Lucas and Celia didn’t question Abby when she said she was going for a walk after breakfast. Lucas gave her a long look, like he wanted to ask, but in the end he just nodded and reminded her to take her jacket.
She didn’t tell him where she was really going.
If she did, he’d stop her. He’d insist she wait, insist she follow the rules, insist that there were other ways. Abby couldn’t afford other ways. Not slow ones.
Still, as she started down the long road toward the compound, she couldn’t help thinking how much easier this would have been with a car.
What was normally a ten-minute drive stretched into more than forty minutes on foot. The pavement was cold beneath her shoes, the air sharp enough to sting her lungs as she breathed. Fallen leaves skittered across the road, crunching unde
