They have enough food to take for the trip, but bullets are scarce. They’re going to leave the only safe place, with no transportation, and few weapons, and head into the unknown during a brand new plague. It sounds insane.
“Hey, what if this isn’t actually as bad as Gwen fears it might be? What if it’s fine, and she just doesn’t have a good signal yet? She could still come back.”
Theo pauses in the middle of packing a bag. “Stranger things have happened, but I’d rather be proactive at this point. Are you having second thoughts?”
“Leaving all the supplies and the heat and the running water just feels like a questionable decision.”
“I get it. And you’re right. We have to decide together. I can’t force you to leave.”
“But you’ll go without me?”
He winces like she hit him, and she wishes she could take back the comment that slipped out before she actually thought itthrough. Her heart already knows he wouldn’t abandon her. Her head simply hasn’t caught up.
“No,” he grumbles. “Stop that. Whatever we do, we do it together.”
“You think we should go.” It’s a flat, resigned statement that earns her a nod of agreement.
“It won’t be easy, but it’s doable.”
The thing about being faced with life-altering decisions is that she never expected them to keep coming at breakneck speeds. They hardly get a moment to rest before some new awful thing springs up, and they’re standing at another fork in the road. As much as she wants to pretend that Gwen overreacted, she knows her friend is the last person to spread panic if it isn’t warranted.
If they stay and no one comes, it’ll be harder to leave after they’ve run through all the supplies, and this place could end up a prison.
“Okay. Let’s go to Barrow.”
Chapter 12
He killed two people.
Or, maybe he didn’t. Can’t be sure. It’s clearly impossible that anyone could survive the injuries he saw, and yet the first one was unfazed even before he slammed the bow into his skull, missing his mouth and nose all the while.
That isn’t normal. Far from it.
It could be he did them a favor in putting them out of their misery.
It could be they were already dead, which sounds crazy. They can talk about Gwen saying it all day long, but admitting it out loud between each other is something neither of them seems especially eager about. If they say the dead are wandering around outside, then it becomes real, and that’s a step they aren’t prepared for.
Theo’s fifty percent sure the people who attacked them were already gone, though, and considering they were aiming for Nora, they had it coming either way. No chance he’d ever let anyone hurt her. He was shaken at first because seeing dead people on the plane is one thing, but beingthe cause of deathis another entirely, no matter how he tries to rationalize it.
So yeah, he might not be coping that well. Would anyone be? He tells himself that his reaction is normal. If he felt nothing, then that would be an even bigger problem. Having a reasonable amount of time to process any of this isn’t on the schedule today,though. In fact, it might not be on the schedule for a long fucking time. So, he tries to shove it to the back of his mind and focus on the next thing. The next task. The next step.
Which is hiking to fucking Barrow in the middle of what could be the start of a global disaster, with only a vague map, a pack full of supplies, and a sprinkle of hopes and dreams.
It’ll be fine, he tells himself. What else could go wrong?
* * *
He’s never gonna forgive his brother for this. If he ever sees him again. Theo could be surviving whatever virus-spawned apocalypse this turns out to be in the comfort of his own home instead of trudging through knee-deep snow. Of course, then he wouldn’t have met Nora. That isn’t a trade-off he’s certain he would make.
She is growing into someone that he would miss if she were gone. That alone is a scary thought that has him wishing he never entertained the idea of them together in the first place. All of this flirting and almost kissing is nothing but infatuation brought on by stress. The fact that there’s literally no one else around to act as a buffer is a clear factor. They are all they have. That sort of forced closeness is bound to intensify feelings that he could otherwise control just fine, and Theo is a master at keeping his distance.
That’s the last thing he wants to do now, even as they wade across a frozen tundra and his fingertips begin to tremble inside the heated gloves they pilfered from the stock room. He only wants to be close to her and fuck if that isn’t obnoxious of him. Oliver would have a field day with this information if he found out. Never let him live it down. Theo makes a mental note not to discuss anything that’s happened between him and Nora withhis brother when this is all sorted out. The less Oliver knows, the better.
They only need to get to Barrow. Rest a night, and then find the wildlife center where they’ll call for help, and then this entire situation will finally be resolved. That’s only steadfast denial coursing through his brain. He knows that much. Right now, he’s embracing it anyway.
Neither one of them are experienced hikers. After several hours in the snow, the heated gear starts to chill as the batteries die, and he’s pretty sure his eyeballs are starting to freeze over in the sockets. Moving is the only thing keeping them going. If they stop, they may not get up again. He doesn’t spare a second thought about the fact that his toes went numb miles back.
“We should be getting close,” he muffles through the scarf around his face. “How are you doing? Still feel all your extremities?”
