“He’ll hate me.”
“Maybe.”
She looks at me accusingly, red-eyed with a runny nose. “That’s not helping.”
I sigh and take both of her hands. “You screwed up, dear sister. And there’s no more hiding behind Fortress walls pretending otherwise. The journey to your little town is going to be hard. Brutally hard. We may not even survive and if we do, I suspect seeing Avi is going to be even more difficult.” Another round of sobs wracks through her. I sigh. “But I’ve got your back and I’ll fight for you every step of the way.”
She nods, and I step into the bathroom, where I find the most fantastic thing ever. A box of tissues. I hand it over and she takes an extravagant number, four at once, and I roll my eyes at her cluelessness.
“Wha?” she asks, nose stuffed and running.
“I have so much to teach you.” I take the box back before she can use them all. “But I guess that’s what sisters are for.”
*
After my talk with Jane, I feel the need for a bath so I head down to the clear, green, lake water. Walker agrees to stand guard and I take tiny baby steps into the freezing cold water slowly, until every part of my body is submerged. I’m still dressed in my prison uniform, not for modesty but because large swaths of the fabric are stuck to my skin, dried there with blood and fluids from my escape. My hands are stained a dark red and I can still feel the hot blood as it oozed out of Cole’s wound.
Even lost to the Hybrid virus, he saved me. I don’t know where to put that information.
The cloth loosens once it gets wet and I strip down and scrub myself clean with a bar of fresh-smelling soap from the bathroom. They have a whole basket of cleaning products the owners must have picked up at hotels around the country. I use three tiny bottles that smell like lavender on my hair alone.
I feel as greedy as my sister with the tissues.
Later, night falls, and we gather around the long wooden table. Jackson’s rabbit, plus two cans of corn and one of peaches in thick, sugary juice make our meal. The owner must have had a thing for candles because there are dozens, and instead of risking a fire we draw the curtains and eat by flickering candlelight.
“What’s the plan?” I ask, licking syrup off my fingers. “Because we can’t stay here long.”
All afternoon I tried to picture the United States map and figure out the best way from here to Eastern Kentucky. All I know is this lake isn’t in the right spot to connect directly to the river, which means we’ll be moving forward on foot. Green says as much as he gnaws on the leg bone of the rabbit.
“So we’re walking?” I ask, looking at the Fighters.
“I brought some additive and a spare battery that may help us get a car moving,” Jackson says.
“Has the gas gone bad?” Jane asks, thinking about this for the first time.
“At the Fort, we fleet-crew-maintained the vehicles, keeping batteries and gasoline clean. Out here, everything’s been sitting for a while. We should be able to get something working. We definitely don’t want to travel over the Appalachians on foot.”
“Does that work for you?” I ask Walker, who’s been uncharacteristically quiet.
“Yes. First thing we’ll search for a vehicle but, I agree, we need to leave as soon as possible after that. We need more distance between us and the Hybrids.” She stands and takes her plate to the sink out of habit. There’s no water other than from the lake. She quickly adds, “I’ll take first watch,” before heading out the front door.
I jerk my chin at Green. “You have a map?”
“In my bag.”
My sister watches our exchange. She’s been silent since we spoke earlier in the day. I don’t have the energy to deal with her right now. “Can I look it over? Or we can look it over together? I like to have my route well planned.”
“Good idea.” He hops up and goes for his bag; it’s as worn and battered as my own.
I feel a sense of gratitude that Jane thought to bring my pack. There’s not much inside but the family things I’d carried this whole time and a couple of spare pairs of clothing. I’d used most of the space for the food I brought for Devin and his family. But the family pictures and our mother’s wedding ring is in that bag, and it’s all I have left.
Green and I spread his map on the coffee table, using a couple of candles for light. We figure out the fastest route, then the safest, then a third in case the first two are blown to hell.
“How much time have you spent in the Death Fields?” I ask him. I know from seeing Erwin’s map at our last meeting that most of the north is not cleared of the Eaters. That’s probably the best thing Jane and her Hybrids did for the south. They cleared out so many of the infected and rounded up the survivors. It made a difference. Unfortunately, their motives weren’t so great for the rest of society.
“I spent six months out there in the beginning—before The Director’s Fighters came through my little town.” His face takes on a familiar pained expression. “It was a hard six months. I thought the people would rally together.”
“They didn’t?”