Lynn smiled back. It was chilly in the building, but not enough to explain why Lynn suddenly felt cold now Dani had withdrawn. “I should let you pack.”
“I think you should.” Dani tucked her hair behind her ear and took in the items around her.
When Lynn stood, her legs felt wobbly. They remained unsteady until well into her trip down the stairs. She focused on keeping the food on her plate and on keeping her grin from spreading to the point where her cheeks started to hurt. She wasn’t sure what had just transpired between them, but she did know she liked it.
“How about there?” Dani inclined her head to a mossy patch roughly midway between two trees, where Skeever peed to his heart’s content.
Lynn dug her fingers deeper into the blanket around the boy’s body to keep herself from dropping her side of it. “Sounds good. Let’s put him down.”
Dani bent down with her. “First watch or first dig?”
“I’ll dig.” Lynn straightened. Physical labor would get her mind off the memories that had come flooding back the second she’d hoisted the boy’s body up.
Dani took off her backpack and pulled her spear out to its full length. She also handed Lynn the shovel she’d found this morning. “Good luck.”
When Lynn took the tool, their fingers brushed.
Dani’s gaze flitted down, and for a moment, a smile tugged at her lips.
Lynn relaxed a little at the sight. “Thanks.” She shrugged off her backpack and jacket. Time to get this over with. She gripped the handle and positioned herself. The first few motions were clumsy, then her muscles remembered the familiar strain and settled into the swing of it. The moss came away easily, and the soil was loose. Almost too loose, Lynn thought, but didn’t want to question a gift like that. If the soil conditions held up, they would be out of here well before midday. Then the blade sank into something that crunched under the force of the thrust.
Dani’s head turned in her direction, and her eyes opened wider.
Lynn wiggled the handle of the shovel to free the blade. It came away bloody. Realization hit. Her stomach threatened to turn. “Oh no.” Her voice reached barely above a whisper.
“Is that…?” Dani sounded as if she was about to throw up. She backed away with her eyes on the shallow hole that now showed just a few patches of blueish skin.
Skeever whined and backed up.
Lynn kicked sand over the trench but gave up when the stench of death rose up violently enough to make her gag. At least now they knew what had happened to the family’s victims. She grabbed her pack and hurried to hoist it onto her shoulders. “We’ll carry him across the road, bury him there. It’s probably littered with bodies here.”
Dani vigorously nodded her consent. She had already donned her pack and bent down to pick up Lynn’s jacket. She wiped a tear away and wordlessly hoisted the boy’s body up as well.
Lynn’s skin crawled long after they left the green. As relieved as she was that the family had buried the people they’d killed, the sight—and especially the scent—lingered. She glanced at Dani as they made their way to a patch of green farther away from the building.
Dani had gone pale and her eyes were still moist. She stared down at the blanket.
Was she thinking about Richard? Lynn was. Digging up his body was going to be way worse than this little preview. Lynn shuddered. She didn’t want to think about that—not now.
Lynn was the first to break ground again, and this time the soil was a lot less yielding. It made the work harder, but at least Lynn was fairly certain there wouldn’t be any more surprises.
Nearly three hours of back-breaking work later, they lowered the boy into the hole.
Sweat ran down Lynn’s body in steady streams, and sand had gotten everywhere.
Dani stared at the patches of carefully restored grass. She looked the way Lynn felt: dirty and tired.
Lynn straightened to stretch out her back. “Do you wanna say a few words or…?”
Dani glanced at her. “I’m not sure what to say.”
“Try. I think it might, you know, help.” Nothing would help them feel better about any of this, but any semblance of closure was good.
After a moment, Dani took a deep breath and released it. “I’m sorry you had to die, boy. May good things grow from all you return to the earth.”
Lynn bent her head as Dani spoke. That was pretty much all there was to say about a boy they hadn’t known but who shouldn’t have been killed. She cleared her throat. “Right. Let’s get going. We’ve lost enough daylight.”
Dani fell in line with her upon reaching the 95, and Lynn didn’t automatically tense. Something had definitely changed between them: only yesterday, they’d traveled with a good twenty feet of distance between them.
Over the last couple of days, Lynn had gone from an intense desire to get away from Dani, to an intense desire to stay with her. There was logic in that transition. For one, Dani was an asset. She was untrained in prolonged exposure to the Wilds, but on the off chance her terror the first night out hadn’t been an act to manipulate Lynn into feeling sorry for her, Dani had been coming to grips quickly with some of the Wild’s most pressing terrors. Dani was adaptive, smart, and physically capable. Given time, her feet would heal, and she’d learn to cope with walking long distances every day and sleeping lightly at night.
There was more to it than that, though: Lynn liked her. Dani made her feel something no one else had ever made her feel. She’d lost the desire to touch other people many years ago, but she’d slept soundly through the night while holding Dani, and this morning’s hug was fresh in her mind. Every time she thought of it, her skin tingled.
Dani swerved away from her as a car blocked their path.
Skeever took the left with Lynn.
Dani’s gaze swept along the tree line in a meticulous pattern that spoke volumes about the progress she’d made on learning how to handle herself out in the Wilds.
Lynn stifled a sigh. Dani had the makings of a Wilder, but no desire to become one. That forced Lynn to examine the flip side of the coin: did Lynn have the makings of a Settler? She had trouble picturing herself functioning as one of the Homestead people. Dani’s suggestion she take Richard’s place on the team was problematic for a lot of reasons. For one, she doubted Kate had any intention of letting her. It was a job with a lot of responsibility, and it required a lot of trust. Lynn didn’t have that trust with the Homesteaders. The only one who perhaps trusted her enough to let her take up Richard’s mantle was Dani, and that wasn’t enough. Then there was another uncomfortable truth: she didn’t want to lay down her life for the well-being of the group.
If push came to shove, maybe Lynn would be willing to risk her own well-being for Dani’s, but she only had to think about Dean or Kate to know that if she was ever asked to risk her life for the other Homesteaders, she’d turn the other way. Lynn didn’t like the Homesteaders, and the Homesteaders didn’t like her.
Besides, Lynn wasn’t used to life in a settlement. It was always possible she would unlearn some of the reflexes that had allowed her to survive so far, but she couldn’t blame Kate for not wanting someone in her group who turned combative whenever someone spooked her and whose primary concern was her own well-being. The Homesteaders needed someone with Lynn’s talents, but not someone with her emotional baggage. They needed a well-trained Dani.
Lynn was convinced her instincts were correct: that Kate had agreed to send Dani out with her so Dani would learn the skills she’d need to replace Richard. It was the only logical conclusion. That would make Lynn entirely redundant. If Dani chose to go back to the Homestead, Lynn didn’t see a way for them to stay together. The thought made her swallow heavily. She observed Dani under the pretense of taking in the tree line.