Page 29 of Hollow Valley

Raccoons didn’t havethatmuch meat, so it didn’t take long for it to cook.Still, when Oakley declared it done, I had already finished eating.This time, I couldn’t hold back, and I licked the plate.

Oakley only responded with laughter.“That is the highest compliment a chef can receive.”

The feast went on with quiet fanfare, and even the girls seemed to enjoy the meat, although I made certain that Fae ate hers very well-done.Long after we finished, and the conversation and laughter faded, we lingered around the fire.

We were tired, bellies full, but no one wanted to drift inside the cabin to sleep quite yet.Instead, we fell into tranquil contentment, punctuated by the crackling of the fire and the distant, mournful call of a barred owl.For a fleeting moment, it almost felt safe.

But as the embers waned, a prickle of unease returned.I gathered up Fae and carried her into the cabin.

19

Stella

In the night, on my bedroll on the floor with my daughter snuggled up beside me, I drifted off into a dark heavy sleep.For once, I went to bed with my appetite satiated, so I hoped for a dreamless slumber.

Instead, I was treated to gauzy dreams of chasing Max through a field of wildflowers, but no matter how fast I ran, I could never quite catch him.

I awoke in the pre-dawn blue glow with a longing in my chest so painful, I could barely breathe.But when I did inhale, my nostrils were filled with the cloying, pungent odor that I had come to know too well: Fae had a dirty diaper.

Fortunately, it was contained inside her cloth diaper and pajamas, so the whole mess could be a lot worse.Still, it was something that needed to be dealt with immediately, if I didn’t want to wake up the entire cabin with the stench.

Fae didn’t stir as I scooped her up.Edie – who slept on her own bedroll on the other side of me – woke up as I was gathering what I needed to clean my daughter.

“Need a hand?”Edie whispered as she watched me.

“I’m heading down to the nearby creek to clean everything up,” I explained quietly.“But I wouldn’t mind the company.”

Edie nodded, gathering her sweater around her shoulders as she quietly slipped from her bedroll.We tiptoed past the slow, steady breaths of the others.Boden, Leandro, and Ryder were sprawled out in the living room with us, while Oakley, Sienna, and Juniper had taken the solitary bedroom, and the O’Hara brothers were in the small loft above it.

Edie and I made our way toward the creek, following the sound of the babbling water, and Fae was half-asleep in my arms.On the bank, I laid her down on a blanket, but when I changed her, she wasn’t quite as soiled as I expected.

Edie stayed on the banks with Fae, who promptly fell back to sleep, while I went to the water to clean her clothing.I knelt at the creek’s edge, letting the current carry away the grime as the first hints of soft orange sunrise glittered through the pine tree branches around us.

“So, what do you think of Ryder and Leandro?”Edie asked.

“What do you mean?”I glanced sharply over my shoulder at her, and then I saw a strange gleam in her eyes.

“I only mean that… they both seem nice, and I’ve seen the way you look at Ryder sometimes,” Edie said knowingly.

My cheeks reddened at the realization that anyone had noticed.It wasn’t something I meant to do, and whenever I had caught myself staring at Ryder, I’d always quickly averted my gaze.

I hesitated, scrubbing at the fabric.“I…don’t know what I feel, honestly.I thought I was going to be with Max forever, and I know it’s been years since he died, but it still seems too soon to think about anybody else like that.”

“Yeah, I get that.”Edie paused, tracing lines in the dirt with her finger.She’d lost her boyfriend in the attack on Emberwood, so she truly did understand better than most.“I feel the same way about Alec.”Her voice wavered, but she steadied herself.“Some days, I wake up and reach for him without thinking.”

There was a heavy silence between us, broken only by the burble of the creek, and I quietly admitted, “I dreamt about Max last night.I was chasing him, but I never could catch him.”

Edie nodded, a sad smile flickering on her lips.“Yeah, I’ve had that one, too.”

A sudden scream shattered the stillness, sharp as broken glass.We both froze, looking back toward our campsite, and then another cry followed.

Instinct took over, and I told Edie, “Stay here and keep Fae safe!”And without another word, I sprinted back through the trees to the cabin, dread clawing up my spine.

Through the clear plastic tarp that covered the gaping hole in the bedroom wall, I could see a swirl of shadows, and then blood splattered across it.

I darted toward the front door, and I threw it open in time to watch the chaos crashing down.Four zombies lay dead on the floor – one decapitated, two with arrows straight through their heads, and another with a fire poker in the eye.

Boden was standing with his bloody machete in his hand, and he rushed to me.“Are you okay?Where’s Fae?”