“Yeah, I thought you might go into a coma there for a while,” Daniels said. “But your fever broke this morning, and your color’s returned. I think you might actually live.”

“Thanks.” I took the plate from him, and using the fork he handed me, I tentatively started to pick at the food.

“Remy, why did you wait so long to tell me about that?” Daniels asked. “That would’ve been a simple infection with a quick fix if you hadn’t waited so long.”

“I don’t know.” I ate a mouthful of tuna, even though my appetite hadn’t returned, but I knew I had to eat. “I was mad at you.”

“You were mad at me?” He sighed. “So your plan to punish me was to kill yourself?”

“No, I didn’t think it would get that bad.” I shook my head. “I don’t know. I didn’t want to bother anybody.”

Daniels looked at me seriously. “You have to stop that, Remy. We need you, but you need us, too. You can’t keep going like you’re going to save the world all by yourself, because you’re not, Remy. You just can’t.”

I gulped down the food and nodded. “I’ll try and do better.”

“You have no choice now. I’m going to be checking that all time until I’m certain it’s healed up okay.” He pointed to my abdomen.

“Is everybody mad that I held us up for so long?” I asked.

“No, there’s been a snowstorm,” Daniels said. “We probably wouldn’t have gone even if you were feeling okay. Plus, Serg needed the rest, too.”

“How is he?” I asked.

“Fine. Better than you, actually.”

“Have there been any zombies?” I asked.

“Nope. The snowstorm seems to have kept them at bay.” Daniels smiled at me. “Do you see that, Remy? You were out of commission for a few days, and the world didn’t end.”

27.

It was another day before I was up moving around more like normal. It was weird when I finally got to explore the house and see how the boys had set it up like a home.

I had my own room, what I’m presumed used to be a little boy’s room. Boden shared the master room with Max and Stella. Daniels and Serg shared a small pink bedroom, but it only had one twin bed, so they took turns sleeping on it and the floor. Clark slept downstairs on the couch, and when I asked Daniels about him, he just shook his head and wouldn’t elaborate.

It had stopped snowing, and it appeared to be warming up. The several inches of snow were melting. When I stared out the window, the icicles were constantly dripping water, almost like it was raining.

“When are we going to leave?” I asked.

“Um … one more day,” Boden replied.

I turned away from the window to face him. They’d found a deck of cards, and Boden, Clark, Serg, and Max were sitting around a battered table playing poker. They were using pennies from a huge jar they’d found in the girl’s bedroom.

“One day should be fine,” Clark said, and there was an authoritative undercurrent to it.

Boden sat up straighter after Clark spoke, and it occurred to me that Clark was his boss. Boden believed in the army and the order of it, so that meant that in Boden’s eyes, Clark was in charge now.

“Are you sure we should wait that long?” I asked, and Boden glanced over at Clark instead of answering me.

“One more day should be fine.” Clark smiled at me, but there was something condescending about it. “There’s some scotch in the kitchen. Will you be a sweetheart and get me a glass?”

“Really?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Boden bit his lip and looked over at me, his eyes wide. He was actually pleading with me not to say anything, so I sighed and decided to just go with it.

“Fine,” I said. “Does anybody else want a glass?”

“I’ll take one,” Serg said cautiously, as if he was afraid I would snap at him.

I went to the kitchen and poured two glasses of scotch. We’d really lucked out with this house. It didn’t have anything in the way of food, other than a few bottles of alcohol, but it was otherwise untouched by marauders or zombies.

Almost all the furniture was still here and in good shape. It even had a fireplace and a wood-burning stove, so we could stay warm and actually cook our food. Plus, with the snow outside, we could collect the snow from outside, and boil it down to fresh, pure water.

It was a nice setup, and it would be a shame to leave. But we were still too far south. It was early spring, so there was snow now, but it was already warming up and melting. If the cold really did work to keep the zombies away, it wouldn’t be cold enough for much longer to do that.

“Two glasses of scotch,” I said when I walked back into the dining room. I set the scotch down in front of Serg and Clark. Serg politely said thanks, but Clark reacted differently.

“Thank you, sweetheart.” Clark put his hand on my waist and tried to rub or grope me or something, but I stepped quickly away from.

“Sir, it’s your turn,” Boden said sharply, trying to draw Clark’s attention back to him.

Since Clark was acting gross, I went to see what Daniels and Stella were up to. I found them in the pink room, playing dress-up with what the little girl had left behind. Stella’s teddy bear was in a pretty new frock, and Daniels was wearing a sparkly veil. Stella thought that was hilarious, and she kept giggling at him.

“Hey, guys,” I said, leaning on the doorframe and smiling despite myself.

“Hi.” Daniels grinned at me, without any hint of shame at wearing a little girl’s tiara. “We’re playing pretty princess. Care to join us?”

“No, I think I’ll just watch.” I came in the room and sat down on the bed behind them.

“Here!” Stella handed Daniels a necklace covered in giant plastic jewels. “Put this on.”

“Anything you say, Princess.” He dropped it over his neck, and that only made her laugh harder.

“See, Remy.” She pointed at him and turned to look at me. “He’s a pretty princess!”

“Yes, he’s very pretty indeed,” I said, and Daniels laughed at that. “But you look even prettier. What do you have on there?”

Stella stood up and twirled around so she could show me. It was a pink costume, the kind little girl’s got from the Disney Store to play dress-up in. She’d put it on over her sweater and pants since it was rather cold upstairs.