“Go do something useful, Emerson,” I grumble, though their words warm me.

“I believe this will work,” they whisper.

I shove my hands into my pockets. “You sounded convinced in there.”

“I want us all to survive, Grace,” they say. “I want us all to live.”

I sigh deeply. “Yeah, me too.”

“Grace?”

They wait for me to look up.

“I trust you to protect us.”

With that, they smile and walk away.

Dear Leah,

I know you hate letters, but Casey promised to read this one out loud to you, so I hope you don’t mind. If you do, get up and come tell me.

We’re going into town to try to get food and other things. The roadblock has been gone for a while now. I haven’t had a chance to tell you yet, but we’ve been stealing from empty houses to refill our own supplies. It’s the same thing you told me once, right? I know we’re not supposed to steal, but we’re not supposed to starve either. We should all be able to eat when we’re hungry.

So I’ve been going out with Grace every five days. And I take inventory with Nia the next day. We plan out food and meals as best as we can. You should see some of the recipes we think up.

What we have is barely enough to eat. I’m worried that it will run out. I don’t want to starve before we can survive.

But this is different. They’re handing out rations, and if we can convince them we deserve to eat too, we won’t have to worry anymore. You can come back to us. I know you think I jump to conclusions sometimes, but it’s true. If we have a steady supply of food, we can survive this. I’m sure of it.

And if something does go wrong after all…I want you to know I’m proud of what I did here. And I would take this chance a thousand times over if it meant saving you. Because I know you would do the exact same thing for me.

I miss you. I love you. I’ll see you soon

Logan

Kitchen Inventory List, Again

Or: How do we feed fourteen people with this?

• 1/2 bag of rice (50 lb)

• 1 bags of beans (50 lb)

• 1/2 bag of lentils

• 2 loaves of bread

• 1 pan of fish soup

• 2 cans of chicken

• 1 can of peas

• 1/2 box of cereal

• 2 jars of peanut butter

• 1/2 container of trail mix

• 3 glazed pecans

• 24 bags of tea

• 1 possum

• 3 fish

• Dreams of cakes and pies

• And cookies

• And pancakes

Stop it, you’re making me hungry.

I am hungry.

I know.

Twenty-nine

Grace

We spend several days preparing for our food run. Riley stole a fancy button-down shirt and pants for Emerson, and they couldn’t stop stroking it. Nia and Logan went over their story at least half a dozen times. We planned our trip to the very second. We ate a full meal tonight so that we’re all focused and attentive.