“Had to pee.” Somehow that was his go-to answer for about twenty different questions. “Saw you stirring, thought I’d say hi.”

“That’s sweet of you, Dom. Can you go take a pee for me, too?”

“I don’t think it works that way. I could get you a bucket?”

She sniggered at that. “We probably won’t leave for another couple hours. Don’t you think you should get some more sleep? You’re kinda grumpy even when you do get a full night’s rest.”

“Grumpy? I’m not grumpy.” He looked genuinely hurt.

“I’m just teasin’ you.” She paused, growing more serious. “What happens after we find them?”

He looked down at the ground. “I don’t know.”

“Think we’ll ever make it back home?”

“I hope so. We have to. I want to. What about you?”

She nodded, trying to hold back a sudden and unwelcome push of tears. “Yeah, I think we’re going to make it back home. That, I do.” Then she had an idea. “How about we go make breakfast for the others? They’ll think we’re the best people who ever lived.”

His face lit up. “Yeah, let’s do it.”

She tricked Dominic into doing most of the work, saying she needed to use the bathroom just as the hot and heavy business of frying the eggs and deer meat over the fire got going. A nearby copse of trees—a rare sight in the sparse, scrubby, hardpan desert they’d been traversing—seemed the perfect spot. When she was finished, she leaned against a tree to collect herself, figuring Dominic was able enough to wrap up breakfast.

Thoughts of the past month swarmed into her mind.

The relentless walking through heat in the day and cold in the night; the adaptation to life in the wild; hunting for food with traps and knives; the daily search for clues of Isaac and Sadina; the lifting and dashing of hopes; the sheer emptiness of the world, as if every other human had been zapped from existence. She didn’t know what she’d do without the others and their friendship, their knack for survival, their senses of humor and willingness to share a cry. Something told her she couldn’t judge the greater parts of earth based on the few hundred miles they’d crossed—who knew what was out there. Seven continents. Countless islands. Decades since the Flare. Who knew.

But she missed home. She missed home so badly.

Back at camp, most of the others had already roused themselves once the smells of frying food permeated the air. Surprisingly, Dominic hadn’t burnt anything or spilled grease on the fire. She kinda liked that big goof. Even as she had the thought, he spotted her and waved, dropping half the food in the dirt. As he scrambled to salvage it, she laughed because she had no doubt it would still be eaten.

“Find any clues?”