fear that ran up her spine. “That would rattle me.”
“No worse than packs of wild dogs, I guess,” Joss said, watching Lucy from the corner of her eye, with a playful smile. “Crocs are just scaly wild dogs that’ll drown you and eat you.”
“All right.” Lynn snapped the map shut. “Let’s go.”
“What now?” Lucy asked.
Lynn shouldered her pack and gave Lucy a blank look. “We walk.”
“Walking. I love walking.”
Lynn rolled her eyes as she shouldered her pack, but Lucy caught the smile spreading across her face before she turned away. Lucy allowed herself one glance around before they struck out onto the road, but there was no sign of Carter. Half of her breakfast lay wrapped in leaves beside a tree, regardless.
“So what did you do for a living, before the Shortage?” Lucy asked Joss, grateful for the distraction of a new person.
“I was a yoga instructor.”