Her eyes met mine. Hope glimmered there now instead of desperation, and the same feeling sparked to life inside me.
“You’d do that?” she asked, her gaze jumping from Varesh to Tim. “Really?”
“I would.” Tim nodded slowly as if he was processing, too. “It makes sense,” he said. “Ava's met us a couple of times, and we won’t have any trouble with Dustin.”
They’d still need an end date to their waiting, or it could drag on forever.
Owen leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Sounds like that solves the problem.”
Laura gave me a tight smile. “Except we’ll be on opposite sides of the state by the time we all get to where we’re going, but I’m happy the four of you are sticking together.” A beat of silence passed. Her eyes shone, then she pulled in a shuddering breath. “Anyway, enough of that. Let’s get planning.”
My gaze drifted to the girls, a bittersweet lump forming in my throat. Ellie pointed at something on the street and nudgedWillow’s arm, their heads pressed together as they whispered back and forth. It hit me then that I’d never see them grow up—but I’d see Ruby. Mia. My dad. I needed to focus on what I’d gain, not on what I was losing.
“We still haven’t been through the abandoned apartments yet,” I said, shaking off the sadness. “Why don’t we start with that and divvy up the haul? Leave some here for Tim and Varesh. Maybe Dustin, if we’re feeling generous.”
“I’m not,” Owen said. “Feeling generous, that is.”
“Me neither.” Sadie sat up straighter and pushed her hair over her shoulder.
“At this point, he can just fend for himself,” Tim added. “He’s never pretended to care about us.”
They wouldn’t get any arguments from me.
For the first time in weeks, I felt like we had a purpose, a goal. That we might actually make this work. When Sadie looked my way again, a vague smile tugged at her mouth. She was too scared to trust the feeling this early on, but it didn’t matter. She could trust me.
The conversation quickly shifted to logistics—what to pack, who’d scavenge on which floors, whether we needed to source more weapons. While I switched between listening and offering my input, I had to ignore the pull in my chest every time Sadie’s voice broke through the noise.
She was coming with me. I could introduce her to the people I loved most.
Mia would lose her mind seeing me bring a woman home for the first time. Ruby would make friendship bracelets for Sadie and teach her dance routines. And my dad… he’d treat her like she belonged the second he set eyes on her.
My breath stuck in my throat, and I swallowed. The others delegated level four to Sadie and me while they took care ofsearching the remaining levels, but I couldn’t focus on any of that right now.
As the energy grew more animated on the rooftop, everything inside me went calm and still.
I scrubbed my hands down my face and sighed. She was coming with me.
Twenty-Six
sadie
“It’s weird walking through someone else’s apartment with all their things in here.” I left the door to number fifteen wide open, following Theo into the kitchen with a laundry basket tucked under my arm.
I set the basket on the island bench and opened the first overhead cupboard, finding a collection of teapots and glassware.
“We don’t need to be in here long,” he said. “Empty the pantry. Check every cupboard. Grab whatever looks useful.”
“And stay away from the fridge,” I said. “Who knows what’s in there after all this time.”
Penny and Jasmine were our across-the-hall neighbours—identical twins in their sixties who’d spent their entire lives together. One had been an accountant and the other a retired high school teacher. They’d died within two weeks of each other during the first wave of the virus.
Their place was filled with antique furniture and ornaments. Decorative plates lined the walls, and a porcelain tea set hadbeen arranged on the dining table as if they might sit down any minute to chat over steaming tea and biscuits.
When they died, I thought we’d eventually get new neighbours, not end up in an empty building.
Theo and I worked in silence, the faint smell of dust hanging in the air as he filled the laundry basket with boxes of pasta and tinned soup.
“It feels like they could come home any minute and catch us stealing their food,” I said, sorting through the overhead cupboards.
