The smell of the burning forest faded as they walked through the forest together. Alex kept an eye on Lorna, who continued to shed silent tears as they walked. He was afraid that they would freeze on her face or hands as they walked, but he was more worried that someone would catch up to them and take them back into custody. They could not afford any further delays in their journey.

By some miracle, they stumbled across another cabin. It was a relief to find it. He felt some apprehension when he realized that someone had already cleared the roof of snow, but once they got inside and found it empty of not only people but any personal items that might have been left behind, he felt safer.

There was some charge left in the battery that powered the heaters, and he turned it on.

Alex let Lorna take the small bathroom first as he searched the closet for a clothes rack, an emergency heater, and kerosene. He had some kerosene in his backpack, but it might not have been enough to power a heater through the night.

Once Alex found all of the things he needed, he hung up his borrowed coat and pants near the heater to be dried. His shirt was soaked with his blood, so he set it aside to soak it in the sink before hanging it to dry as well. He wrapped a blanket around his waist to avoid embarrassment for both Lorna and himself whenever she came out of the bathroom.

Alex was sitting beside the heater when Lorna finally exited the bathroom. She was wearing her spare clothes, and she held her old clothes in her hands, which were soaking wet like she had tried to clean them.

Lorna was quiet as she hung the clothes to dry near the heaters alongside his. There were dark circles under her eyes—something Alex hated to see on someone so young. She must have been exhausted after everything, and yet she might be able to go to sleep because of what happened.

Alex put on a spare shirt of his own anyway.

“I can make us something to eat,” he said, “if you’re hungry.”

Lorna shook her head, and she shuffled to the bunk beds with her backpack. She dug into her backpack for a blanket to spread over the bed. They no longer had their sleeping bags, so their extra blankets were all they could use to help them stay warm.

“You probably should eat something,” Alex pointed out. “I don’t want you to feel sick.”

“I’m not hungry.”

After everything that had happened. Alex decided that it might be okay to let her skip one—and only one—meal. She had at the very least drank water already. He would make sure she ate something in the morning to help her keep her strength up.

With the bathroom free, Alex went into the bathroom himself, holding the blanket around himself for modesty’s sake. When he came out with his curly hair tied back into a small ponytail, he found Lorna sitting by the heaters to help herself warm up. Her legs were tucked against her chest, and her arms were wrapped around them. Alex grabbed a bag of dried fruit before he climbed up to the top bunk, and he was just quiet, listening for any unusual noises outside.

“Are we really safe here?” Lorna whispered.

“For now,” Alex said. “We’re closer to those raiders than I would like to be, but I hope that they’re too distracted to care about us.”

“Do you run into those people a lot?”

Alex chewed on some dried fruit as he thought about how to answer that question.”

“Not as much as I used to,” he settled on. “Most people come to small settlements instead of joining groups like that, but they’ll probably never go away completely.”

“What were they going to do to us?”

“I can’t say for sure, but they were probably going to use you for ransom.”

“Ransom?”

“Yeah, they would take pictures of you and send them to the nearest town and see if they would get any supplies out of you. They do that every once in a while. It’s the reason why I always volunteer to travel between towns. I’m a lot—a lot sturdier, I guess you could say.”

“What would they have done to you?”

“I always cause trouble for them, so they would have likely just tried to kill me over and over again.”

Lorna’s eyes grew wide, and she looked up at him.

“Kill you?”

Alex pointed at the myriad of scars decorating his body. He had them in various parts of himself. They were faded and hard to spot because of the strange gift that Merge had given him, but the fact that they were visible at all was a reminder of just how much had been done to his body throughout the years.

“Yeah, it’s more like torturing me. Merge Magic hasn’t run out completely, so they haven’t successfully killed me yet.”

“And my uncle? Do you think they would kill my uncle?”

“No, I think they’re using him for ransom. They know he’s valuable to us, so they think it’s a guarantee they’ll get something out of him. I’m sure the town is coming up with a plan right now to do something about it if the raiders have already sent over a message.”

Some of the tension seemed to ease from Lorna’s shoulders at that, and she rested her chin on her knees.

“Why don’t you get some sleep?” Alex suggested. “I’ll stay up and keep a lookout while you’re asleep.”

“You need to sleep, too.”

“Yeah, and I’ll wake you up in a few hours to take over. Sound good?”

Lorna paused to think about it, and she nodded. She stood, and she shuffled to the bottom bunk and wrapped the blanket around herself. Alex hopped off the top bunk, and he shut off the light for her sake. He sat next to the heaters.

Alex had worried that Lorna would never go to sleep, but after a while, he could hear soft snoring.