“I promised you I’d keep you safe, didn’t I?”

I felt the ghost of a smile hover over my mouth. “Yeah, but even you can’t protect me from everything.”

My words blended together. I couldn’t feel my lips anymore. And the last thing I heard before I drifted off to sleep was, “Watch me.”

Day Nine

I’d woken tangled with Tuck, his breath soft against my temple, and something decidedly hard against my belly. My body had come instantly awake even if my mind was still half-asleep. I’d felt Tuck stir, and I’d known the moment he realized the situation, scooting out of bed so quickly he’d practically fallen off the side. I’d felt momentarily offended, and definitely frustrated, and pretended to keep sleeping until he’d shaken me “awake,” saying we needed to get on the road.

We left the Pritchards before the sun had fully risen, our breath pluming in the chilly morning air. I looked back only once, trying to memorize the place where, for a moment in time, I’d felt safe and welcomed. And I said a silent prayer that their family would be okay.

Around midday, Tuck scored us a bag of almonds from an abandoned car, and we counted them out by the side of the road, Tuck pouring my half into my open palm. I popped one in my mouth, moaning as I chewed. Tuck’s eyes lowered slightly and then he looked away. He’d been quiet for much of the day so far, and perhaps a little tense. It was fine. I had a lot on my mind too, and I lost myself in the music in my head, melodies and lyrics flowing through me like a waterfall. Part of me wished I had something—anything—to write them down on, but another part knew that I wouldn’t forget. These weren’t fleeting notes that I was trying desperately to catch. These songs were already deeply ingrained as if they’d existed inside me all along, and it’d only taken a worldwide catastrophe and a multistate walk to jar them loose.

Plus, the slight hangover I had didn’t exactly make me feel chatty. As much as taking the edge off my current circumstances had felt good in the moment, I decided I wasn’t going to drink my way through this.

We finished the almonds and drank some water and started walking again. Hours later, the sun drifting low, Tuck stopped and held the map up, swearing softly.