Free In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis Page A

and made the road to California longer than it already was. Somehow the ocean had begun to pull on her, as real as the tide itself. Lucy wanted this phantom life that her dead uncle had spoken of, this vague promise that was California. But her past pulled on her conscience, as strong as Carter’s body was weak. It only made sense for her to keep her stores for herself, strike west and not look back. But her heart wasn’t worried about making sense when it skipped a beat at the thought of him searching for food she hadn’t set out.
    Lynn held back a branch and waited a tick for Lucy to pass, but Lucy wasn’t paying attention, and it snapped back in her face, knocking her to the ground.
    Lynn turned at the sound. “What’re you doing?”
    “Sorry,” Lucy said, embarrassed to have been caught daydreaming. “Wasn’t paying attention.”
    “Might want to start.”
    Lynn gave Lucy a hand and pulled her to her feet, and they broke through the trees together to the edge of the lake. Lucy’s breath caught in her chest at the sight. She could see the other bank but had to squint to make out details across the expanse of water, alive with ripples from fish teeming under the surface.
    Lynn was fixated as well, so Lucy dropped to her knees and scooped a handful of water into her mouth before Lynn could stop her.
    “I win,” Lucy said, through a mouthful of water.
    “Not if you get sick, you don’t.” Lynn regarded her coolly. “How’s it taste?”
    “Wet,” Lucy answered, her tongue curling around the answer as she sucked up stray drops that ran from the side of her mouth. It was cooler than the water from their pond at home and left an aftertaste of wildness. Lucy watched as fish reappeared at the bank after having darted into the shadows at their approach.
    “They don’t seem bothered by it,” she said. “The water can’t be all that bad.”
    “Maybe not.” Lynn watched her critically. She put a hand to her eyes to block the sun and regarded the far shore. “It’ll be a trek, but I say we walk the whole perimeter, see if anyone has tried to set up permanent.”
    Lucy scooped another mouthful of lake water, fascinated by the taste. “You don’t think we’ll find anybody, do you?”
    “Doubt it,” Lynn said brusquely. “It’s too perfect, too nice here for someone not to have set up already. Assuming you don’t get sick from the water, I’d guess there’s someone watching, somewhere, making sure nobody gets too comfortable.”
    They started off around the lake, retreating back into the cover of the woods to higher ground, where any permanent residents would have built their homes. Lynn kept a wary eye on Lucy, but she felt fine. The water sloshed pleasantly in her stomach, and she kept glancing through the trees at the glittering face of the lake, knowing something so valuable would not go unprotected in their world.
    They found no one. The fires from the night before had been extinguished and stamped out, the burnt edges of the scattered sticks standing out in stark contrast to the green of the forest floor. Both camps looked as if they’d left in a hurry.
    “They get tossed out, you think?” Lucy asked, when they stopped to rest opposite from the shore they started from.
    “Looks that way. Their fires were kicked around. I’m guessing they outstayed their welcome. But there’s no signs of a struggle. They were told to leave, not made to.”
    “So what do you wanna do?”
    Lynn was quiet for a minute as she watched some fish break the surface of the lake, hungry mouths grabbing for bugs. “I want to catch some fish, cook them over a fire, have a hot meal tonight. And then we’ll move on.”
    “Fish sounds good,” Lucy said.
    “Slide on down to the bank with me then. We’ll see what we can do.”
    They’d caught fish with their bare hands before. It was a skill that required stillness, something both of them had mastered with the rifle long before they’d applied it to fishing. Within