Chapter 39
THE SUN SLID BEHIND the ridge that gave the town its name, and Pru knew full dark wasn't far behind. "Ari!"
She heard the faint echo of the call from half a dozen other voices spread out across their sector. Her feet ached and exhaustion dragged at her frame, but she kept going. She'd keep going until she held Ari in her arms again. An hour before, Dash had found the peel from a clementine - the first and only proof Ari had actually headed out cross country instead of going for the road. The only comfort there was that they didn't have the danger of some human predator picking her up trying to hitchhike. One thirteen-year-old girl couldn't cover that much territory in six hours, so she had to be in the geographic area. But on foot, with night falling, the mountains Pru had run tame in as a child felt like a whole other country.