Year One (Chronicles of The One #1)(79)

She walked, a mile, two, then three, with only one purpose. She would protect the child inside her at all costs.





CHAPTER SIXTEEN

For two weeks, time was divided between plots, plans, routes, alternates, and the kind of instruction Lana never imagined herself involved in.

She’d never held a gun in her life, and now knew how to fire a revolver, a semiauto, a rifle, and a double-barreled shotgun. Her accuracy improved—still needed work—but she doubted she’d ever overcome her visceral distaste for the shock that ran through her when she pulled a trigger.

Pulling that trigger fired a missile designed to tear through flesh. She hoped, with all she was, she’d never have to aim a weapon at a living thing and pull that trigger.

But she had stopped jerking away every time she fired a gun.

She preferred being the instructor: demonstrating, explaining, walking someone else through how to make a basic soup, how to combine a set number of ingredients into a palatable meal on the fly.

She worked on her archery, though she—and everyone else— considered herself a miserable failure there. She learned how to change a tire and siphon gas, and took daily driving lessons. Those lessons comprised her favorite part of the day—an hour behind the wheel with only Max beside her.

It meant an hour learning a skill she actually liked owning, and time for them to talk about the baby.

Lessons had to be postponed when snow blew in, thick and fast. It melted under sunny skies, froze as night temperatures dipped, and left them with slicks of ice under and over the remaining snow. They spread ash they’d shoveled from the fireplaces to keep paths clear.

Lana sensed everyone, like her, longed for spring. And feared the unknown that would come with the greening.

With Max and Poe on a scavenging trip, Lana decided on a full-house inventory, making notes on what she thought they should take with them. Numerous kitchen items—the big stewpot, frying pan, manual can opener, a colander, bowls, the mortar and pestle Max found for her in another cabin. Her knives, of course.

They could make do with one wooden spoon, one slotted, a single spatula—but if they, as planned, took another car, she’d wedge in more supplies and equipment.

They’d designated finding and bringing back a truck or SUV as the top priority for today’s scavenging trip. Putting her faith in Max to do just that, she earmarked more.

She looked up from detailing their medical and first-aid supplies when Kim came in. “These are holding up pretty well,” she said, “but it wouldn’t hurt to add to them once we’re on the road. I can supplement these holistically once we’re into spring. That, at least, is something I’ve learned about before.”

“I know a little about it. My mother was big into holistic and Chinese medicine.” As she spoke, Kim wandered to the window. “Listen, I really want to get out, get some sun. It’s warmer today. Are you up for it? I don’t want to get a demerit for ignoring the buddy system.”

“Sure. I could use a walk.”

“We’ve had some more thawing, so it’s sloppy out there, but—”

“Just let me get my boots.” Setting down her pad, Lana went to the mudroom. “Are you feeling all right?”

Kim shrugged, grabbed her own boots. “Itchy. I guess it’s knowing we’re winding up our time here. Part of it’s tedious, sure. Rinse and repeat. But routine gets comfortable. I want to go. We have to go, but—”

“I know.” After choosing one of the lighter jackets, Lana added a scarf. “I think we all know.”

“I’ve had this weird dread hanging over me all morning. My personal black cloud.” Kim zipped up her jacket, pulled a ski cap over her lengthening wedge of ebony hair. “Probably caught it from Allegra. I’m not ragging on her,” Kim claimed after Lana gave her an elbow poke. “She’s been lifting her weight, and cut back on the whining. But, Jesus.” She yanked open the door, took a deep inhale of air as they stepped out. “You can practically see her black cloud.”

“My sense, from what I’ve seen and what she’s said, is she came from privilege. Only child of well-off parents—divorced parents, and maybe a little spoiled by both as compensation.”

“Yeah, WASP princess. Sorry, that is ragging on her, and I really barely knew her before all this, and only casually at best once she and Eric hooked up.”

“Were you and Eric…”

“What? Oh, no.” On her laugh, some of the stress in Kim’s face lifted. “We had some classes together, and he dated a friend of mine for a while last year. I knew Shaun better—a couple of nerds. It was just chance, really, that the five of us ended up taking off together. We all ended up hiding out in the theater—the prop room. Poe had a car, Shaun had this place, so we decided to get the hell out. We had one more, my friend Anna. She didn’t make it.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you’d lost someone. You were close?”

“Dorm mates. We didn’t have a lot in common, but we hit it off, and we got pretty tight. She was a theater major, and that’s how I ended up in the prop room. She dragged me in there. She wanted to stay, ride it out, but I convinced her we had to go, we had to take off with the others.”

“You were right to go, Kim. You couldn’t have risked staying.”