Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
TRAEGER
It’s probably stupid and selfish and wasteful, but I can’t quite make myself give a fuck.
We absolutely gorge ourselves on all of the snacks from the Closet of Wonders as Melody keeps calling it.
We eat and eat until we both feel sick, but man does it feel good.
Melody is in such a good mood after the discovery, it’s almost as if the past month never happened.
The hostility’s gone, and she’s acting like she had before Jonah had been hurt.
It feels good. It feels more than good: it feels right, like this is how we’re supposed to be.
Laughing and eating and talking by the fire, feeling so totally at ease, as if the outside world doesn’t exist at all.
“The bottles and cans outside were smart. Early warning system,” Melody says, shifting to lie on the foot of the bed so she’s closer to the fire.
Despite being in a great mood and eating her weight in chips and cookies, I’m still worried that she’s coming down with something.
Her skin is still pallid, but her cheeks are flushed and she’s got that glassy look in her eyes, the one that comes with fever.
She can’t seem to get warm no matter how many blankets she piles on or how close she gets to the flames.
She keeps assuring me she’s fine, just tired from yesterday and that her ankle hurts, but I’m not sure that I believe her.
“Well, Uncle Charlie gets the credit there. Looked like he’d had them rigged a long time ago but they’d fallen at some point, probably during a storm or something. Now we’ll hear anyone coming though.”
“Kudos to Uncle Charlie then. So, what do you think the gibberish on the wall in there is about?” she asks, jutting her chin towards the bedroom.
“I think it’s a way to figure out the combination to the locks on the cabinets downstairs, but I have no fucking clue what it might mean or what might be in there.”
“Guns maybe? Ammo? More Twinkies?” she suggests with a grin before yawning widely. “Did you talk to Wynn?”
“Yeah, everything is going good. No more herds, and they cleared three more houses this morning. They should make it here in another day or so probably.” She nods and her lids start to droop.
“Why don’t you take a nap? I’ll check the snares I set up earlier and be back in a bit.
” She’d been out cold still this morning after the sun came up, so I’d taken the time to scope out the perimeter, take care of a few rogue Bloodies, get the security lines in place, and set a dozen snares in hopes of getting us some fresh meat.
Of course, that was before I knew about all the stores Uncle Charlie had waiting for us, but either way, fresh meat was always a good idea.
“No, I’m fine. You need to sleep, you stayed up all night.”
“I wasn’t injured,” I point out. “I’ll nap after I get back, promise.”
Before she can argue, I hoist myself off the mattress and gesture for her to settle back down.
She sighs but maneuvers herself back up to the pillows and I pull the blankets over her, adding an extra throw to be safe.
I set another soda and a canteen of water on the floor where she can reach them easily, and she’s already asleep by the time I pull on my jacket and boots.