“It’s a good bet, Tuck. Come on.” She pulled me closer, and we looked around the trees where we could see four people sitting on two fallen logs situated around a blazing fire. There were two women, a young man, and a teenage girl. I let out a slow breath. I could likely take all of them on if they threatened us. Unless they had a weapon. But I didn’t see one anywhere.

“A guitar,” Emily said, breathless. It wasn’t hard to hear the longing in her voice. Music was her gift, but also, it had always filled her own soul. Emily needed music like she needed air. I’d known her since she was a baby, and it’d always been the case.

“They might not want us to join them though. Everyone is rightfully suspicious right now,” I said. Because regardless of the longing in her eyes, her safety was still my job.

“Leave this to me,” she said as she pulled me from the trees.

The man stood when he saw us, his stance tense, expression wary. “Hi,” Emily said with a smile as she set her backpack down. “We were hoping we might join you.” She reached into the front pocket. “We have marshmallows,” she said, holding up the full bag like a hostess on a game show, displaying the grand prize.

The man’s shoulders relaxed and the women who had leaned together sat back where they’d been and smiled. “Come get warm,” the older of the two women said.

We took a seat and introduced ourselves. “It’s nice to meet you both,” the older woman said. “I’m Prisca, and that’s Vincent and Martha and Ady.”

“Where are you heading?”

“Home to Denver. We were on a cruise when the lights went out,” Prisca said.

“A cruise? Oh my gosh, what happened?” Emily asked.

“Well,” the man named Vincent said. “We were still close enough to port that the backup generators got us back to Galveston, Texas. We were lucky in that regard. We heard there are others out there who were too far away to make it back, completely stranded in the dark.”

My mind conjured a dark ship sitting in the middle of the black ocean, no running water, no flushing toilets. Limited food. What a fucking nightmare.

“You were very lucky,” I murmured.

The woman named Martha reached over and took Ady’s hand, and the girl gave a tremulous smile in return. There was something in the exchange that I didn’t know enough to understand, but I’d noticed it and figured that perhaps they hadn’t been as “lucky” as they’d hoped. “We’ve made it this far and we’re hoping to be home in the next week, depending on whether we can hitch rides. Well, you’re traveling too. You probably know all about that. Where are you coming from?”