“Rich, Bug should be back by now...”

  “I know, kid.” he pauses looking into the woods Bug wandered into.

  “I know.”

  Rich turns his back and starts the walk back to the railway.

  There's only one way in and out of this place,

  me and Rich learned that a long time ago.

  Bug might be learning that lesson right about now.

  We made our way back to the train, or the train tracks.

  No platform, no solace, as much as we needed to help Bug we needed the medicine more.

  If only I'd been there.

  I begin to taste copper as a grit my teeth. I don't wait, we're wasting time here. I should be chasing them, going to the camp to find out where they are right now.

  But we know we already know. The railway is the only place anyone can go.

  Well wait for them here, for Bug, for the Morrowmen, for the Shrouded.

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  Laura made it clear that they needed the Medkits as well which means they'll be here.

  We just need to grab one…

  And find Bug. Bug still has time, us, not so much.

  “Rich, what are we doing?”

  "We are surviving. We'll head to the end of the train, with the newer recruits they won't recognize us, or we might get lucky with it being empty again.”

  “And if we aren't lucky?” Rich pauses taking in a slow breath.

  “The man that came off the train, his name's Jay. He was a morrowman like us, he was left to a painful and slow death. Any who disobey will end up like him. We got out while we could, you're alive.

  We're alive.

  And Jay has our answers, he's been working to stop them, we need him alive.”

  “You're crazy! The mother isn't our problem anymore whether the Morrowmen succeed or not. We're all going to die anyway.”

  “True, we can't win a war against nature. But… the morrowman are planning something. Something big.”

  “Why didn't we just send the others?”

  “He needed a medic, a proper medic. It wasn't an option.” the train whistle sounds as the ground rumbles with the drums of its arrival.

  “And what about Bug, ‘We couldn't have known that either.’” Rich doesn't respond. I think I hate that more than any excuse he could have come up with. We make our way behind some of the others, the ones with plane masks, the ones who haven't earned their marks yet. The ones that haven't cut the mother deep enough to hit anything but flesh. Rich addresses one of the younger ones on their own, and demands his kit. Which he hands over without a second thought. I look up to Rich again, I can't see anything but his eyes but even if there was anything to see I couldn't tell you what it meant.

  We got off at the next stop and got back into the car.

  Just like the two of us had done a thousand times, before all this.

  I miss going to the market.