Page 79 of What Remains

Josie gave a short nod, not trusting herself to manage more than a single word. "Yeah."

He reached the barn door first, pulling it open so the late-afternoon air rushed inside, and the cold came as a welcome shock against her flushed cheeks. They crossed the snowy yard together, keeping just enough distance between them that anyone watching from the house would think nothing of it—or so she hoped, though her heart hammered against her ribs like it wanted to give them both away.

The farmhouse, smoke curling from the chimney a welcome sight. For a brief second, Josie saw it as it was before: her father on the porch, complaining about the screen door slamming as Mark chased Layla across the yard. She could almost smell her mother's stew, almost hear her sister's high-pitched shriek of a laugh. The image dissolved, leaving only the crunch of her own boots in the snow.

The front door creaked as they stepped inside, and warmth immediately wrapped around them.

Liz looked up from the kitchen table, her gaze traveling from Seth to Josie and back again. Her eyes narrowed slightly, not with suspicion, but with a quiet, curiosity that missed nothing. Heat crept into Josie's cheeks. Liz had always been able to read her far too well, and the apocalypse hadn't changed that. Mercifully she said nothing, her attention returning to the map spread across the table.

Jay glanced up as they entered. "Good, you're here. We need your eyes on this."

Cara slid another mug of coffee toward them. "Come join us."

Seth took the chair beside Jay while Josie settled into the empty seat next to Liz, careful not to look across the table more often than necessary. If anyone noticed the awkwardness humming between them, no one mentioned it, and for that small mercy she found herself grateful.

Jay tapped the map with the eraser end of a pencil; his voice settled into the practical rhythm he always used when planning. "We need supplies. Medical, fuel, seeds, tools—ammunition if we can find it. And anything that'll help us reinforce Cara's place before next winter."

Liz studied the map in silence for a long moment before speaking. "You're not seriously considering Denver as a primary location."

"It gives us the best chance of finding everything on that list."

"It also gives you the best chance of getting all of you killed."

The room fell quiet. Liz leaned over the map, her finger tracing slow circles around several neighborhoods on its edges. "If you're going into the city, stay on the outskirts. Never go downtown—not unless you've got an army behind you."

Jay exchanged a glance with Seth. "You've been in there?"

"A few times. Only when I absolutely had to." Her finger drifted toward the eastern side of Denver and stopped. "Stay away from here."

"What is it?" Cara asked.

Liz's expression hardened. "It's not just the infected. It's people. They are, by every measure, the worst kind... ruthlessly organized. They've claimed entire neighborhoods, from what I saw. Blocked roads, run patrols." She looked at each of them, her voice dropping. "You have to understand, they aren't just surviving. I think they're hunting."

A tense silence settled over the room, and when Liz spoke again her voice drifted somewhere far away.

"I watched them from a rooftop almost three months ago. They stopped a family trying to leave the city—a father, a mother, a little boy." She swallowed hard. "They didn't even let them explain. They shot the father first."

Cara covered her mouth. Josie's stomach knotted, a sick dread coiling through her. "Liz..."

"The mother ran. They chased her down like it meant nothing to them." Liz's eyes stayed fixed on the map, unblinking, as though looking away might make the memory more real.

"And the little boy?" Jay asked.

Liz closed her eyes for a brief moment, and when she opened them again something in her face had gone empty. "By the time they were done with his mother... there wasn't a child left to save. Just something small, running into the dark."

No one spoke. The silence pressed down on the kitchen until Seth finally broke it, his voice low and steady. "So the east side is off limits."

"Absolutely." Liz moved her finger across the map toward the southwest, grateful it seemed to have somewhere else to direct her attention. "If I were scavenging, I'd work this area." She tapped the communities west of downtown. "Lakewood."

Jay leaned in, studying the roads. "Why there?"

"Mostly shopping centers before the fall. Big-box stores, home improvement warehouses, farm supply, outdoor outfitters, grocery stores, medical offices—everything you just listed, concentrated along several major thoroughfares." She traced the routes as she spoke. "It never grew as densely populated as downtown, and because of that, the hordes never really settled there. You'll still find infected—plenty of them—but they're scattered. Manageable. Not packed shoulder to shoulder the way they are in the city's heart."

Seth nodded. "And the groups?"

"I haven't seen organized territory that far west. Doesn't mean they aren't there. But if I had to bet on where you'd have the best chance of getting in and out alive..." She tapped Lakewood one final time. "...I'd favor those odds."

Jay leaned back in his chair, the tension in his shoulders easing slightly. "That's a solid plan. Good access, and clear escape routes."