Page 3 of Hollow Child

I spent too many hours reading theLittle Houseseries,Anne of Green Gables, andWind in the Willowsthat had belonged to Avalyn’s mother, Erin, back from before she was a Tremblay, and still wrote her name in big blocky letters. But my favorite wasBoxcar Children. I liked to read it over and over again, under the weeping willow watching the clearwater of Tremblay Lake.

On particularly hot days, Ripley loved to swim around in the lake, but it was still early spring, so the water was too cold. The lion wasn’t here anyway. She was gone with Remy on their hunting trips where they visited an old friend. It was nice, because she always came back in a good mood with tasty preserves and cheeses we didn’t have here.

Max and Boden were out fishing, where the rainbow trout(Oncorhynchus mykiss)and kokanee(Oncorhynchus nerka)were plentiful and fat. They often brought in trout weighing ten pounds, and Boden claimed there were giant white sturgeons(Acipenser transmontanus)living in the depths of the blue glacial waters of the lake. He claimed to have snagged one once, but it was too big to haul in and the line snapped. Max believes him, but I think one of us would have seen it by now if we had a literal dinosaur in our lake.

That’s why they were out there, absently fishing, but mostly making sure that there aren’t any zombies or bears around. When Remy and Ripley were gone, the boys were always on edge.

Boden was something of the patriarch in our little clan. He had been a soldier in the U.S. military until the zombies took over the military base and quarantine zone. He was twenty-nine and taller than anybody else here. His hair was blond when it was long but looked darker when he shaved it, like he did last week. He loved to read in the evenings by the fireplace and go fishing in the morning with Max. For as long as I could remember, he shared a bedroom with Remy, and he’d been helping take care of us.

Max was Remy’s younger brother, and he looked a lot like her. They both had thick eyelashes, observant gray eyes, and dark brown hair. Max was taller than Remy since his growth spurt last summer. With hissmattering of freckles, easy smile, and wiry frame, he was deceptively strong. Most impressively, though, he was more thoughtful and kinder than anyone else who survived the zombies.

Boden was standing at the edge of the lake, wearing waders and a threadbare flannel shirt. Max stood on the shore in old boots held together with tanned deer hides, and his tee shirt was too small and snug across his chest. It was too chilly to be dressed so light, but he insisted he preferred it with the feel of the sun on his skin.

There was a splash in the water, so I looked up from my book and called down to them, “Are you getting any bites?”

“The fish just don’t seem interested today,” Boden replied.

“Remy should be back soon, hopefully with something good,” Max said, the way he had been frequently commenting for the past couple days.

His sister was late coming back from her trip, and he was nervous. I wasn’t, because I knew that Remy would make it back. She always did.

Despite the chill in the air, I was starting to feel hot. The fabric of the sweaterdress I’d made from remnants of Avalyn’s old sweaters wasn’t even that thick. Sweat prickled on my forehead, and my mouth felt dry.

All at once, I wanted to go inside and drink some water. I closed my book and rose to my feet, but I had to catch myself on the tree trunk.

Maybe I hadn’t eaten enough today. I had been hoping that Max and Boden would catch something for dinner, but the thought of fresh trout made my stomach roll.

“Are you heading back inside, Stella?” Max called after me as I hurried up toward the house on the hill behind Tremblay Lake.

“Yeah. I’m going to see if Serg needs any help,” I said, which was only a half-lie. I would see if he needed help after this uneasy, sick feeling passed, but I didn’t want to worry Max needlessly. He worried too much as it was.

“Hopefully, we won’t be too far behind, if these fish will just start biting,” Boden said.

But I didn’t reply to that. I just kept walking up through the tall grass and early wildflowers.

I went into the house, and the scent of freshly baked pita bread greeted me, thankfully calming my stomach. Serg was in the kitchen, setting the bread on racks to cool.

“The one good thing about Ripley being gone is that I don’t have to worry about her swiping any of my baking,” Serg said. “I don’t mind sharing, but I don’t think pita is part of a lion’s diet. Then again, neither are zombies.”

Serg was a thirty-four-year-old man who had joined our group back before the lakehouse, back when we had still been wandering. He was lean with skin a medium-brown color no matter the season, though it did turn russet when he spent too much time out in the summer sun.

Out of everyone in our little family, Serg was the one who was most earnestly interested in foraging and living off the land, besides me. The others learned about it because they wanted to survive, not because they were curious. Together, Serg and I gathered cattails to make flour and dandelions to make yellow paints.

“I do have plenty of bread to spare,” Serg was saying. “If you’re hungry.” Then he finally looked up at me, and his dark eyes widened in alarm. “Stella, are you alright?”

“Wh-why would you ask that?” I leaned against the dining room chair to support myself. “I amactually feeling under the weather, now that you mention it.”

The room pitched to the side, and I heard Serg shouting my name. Then everything went black.

3

Remy

When I woke in the morning, half a day’s walk from home, Ripley was already gone. We had stayed in the back of an old Dodge Caravan that had long been left to rot on the side of the road. Other than clearing out some human bones slumped over the steering wheel, it had been a decent place to camp out.

However, Ripley had made it clear that she didn’t want to stop last night. She kept pacing outside the van while I was cleaning it out, and I had to really coax her in with my last bit of jerky. She had likely wanted to keep walking through the night since we were so close to the lakehouse. That was just not something I could do, especially not when it was dark and I heard zombies in the distance.

The lioness had left me sometime in the night, taking her body heat with her, so I awoke shivering as brave mice explored my bedroll. It was barely dawn, but I couldn’t sleep with the rodents crawling about, and I had wanted to get to the lakehouse almost as badly as Ripley.

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