Thomas's Arc

Chapter 1 of 4

Thomas kept the fire small tonight. He fed it twigs, not logs, and watched the smoke thin to nothing before it cleared the ring of stones. Four sleeping bags circled the pit. Emmy sat on the red one, knees pulled up, chewing a strip of jerky like it owed her something. The Vael had found his last camp because he built a fire too big on a cold night. Two people died. One was taken. He would not do it again. But he could not keep Emmy walking forever either, and that was the problem eating him tonight. "We can't run forever," Thomas said. The man across the fire, thin, older, shook his head before Thomas finished. "We run, we live," the man said. "We stop, they find us." The woman beside him agreed. She said every camp that stayed put got hit. Thomas set his hands on his knees. "Emmy's shoes are through. She sleeps two hours a night. You want to tell me she walks another month?" He said they needed walls. A place with one way in. Somewhere they could see the Vael coming and hurt them when they did. The thin man laughed, short and mean. "You said that last time too?" Thomas felt the heat rise in his face. He did not answer. Emmy watched him across the coals. She did not look away. The woman cut in and said they were tired and shouting would carry farther than smoke. That ended it. Nobody agreed. Nobody moved. One by one they crawled into their bags. Thomas kicked sand over the fire until only a red eye remained, then buried that too. He sat by Emmy while she pulled the bag to her chin. "Were you at the other camp," she said. Not a question, the way she said it. He worked at a knot in the drawstring near her throat. "Sleep," he said. She watched him a moment longer. "I'm going to know eventually," she said, and closed her eyes. Thomas stayed sitting. He listened to the others breathe and to the wind moving over the sand. He had decided, sometime between the shouting and the silence, that he was done running. In the morning he would tell them. If they would not come, he would take Emmy and go alone, and find a place with walls.