Page 47 of Duty Preserved

“No.”

“Sarah—”

“No.”

“Just hear me out.” She leaned forward. “Someone has to make that run, and it should be the person who actually knows the medication. Someone who could use a few hours off-camp. Someone who could maybe, possibly, have a nice meal in a town where nobody from this camp is watching.”

“Alyson.”

“It’s not a big deal.”

“It is absolutely a big deal, and you know it.”

“It’s a supply run. I’m not saying make a move. I’m not saying show up in a cocktail dress. I’m saying drive to Nanyuki, pick up the xylazine, and eat a meal with someone whose company you enjoy. If something comes of it, it comes of it. If nothing does, you got the meds and you finally stop torturing yourself over whether to try. Where’s the downside?”

I wanted to find one. I wanted a clean, logical reason this was a terrible idea, something I could hold up and watch her concede.

I couldn’t find one.

“The run is tomorrow,” Alyson said again. “Which means if you wait, you’ll talk yourself out of it. I know you. You’ll find a reason and it’ll be a good reason, and it’ll also be complete garbage and you’ll stay in this supply room forever.”

She stood up, dusted off her knees, and held out her hand to pull me to my feet.

“Come on. They’ll be serving supper right about now.”

We crossed the compound toward the mess tent as the light went amber and long. The camp was winding down the way it always did at this hour. Weary bodies shambling toward food, the day’s heat dipping to a simmer. Voices carried from inside the tent, threaded through the radio playing something low and rhythmic against the canvas walls.

Most everyone was already inside.

Donovan was not.

He was crossing toward the tent from the direction of the cabins, unhurried, a few steps behind the last of the crowd. Then he caught sight of us coming from the vet facility, and he slowed and stopped and let the others file in without him.

He’d seen us and he’d waited. He’d chosen to.

Alyson’s elbow connected with my ribs. Hard enough to make me gasp.

“There he is. Ask him now, before your brain gets fully involved.”

“My brain is already involved.”

“Then hurry, before it finishes.” She gave me a shove. “Go.”

“Aly—”

“Sarah has something she wants to ask you,” Alyson called out, her voice carrying the gap between us and Donovan with theatrical precision. She squeezed my arm once, hard enough to leave a mark. “I’m going to go find Daniel and get some food.”

She peeled off toward the tent entrance without looking back.

I crossed the last of the packed dirt to where he stood, the warm evening air pressing against my skin and the noise of the mess tent muffled behind the canvas.

Donovan looked at me with the patient, unhurried expression of a man who had nowhere else to be.

He’ll figure it out. They always figure it out.

I swallowed.

“The supply run. To Nanyuki. Tomorrow.” My hands found the hem of my shirt, and I made them stop. “We’re short on xylazine. It’s a sedation drug, for the large animals. The pharmacy in Nanyuki is the only place that carries it, and someone needs to go pick it up.”