The dull pain in my neck still throbbed, but gentle probing with my fingers satisfied me the wound was on its way to closing up. While I massaged around it, I looked up at the stars emerging in the blackness that hovered over the greens and blues of the horizon. Those same greens and blues spilled over the rolling hills, a breathtaking sight. The larger moon, a red-hued crescent, grew brighter by the moment; its identically lit companion, still close to the horizon, barely peeked out of the darkening sky.

Wait—what was that? Something sparkled on the horizon, a blurry white light that flickered in and out of view. One moment it was there, the next gone. The sight jarred me. I was both spellbound and frustrated as lines of reasoning I’d depended on all my life had suddenly dissolved.

I sent a whisper to the sky: “What is that? What’s going on? Why am I here?”

“Caught you!”

Startled, I turned and saw Mason. Why did he say that? As he stepped closer, I tried to turn my neck away. But even in this dusky light, he’d seen the wound.

He stepped around me to look closer at my neck. “What the heck did that to you?”

“A fall.”

“Not long ago, looks like.”

“No.”

“Well, Nick,” he said in a low tone, glancing to each side. “This road hasn’t been a picnic for any of us.”

I felt his thumb and forefinger pressing on either side of the wound. “We’ll get a fresh bandage on this in the morning. Meanwhile come on over by the fire.”

“How does the economy work here? Where do you get extra clothes? And silverware? And food?”

“You are new here, aren’t you? Well, we hunt a little, Quon mostly, and the fruits and vegetables along the way are fair game for anyone. We barter for most of the freeze-dried and packaged food. There’s an occasional town along the way. The merchants trade with us. I swapped my watch and wedding ring for most of the stuff I have, plus a lot more I’ve used along the way. Looks like you don’t have a wedding ring, do you? Too bad.”

I stared at the ring finger of my left hand, then stroked my watch and started making a mental list of what I wanted—a foam rubber pad to sleep on and maybe some sunglasses and a private food supply and more clothes and some tennis shoes and … but I’d have to carry it all on my back, wouldn’t I? I wondered if they had Advil in this world. It seemed too silly to ask.