Lorna rushed to the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her. She looked at her side, where she found a hole in the fabric, and there were droplets of blood staining the edges of the hole. Wincing against the pain in her side, she shrugged off her coat, and then she lifted her shirt to find a puncture wound in her side, right above her hip, where there were no vital organs.

It felt like someone was holding a lighter to her skin.

The buck had only just been attacked, and while it could have passed the magical parasite to her, it was possible for a freshly turned creature to not be so potent as a fully mutated creature. Its antlers had not even looked affected yet.

As Lorna watched blood slip down her skin, she felt relief at the lack of black fluid. She pressed her hip to the sink, and she poured cool water over it to help cleanse it. Once she was sure that there was no evidence of Merge magic entering her system, she stepped out of the bathroom.

Alex was still outside, and part of her wished he took a long time because she wanted to take care of the wound without him noticing. He had already let her sleep longer than she should have, and if he knew about the wound, he would try to coddle her even more, to treat her like a child when she was just as capable as he was in these forests. While he had certainly saved her out there with the Merged Boar, she wanted him to think of her as an equal teammate while they were traveling together.

Lorna grabbed her small medical kit in her backpack, and she took it with her into the bathroom to clean and dress the wound.

***

When the sky turned dark, Lorna could hardly believe they had made the remainder of their journey without incident. No raiders surrounded them with guns, and no animals jumped out at them to eat them or spread a horrible disease. They just walked through the snow, stopping in cabins a couple of times to take a short break and eat.

Once it started getting dark, Lorna found herself walking faster to stick to Alex’s side out of fear of what would happen to them.

“We’re almost there,” Alex insisted, and he gave her shoulder a rough pat. “Just a few more minutes, and we’ll make it to Withergate.”

Lorna just nodded. Ever since it had started getting dark, she had found her chest and belly tightening, making the burning in her side worse. Her heart sped in her chest. She knew that part of the reason for it was the idea of them being stuck in the woods in the middle of the night, but there was also the promise of being around people.

For the past ten years, Lorna could count on one hand all the people she had seen before she met before Alex, and she considered herself lucky that Alex seemed to be a kind person, making him different from most of the other people she had met.

The forest became brighter, and Lorna looked up and spotted a bright light in the distance. She pointed at it and looked at Alex.

“Hey, is that it?” she asked.

“Yeah, we made it.”

Alex turned to her and grinned. He clapped her on the back, and instead of speeding up his pace, he slowed down, easing the strain she put on herself to keep up with him. As they drew closer to the lights, she realized they came from large spotlights sitting on top of a fence, which was made of both chainlink and metal sheets and stood at least ten years tall.

There was also a gate, and there were two people with guns standing above it and on either side of the gate. With the light shining from behind them, they are each too dark to make out any details about them.

“Hey, stop right there!” a man called.

Alex stopped, and he looked at Lorna. She lifted shaking hands to grab his coat. He frowned at her.

“You all right?”

Lorna nodded, but the movement was jerky. He patted her hand.

“It’ll be okay. There are good people here, and your uncle is well-known. They’ll take good care of you.”

Lorna gave him another jerky nod, but she could not help but recall images of Dark Hair striking Alex over and over again.

“Hey!” Alex called the two guards. “It’s me Alex. I found someone who needs our help.”

“Who is it?” the first guard called.

“She’s a young girl. We’ve been through some shit together. She's safe. I’m sure of it.”

There was some murmuring between the guards.

“Come on!” Alex said. “I just spent a week getting medicine for the place! I want to go home!”

“All right, all right! We’re coming down. Jesus.”

The guards climbed down from their posts above the fence. There was a loud racket of metal scraping against metal, and then the gate opened. Someone wearing a beanie cap poked his head through the opening, and he waved at them.

“Well, come on! There have been some raiders creeping around! Hurry the hell up!”

Alex grabbed Lorna’s elbow, and he tugged her along with him.

“I’m not leaving you alone, all right? Let’s go.”

Lorna followed him. The man who had poked his head behind the gate nodded at them both, and he gestured for them to come inside. On the other side of the fence, there was a second fence that was also made of chain link and sheet metal, but the gate was already open, revealing several buildings to her already. There were a couple of people walking around, and a few of them had a rifle slung over their shoulder.

“You know where to go, Alex,” the second guard said, and he gestured with his rifle toward the open gate.

There was more loud metal scraping as the guard closed the gate behind them. Alex tugged on Lorna’s elbow, and she followed him through the gate. Several people greeted Alex as they walked through the town, and Lorna found her knees shaking as she walked next to him. She clung to him as she lost her balance, and she bit her tongue at the intense pain in her side.

An older woman stepped out of the building, and she nodded at them.

“Alex,” she said, “ it’s good to see you in one piece. Who’s your friend?”

“You won’t believe me when you hear who I say it is.”

“Yeah? Try me.”

Alex planted his hand on Lorna’s shoulder, and he gave it a gentle squeeze.

“This is Lorna,” he said. “She’s Ean Shaw’s niece.”

The woman’s eyebrows raised, and she took in Lorna.

“Ean’s niece?” she repeated. “He never said a thing about having a family. Where have you been all this time?”

“She’s been holed up in a cabin about a day’s walk away from here. I don’t think she’s had much contact with people other than Ean.”

The woman nodded. She held out her hand to Lorna, who froze at the gesture.

“Pleasure to meet you. Ean is a very valuable part of our community, and we will gladly allow you a place among us if you wish to stay here for any amount of time.”

“She’s not the most talkative of people,” Alex said, and he patted the woman’s hand. “Lorna, this is Hattie. She is the leader of this place. As she said, she’ll make sure you’re taken care of here.”

“H-Hello.”

Lamont smiled despite the awkwardness of the ignored handshake.

“Speaking of Ean,” Alex said, “have you seen him around? Lorna said that he went missing about two weeks ago, and it’s got her worried.”

“Missing for two weeks, huh? No, I’m afraid I haven’t seen him for a while. I’m sorry to say, but I can ask around. There are few people from other towns around, and I can ask them about it, too.”

“Thanks. Lorna and I have been through a lot together, so I’d like to help her the best I can.”

“You’ve been through a lot together?”

Alex clapped Hattie on the shoulder.

“I’ll tell you tomorrow. I’m tired. I need to drop off these medicines at the clinic, and then I am going home to my family. Ean’s apartment still open? Lorna will need a place to stay.”

“Yes, we always keep it open to him. I’ll show her there myself if she’ll let me.”

Lorna glanced at Alex, who nodded at her, and she looked back at Hattie. She gave her a jerky nod, and the woman smiled.

“All right. Let’s go.”