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Lena

Ive started dreaain

Since Alex reappeared, resurrected but also changed, twisted, like a host stories we used to tell as kids, the past has been finding its way in It bubbles up through the cracks when Iers

This is what they warned ht inlife

I warned you, Aunt Carol says in my head

We told you, Rachel says

You should have stayed Thats Hana, reaching out across an expanse of ti a weightless hand to

About two dozen of us came north from New York City: Raven, Tack, Julian and me, and also Dani, Gordo, and Pike, plus fifteen or so others who are largely content to stay quiet and follow directions

And Alex But not h, and barely speaks

The others, those ere using the warehouse outside White Plains as a homestead, scattered south or west By now, the warehouse has no doubt been totally stripped and abandoned It isnt safe, not after Julians rescue Julian Fineman is a symbol, and an important one The zo the sy, so that others will learn their lesson

We have to be extra careful

Hunter, Bram, Lu, and some of the otherfor us just south of Poughkeepsie It takes us nearly three days to cover the distance; we are forced to circuate a half-dozen Valid cities

Then, abruptly, we arrive: The woods sie of an enormous expanse of concrete, webbed with thick fissures, and stillspaces Cars, rusted, picked clean of various partsrubber tires, bits of metalstill sit in the lot They look small and faintly ridiculous, like ancient toys left out by a child

The old parking lot flows like gray water in all directions, running up at last against a vast structure of steel and glass: an old shoppingcursive script, streaked white with bird shit, reads EMPIRE STATE PLAZA MALL

The reunion is joyful Tack, Raven, and I break into a run Bra too, and we intercept the, and he throws his ar and talking at once

Hunter sets me down, finally, but I keep one arht disappear I reach out and wraphands with Tack, and so, our bodies interlaced, in the middle of the brilliant sunshine

Well, well, well We break apart, turn around, and see Lu sauntering toward us Her eyebrows are raised She has let her hair grow long, and brushed it forward, so it pools over her shoulders Look what the cat dragged in

Its the first time Ive felt truly happy in days

The short ed both Hunter and Braainst all odds, heavier Hunter has nerinkles at the corners of his eyes, although his smile is as boyish as ever

Hows Sarah? I say Is she here?

Sarah stayed in Maryland, Hunter says The horate The resistance is trying to get word to her sister

What about Grandpa and the others? I a insqueezed

Bralance

Grandpa didnt make it, Hunter says shortly We buried him outside Baltimore

Raven looks away, spits on the pavement

Bram adds quickly, The others are fine He reaches out and places a finger on my procedural scar, the one he helped ood, he says, and winks

We decide to caht Theres clean water a short distance froe of old houses and business offices that have yielded some usable supplies: a few cans of food still buried in the rubble; rusted tools; even a rifle, which Hunter found still cradled in a pair of upturned deer hooves, under a roup, Henley, a short, quiet wo a fever This will give her time to rest

By the end of the day, an arguo

We could split up, Raven says She is squatting by the pit she has cleared for the fire, stoking the first, glowing splinters of flame with the charred end of a stick

The larger our group, the safer we are, Tack argues He has pulled off his fleece and is wearing only a T-shirt, so the ropyslowly, and the woods have been co, like an ani hot breath

But its cold nohen the sun is low and the Wilds are sed by long purple shadoe are no longer hts are still wintry

Lena, Raven barks out I start Ive been staring at the beginnings of the fire, watching flas, and brittle leaves Go check on the tents, okay? Itll be dark soon

Raven has built the fire in a shallow gully that must once have been a stream, where it will be so up camp too close to the mall and its haunted spaces; it looms above the tree line, all twisted black round

Up the e set up the tents He has his back toonly a T-shirt Just three days in the Wilds have already changed hiht just behind his left ear He looks skinnier, although he has not had ti here, in the open, with salvaged, too-big clothing, surrounded by savage wilderness, a perpetual reility of our survival

He is securing a rope to a tree, yanking it taut Our tents are old and have been torn and patched repeatedly They dont stand on their own Theybetween trees and coaxed to life, like sails in the wind

Gordo is hovering next to Julian, watching approvingly