Free Broken World by Kate L. Mary Page A

smiles. “My mother
would die—” Her hand goes to her mouth and she lets out a little sob.
    My heart aches. I don’t know what it’s
like having a family you actually love, but it must be horrible to lose
something like that. I want to tell her to remember the good times, to be
thankful she got to experience it. Not all of us do. But something like that
wouldn’t make sense to her. Not now, maybe not ever.
    “I’m sorry about your parents,” I
whisper.
    She wipes the tears from her face. “Me
too. I just hope it wasn’t too bad.”
    “Are you still going home? Maybe you
could go with Trey. His family seems to be healthy still.”
    She looks up at me. Her eyes are huge in
this light. “What about you? Is your family sick?”
    “I don’t have any family. Not really.”
    Her eyes grow bigger. “How did you get
papers?”
    I tense, and I look toward the fire. I
should tell her, I know about her parents. “I do have a father, in California.
Hell, maybe I have a mother too. Who knows? Either way, I’m not going to see them.
I just used them as an excuse. I’m going to see my daughter. I gave her up for
adoption four years ago and I just…I just couldn’t let the world end without
seeing her. That’s all.”
    “Do her adoptive parents know you’re
coming?”
    “I guess. I put a letter in the mail the
day before I left. I didn’t have a phone number for them, so I couldn’t call.
No email. So, as long as the postal service is still running they’ll know. If
not, then I guess I’ll be a surprise.”
    Footsteps echo through the dark night. I
turn. Axl and Angus are back.
    “Where’s everybody?” Angus asks,
flopping down in one of the camp chairs.
    “Talking to their families,” I say.
    Axl tosses something on the ground in
front of the fire. “Came ‘cross this mother on our way back. We got a few
squirrels too, but this guy’ll taste real good.”
    It takes me a moment to figure out what
it is, and when I do even I turn up my nose. “An opossum?”
    “Gross,” Parvarti says.
    “Sorry, your highness,” Angus says.
“We’re fresh outta filet.”
    “It’ll be fine.” I’m trying to reassure
myself as much as Parvarti. Opossums remind me of giant rats. Not exactly
appetizing.
    She starts to calm down until Axl takes
out his knife to skin the animal. At the first sight of blood she’s on her
feet, heading off into the darkness. Probably in search of Trey.
    I turn away, and my eyes land on Angus.
He’s fooling with his gun. It’s the first time he hasn’t had a soda can in his
hand since he picked me up. “You run out of dip, Angus?”
    He glares across the fire. “What’s it to
you?”
    Axl chuckles. “Don’t get him started.
He’s been bitchin’ ‘bout it all night.”
    “Better to get yourself off the stuff
now,” I say. “Where are you going to get dip when the world ends?”
    “There’ll be lots of it. No one’s gonna
raid the gas station lookin’ for dip. They’ve got more important things to look
for. Things we’ve already got.”
    He has a good point, but I won’t give
him the satisfaction.
    Joshua walks up and falls into the chair
next to me.
    “How’s your family?”
    “Not good.” He shakes his head. “My mom
and brother are sick. So far Dad doesn’t have any symptoms, though. Hopefully
he’s at least immune.”
    “I’m sorry, Joshua.” I pat his arm.
    He looks like a giant kid in that chair.
All slumped over with his gangly legs stretched out in front of him. If only
there was something I could say to make him feel better.
    “Sorry, man,” Axl says, standing up.
    He’s finished skinning the poor animals
and has the spit securely through their bodies. He sets it over the fire and
adds a few more pieces of wood, no doubt trying to get the flame a little
higher. His hands are covered in blood.
    “You’re good at this,” I say, staring at
his hands.
    He tries to wipe them off on an old
shirt, but it doesn’t exactly do the trick.
    I grab a bottle