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But if we stay, we get to continue our strange but beautiful relationship, but we most likely won’t last the winter. The chance of all of us surviving is minute, and the thought of losing any one of them just about kills me. How would we keep going with such a loss?
The thought alone has the power to punch my breath from my lungs.
It doesn’t matter which scenario I look at, there are things I hate about it, but surviving has to be our priority.
I pause to look back at the cabin. Stupidly, my eyes fill with tears.
“You okay, Laney?” Reed asks.
I sniff and nod. “Feels strange to be leaving. I know we didn’t exactly choose this place to be our home, but it’s been one, hasn’t it? The cabin has been the first place I’ve lived where I haven’t been scared to come back to it. It’s the first place I’ve felt loved and wanted, and I guess I’m sad to leave.”
He offers me a smile. “We’reyour home, Laney. You’ve felt loved and wanted because you’ve been with us, not because of the cabin. When we get back to civilization, we’ll make a new home.”
“Is that what you want? Do you want me to still live with you all when we get back to normality?”
“Of course. How could you ever think that we wouldn’t?”
“Because I’m not used to people wanting me around.”
He pulls me into one of his big bear hugs. I love hugging this man. He’s the best at it. I bury my face into his broad chest, andhe kisses the top of my head. “Of course we’ll want you around, baby. We love you. Don’t you know that by now?”
My throat tightens, and I gaze up at him. “You love me?”
“I can’t believe you’d ever think we don’t.”
I turn to Cade and Darius. They’re both nodding. “Of course we love you,” Darius says.
Cade agrees. “I definitely love you, little Cuckoo.”
“I love you, too. All of you.”
I want to cry again, but with happiness this time.
“It’s time to go,” Reed says.
I nod and shift my bag on my shoulder. Then together, we turn from the cabin and head down the much-walked trail we’ve created to the river. Sticking close to the river will mean we’ve always got a water supply, plus we can fish.
We walk in near silence, each of us lost in thought at the epic journey ahead. None of us can know what our futures hold, or if we’ll even have one. I pray we’ll find civilization within a matter of days, but really, we have no idea. We’re working on theory alone—that someone has built that cabin in a location that must be accessible within a few days, though most likely by boat—but we could be wrong.
A couple of hours pass, and we stop to eat a little and drink some water. When we stop for the night, we’ll build a fire and boil up some more for the following day. At least drinking the water means I don’t have so much to carry. Already, my bag feels impossibly heavy on my shoulders. I’ve built up a fair amount of muscle from the physical work of living out here, but my back already aches, and I’m worried I’m going to get blisters. It won’t be pleasant trying to hike for days and days with the backs of my heels rubbing off.
A loud crack sounds somewhere behind me.
I frown, stopping, and glance over my shoulder. “Did you hear that?”
Cade stops with me. “Hear what?”
“I’m not sure. Something big moving through the trees.”
He removes the gun from where he’s had it jammed into the belt on his jeans. It seemed sensible to bring one with us, just in case. “Might be the damned bear.”
“Or a different one,” I say.
“Hold up, you two,” Cade calls to his father and brother. “There might be a bear around.”
They both halt.
“Did you see one?” Reed asks.
