“Willow?” I called, jogging down the steps. “Willow, where the fuck are you going?”
She slammed to a stop and spun around, her walker thumping loudly against the ground. She was pale, her eyes wet with tears and trembling from head to toe.
“I’m leaving!” she cried.
“Yeah, you said that already. Butwhereare you going? Doc’s is that way,” I said, pointing.
“I’m not going to Doc’s—I’m leaving this… this… this fucking mirage!” She swung her walker around, on the move once again. I stared after her, unsure of what to do. On a good day, Willow was irrational at best, and today was definitely not a good day.
“Open the gate!” she began to scream, waving frantically at the guard tower as she hobbled in the direction of the wall. “Open the gate and let me out of here!”
“Willow!” I shouted, breaking into a run. “Willow!”
“Open the gate!” She screamed again, while the pair of people inside the tower stared down at her with bewildered expressions.
“Willow, stop this shit right fucking now!” I demanded, coming up quickly behind her.
Willow whipped around, chucking her walker in my direction. The flimsy piece of equipment went wide, missing me entirely. “Don’t come near me, Logan—don’t you dare come any closer!”
“Where the hell are you going to go? You can barely walk, you have no gear, no supplies, no weapons…” Glaring at her, I held my hands up in question.
“I can’t be here!” she cried. “This place—the people! There’s kids here, Logan! There’s little kids here—I can’t even remember the last time we saw a kid!”
I shook my head, confused. “That’s a good thing, isn’t it? It means it’s safe.”
Willow’s teary-eyed gaze turned instantly hard. “Why does everyone keep saying that? It’s not safe here—it’s not safe anywhere!”
Above us, from inside the guard tower, I heard the crackle of a walkie-talkie. “We have a little bit of a situation at the gate—might want to send Leisel and Joshua down.”
“There’s a fucking wall,Willow,” I gritted out, gesturing. “The wall makes it safe.”
“It’s not a magic wall,Logan!” she screamed. “We both know how quickly things can change! Just because you can’t see the problem doesn’t mean it’s not still out there!” Her chest was heaving, her eyes and hair wild. I could see that she was spiraling into a full-blown panic attack, but I was suddenly too mad at her to care.
“Are you fucking serious right now?” I exploded. “You don’t need to tell me what’s out there—it’s me who’s been leading the two of you all over the goddamn country trying to find a place just like this, remember?”
“How could I possibly forget when you never shut up about it! Saint fucking Logan, who risked it all for Luke and Willow.”
Jaw locked and nostrils flaring, I stepped closer. “You’re goddamn right, I risked it all! Did you forget that it was me who carried your ass out of that Creeper-infested ravine? And it wasmewho dragged you around in that fucking kayak until my hands busted open! And it was me who found this place, trying to findyouhelp—remember?”
“No!” she screamed. “I actually don’t fucking remember! But now that I know, how does it feel knowing it was all for nothing—that everything you did was stupid and pointless? Because Luke is still gone, and I wish I was too!”
We were standing only about a foot apart—Willow somewhat lopsided, leaning most of her weight onto her uninjured side. Her eyes were wet and wide, tears streaking down her face; her expression was feral, her chest shuddering with every panicked, angry breath. Meanwhile, I stood in shock, shaking with fury. I’d dealt with her shit for years—too many goddamn years! I didn’t deserve this; I especially didn’t deserve this after risking everything to save her life.
“You know what?” I bit out, pain and anger punctuating each of my words. “Fuck it. You’re an ungrateful fucking bitch, and I’m done with you. You wanna walk out of here, you go right ahead. It wouldn’t be the first idiotic thing you’ve done, but it might be the last!”
Something ugly flashed in Willow’s eyes, her expression twisting with rage. “Fuck you, Logan!” she shrieked. “Fuck you straight to hell!”
“Thanks to you, I’m already fucking there!” I thundered in reply, spinning away.
As I stormed off, Willow continued to shriek; I could still hear her screaming as I rounded a corner, the intensity of her cries causing a pressure-like sensation in the center of my chest that made it difficult to take a full breath.
I headed to my cabin first, only to find that I couldn’t breathe any better inside the small, stiflingspace. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think, the room was pulsing, the walls were closing in, inching closer and closer until I couldn’t take it anymore—I had to get the fuck out.
Bursting through the cabin door, I sprinted toward the south side of camp. This early, there wouldn’t be anyone around, but once breakfast had ended and work began, the entire camp would become a hub of activity.
There was no shortage of work to do in Silver Lake—there was daily food preparation and cleanup, maintenance chores, along with alternating fishing and hunting excursions. On top of the daily duties, Silver Lake was in the midst of a mass expansion—east side cabins had already had their additions built, providing the occupants more living space, though construction had only recently begun on the west side of camp, where my cabin was located.
Having reached the lake’s edge, I scooped up a handful of small rocks and tossed them, one by one, into the shimmering water. The air smelled good here, fresh and even a bit sweet. Throwing the last of my rocks, I shoved my hands into my pockets and gazed out over the lake, noting the fencing sticking far above the water’s surface. Looking in either direction, the fencing appeared to span the entire length of camp, attaching to the edge of both walls. They’d really thought of everything here—even the possibility of Creepers, or other undesirables, entering via the lakeside.
