few steps behind me.
“I think it should be safe enough to head back to my house now.”
We left Uan’s and walked side by side down the street. The long stares our companionable stroll drew from the meandering fey had me shaking my head. By the end of the day, Thallirin would be inundated with questions about how he’d changed my mind.
It took a few minutes to reach home since I wasn’t in any rush. And when we got there, I rang the doorbell instead of just letting myself in. Uan answered the door almost immediately.
“Hey, Uan,” I said. “Zach back yet?”
“Yes,” he said, moving aside so we could enter.
I put away my things and went to the kitchen. My eyes widened at the sight of the boxes spread all over the place. Mom and Zach were sorting through all the food the boxes contained.
“I take it today went well,” I said, looking at Zach.
“For me. Do you know you have a shadow?”
I glanced at Thallirin, who stood back, watching us.
“Yeah. Mom, this is Thallirin. Thallirin, this is my mom, Nancy. I hope it’s okay I invited him to dinner.”
“Of course,” Mom said, studying me. “Is that why you rang the doorbell?”
I slowly shook my head.
“As you probably already know, I didn’t go on the supply run today.”
“Oh.” I could see by her face that she knew exactly what had happened and why I’d used the doorbell.
“I’m sorry about that, sweetie. Had I known...”
I waved my hand at her.
“Don’t worry about it. Thallirin and I hung out at Uan’s and watched some movies. It was good.”
She smiled and glanced at Thallirin again.
“We’re having roast tonight. I think you’ll like it.” She looked at Zach. “Let’s put all of this in the living room for now. I’m not sure what we’ll do with a case of adult diapers, but maybe someone can use them.”
“Adult diapers?” I asked, looking at Zach.
“There was so much stuff that Uan and I just some grabbed boxes and came home.”
“Where did you go?” I went to the cupboard for dishes while Uan, Zach, and Thallirin began to move boxes.
“Harrisonville again. There was a distribution center south of town, way off the highway. A fey spotted it last night, but Ryan figured there would be too many infected. However, given the trap they set for us in town, he decided we should try it. There were only a handful of infected in the place. Slower ones. There was so much stuff we filled the supply trucks in less than an hour. One of the guys from Tenacity knew how to drive a semi-truck. So, we filled up the trailer of one by the loading dock and brought back as much as we could.”
Mom set the table, and I brought over the food. When the guys were finished moving everything to the living room, they joined us.
“And get this,” Zach said, taking the lid off the slow cooker to fork himself a hunk of roast. “Matt would only take thirty percent from what we fit in the three trucks we borrowed.” He passed the meat fork to Uan. “Granted, we crammed as many of us as we could in the cab of every vehicle in order to pack supplies in the truck the humans rode in, but still. A full semi-trailer’s worth of supplies came here. There wasn’t enough room on the shelves of the supply shed for everything we brought back.”
“That’s great,” I said, helping myself to some carrots and potatoes. “About the supplies, not about Matt. Why did he refuse more?”
“I think he’s keeping to the rules so people know not to expect handouts instead of working.”
It made sense.
I took a bite, enjoying the vegetables. I’d eaten too many cheese curls.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I ate some of your food today, Uan,” I said after swallowing. “I didn’t want to come back and bug you guys.”
“You are welcome to any food I have,” he said. “It will be my turn to go on supply runs soon, and I will bring more.” He glanced at Mom. “In a few days.”
She blushed, and Zach and I shared a look.
“So, Thallirin and I heard the plane fly overhead today,” I said, changing the subject.
“We did, too,” Mom said.
“Oh, yeah. Matt said they spotted some signs of survivors to the southeast,” Zach said. “They want a group to go out tomorrow to look for them instead of going on a supply run.”
One day without me, and Zach had all