“That was incredible,” Vincent said quietly. “We’ll never forget it. I mean it.” He sounded slightly choked up as if she had just shown him that there were still good things in the world, and he’d clearly needed the reminder.

Emily looked tired, but peaceful and pleased and we said good-night to them as Emily and I made our way to a spot next to a grouping of pines. Our eyes met in the dim light of the stars and without discussing it, we zipped our sleeping bags together and then climbed inside, our jackets under our heads like pillows. She scooted toward me, and I wrapped her in my arms. “That was beautiful.”

She snuggled closer. “Thank you.”

Maybe the silent agreement to sleep together the way we’d done the night before was easier with the others sleeping nearby, because it offered an element of safety. I wanted her with a desperate aching neediness. But the fact that strangers were close provided limits that would be easy to break had we been alone. But even so, I knew in the last two nights we’d crossed a line, and that if one of us didn’t put a halt to it, it was only heading in one direction from here.

Day Ten

Again, we woke in each other’s arms and then left the others sleeping there in the early hours of dawn. Later, the sun, high in the sky, we heard the rattle of an old car approaching, and stepped off the road, weary from walking and needing a rest anyway. But when a tiny old woman and old man trundled by in the rusty car, Emily ran back to the road and started waving her arms. They came to a slow stop, obviously having seen her in their rearview mirror and we both ran to where they were parked.

“Hi,” Emily greeted breathlessly, producing that Nova-esque smile. “Can we catch a ride?”

The old woman looked her up and down and then glanced back at me. “Where ya headed?” she asked, obviously having assessed that we looked mostly harmless.

“As far west as you’re going,” Emily said.

The woman hitched her thumb toward the back door. “Hop in.”

Emily grinned at me, and I opened the car door so we could both slide in.

We exited the vehicle hours later, having crossed the rest of the way through Oklahoma and into New Mexico, the sunset brilliant over the snowy desert mountains. The old couple, who had been waiting for power to come back on or information to arrive, had finally grown tired of waiting and decided to drive to a daughter’s house about an hour from where we got out. We wished them well and began walking.