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I get back to the fire with some leaves filled with berries I knoe can eat

Anna is holding up roots She smiles, "They taste like potatoes" I just catch her whisper over the crackle of the fire

Star co"

Anna puts the hare on the spit and turns him slowly Star mashes the berries on the broad leaf She swears if we rub it on the cooked hare it’ll taste better I tie the roots into one of the huge broad leaves with vine The vine cooks slowly, allowing the leaf to steaood," I mutter

Anna smiles and continues to slowly turn the hare I pull the roots out of the ashes with rabs ry we don’t notice that no one talks We tear the fur froh the mashed berries I moan into h and eat a bite of the root It does taste like potatoes I give Leo a bite, he chews and walks away We all laugh, "Guess he doesn’t like the berries"

"More for us"

I’m stuffed when I finish off the water in my skin

Star yawns, "Normally, I’d be too full to sleep but shit I’ up I nudge her with ets up I put more wood on the fire just as Leo finds his way back He’s licking his chops and has, no doubt, also had a feast of his own hs and make a bed The three of us sleep next to each other I know Leo keeps guard He always does e’re out like this I think it’s why he likes the cabin so much, he sleeps the whole ti our stolen, dried et to a spot on the road, Star points, "This way" She heads into the brush, but I don’t see a et past the initial brush I see jagged res over top of the trees at the other side

"Used to be my soccer field when I was little," she whispers

Anna and I give her a look, "You lived near here?" I ask

She nods, "There used to be buildings and things It was a fancy neighborhood, just down here" We crest a hill and stop My skin crawls seeing it It isn’t the first crater I’ve seen

"Was it nuclear?"

She shrugs her head, "Not a clue Bern said it was a hydrogen bomb"

I nod, "That’s a nuclear bomb We shouldn’t be here Lenny said twenty years"

But we don’t e of the massive crater and just look

Finally, Anna whispers, "I think I can feel the dead in the air"

I nod, "It’s creepy" I’ve avoided craters my whole life

Leo is anxious He doesn’t like it I follow hi they’ll follow ain

We walk to a new road

"How do you remember this so well?"

Star looks over at et him to drive you?"

Her eyes twinkle, "Trucksnoise"

We are more alike than I have realized

She stops on the road and looks, "This is the bomb path Stay directly behind me the entire tis are exhausted I can’t iine how Anna feels

I step where Anna steps as she follows Star in The brush is dense

I hold Leo by the scruff and force hiets it after a minute and stays in the line