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“Yeah.”
Maddie nodded, her mouth tilting up slightly. “Good. That’s good.”
“Did you just wake up?”
“Yeah,” Maddie breathed. “Well, sort of. I was up for a little bit before you.”
Saff wondered what it was like for her, waking up somewhere completely unfamiliar—withsomeoneunfamiliar. But then she paused at that thought. Were they still unfamiliar to each other? Maybe not. At least not to her. She wasn’t sure when that change had happened exactly. But at some point, Maddie really had stopped feeling unfamiliar. Waking up in the same room as her didn’t exactly feel normal, but it definitely didn’t feel uncomfortable either.
And that realization surprised her. Even before her father died, and they traveled with his friends, she’d never slept in the same vicinity as any of them, including him. It just—set her on edge. She preferred a separate space. Somewhere protected from the rest of them.
“How long were we asleep?” Maddie asked, shifting in her sleeping bag.
Saff silently berated herself for not checking right when she’d woken up. The lack of natural light in the bunker had thrown her off.
She peered down at her watch.
2:16pm.
Her teeth ground together in frustration. It was a mistake to have slept for so long, even if her body needed the rest. That mistake would mean less daylight to check things out above ground. Less valuable time to figure out her next move.
“A while,” she muttered. “It’s past two in the afternoon.”
Maddie’s head bobbed. “You needed it,” she replied softly, as if reading the thoughts that had just passed through her head.
Saff leaned back against the cot, then gently lifted the bottom of her hoodie and the t-shirt beneath it. She picked up the lantern and held it up to her side, examining the newly stitched wound.
The surrounding flesh was still red and swollen, but when she touched her fingertips to it, the skin no longer burned the way it had before.
She’d still need to be careful, but it would probably heal without any issues.
A quiet rumble echoed from Maddie’s stomach.
“You hungry?” she rasped, watching Maddie’s dimly lit face contort into a grimace.
“Yeah,” she whispered.
Saff glanced at the far wall, where a tall stack of black plastic containers sat piled on top of each other. She’d checked a couple of them the night before and found one filled with MREs, which wasn’t surprising. freeze-dried food had always made up the majority of the meals when her father had taken her there as a child.
She turned slowly, placing her hands on the cold metal rail of the cot, then pulled herself up. Even that slight bit of effort sent her head spinning, but at least it wasn’t as bad as the night before.
She took the lantern and trudged past the small table to the plastic bin. It only took a second to fish through the crinkling packages, finding one she remembered hating less than the rest.
She pulled it out, then searched for another minute before finding a metal cooking pot.
Water. She’d need water to rehydrate the meal.
She faintly remembered a creek that ran through the woods nearby, but just the thought of hiking to it was exhausting.
“Can I use some of the water from your jug?” she asked, her voice hoarse as her dry throat scraped against itself.
Maddie nodded. “Are you gonna cook something?”
“Yeah,” Saff answered, walking over to retrieve the jug. “And check things out outside.”
“Can I come with you?” Maddie asked, a slightly wary edge in her tone. Saff couldn’t blame her. Staying in a dusty old bunker alone probably wouldn’t be her first choice either.
“Sure.”
