Chapter Twenty-Three

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Content warning: sexual/physical assault mentions, PTSD trauma

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With each day that passed, the awkwardness and tension lifted. Though Jeremy remained cold toward May, she found herself warming up to the other members of WIND.

According to Priva, it would take three more days for the group to arrive at a small town called Luxton where they would be able to take a brief rest and resupply. The town was a stop along a train route that would take them to their next destination; the city of York.

"You're amazing with these maps," May remarked as she hunched beside Priva, watching her trace the path they would follow with the tip of her finger.

"I'd better be," Priva laughed. "Cartography is in my blood."

"How so?"

Priva pointed to a signature in the bottom corner of the map. It didn't register as anything familiar to May, but Priva was clearly proud of it.

"My great granddaddy drew this map himself when he explored this range as a young man," she explained. "People think we've found all that's worth seeing in this world. But there are still so many remote places waiting to be understood. I even like to map out the places I've been, just in case I've seen something other explorers have missed."

"That's incredible!" May was so enthralled that she listened to Priva explain the finer points of cartography and tell stories about her great-grandfather for half a day out on the trail, hanging on every word.

After dinner the following evening, May was helping Rue clean up when she noticed the far off look in her eyes as she gazed into the dying fire.

"How are you holding up?" May asked kindly.

Rue started slightly. "I'm sorry. I was just..."

"Thinking of Gaten?"

There was a heartbeat of silence. "Yes."

"I can't even begin to imagine how you're feeling," May said. "I have a nephew back home and I love him like crazy. Don't tell Em this, but when we first went into hiding I would wait for her to fall asleep and then I would cry because I missed him so much."

"Oh, May." Rue pressed a hand to her heart. "That's awful. I'm so sorry."

"No, don't be!" May balked. "I only bring it up because I thought that was bad. I was a mess over it. And yet here you are, going what you're going through, and you're being so brave about it. Gaten is going to be so proud of you."

Eyes glistening, Rue still managed to smile. "That's a very sweet thing to say, May. Thank you."

They worked for a couple more moments in a silence that was lighter than a moment earlier.

"So, you like kids then?" Rue asked, unexpectedly continuing the conversation.

May grinned. "Yeah. I mean, I spent a lot of time looking after my nephew and he just... I don't know. I guess kids just have a way of giving you a whole new perspective on things."

"They sure do," Rue agreed, laughing.

The more May got to know these people, the better she felt about the dangerous journey they were on together.

She also felt like she was getting a better sense of who Audrey might have been. The person Em had once been often felt like a ghost to May, haunting just out of her line of sight. But the more she learned about the people Audrey had known and loved, the more that spectre seemed to take shape. While Jeremy's thorny disposition had left May wondering what kind of person could love someone so perpetually hostile, the others gave Audrey more dimension. May could imagine being friends with these people. She could imagine Em being friends with them too, and although May recognized that she still had virtually nothing other than a notion to go on, she couldn't help but wonder if Em and Audrey were quite as different as her lover insisted they were.

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