Page 26 of Hollow Valley

“What?”Bianka glared over at him.“Are you going to stop them from helping people?”

“No, I didn’t mean it like that,” Boden said.“We’re trying to find someone, and I hadn’t planned on taking a whole bunch of people with me.”

“You know, I wouldn’t mind having a look at this bustling Valley,” Fergus said and wagged his eyebrows at his brother.“What do you reckon?Will we go see what’s out the far side of it all?”

“Aye,” Dougal agreed with a smile.“You know I’m not one for staying put.

“I really hadn’t planned for all these other people coming along,” Boden tried to dissuade them.

“Well, you’ve no need to worry about us,” Dougal insisted.“Fergus and I have been traipsing about since we were young lads.”

“Young lads?”Fergus replied with a scoff.“You were sixteen when the virus hit.You were well on your way!Iwas just a wee boy of nine when we took to the road.”

Dougal rolled his eyes.“We’ve been knocking about for eleven years, even across the Atlantic.That’s the main thing, isn’t it?”

“Leandro and I know how to take care of ourselves,” Ryder said, speaking for the first time since the meal began.“You’ll need to hunt with a journey that long, and you already know that we can help out in a hunt.”

“Sending out a small group on a medicine run would also help with our reliance on crops,” Joseph reasoned.“We aren’t in dire straits yet, and I’m not suggesting that we kick anyone out, but if some are utilizing other food sources while we have time to replant and regrow, that would be beneficial.”

“We’ll go, too,” Sienna suddenly said, and her husband Oakley looked at her in surprise.

“What are you doing?”Oakley asked in a shocked whisper.

“It isn’t safe here, Oakley,” Sienna said without looking over at him.“There’s not enough food or medicine.And we have a daughter to think about.Juniper’s already lost two friends in the past year.”

“Yes, but what happened to Clementine happened because she wasoffthe boat, remember?”Oakley asked.“She was playing on land when she got attacked by zombies.”

“And three people died of pneumonia because we didn’t have enough medicine,” Sienna argued, and she finally looked over at Oakley.“After what happened with the outbreak, how can you think that the Barbarabelle is the best place to raise our child?”

He scowled, and lowered his voice to just above a whisper, “I cook for these people.I can’t leave them.”

“Someone else can learn to cook,” Sienna replied simply.

The room had been relatively silent even before the couple had started arguing, but now, I could practically hear a pin drop.Oakley seemed more acutely aware of this than Sienna, glancing anxiously out at us.

“We can talk about this later,” he said finally.

For his part, Boden tried again to encourage anyone from joining us.“Well, I still don’t know if it’s a good idea for a whole gaggle of us to go.It needs more planning.”

“Your friend Remy’s been gone for like six or seven months, right?”Bianka asked.“What’s another day or two to make sure you’re all prepped?”

The table was all restless energy now, everyone shifting in their seats, exchanging glances both anxious and excited.Boden cast a wary eye over our group, but he offered no more protests.

18

Stella

We all agreed to meet on the foredeck at first light.The shuttle boats were lost in the fire, but there were a few lifeboats that stayed with the Barbarabelle.Someone would be able to row the lot of us and all our gear to the shore and then row back after we left.

Boden, Edie, Fae, and I were the first ones there on deck, which wasn’t surprising.The others slowly drifted in.Ryder and Leandro with Bianka and Murphy trailing to say goodbye.Then came the O’Hara brothers, Fergus and Dougal, both chipper and energized about venturing off the boat.

Finally, Sienna, Oakley, and their eight-year-old daughter Juniper appeared, but I was actually a little surprised to see them at all.They had been quietly arguing about it since the dining hall announcement, or inadvertent recruitment session, depending on how you looked at it.

From what I could tell, Oakley was very resistant to the idea.I don’t know how Sienna was able to finally convince him, but they all arrived together in time to leave with us.

“Since we’re all here, we should double check our gear and make sure we have what we need,” Boden announced.“We’re going to be on the road for months, and we don’t know how many other friendly communities or trading posts we’ll find along the way.So we need to be prepared for anything.”

“Um, I can help with that,” a voice piped in behind us, and we all looked back to see Alphie standing there.She had an overstuffed backpack on, and she toyed uncertainly with the straps on her shoulders.