Free The Land of the Shadow by Lissa Bryan Page A

like on the outside?”
    “All too well.”
    Pearl gave them a somewhat skeptical look.
    “We were on the road for almost a year before we came here.” Carly took a deep breath. “We realize our security isn’t perfect, but we’re doing what we can with what we have. We are trying to prepare for the worst, while hoping for the best.”
    Justin grinned at her. “ You’re hoping for the best. Optimism is your job. I’m the heavily armed pessimist.”
    Pearl laughed. Justin gave a little smile and shrugged.
    Carly sat back in her chair. “He was probably better prepared to deal with this crazy new world than most. In the army, he saw what happens when social order breaks down.”
    Pearl gave him a questioning look. Carly saw his jaw muscles tense a little. He didn’t try to hide his background, but he didn’t like to talk about it, either.
    “She’s right. I’ve seen the worst of it. Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, and a few other places I don’t care to mention right now. I’ve seen what happens when things fall apart. So, yeah, I admit to being a little bit of a cynic when it comes to human nature.”
    Carly gave a significant glance at the handguns strapped to Pearl’s hips. “I think you’ve found another.”
    Justin put an arm around his wife’s shoulders. “I told you she would be a perfect addition to our community.”
    Truthfully, he’d never said anything of the type, but she’d known he was thinking it. Carly pushed her chair back. “Pearl, if you’re going to stay—at least for a while until you see if it’s what you’re looking for—I’ll take you to a house you can use.”
    Pearl opened her mouth to say something and Carly held up a hand. “Just for tonight. You don’t have to decide right now if you’re going to stay or not.”
    Pearl hesitated just a moment but nodded.
    They stepped through the screen door out into the warm, humid night. Sam followed, his nails clicking on the sidewalk. His ears were erect, swiveling as he scanned the darkness for threats. Carly patted him to try to reassure him, but Sam was as paranoid as Justin these days.
    “Let me ask you something,” Pearl said. “Why do you want me to stay? I’m sure you don’t have a shortage of people asking to come in.”
    Carly fell into an easy pace beside her. “We need good people. We don’t need dependents. We need the dependable. We’re trying to choose stones.”
    Pearl raised a brow. “Stones?”
    “To build a foundation.” Carly looked up at the stars, peeping between the gathering cloud cover. “We want this community to last, so we need to choose good people to be the basis of it.”
    Pearl smacked her arm and swore.
    “I’ve got some mosquito repellant,” Carly said. She pulled a small spray bottle out of her pocket. “I spray our mosquito netting every night to try to keep them away.”
    Pearl sprayed it on, the scent of the tea tree oil sharp in the humid night air. “I heard that Mrs. Marson lady say that alligator fat was once used by the Native Americans in this region to repel mosquitos.”
    Carly wrinkled her nose. “And every other living thing. Ugh.”
    Pearl scratched her arm. “I think I’d rather stink than get eaten alive. This doesn’t smell too bad, though.”
    “A bunch of essential oils mixed together,” Carly said. “We’re going to have to learn how to distill those out of the plants.” She sighed. So many things they needed to learn how to make and do before the manufactured stuff ran out. It was a deadline that always loomed large in her mind. Books only went so far, and Miz Marson’s knowledge sometimes had gaps they had no choice but to fill with experimentation.
    At the end of the block was a small bungalow house. It had been empty before Carly’s group arrived in Colby, so they hadn’t needed to clear it of victims after the Infection they’d brought with them swept through town. Carly shoved away those terrible memories and reached into the rectangular metal