I craned my neck, peering up again at the area being patrolled, the one that I could see extended much farther than this. The man I’d helped had gathered these things and then tossed them down from above for me to find. Had he tracked me as I walked? He had to have. My lungs tightened and my eyes burned. Then I sat down on the rock, emotion crashing over me in waves. The water eased my parched throat, and I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, letting out a small wondrous laugh. The laugh turned into a shuddery breath, as I moved my finger over that label for condensed milk that had helped feed a hungry baby girl until her parents could get her to safety.

I tipped my head back and gazed out to the horizon, this feeling descending. This inexplicable knowing that clogged my throat and filled my heart. It suddenly seemed so clear to me that redemption was everywhere, in every moment of every day. And so too…was mercy.

chapter forty-eight

Emily

I flew along the shore, the only place I could think to ride the dirt bike where I wouldn’t be met with blockades like the ones we had to pass through to get here. Once I encountered a mass of rocks stretched into the ocean, I accelerated up the embankment and drove on the highway that wound around the shore. Broken-down cars littered this stretch of road, but I maneuvered easily around and through, finding that only a handful of people were out, either siphoning gas, or traveling along the edge.

I was afraid to slow down. Afraid that if I did, someone would attack, causing me and the bike to skid along the asphalt only to leave me broken and bleeding by the side of the road so they could steal my ride.

It wasn’t paranoia. It was reality and the state of the world right now.

The highway turned into a one-lane road, and that led into a community, and the roadblock I’d expected appeared. It was the one we’d passed through on the way here. I drove around it, into the weedy desert terrain. Again, I was free to go as fast as I dared and so I did, racing across the hard-packed dirt, avoiding rocks and brambles, remembering the absolute thrill of a similar ride on a horse with Tuck, his deep laughter drifting to me on the wind.

I distanced myself from the rocks against the incline because I could see people sleeping there. Or maybe they were dead, bodies littered outside the cordoned-off zones. Perhaps more and more bodies would continue to pile up in spots like that as the days turned into weeks.

But I couldn’t think about that. All I could think about was home.