Darkness had settled around us.

  There wasn’t much of a moon out, but I had a feeling that if there had been the right amount of moonlight filtering through, then it would have made me more blind than if I had been in absolute darkness. There was a point where my night-vision hadn’t kicked in yet, but my regular vision had trouble seeing. I could still see enough in that sweet-spot to get around, but considering that I was trying to keep an eye out for threats, limiting my range of vision to only thirty to forty feet would allow all kinds of dangerous things to get too close before I saw them.

  “I’m hungry!” Theo dropped onto his rear against a tree.

  I paused and turned to look at the smaller man. Every time I thought he had pushed me to the extent of my patience, I found myself saying that I was going to give him just a little more grace. I closed my eyes and took a breath. If I thought for one moment that he wouldn’t find his way back to the camp, then I would have just left him there.

  “Then hurry up so we can find this storehouse.” I kept walking, hoping that he would get incentivized to follow, when he didn’t I called over my shoulder. “We didn’t bring any food, so the sooner you find it, the sooner you can eat something.”

  “You’re just saying that to try to trick me.”

  I started to respond, but I heard leaves rustling as he stood up. Satisfied that the deadweight was moving again, I continued my trek through the woods.

  What surprised me was how noisy it was. Back on the mainland, Zombies killed anything that they could catch, which was most things that made noise. Most birds, even with their ability to fly away, were caught by the inexhaustible stamina that the undead had. The only noises that were heard outside of the cities were the rustling of leaves or running water.

  Here, I heard crickets chirping, mosquitoes buzzing, birds singing, and all manner of smaller animals that ran away from us as we made our way through the trees. Fyga was impossible to hear, while I couldn’t imagine that Theo wasn’t trying to make as much noise as possible.

  It was like the island was alive in a way that I’d never seen on the mainland. For a moment, I thought about setting up a place for the refugees to live, but that idea quickly soured. I had to meet Master James in Port Town, so I couldn’t stay. With the Touched as close as they were, there was no way that a settlement here would be safe. Even if the five of us stayed, or if we turned some of the guards into Bokor or Touched, it was only a matter of time before the Bokor learned about Port Reggo and found whoever was living on this island. The moment that they discovered a town being protected by Touched, they’d assume that either the people were hostages or that they were Zombie sympathizers. Either way, the Touched would be killed and the people would be evacuated to a city on the mainland where the Bokor could protect them.

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  The idea that the Bokor would destroy a safe community soured in my mind. As much as it upset me that this group would eventually be forced back onto the mainland, I knew that if the Touched were allowed to set up towns, then the humans would get turned into nothing more than cattle to be turned into Zombies. Having an exception for my group of survivors would only open the door for places without good intentions to exist.

  Theo cursed again, giving me a living example of what happened when the law made exceptions. People like him took advantage of the loopholes and only thought about themselves and not the collateral damage that they caused.

  I was about to say something to him when Fyga rushed past me and wrapped her arm around the shorter man’s neck.

  “URK!” Theo clawed at the thinner woman, but wasn’t able to dislodge her.

  “Hey-”

  “SHHH!!!” Fyga wrestled the other man to the ground, then pointed ahead of me.

  I turned and realized that the trees were thinning, but I didn’t see anything.

  “What-”

  “SHHH!!!” Fyga touched her left ear, then clamped her hand back over Theo’s mouth.

  The sound of waves crashing against rocks answered my next question. We’d found the shore, but I wasn’t sure why that was worrying her. Before I could ask, a blast of cold air stole the words. It was like pure fear let loose in the air and threatened to freeze me on the spot even though none of the foliage showed any signs of the cold.

  My breath began to exit my body in small clouds, but it was like the cold was only affecting the three of us. I had a feeling that whatever was causing it, Fyga knew what it was and didn’t want it to find us.

  A cloud moved in front of the moon, dropping us into almost complete darkness and allowing the purple outline that my vision provided to let me see further.

  The first thing I realized was that there was a wall of fog covering the coast that ended at the treeline. That was why I hadn’t been able to see the water.

  The second thing was that there was a ship in the water directly in front of us. I lost the fight against the shiver that wanted to run through me as my senses reached out towards the ship. I should have noticed it before, but the ship was full of zombies.

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