pulsing in her head, as though her skull were full of sand, arid as their farm had become last summer after the crops had wilted to the ground. Her heartbeat throbbed the fleshy mass of her tongue. “Ma went away,” she said. She hesitated, but Sammy’s understanding little nod, coupled with that constant smile, teased the rest out of her. “Daddy’s sick.”
“So you are all alone? All the way out here?”
Billy nodded.
Both women uttered maternal groans and crept forth a little farther. Billy braced against the dripping moss lining the wall behind her. “I’m not supposed to talk to strangers,” she said finally.
Sammy nodded with furrowed brows. “Clever girl. A good head you have there. But you’re not well, honey, so come on over here and we’ll get you a cool drink and something to eat.”
Billy remained still, but her stomach betrayed her, bellowing explosively and folding in on itself at the thought of food. Sammy and Jerry glanced at one another and giggled. “Now if that isn’t nature calling, I don’t know what is,” Sammy said.
“Nature, calling,” Jerry said. Her voice was little more than a sigh, a little too high-pitched for comfort. “Come on, girl, we have all sorts to eat. Once you’re fed and watered, there’ll be time for shyness. Right now, I don’t like all that white in your cheeks. Little peaches like you should be full of blush.”
“Oh yes,” Sammy said. “I agree. Come on, now. Let’s get you plumped up.”
Billy shook her head. She had craved the opportunity to talk to anyone from New Land since Daddy had gotten sick—anyone who could help her. She had rehearsed begging them to return to the cabin for her, and saved her Ma’s pendant—the last thing they had left of her—to trade for medicine. Knowing that there were still other people who hadn’t been burned to a cinder should have been a godsend. Even to be offered food instead of scrounging around in the dirt was something that would have sent her imagination into fits of joy not long ago.
They had rescued her from the forest. She would have died in there if they hadn’t come along. There was no doubting it.
But there was something wrong with them. The greenery clinging to their clothes seemed suffused into their skin. It was almost as though they really were made of moss, had grown out of the mud and grime that coated them.
“I can’t stay,” she said. “I have to go.”
“You’re not fit to take another step, sweet pea,” Sammy said.
Billy’s grip on the knife was now so hard her fingers ached.
“You’re not thinking straight,” Jerry said. “Just come on with us and get a bite.”
“No, I—”
“Don’t be rude, dear!” Sammy hissed, lurching forward and seizing Billy’s wrist. The motherly note to her expression had vanished. She looked Billy up and down critically. “Come on with us, now. There’s a good girl. We had the good graces you haul you out of the woods. God knows what would have happened to you in there. Now come get some food. You’re going to need your strength.”
Jerry’s face had morphed in much the same way. “And plenty of it.”
“No, I have to go. Daddy needs me!” Billy cried.
Suddenly their faces were dark with shadows that hadn’t been there a moment before. Sammy’s face shot down from above, snaggle-toothed and snarling. “Your daddy isn’t here now, is he? We’re here. And it’s only fair you pay a fair price for the kindness we showed you.”
Jerry snuffled with piggy laughter and lashed out with a plastic-clad foot, kicking Billy sharply across the back of her thighs.
Billy cried out and tried to wrench free, but she was weak. They hauled her into the middle of the room. “Please, just let me go!”
Sammy wasn’t listening. “I’ve been looking forward to this for far too bloody long.” She licked her lips, running her calloused thumb over Billy’s arm. “But looks like it was worth the wait. Oh, she’s firm.”
Jerry crooned, stepping around behind Billy, out of sight.
“See, we made quite the killing out of that unfortunate famine,” Sammy jeered. “Quite the killing. Before the End, when I was a nipper, people used to laugh at my line of work. They called me quack, hack, fraud—a witch!” Her face contorted into a snarl. “Usually fancy doctors in the pockets of the big pharmaceutical companies.”
What are they talking about? Why is she holding on so tight?
Her wrist throbbed with fresh bruises. Jerry’s ragged breath closed in behind, only