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“Fiancée?” Sarah looked like she could’ve been knocked over by a light breeze.

John took my hand in his. “Right.”

There was pause where Asha gave Kimmy a pointed look. John rolled his eyes; he clearly wasn’t going to be doing the introductions. Kimmy stared back, unmoved, until Asha cleared her throat loudly.

“Oh, yes,” Kimmy said hurriedly, embarrassed. “And this is Asha. A friend of Claire’s. And, uh, mine too.”

Awkwardness hung in the air, and I resisted the urge to hide my face behind my hands. Sarah’s long stare didn’t help my nerves, and the silence seemed to stretch on for an eternity.

“You brought them here?” she finally said. “Why? Do you have any idea how people are going to—”

“Yeah,” John interjected. “We know. We’ll call a council meeting.”

“A council meeting?” Sarah said incredulously, looking sharply to the right and left, as though expecting hidden informants to suddenly appear. “Get in here. Before someone sees you and rains hell down on us all.”

She stepped aside and waved us into the house. I hesitated, but John tugged on my hand, and I followed him inside. Sarah pushed the door shut with a loud snap and turned three deadbolts to lock it behind her, which did nothing to reassure me.

The air inside the house was thick and warm, like a cozy blanket in the dead of winter.

It smelled like cooking—smoky and savoury, with the fresh, earthy scent of herbs.

Mixed in was the scent of soap, of clean laundry, and of burning wood.

It smelled like a home, so wholesome that I wanted to weep.

I hadn’t eaten a decent meal in weeks, and I was still chilled to the bone, but we’d made it, and this place I had heard so much about was real. The nightmare of our journey was finally over. I swallowed hard, trying not to succumb to the tight ball of emotion that ached in my chest.

We stripped off our coats and boots, and Sarah led us into a small but cozy living room.

A squashy green sofa sat against the far wall, with a mismatched pink loveseat beside it.

A polished oak coffee table sat in the middle of the room, but the true centrepiece was a massive stone fireplace.

The gentle crackling of the fire was soothing after another long day in the frozen Wasteland.

There was a small, golden-haired boy of perhaps five on the sofa. He stared at us with open surprise and fascination, his hands frozen in mid-air around what appeared to be a toy truck and, of all things, an elephant.

“Hey, buddy,” Kimmy said affectionately. “You probably don’t remember me and John, huh? You’re so big now.”

The boy looked to his mother with creeping alarm. “Mommy, who are they?”

“They’re friends,” Sarah said, though her glance at Asha and me was doubtful. “It’s alright, Jake. Go back to your game.”

Jake still looked uncertain, but he quickly resumed what seemed to be an epic battle between the truck and the elephant and forgot us. Sarah settled onto the sofa beside him, groaning and rubbing her baby bump.

“Sit,” she ordered John. “If you expect to be served, you can think again, because I’m not getting up again in this condition.”

He chuckled. “Wouldn’t dream of it. So, another one, huh?”

He led me over to the loveseat to sit down. Kimmy sat on the arm, while Asha contented herself with the floor. I motioned for her to squeeze in beside me, but she shook her head.

“It would seem that way,” Sarah said with a sigh, then groaned again as she shifted in her seat. “We decided four wasn’t enough, apparently.”

Four kids? I hadn’t known anyone with so many children before. Our strict population control at the compound made it unlikely that would’ve ever been allowed.

“Where are the others?” Kimmy asked.

“Bruce took the kids out on a hunting trip this morning,” Sarah replied. “They should be back soon. He’s going to flip out when he sees what you’ve brought with you, I’ll tell you that much.”

I exchanged a look with Asha, who clearly didn’t appreciate being talked about as if she weren’t there any more than I did. I knew better than to speak up, however. This was John and Kimmy’s show now.

“So,” Sarah said, her tone suddenly brusque. “Tell me where you’ve been, what you’ve been doing, and just why you thought that bringing those girls here was a good idea. ”

John bristled a little. “Did you not hear that she’s my—”

“Fiancée, yes,” Sarah said impatiently. “I don’t mean it like that. She’s in danger here. Her friend, too.”

My pulse quickened. I’d known, in an abstract way, that coming here meant I might be in danger, but hearing it said out loud by a Valley resident made it real.

“In case you forgot, I live here,” John said. “And as my wife, Claire has as much right to be here as I do.”

Sarah’s curt retort was cut off by Kimmy interceding.

“What John is trying to say,” Kimmy said with a pointed look at him, “is that we’ve been away a long time, and we’ve made some attachments we can’t break. But this is our home, and we belong here. And thankfully, we brought back something that may sweeten the pot a little for the council.”

Sarah raised an expectant eyebrow. “I assume you got some PNCs, then?”

“Better than some ,” John replied. “Enough to last several lifetimes. Enough that the Linds might be able to finally make our own and end our dependency on scavenging.”

“Really?” Sarah said in wonder. “That’s…wow. I don’t know what…”

There was a quiver of emotion in her voice, and she paused briefly to regain her composure.

“If that’s true, you’ve saved us.”

There was a quiver of emotion in her last words, and John gave a small smile.

“I know,” he said, his tone gentler. “I told you before we left that we would find them, or we wouldn’t come back at all. You think I could show my face here if I returned empty-handed? I meant it.”

A tear cascaded down Sarah’s cheek, and she wiped it away clumsily with her hand. John gave a small smile, and Kimmy went to give her another hug. Jake stopped the truck-elephant rematch and looked at his mother with alarm.

“Why is Mommy crying?”

“Mommy’s just happy, baby,” Sarah said over Kimmy’s shoulder. “It’s all okay.”

Sarah pulled him against her and tickled him until he started giggling and settled in beside her to snuggle .

“My goodness,” Sarah said after a moment, a brilliant smile lighting her features. “I can’t believe it. I thought you were dead, but now you tell me you’ve saved the whole Valley all on your own. It’s…a lot.”

“Not all on our own,” John said, and he squeezed my hand and gave me a tender look. “We couldn’t have done it without Claire.”

Embarrassed, I murmured, “I helped a little.”

“Too modest for your own good,” Kimmy said with a smile. “But it’s why she’s already earned her place here. She helped save a whole community of people she never met.”

Sarah’s gaze fell on me, and I did my best not to look away.

“In that case, where are my manners?” she said softly. “I’m sorry, Claire. We’re wary of strangers in these parts. It’s what’s kept us safe. But if you really helped save our home, then Kimmy’s right—you deserve to be here.”

I flushed with pleasure. “Thank you.”

Sarah gave me a once-over and groaned as she got to her feet.

“You all look like you could do with some fattening up,” she said, suddenly businesslike. “Traveling in the winter can’t have been a picnic. Let’s get you fed.”

She led us into the bright, airy farmhouse kitchen.

Sage green walls, grey stone floors, and a gleaming steel refrigerator and stove greeted us.

A large island with four stools took up much of the space, along with a giant wood table.

Oak cabinetry lined the walls, and a large stockpot simmered on an old-fashioned wood stove, giving off a heavenly aroma.

Every surface was shiny and polished. It was the cleanest place I’d been in a very long time.

I sat at the kitchen island, sandwiched between John and Kimmy, as Sarah added more stock to the pot and stirred.

My empty stomach growled, and saliva pooled in my mouth.

I hadn’t eaten more than a few bites of food in days, and I felt positively weak with hunger.

John covered my hand with his on the countertop, tracing slow, reassuring circles with his thumb.

The three of them chatted amiably back and forth, filling in the gaps since they last saw each other. The harvest had been good this year; some of the elders had retired; Danny had taken on the Lead Outrider position; a couple called Isla and Noah had had a baby boy recently .

Asha watched Sarah warily, as though waiting for retaliation of some kind, but Sarah paid her no mind, busying herself with food preparation.

“It’s been nothing but doom and gloom around here lately,” Sarah said with a sigh. “The last of the PNCs got installed in October, and we’d already begun to ration electricity use.”

“Did Jameson and his people ever change their minds?” Kimmy asked.

Sarah shrugged. “Sure did, but by that time, it was too late, and you’d already been gone some time. He sent others out to look nearly every day, but they came back with nothing, and nobody wanted to venture farther out. Nobody’s as crazy as you and John.”

“Brave,” I cut in, still staring at the stockpot on the stove. “I think that’s the word you’re looking for.”

Sarah looked surprised at my interjection, but she quickly nodded without further comment.

John gave my hand an appreciative squeeze.

Sarah ladled soup into bowls and set a plate of hearty brown rolls on the counter.

The scent of food was making me light-headed.

When she set a bowl in front of me, I dug in without so much as a thank-you; I was too hungry, and afraid I might faint.

It was delicious—leeks and carrots in hot, golden chicken broth. All things I hadn’t eaten in months. A bite of one of the sturdy brown rolls only bolstered my bliss; I hadn’t had bread since I left the compound.