“Following this road indefinitely could be dangerous,” Tuck said. “It might lead us directly into large groups of desperate people.” He squinted out at the road stretching beyond me, as if he could see those hordes of people walking toward us now. “No, we need to find another map.”

“Then we have to find a store or a gas station, right?”

“Maybe.”

“Even on back roads like this, there’ll have to be gas stations nearby. Surely, they’d give us a map.”

He was quiet for a minute as he slid the last bit of meat off with his teeth. He’d always had beautiful teeth. Always had such a beautiful smile. Sweet but secretive. I suddenly remembered how his mom had given mine one of his school photos when we were about fourteen, months before Mariana was diagnosed with cancer. Such a golden time. I’d taken that photo that my mom had stuck to the side of our fridge and slept with it under my pillow. Sometimes I’d take it out and allow my gaze to wander over every detail of his face. It’d made my heart beat faster as tingles had spread all over my body. The first sexual awakening I’d experienced, and it had happened from simply staring at a photo of Tuck’s face.

I looked away, feeling a remnant of those tingles now, which was really embarrassing considering I was dying of hunger in the middle of nowhere and still couldn’t shake the last vestiges of that teenage crush.

“A house might be safer,” Tuck said, his mind clearly miles away from where mine was. Hadn’t that always been the case though?

He used the stick to break up some hardened dirt, then put a handful on the fire. As he smothered the flames, Charlie and I stood and both begrudgingly turned to face the road. “We could go grab a handful of those mushrooms,” Charlie suggested. “Swallowing poison might be the less painful option here.”

I gave a surprised laugh and looked over at him. Maybe I’d been judging him too harshly. He was as out of his element as me. Of course he wasn’t going to be functioning at his best. Perhaps I should save any definitive plans for…later. “I’m not ready to give up just yet. You?”

“No, not just yet.” He grabbed my hand and when I looked up, I saw Tuck glance at our joined hands before quickly turning away.

As we walked, Charlie leaned toward me and said quietly, “We don’t need him, Emily. Let’s just ditch him as soon as we get to the next town.”

I looked up with surprise. “Leave? We need him to protect us.”

“Do we? I mean, look where we are!” He swept his hand around, indicating the empty road and miles of nothing surrounding us, and then down to his shoes wrapped in socks to hold them on.