He smirked, and she raised her voice to finish. Despite the subject matter, it felt luxurious to be loud outside for once. “And what have the colonizers lost, exactly? The ability to steal? Their loss is not our responsibility.”

She walked back to the house—there was nowhere else to go, since Derrick was still recovering inside. She paused by the stone path, angry the Chief had goaded her into popping off, just like a firecracker, but continuing nonetheless. “And for the record, I am nobody’s victim. I am my own savior. And I take that responsibility very seriously. It’s exactly what I owe my grandmother.”

She left him in the broken garden with his withering plants.

“And you planted your seeds too shallow,” she yelled. “You gotta get deeper than that if you want them to survive.” She slammed the door behind her with a real bang.

✦✦✦ ✦✦✦ ✦✦✦

Rose visited with Derrick when the Chief pulled out his drum in the living room and asked for volunteers to join in a song, which every Wife jumped at with their reedy voices and exaggerated gestures.

“Shit’s wacky out there.” She carefully closed the door. The Chief didn’t like the two of them “segregating themselves.” If he knew they were locked in alone, he’d send one of the Wives to check in.

“Shit’s less wacky in here. I walked for twenty minutes last night, just back and forth down the hall, but I got it done.”

“That’s great! I think we need to set a goal. As soon as you can go for an hour without puking or turning into an old man, we leave. I’m good with taking breaks on the trail.” Rose was getting excited. She felt the weight of departure like a pack full of meat, with hunger and anticipation. Especially after Grouse’s visit last night. “Do you think there’s something wrong with this group?”

Derrick wrinkled his nose. “You mean, do I think they have the Plague of madness?”

Rose nodded.

“Hells yes, I do.” He pulled himself up against the headboard. “I mean, who lives like this, in a waterlogged house in the woods with a fake medicine man? I mean, do they, like, take turns being his wife?”

“At night they do.”

“Gross.” Derrick crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m more of a one-woman kind of man.”

Rose laughed. “Uh, I think at this point you’re more of a no-woman kind of man.”

Derrick looked out the cloudy windowpane at the abstract green beyond. “So, I stayed up for a bit last night when they were giving me medicine.”

“And?!”

“And a few minutes was all I could manage. But I think it has to do with this stuff he uses to wash me. They put on surgical masks, and then he wipes my face with a damp rag, and last night, I noticed that it really stinks, like nothing else I’ve ever smelled. And then that’s it, I fall asleep.” He looked concerned and almost sheepish.