"Yeah, I know." I drop my pack on the sand and survey the area. "But when you woke up, what did you see? Anything you can remember might be helpful."
She bites her lip, then gnaws on it as if she's thinking hard. "Erin and Grant found me, and they mentioned something about the tide. I know for sure they said I was lying facedown on the beach with the water washing up around me. And now that I think about it…I'm pretty sure they said it was low tide."
"When is low tide?"
"Around noon, I think. Grant keeps track of it."
I bite back a curse. "We're too late for it today. Better hold off until morning. I want to see where you washed ashore, but at low tide."
Because I'm suddenly an expert on that stuff. But nobody else seems to have a clue, so I might as well pretend I know what the fuck I'm doing. It's been two months since Sarah turned up here on the Northern California coast. Don't know what I think I'll learn by visiting that spot at low tide. Maybe it doesn't matter either way. Or maybe I'm delaying because the thought of what I might find out makes me uneasy.
No, it can't be that.
"Okay," Sarah says. "We'll wait. In the meantime, what should we do? Walk back to Sanctuary?"
"No, let's just settle in for the night here."
She glances around, hunching her shoulders. "Shouldn't we stay in the woods? I mean, if the lightning comes back…"
"You'd feel safer in the woods."
She hugs herself. "Yeah, I would. I know I'm being a wimp—"
"No, you're not. Let's go find a good spot for the night."
We hike back up the slope, but we turn down a path worn down by wildlife and choose a spot there to spend the night. We don't have any sleeping bags, but I made sure we brought blankets just in case. I try to give both blankets to Sarah, so she can lie on one and cover herself with the other. But she won't agree to that. I need to have a blanket too, she says. Sarah might think she's a wimp, but she knows how to be tough when she wants to get her way.
Though she declares that she can't really sleep and will only doze, after a while I look over at her and see she has fallen asleep. Good. At least one of us will get some rest.
I lie on my back and gaze up at the sky, what little of it I can see through the trees. Before the apocalypse, I'd rarely gone out into the suburbs, much less the wilderness. My idea of experiencing nature involved driving through a national park. Now, I'm sleeping under the stars. Would it be weird to thankthe Echo for taking away my ability to stare at my cell phone for hours? I might never have studied the stars otherwise.
And I would never have met Sarah.
But I can't get too attached to her. I just lost the only family I'd ever known, and I don't want to watch Sarah or her friends suffer the same fate. I need to keep my distance.
Sarah moans softly, stirring a little. Her eyes remain closed, though her lips have curved up just enough to make her look so pretty that I want to cradle her in my arms. Christ, I met her today. I shouldn't have feelings like that. I don't want to feel that way.
Eventually, I doze off and wake up at dawn.
Can't believe I slept at all. But now, we both need to get up and try to find answers. I yawn and stretch, then grasp Sarah's shoulder to give her a little shake. "Wake up. No time for snoozing."
She opens her bleary eyes and frowns at me. "You're even grumpy when you wake up in the morning."
"Just get up." I scramble to stand, though I keep slipping on the grass, where morning dew has made things slick. "Come on. You're still just lying there."
"I need a few minutes to wake up."
Grumbling, I hunt around in my pack until I find the snack bars I'd stashed in there. Apparently, Sarah's friends like to scavenge food from destroyed cities. Grant told me they also hunt, so they can have meat sometimes. All I've got for me and Sarah is snack bars and jerky. Not my favorite foods. But nobody can be picky these days. Hell, I'd even eat pea soup if I found some, and I hate that garbage.
Sarah finally gets up. "What's the plan?"
I toss her a couple of snack bars. "We go down to the beach. Weren't you listening yesterday? I told you already."
She rolls her eyes at me.
Whatever that's supposed to mean, I don't care. I grab my pack and wave for her to follow me. "Hurry up, Lady Godiva."
"How many times do I have to say it before you listen? I don't like being called Lady Godiva."