Ivy puts down her half-eaten food and gives me a look that I’ve almost certainly seen her give me before, but still have no idea what it means.

  Ivy tilts her head towards me but keeps her eyes on mine, as if she’s waiting for me to say something.

  “What?” I ask.

  “Don’t leave me in the dark.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Am I in trouble? Or is she asking what happened with Cassie st night?

  “You and Cassie, spill it.”

  “She couldn’t sleep, and she came here because she knew I’d be up.” I answer just how Cassie asked me to.

  “Ok, sure.” She waves my expnation off. “But come on, what happened after she came over?”

  “I don’t think I should say anything without asking first. I don’t want Cassie to get mad.”

  “So something did happen?” Her eyebrows raise a fraction of an inch. “You might as well just share now, I’ll find out eventually.”

  “If Cassie wants to tell you, she can, but I’m not going to risk giving out information she might not want me to.”

  “You’re so bad at gossiping.” Ivy picks her food back up and continues eating. “I’m sure she’ll appreciate that though.”

  “Sorry?” I’m not sure how she expects me to gossip. I only ever talk to her, Vince, Cassie, Lucas, and of course Corax. I’m not giving away any of their secrets under any circumstances.

  “It’s fine. I’d be concerned that virus fried your brain if you actually told me anything.” She says with a knowing smile.

  Was this whole thing a test? I guess that would make sense, if the worm took over my body, it’s a decent way to test if it’s actually me talking or not. Although, I’m sure she’d notice a difference at the first possible moment she saw me. Or maybe she has already noticed a difference since my mind is so burned out, and she’s doing this test because of that?

  Maybe that’s why Vince asked Cassie for help, instead of Ivy. No, that’s probably not right, Vince probably just doesn’t want her to further ruin her hair.

  The thoughts slowly fill my mind until I’m forced to kill them. I don’t have the free threads or space to come up with a definitive answer right now.

  “Sorry about your hair.” I change the subject so I don’t have to think anymore. Her hair, although better from her working on it, still has a few tangles and scattered grains of sand stuck in it.

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “I know, I just know how important hair is.”

  “How about you help me with it then?” She offers, but doesn’t start to move over to me.

  “My eyes don’t have enough resolution to untangle hair, and I’m not sure my fingers are accurate enough either. You should just take care of it, I’ll just end up pulling out hairs.” No matter how much I try to hide it, some longing still makes its way into my voice.

  “You’ll be fine.” Ivy stands up, pcing her empty jar next to her, and sits directly in front of me and pulls out a small brush, holding it in her open palm for me. “Just start at the end, and slowly work your way up.”

  “Ok, I’ll try.”

  I carefully run the brush through as little of her silky bck hair as possible. Once I’ve brushed a single centimeter of her hair, I move up to a second centimeter.

  “You don’t have to be that careful.” Ivy ughs. “We’re going to be here all day, just go a few inches at a time.”

  “Ok, sorry.” Following her instructions things go a little faster. Right up until the brush meets literally any resistance that is. “I think it’s stuck on something.”

  “Just pull the brush through with gentle, but firm pressure.” She instructs me.

  The brush makes it through the tangle, but not without pulling a few hairs with it.

  “I’m sorry Ivy!”

  She turns around and takes in both me and the brush in an instant.

  “I didn’t feel you pull anything out, you’re fine.” She reassures me. “Hairs just fall out naturally over time. Besides, I have plenty more to spare.” She turns back around and waits for me to continue.

  Right, humans grow and lose hair all the time. I knew that, I just don’t have my hard drives accessible to make sure. I’m ok. I’m not doing anything wrong. Ivy would stop me if I did.

  “Ok, but make sure you tell me if I do pull some out.” I say with as much seriousness as I can muster.

  “I will.” She ughs again and I get back to work.

  Her hair magically transforms from a slightly tangled mess to the perfect ideal of healthy hair with every stroke of the brush. I’m almost done when the door once again opens, welcoming Cassie, Vince, and yet more sand into the room.

  Cassie is yelling something over the sound of the storm that gets lost, but I can understand Vince’s reply once they close the door.

  “Nobody here is going to be looking to take in more refugees.” He says calmly.

  “Nowhere else is going to want two injured adults, a baby, and a single healthy guy either!”

  “Charles’ cerations are healing, he’ll be able to work before too long. And pces always need people to take care of kids.”

  “And what if we don’t find somewhere to drop them off?” Cassie takes a seat against the wall, and Vince sits next to her. “They’re better off taking their chances here than following us into god knows where.”

  “Eight’s maps have three ravine towns between here and Mara’s that aren’t too much of a detour. It’ll turn our forty-hour drive into forty-five. Plus we’ll have to stop to recharge the battery anyway, and we can do that when we stop at a town. We can drop them off and still reach Mara before the next storm.”

  “Why does that matter?” I ask, interrupting their conversation. “If storms hit every few days, wouldn't it be safer to spend a night at one of the ravines on the way anyway?”

  “I’m hoping to get to Mara’s before word of us coming for her does.” Vince expins. “Either Eight or Two almost certainly sent a letter to her, and beating that makes our lives much safer.”

  “Another good reason we should just dump them on one of the vilges here!” Cassie yells.

  “We can’t leave these people somewhere they’re not going to be safe.” Vince puts his hand gently on Cassie’s shoulder. “You heard what they said, resources are going to be stretched beyond the breaking point, and they’re not going to be the ones who get fed.”

  “Well in that case, let’s just load up a big truck full of them and bring them with us since we apparently can’t leave anyone behind!”

  “Whether we leave them here, or bring them along, it should be a group decision.” Vince says.

  “Sure, go ahead and tell me I’m wrong. You and Ivy never disagree, Blue’s going to vote with you, and Corax is just going to say whatever Blue says. The vote’s already fucked.”

  “Cassie right.” Corax speaks up before anyone else can.

  “Great, gd to see even he knows.”

  “No, that was his vote.” I expin for him.

  Cassie can’t hide her surprise.

  “I’m with Vince.” Ivy says.

  Fuck. Cassie’s eyes look to me, silently asking for me to agree, begging me to break the tie on her side.

  My immediate reaction is to say we should drop them off somewhere safer, even at the expense of making our lives harder. But is this what Cassie was talking about? Am I jumping out in front of a bullet again to save these people I’ve never even talked to? Or is trusting them to manage, even if it is more dangerous, trusting in their abilities? I don’t know.

  A more important thing to think about is what happens if they stay. We’d almost definitely be leaving them to die. Could I live with that? Or would they join the scientists in my hallucinations?

  Should I just trust Corax? That’s the safest thing to do. I look down to the bird in his nest, and he only stares back, waiting for me to reach my own conclusion. Ok. If he made this decision based on a feeling, he would tell me. He’s just choosing what he thinks best, not guided by anything.

  “I don’t think I could live with myself if we left them to die.”

  “Great.” Cassie closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “Fine. We’ll drag them along then. But I want them gone as soon as possible.”

  “We all do.” Vince reassures her. “We’ll leave them behind as soon as we find a safe pce. For now though, how about we py some cards to get our minds off things?”

  “I’ll try, but if it slows down my healing too much I’ll have to sit out.”

  “That’s fine Little Blue.”

  Cassie grabs some beers for everyone from the car and we end up pying poker for the rest of the day. Corax is a monster at it, with a poker face impenetrable to even Ivy. Or he would be, if I wasn’t pying. His eyes betray every hand he looks at, and me knowing how he’s feeling apparently means that everyone can read me and figure out what he has. I can’t help but get excited when he’s doing well, is that so bad?

  I, for the most part, give up on reading everyone else and py the game straight. Bet when I have a good hand, fold when I don’t, all dictated by a tiny little odds-calcuting program I wove into my mind. I did set it to bluff at random times though, and that caught them by surprise once or twice. That leaves me free to work on repairs while still enjoying hanging out with everyone.

  The fun can’t st forever though. Vince has to step away every dozen hands or so to check on the others, and the ever ticking clock demands he turns in for bed eventually.

  “Alright, that’s it for me.” Vince stands up, a little unsteady on his feet from how much alcohol he drank.

  “I guess I should too.” Ivy tries to start picking up the chips, but Cassie interrupts her.

  “I can clean up, you two get to sleep.”

  “Alright.” Ivy gives her that same, incomprehensible look, which Cassie either doesn’t see or ignores.

  The second Ivy and Vince disappear into the storm Cassie begins to talk without taking her eyes off the cards and chips in front of her.

  “I’m not mad at you.” She says. “Or well, I am, but I get it. I don’t bme you.”

  She must be talking about the vote earlier today.

  “Sorry if I’m jumping in front of another bullet.” I gather the few remaining cards and hand them to her.

  “You are, but it’s fine. I get it.” She still won’t look up at me. She finishes packing up the cards and chips, and tucks them into her backpack before climbing into her sleeping bag. “I’m going to sleep.”

  “Alright.” I grab the book I was reading for her and begin once again. She’d hate for me to ask if she wants this, it’s much easier to just do it.

  The next two days are simirly rexing. Everyone comes into my room for food, and we end up pying a few games to waste the day together.

  My mind makes a lot of progress on repairing itself. Every day is substantially easier than the st, and the stronger my mind gets, the faster the repairs go.

  On our third night here, the ever present whistling begins to die down. Despite that, I keep reading to Cassie throughout the night, she needs a few hours of truly rexing sleep.

  Around the time the sun should be rising, a quiet knock appears at the door, but even that’s loud enough to wake Cassie. Vince pokes his head inside.

  “Morning you three, storm’s just about passed, time to go.”

  JanePtinum