In a Handful of Dust

Lynn return the glare without a flinch, but she sheathed the knife. “Having you along couldn’t hurt, I suppose,” she said, to Lucy’s surprise. “Till you find your own people?”

Joss nodded. “Assuming, of course, we’re all headed the same direction?”

“We’re going to—” Lucy began, but Lynn cut her off.

“We’re headed west,” she said, silencing Lucy with a glare. “Trying to get away from a sickness.”

“Who says there isn’t sickness in the west?”

“Who says there is?”

“Life’s a gamble, isn’t it?”

Lynn shifted away from the fire to move over next to Lucy, dragging her blanket with her. “We’re going. And I’m sleeping for what’s left of the night.”

Lucy bundled her blanket around her and curled into a ball, her back pressed against Lynn’s for warmth, their sleeping forms fit well from years of huddling together for heat. The familiar feeling of Lynn’s breathing moving in time with her own pulled Lucy back to simpler days, when life was a string of sunrises and sunsets, with long afternoons in between spent with Maddy and Carter.

She snaked her arm out from under the blanket and curled a fist in Lynn’s long hair, a habit from childhood. Lynn’s hand covered her fingers and squeezed back in reassurance.

“Are we out of Ohio yet?” Lucy sat in the shade of a pin oak, grateful for the escape from the beating sun.

“Not yet,” Lynn said testily, the map spread over her knees once again.

Joss sat near Lucy in the shade, her water bottle resting nearby. She had filled her bottles at Lake Wellesley but had no food of her own. Joss had taken on all the duties she could to make up for her lack; she gathered kindling if Lynn felt safe enough for a fire, and always volunteered to take the first watch. She’d even ventured into the kitchen of an abandoned house and made a paste of vinegar and baking soda that had cured a nasty poison ivy rash on Lucy’s arm. But none of Joss’ good points seemed to have an effect on Lynn. She’d been quiet and guarded since the new addition.

“Let me know when we are,” Lucy said, trying to get Lynn’s attention.

“When we are what?”

“Out of Ohio.”

Lynn glanced up from the map. “I will.”

“Being out of Ohio will be interesting.”

Lynn ignored her, immersed in planning their route.

“I’ve been out of Ohio,” Joss offered.

“Really? Before or after the Shortage?”

“Before. I’m not from here, actually. I grew up in Florida.”

“Florida…” Lucy let the word slide off her tongue. Lynn had forced something of an education upon her, mostly revolving around a musty set of encyclopedias her own mother had stored in the basement. She knew Florida existed, and that it was south, but anything more was new information.

“What’s it like?”

“I can’t tell you what it’s like now, I haven’t been back. But I’m sure it’s still hot, and there were crocodiles thick as your coyotes.”

Lucy shivered, relishing the little chill of fear that ran up her spine. “That would rattle me.”

“No worse than packs of wild dogs, I guess,” Joss said, watching Lucy from the corner of her eye, with a playful smile. “Crocs are just scaly wild dogs that’ll drown you and eat you.”

“All right.” Lynn snapped the map shut. “Let’s go.”

“What now?” Lucy asked.

Lynn shouldered her pack and gave Lucy a blank look. “We walk.”

“Walking. I love walking.”

Lynn rolled her eyes as she shouldered her pack, but Lucy caught the smile spreading across her face before she turned away. Lucy allowed herself one glance around before they struck out onto the road, but there was no sign of Carter. Half of her breakfast lay wrapped in leaves beside a tree, regardless.

“So what did you do for a living, before the Shortage?” Lucy asked Joss, grateful for the distraction of a new person.

“I was a yoga instructor.”

“You were a what now?”

“A yoga instructor,” Joss said patiently. “Yoga is an ancient form of meditation that uses breathing exercises and holding certain postures to help you focus.”

“So you taught people how to breathe and stand still?”

In front of them, Lynn barely concealed a snort.

“There’s more to it than that. You could benefit from it,” she said to Lynn’s stiff back.

“I focus best on something when I’m actually doing it,” Lynn said without turning around. “Not standing and breathing and thinking about it.”

“I was thinking more of the relaxation it can offer,” Joss said, but Lynn didn’t respond.

“If you took the tension out of Lynn, she’d collapse from the shock,” Lucy said to Joss, who laughed easily.

Teasing Lynn was something Lucy and Stebbs had excelled at, picking at her serious exterior until they got a smile, or sometimes, an explosion.

“I had a studio in Florida, but I left and came to Ohio right before the trouble started.”

“Why’d you leave Florida?”

“Reasons.”

As usual, someone’s reluctance to share only made Lucy more curious. “Was it a man?”

“Lucy,” Lynn reprimanded her from ten feet ahead.

“She’s all right,” Joss said. “No harm in curiosity.”

“So what happened? How’d you make it this long?”