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One evening, she noticed Justin studying the map and making small notations. He had insisted on a very precise route, and she noticed he had drawn circles in red, with wavy arrows. “What are those?”
“Nuclear plants.” Justin accepted the water bottle she’d brought him and gave her a smile of thanks.
Carly sat down heavily. She’d never thought about it, but all the nuclear facilities had to have gone into meltdown when there was no one left to run them.
“I’ve kept us from coming within a one hundred mile radius,” Justin said. “It’s enough distance, so we should be safe, but I’m monitoring the wind patterns. That’s these wavy lines.”
Carly saw how their route dodged between circles, with a narrower path as the route neared Florida. They would be squeezing between three circles on the way to the area he’d marked with an X.
“Justin, are you sure it’s safe?”
“Wind comes in off the coast. It should drive any fallout away from us.”
“I really don’t like this. The margin seems so small.” She stared at the number of circles overlapping all over the east coast.
Justin put an arm around her shoulders and drew her close. “As I told you before, we don’t have to make it all the way to Florida if we find a nice place to settle before we get there.”
She’d be looking harder now that she knew about the nuclear plants. What would happen to all of those people along the coast, where the red rings overlapped so much the state lines weren’t even visible? Would they even realize what was killing them? Could the radiation have something to do with the sudden fertility problems? She and Justin had been up north when Carly became pregnant.
She pressed a kiss to her baby’s head and wondered, not for the first time, what sort of future lay in store for her.
Chapter Ten
The next evening, they set up camp in the woods beside the road, just deep enough in the tree line to not be visible to any travelers. Carly began giving Mindy a lesson on assembling the tent, though Shadowfax kept interrupting. The horse wanted attention and wouldn’t take “Shoo!” for an answer. She bumped Carly with her nose until Carly laughed and surrendered, standing up to scratch behind Shadowfax’s ears.
“Honey, I’m heading out to look around,” Justin said. He took one of the crossbows from the wagon and a quiver of arrows.
Carly smiled over her shoulder at him. “Be careful!”
Justin smiled back at her. “Always am.”
“Mind if I tag along?” Stan asked.
Justin was somewhat surprised by his offer, but pleased. Maybe Stan would turn out to be an asset, after all. He seemed to take security seriously, at least. He was always vigilant while they were on the road, and Justin had to admit Carly had been right. He felt better about leaving Carly and Dagny to scout ahead, knowing that Stan and Mindy were watching over them.
He was impressed by Mindy as well. Stan had told him that Mindy was a crack shot, but that had been an understatement. The woman was nearly at sniper level in her accuracy. She told Justin that one of her father’s favorite weekend pastimes had been trap shooting, so she’d had years of practice.
As they headed into the woods, Stan shook his head and glanced over at Carly, who was still petting Shadowfax. “Carly sure has a way with animals. Did she always have the horse?”
“No, we found her shortly after we set out on our journey.” Justin smiled to himself, remembering his dismay when Carly had announced cheerfully that she’d named—and thus claimed—the horse. His smile widened to a grin as he realized he’d been doomed already by that point. There was no way he could have told her she couldn’t keep Shadowfax. He’d already been trying to protect her tender heart.
There was an “Oomph!” and a thud from behind him. Justin turned around to see Stan sprawled in the leaves littering the forest floor. His foot was wedged beneath a root. Justin gave up entirely on the idea of stealth since anyone within a quarter-mile radius would be able to hear Stan, who was about as quiet as a three-legged elephant. The man had many good qualities, but grace was apparently not one of them.
“Sorry!” Stan muttered. Justin extended a hand to help Stan to his feet. Red-faced, he brushed the bits of leaves and dirt off his clothes. “So, how did you and Carly meet?”
Justin explained how he had spotted Carly in Juneau. As he told the story, he led them deeper into the woods, searching for any signs of people passing through recently, such as disturbed leaves, footprints, or litter. So far, he hadn’t seen anything and he relaxed a little.
Stan let out a soft whistle. “You knew her father? That’s one hell of a coincidence.”
“Carly doesn’t think it was a coincidence,” Justin said. “She thinks all of this was meant to happen, that there’s something we’re supposed to do.”
“What do you think?”
Justin hesitated. “I’m not sure, honestly. Her hunches have a way of turning out to be correct.”
“Like with the Cederna vaccine?”
“Yeah.” Justin hoped Carly’s hunch about Stan and Mindy would turn out to be correct as well.
