America Offline | Books 1 & 2 | The Day After Darkness
Page 40
She looked up at him, her large hazel eyes tinged with doubt. “Kinda. But I suppose I should be used to bouncing from one foster home to another.”
“This won’t be like those other times,” he said, trying to reassure her. “None of us can predict the future. Walker, Ash and Brooks may be a little rough around the edges, but they’re stand-up guys. If that’s any reflection on the rest of the folks waiting for us there, then we’ll be in good hands.”
She continued watching him and Nate could see she wanted so much to believe as he did.
Shadow appeared just then, nuzzling Dakota’s hand. She ran her fingers through his thick fur, her mind a million miles away.
Nate glanced down at the wolf. Shadow was a wild animal that hadn’t known them for much more than a week and yet he would give his life to save either of them. But Nate suspected―no, he knew―that he and Dakota would do the same. The three of them had formed the kind of unbreakable bond only pain and hardship could create. They’d been thrown into a meatgrinder, albeit a chilly one, and had come out the other end. Sure, they had plenty of bumps and bruises both inside and out, but they had survived and in a dangerous world, that was all that mattered. Nate also realized the Citadel and the folks living there might just be the country’s last chance for getting back on track.
Nate put a hand on Dakota’s shoulder. “There’s one major difference between your life in those foster homes and now.”
She glanced up without saying a word.
“You don’t need to keep searching for somewhere to call home,” he told her. “We’re family now.” Nate ruffled the fur on Shadow’s head. “And nothing out there in all that cold can ever change that.”
She hugged him, squeezing him tightly for a long time. Until finally she let go.
The others were slowly starting to assemble on the mezzanine with their things.
“You ready?” Nate asked Dakota.
She nodded.
Not long after they left the subway station, eager to find a place to settle down. A place where they could begin rebuilding the country. A place where they could fulfill the vision laid out by the Founding Fathers more than two centuries before.
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