“I did. Come on in and I’ll tell you about it.” Hosea paused, scrutinizing me and Charlie, who were standing there frozen with our mouths partially open. “These two okay?”

Tuck’s eyes landed on Charlie for a moment, and I thought he might throw him to the wolves, which honestly, maybe I couldn’t have blamed him for, but Tuck just nodded, and then Hosea put his arm around Tuck’s neck and we all took up behind them, the man’s deep laugh floating to us as he and Tuck chatted.

They walked us back to the front gate, where another man with a rifle opened the latch and waved us through. The lights were a little brighter in here, the first illumination other than the moon or stars that I’d seen in six days, and I blinked around, trying to understand what this was. The warehouse buildings had obviously already been here, but along with those were a few large tents, and a row of portable toilets far back to our left. We followed Hosea and the other two through a door of one of the warehouses and walked into a large open space with what looked like fifty cots or so on one side, and cafeteria-style tables with attached benches set up on the other.

“Come on, you hungry? There’s some food left.”

As if responding to the word, my stomach let out a loud growl. Tuck’s head turned in response to the noise, and I gave him a weak smile. We sat down at the end of a table, and Hosea stepped away and said something to a woman standing nearby who nodded and walked away. Hosea came back and took a seat on the opposite side of the table where Tuck was sitting and turned to face us. “Who are your friends, Tuck?”

“Emily Swanson and Charlie Cannon,” Tuck said. The woman Hosea had spoken to came through a door carrying a tray. She brought it over to us, setting it down with a smile. There were three plates with covers piled on top of each other and Hosea doled one out to all three of us. I opened the lid to see what looked like some chicken salad, a few canned pears, and a slice of bread.

“Oh, thank you,” I breathed, picking the slice up and inhaling the yeasty scent. I tried not to cry, but tears sprung to my eyes and I blinked them away before taking a bite and moaning as I chewed.

“Tell me about this place,” Tuck said after he’d swallowed a mouthful of food. “Who’s running it?”

“A few scattered military units were able to join up by using ham radios and are out trying to help. But it’s been overwhelming to say the least.”

Tuck eyed him. “You broke out of Leavenworth when the power went down?”