“This is an ocean,” Tim said. “Once we found it on old maps, up in the library, I knew I wanted to see one someday.”
“You’re seeing it,” Nate said drily.
“All our maps are wrong,” Cassie said in disbelief. “Our maps showed we had to get through West Virginia and Virginia. How can two states be missing?”
“There’s something wrong,” said Tim. “There’s not supposed to be an ocean here.”
Instinctively I put my arm around Cassie. Had we lost one home and now lost the possibility of ever finding another one? It felt like—we weren’t tethered to anything, or anyone except each other and Tim and Nate. Suddenly it felt like we were the only four people alive in the United. Or… whatever Strepp was going to call it.
Cassie put her arm around me. “Wherever we go, whatever we do, I want us to do it together,” she said softly. Something hard inside my chest melted a bit and I felt less freaked. Home would be wherever Cassie was.
Nate stood next to Cassie and held her hand, and like a mirror Tim did the same to me. These people were my family. And the dog that had just piddled on Nate’s boot without him noticing was partly my dog. I guessed.
The four of us stayed there, linked, and stared at the endless sea.