Then he saw it. In the distance, a quick flick of a light. Long and short pauses. Morse code from one of the sentries on the perimeter.
Someone was coming.
He took off across the parking lot. The sentries would have sounded the alarm if there was danger, which meant it could only be?—
And there, through the darkness, he could hear the rumble of a diesel engine coming up Main Street. At first, all he could see was the same dark he’d been staring at for hours. To his right, he could just see the waning moon’s light catching on the river; it was distracting, drawing him away from the endless blank landscape.
Then the shadows began to coalesce into a shape. The square body of the truck punched through, tires crunching as it unhurriedly turned into the parking lot.
They were all moving before the truck rocked to a stop. Gabriel could only see two people in the cab, neither of whom looked familiar, so he raced to the back. His heart was hammering so hard against his chest that he could hardly breathe.
The tailgate dropped with athunk, and Beaumont hopped down stiffly. His gun was lying in the bed, and he used both hands to help a wincing Alvarez down.
“Blake!” Gabriel shouted, grabbing the taillight to spin himself around. And then he saw him.
Blake was nestled up against the cab, hunched over. In the low light of the fire, he could just see the whites of his eyes and the profile of his nose. Blake was looking at him, but he wasn’t saying anything.
“Blake, what?—”
That’s when Gabriel saw what Blake was holding. A small child sat up from his arms, blinking groggily. She wiped her face with the back of her hand, scooting closer to Blake when she saw everyone staring at her.
“It’s okay,” Blake said, his voice raspy. “They’re friends.”
She looked dubious until Judd pushed his way through the crowd. He smiled, hands on his hips. “Well, shit,” he drawled. “Looks like we got a little surprise here.”
Victoria swatted him. “Language.”
“Nah,” Judd said, his eyes twinkling. “She’s tough enough to handle it. Aren’t ya?”
The little girl’s lip wobbled. She nodded.
“What’s your name?”
“S-Sara.”
Judd knocked on the tailgate before calling out over his shoulder. “Hey, you hear that? Our new friend Sara needs some chocolate, ASAP. Let’s go, people!”
A few people chuckled and left to go procure the girl something. Chocolate was scarce, but someone would have a secret stash. With the promise of sweets and Judd’s big smile, Sara tentatively stepped forward. Judd helped her out of the truck like she was a princess. His easy drawl was pulling her in, and she hung off every silly word he said.
It wasn’t until they left that Blake began moving. He was stiff, and Gabriel reached for him, but Blake didn’t even look at his hand, dropping down from the truck with a grunt. He gaveGabriel a wide berth, ignoring his plaintive calls as he followed the rest toward the motel.
His coldness was like a knife slicing through all of Gabriel’s anxiety. He’d spent so much time worrying about Blake getting hurt that he never considered the possibility that he’d come back angry.
Still, the relief of seeing him alive and walking under his own power was more than the pain. He started to go after him, but Alvarez stopped him.
“Your boy saved lives out there. We cleared that room, we—I didn’t even see them. Walked right past them.”
Gabriel didn’t have time for Alvarez’s mistakes, and he certainly wasn’t going to forgive them. He turned, but Alvarez grabbed his wrist.
“Lennox,” Alvarez’s face was pale, tight with pain. Beaumont was holding him up. “It was a bad one.”
Gabriel yanked his wrist free and went after Blake.
He found Blake in the Infirmary. Blake had his back to the door, backpack open at his feet. The room was empty. The refugees had been given their own rooms for privacy, their pallets nothing more than stripped-down mattresses. The makeshift beds looked ghostly white in the gloom of the room, exposed and skeletal, bare and uncovered in need of a blanket, much like the refugees who had slept in here when they first arrived. The irony wasn’t lost on him.
Gabriel closed the door behind him, making sure the click of the knob was audible. Blake stiffened. He didn’t need to turn to know it was Gabriel. No one else would follow him in. Not like this.
For the last few hours, Gabriel had wanted nothing more than to hold Blake. To speak to him. To clear the chasm between them. But now that he was faced with it, he found he didn’t know what to say. The words came, but they stayed trapped behind his teeth.
