Page 2 of Hollow Valley
Edie was Eden, a transgender woman I had met when we first moved to Emberwood, and she had become very close to me and Fae ever since.In fact, we’d spent so much time together that she had becomeEdiewhen Fae started talking.Her black hair was kept in a shoulder-length bob, and her dark eyes were wide and compassionate.
Harlow was also part of my extended family, although not as close as others.The first winter on the boat, we’d all been here, and she had helped out with Fae, babysitting, playing with her, making her clothes.
Last summer, after Lazlo and Nova had begun rebuilding Emberwood, Harlow and her girlfriend Kimber had followed suit.Most of the time, the S.S.Barbarabelle was anchored near the waterfall to the south of Emberwood, making it only a two-day hike back to town.That meant it wasn’t so hard for Harlow to come visit, but quick drop-ins were an impossibility.
Despite the relative proximity, I hadn’t been back to Emberwood.Not since the night the town had burned, and I had led the zombies away.
In fact, I hardly even stepped foot on land.Sometimes I went to the shore to work the gardens.We managed a few greenhouses on the limited outdoor space on the boat, and some small gardens on balconies.But outside of fishing, most food still came from the land, and people rowed out every day to tend to nearby fields and livestock as well as going on hunting trips.
Mostly, I stayed on the boat, taking care of Fae and minding the chores here.There was plenty that needed to be done on a steamboat that housed over fifty people, including multiple children.Others would have to step up and fill in for me while I was gone looking for Remy, which was why Harlow had come down from New Emberwood yesterday.She’d be staying here for the weeks that I would be gone, helping Edie with Fae and picking up the slack that I was leaving behind.
In the nursery, Edie was crouched down in front of the dresser, folding cloth diapers for Fae, and Harlow was sitting in the rocking chair, looking out the window at the same sunrise I’d been watching.Her wavy blond hair was in a long braid, and she was wearing a robe she’d made from floral quilts with fur trim.She was twenty-three with an easy smile, and a dark pink burn scar that ran from her cheek down her jawline onto her neck.
“I was starting to wonder if you’d changed your mind,” Harlow remarked as I brought Fae into the room, and Boden was following right behind me.
“No, no, I was enjoying my last few minutes with Fae.”I kissed the top of her head, hugging her close to me for another moment longer until she started squirming.
“I don’t blame you, but Fae will have a fantastic time with her Auntie Harlow,” she assured me as I passed my daughter to her.
“We’ll take great care of her and make sure she’s safe, so you don’t have to worry about anything except finding Remy and getting back here,” Edie promised.
Harlow snort laughed at that.“Do you really think she’s going to come back with you, assuming you do find her?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted.“But even if she doesn’t, I want to make sure she’s safe and find out why she left.”
“She left because that’s what she does when she’s scared or overwhelmed,” Harlow answered.
Boden spoke for the first time since we entered the nursery, definitively saying, “That’s all the more reason that we should find her.”
2
Stella
The months on the boat made the soft ground feel unusually steady under my boots.Boden watched me with an amused smirk as I took my first steps down the well-worn trail from where the shuttle boats went ashore.He was half-a-meter in front of me, his backpack slung over his shoulders, and his machete sheathed on his hip.The sun had already warmed the day enough that he’d rolled up the sleeves on his flannel shirt.
“It might take you a minute to getyer land legsback,” he said with an exaggerated pirate drawl.“Maybe you ought to get off the river more often.”
“My sea legs suit me fine, since I don’t really want to accompany you on any hunts,” I reasoned.
That was one of Boden’s main roles in Barbarabelle’s society.He hunted animals for food, he made repairs around the boat, and he would go on land to dispatch the zombies if they got too close to our livestock or the gardens.
The virus that caused the zombie infection gave them hydrophobia, so they rarely came close to the river in any situation.Not that zombies had been too much of a problem for me since I gave birth to Fae.
“Besides, with all the walking we have to do, I’ll get over it fast,” I assured him.
Boden smiled at me over his shoulder as we walked.“If you say so, Hopalong Cassidy.”
“Hopalong Cassidy?Who is that?”I asked.
He paused, thinking for a moment, then shrugged.“I don’t know actually.It was something that my dad used to say when I was a kid after I broke my leg.I think it might’ve been an old cowboy with a limp or something.”
By the time we stopped for lunch, I felt completely back to normal, albeit tired and hungry.While I kept very active on the boat with all the chores and raising a toddler, I wasn’t used to hiking so many kilometers on overgrown, broken asphalt.And I was always hungry.
“We can campout whenever you want,” Boden said in the late afternoon, when my pace had started to slow.
I brushed him off with, “I wanted to wait until dark.”
“That’s not for another four hours.And we have another long day of walking tomorrow,” he said as if I didn’t know that already.