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To top it off, she’d added a bicycle hele At least she’d worn her own clothes with it, but I wasn’t sure e’d do when she started to outgrow theet-up?" I asked Stella, gesturing to her boots and helmet

"We don’t knohat’s out there," Stella said, like it should be obvious "I need to be prepared"

"Can’t argue with that," I said "Come on"

I took her hand ent out the front door She hesitated before followingaround in all directions several ti it was safe I didn’t hurry her because that was a good habit to have

The house was pretty isolated, which was another reason I liked it so much As far as I could tell, it was the only house on the entire lake The driveway even stretched a quarter of athe property was fairly wooded, mostly with pine trees but a few maples and oaks stood bare-branched in theout here and there, shooting up betweenpatches of snow

We didn’t travel far fro to defend ourselves with I didn’t hear any zoh But that didn’t mean it was I didn’t want to be any farther than a quick dash to safety

Stella and I took turns looking at the book, and she studied the pictures carefully We found a few leaves of so that was supposed to edible, but when I tried it, it tasted too bitter to possibly be consumed

We did e to find a small cluster of berries I examined the pictures several ti so happened after I ate a few, so I let Stella try one I didn’t let her have any h, until I’d seen how I reacted to them

I wished Daniels was around He’d knohat to do if we accidentally ate so that could harerous, so ouldn’t even need the book

That wasn’t the only reason I wished Daniels was around, of course I missed him a lot, more than I’d expected I would But he’d been h our relationship was rocky a lot of the tiood person He tried to be rational in an insane world

So to tell hi, only to reain

"Rehtly onto it

"What?" I asked, pulling hts

"Are they zo on the road at the end of the driveway