Alex hated that overused line of waking up to an unfamiliar ceiling in books, yet his first thought upon waking was:

Oh, an unfamiliar ceiling.

On top of that, his head felt cotton-stuffed, and his body was heavy.

Alex heard the fluttering of paper, and he turned to the sound. A little girl was sitting on a bed, legs crisscrossed. She was hunched over a thin book, and there was a rifle leaning against her knee. Her hair was pulled back into a little ponytail.

The girl glanced up, and when their eyes met, she sat up straight, and she grabbed her rifle. She did not point it at anything, but it was enough to get the message across. Alex’s hands shook as he held them in a placating gesture.

“Hey,” he said. “I just woke up. I don’t know what’s happening.”

Alex also had no idea what had happened. The last thing he remembered was leaving Split Creek with a whole pack full of medicines.

The girl said nothing. Her eyes were wide as she stared at him.

Alex took a moment to glance around. He was in a tiny cabin, one that was not unfamiliar in this post-Merge world, but he had never seen one so personal. There were childish drawings and maps on the walls. Under the beds in the cabin, he noticed boxes, and there was just enough light to make out the word “books” on one of them. His backpack was sitting in a corner.

“I must have gotten myself into trouble, huh?” he said. “I don’t remember a thing, though. Would you mind telling what happened?”

She just looked at him, grip tightening on her rifle.

Alex’s arm and chest screamed at him as he pushed himself to his elbows. A colorful quilt slipped off his shoulders, and he noticed the bandages covering his chest. The girl flinched, but she still never pointed her rifle at him. He nodded toward his backpack, but his vision swam, making him flopped back onto his back. There was a soft something under his head.

“Can I check my bag please?” he asked, and he pointed at the bag instead. “I need to make sure nothing’s broken.”

There was silence as Alex waited for his vision to return to normal, and he looked at the girl, raising his eyebrows. Her cheeks turned pink. She nodded her head, but she otherwise made no other movement. He had no idea if he would be able to make it over there, but it might have been a bad idea to ask her to do it for him.

“Could you please bring it over here? I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to get up yet. Understand?”

The girl’s eyes shifted to the backpack. Her face turned pink again.

“I went through it,” she said like she was in a hurry. “I took your weapons.”

“Oh, there were some bottles in there, was any of it broken?”

The girl frowned at him, tilting her head to the side.

“You’re not upset?”

“About what?”

“I went through your things and took your stuff.”

Alex had dealt with his fair share of paranoid people over the last ten years, and it had never occurred to him to be upset. It was just *standard* to have your stuff searched through or taken.

More of the blanket slipped as Alex sat upright—slowly to avoid dizziness this time. His arm was wrapped in a bandage as well, but it hurt more than his chest did. He flexed his hand, regretting it as he felt sharp pains in it.

“I would have done the same,” he answered. “Was anything broken? There were bottles in there that were very important.”

The girl only shook her head.

“Good. I can give you some for your trouble if you want them. There are some extras in there, I think. You can have them if you need them.”

Again, the girl only shook her head.

Alex wanted to ask her more questions, but he also did not want to push this girl too hard. She seemed stable to him—a normal teenage girl who was rather afraid of strangers. It was nothing unusual, but if she was by herself, then she must have been terrified. Fear made the most boring people do rash things.

“Would you mind telling me your name?” he asked. “You don’t have to. I won’t be offended if you don’t. I’m Alex.”

The girl stared at him for a long time, eyes moving back and forth as she watched his face. There was a faint familiarity in her face that Alex could not place as he returned the stare. She was related to someone he had met before, he was sure, but who she might be related to was difficult to bring to mind.

A gurgle in his stomach reminded him that it had been a while since the last time he had eaten anything.

“You take any of my food, too?” he asked. “I’m hungry.”

The girl jumped.

“I have some deer meat,” she said—like she was in a hurry again.

“I have plenty of food in my backpack, but I’ll eat just about anything, honestly.”

The girl shifted her gaze to his backpack. When she stood, he thought she would take something out of the bag or even drag over it to him, but she went to a small cabinet, abandoning her rifle on her bed. She pulled out several jars of dried meat, and she placed them on the floor near him. He picked one up to inspect it.

“They’re plain,” she warned. “Sorry. We ran out of spices.”

Alex just shrugged. He thanked her before he popped open the lid. The texture of the dried meat was softer than he expected it to be.

“You passed out,” she said, pointing toward the door. “You were bleeding. I fixed you.”

“Ah, I do appreciate that. You didn’t see what happened to me before?”

The girl shook her head, and she mumbled an apology. She gave the floor a worried look, and she went back to being silent.

Alex lifted his blanket, and he snapped it back in place as soon as he realized that he was stark naked. He turned wide eyes to her, but her focus remained away from him.

“Um...”

“Yeah?” Alex prompted.

“Have you seen—seen my uncle?”

“Your uncle? I’ve seen a couple of guys, but who’s your uncle?”

“Ean Shaw.”

Her familiarity clicked in his brain then. Ean Shaw was a carpenter, and he had built several small cabins throughout the forest to act as safehouses from the Merged monsters while traveling from town to town. He had always acted off-kilter, jumpy at every little thing or overly aggressive when it came to protecting himself or the people he was working with.

Alex suspected he had seen some shit before the Merge, and when the world had essentially ended, it had pushed him to the precipice of insanity, a state of mind Alex was rather familiar with.

“I know who that is,” he said. “No, I can’t say I’ve seen him. You know, I don’t think he ever said anything about having a niece.”

The girl’s face darkened as she frowned.

“Oh” was all she said.

“Are you living here with him?”

“He’s been gone. For two weeks.”

“Ah, probably out working on something. Did he ever say why he was leaving?”

“Food. He was only supposed to be gone for a week.”

Alex’s chest ached for a reason other than the injuries. He knew what it felt like to worry that something had happened to someone he cared about.

“Ah, I’m sorry to hear that. It’s not as dangerous out there as it used to be, though, so I’m sure he’s still out there somewhere. I’ll certainly keep an eye out for him, and I can ask around whenever I get into the next town.”

His words did nothing to change the worry in the girl’s face. He shoved more food into his mouth.

“Lorna,” the girl mumbled. “That’s—I’m Lorna. Shaw. My dad was his brother.”

Alex gave the girl a smile and a nod of his head.

“Good to meet you, Lorna.”