Rebel sat on the concrete edge of a raised planter bed, twirling her hair and staring off into the middle distance.

Everyone was saved who wanted to be saved. The girl who had been chained to Smith was free. Most of the bad guys were dead, or had run away.

It was seriously like they’d finished filming a movie. Like she’d been on location with this crew for weeks and they’d finally nailed it. All that was left was for the AD to call, “Wrap!” Except there weren’t any production assistants running around with a water bottle to hand out. And no one would be asking her if she was going to the wrap party that night. And worst of all, there was no lovely trailer to crawl back into and relax with a good book.

This was real life. That old life was gone. Gone for good.

She didn’t know where Trevor had gone to, so she just found a quiet spot outside, one arm in a sling and her other hand tucked between her knees, and waited. She heard voices in the distance. The gunfire had stopped long ago. Eventually, at some point, they’d all figure everything out—who needed to be saved, who needed medical care and if anyone wanted to return with them to the farm.

She supposed she was in shock, or something, she wasn’t sure.

Rebel turned back and looked again at the devastation to the front of the John Muir Lodge. It was all too much. She was happy to let other people make the hard decisions. Really, all she wanted was a moment of quiet after all the drama to collect her thoughts.

And Trevor. She wanted Trevor to finish whatever he was doing, come and find her, and take her home.

She smiled.

Home. She actually thought of that farm on the edge of nowhere as home. Weird.

“Water bottle?”

Rebel glanced up, surprised to see Justin standing above her. She reached out and took the sparkling bottle from his hand. “Thanks.”

He carefully sat down next to her, wincing in pain. The parking lot in front of them held a few cars that looked operable, and others that were obviously dusty derelicts left over from the end of days. But beyond that were the peaks of distant mountains. Directly across the street stood dense groves of enormous sequoia trees, and a hawk circled above in the bright blue sky. The air smelled like fresh pine. It was so much cooler up here in the mountains. She lifted her chin to catch the sun on her face.

“I can’t believe you’re walking and talking,” she told him. “You just recently recovered from pneumonia and you got your ass kicked yesterday.”

Justin grunted. “Well, there really was a real Doctor here. He’s a white supremacist asshole like the others so he packed up and ran out of here with a small group of them, but he did wrap my broken ribs and give me some world-class pain relievers. I’ll probably end up back in that damn RV for a while again. What about you, are you okay? And why are you out here by yourself?”

She took a deep breath. “Yeah, I’m okay. A bullet grazed my arm, but it’s mainly a deep scratch. It hurt, but like you, good painkillers make the difference. After everything ended in the main hall, Trevor carried me outside. Then he ran ahead to help check the rooms to see if anyone needed help. Christian fixed me up and gave me this sling. Then I did a head count and saw all our women, and you…and I don’t know, it was all chaotic for a bit there and…I just needed…I don’t know, I’m just out here sitting next to Trevor’s motorcycle, waiting for him like a loser, I guess.”

Justin grinned. “You’re not a loser. But I heard I missed your performance.”

She snorted. “I didn’t even get to prepare. No practice. No warm-up, but yeah, it went pretty well despite that.”

“I know you were performing at the insistence of that asshole, Smith, but you have to remember there were lots of other people in that room who were just people. Just survivors of this apocalypse, like the rest of us. Some of them were people who wished they could get the fuck out from under that asshole’s thumb. You gave everyone there a ray of hope. A bit of home. A remembrance that things aren’t quite as shitty as they thought, because, check it out, Rebel Case is still around and singing for us.”

She turned to him and gave him a rueful smile, letting him know she appreciated his words.

He placed a hand on her good shoulder. “I’m not kidding about this. It’s a big deal. Remember how celebrities would always go and play for troops in combat zones in the USO? You’re like that.”

She sat up straighter. Yeah, she was like that, wasn’t she? And she could be like that more.

“You know what’s cool? I sort of had this moment where I felt like I had that old zing. That magic was coming back. Like my power was filling me up again. Or does that sound totally corny?”

“No, with your singing and acting, it’s like you have a superpower. And you haven’t been able to use it, which must have sucked the big one.”

She chuckled. “It did suck the big one. This whole time I’ve felt like this loser who was worthless now. You’ve got skills that translate into this world. So does Trevor. So does…everyone but me. I swear, even Josie contributes more than I do. No one needs a singer or actor when the world is ending. They need doctors and farmers.”

He shook his head. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I wouldn’t have made it without you.”

“What?”

“You’re the one who decided where we should live. Who organized all of our supplies and decides when we need more of something?”

“I did…but, come on, I hardly spoke the whole first month and walked around like a zombie.”

“I did too. Rebel, we’d survived the goddamn apocalypse. We’re only human, not machines without hearts. It was fucking hard, losing everyone. It still is. I still wake up and hear the silence and it tears me up.” He looked away, his voice softening. “It’s hard on everyone. It doesn’t make you weak or less because it kicks you in the ass. It does that to everyone. And if someone says it’s not hard, they’re just talking shit. You hear me?”

“I hear you,” she whispered.

“So, you’re hooking up with that Aryan Brotherhood bastard?” he asked, a smile playing on the corner of his lips.

“Yeah,” she laughed. “After he declared his love for me and saved my life, I kinda thought he might be a keeper.”

Justin crooked an eyebrow. “Well, I guess it’s okay then.”

She looked back again at the lodge and back at Justin. “I can’t believe we made it. It’s like there’s always something else, and we manage to keep on surviving.”

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

“Isn’t that from a song?”

Justin smiled. “Yeah, but that doesn’t make it any less true.”

She straightened her back. “I do feel like I can stand a little taller.”

“You came back swinging.”

“We both came back swinging. Actually, all of us have.”

“Rebel!”

Rebel looked up to see Tiana and Krissy running toward her, Trevor at their side. He looked grim and the two women looked scared as hell. Rebel’s chest tightened. A bad feeling lodged in the pit of her stomach. This couldn’t be good news.

Justin helped her to stand up. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“She’s gone, we can’t find her anywhere,” Krissy panted.

“Gone? Who’s gone?”

“Kati’s gone,” Tiana sobbed. “She’s disappeared. She was here with us when we all ran out of the hall when it exploded and she was with me searching rooms for other female survivors and then…she was gone.”

That didn’t make any sense. “Have you looked—”

“We’ve looked everywhere,” Trevor cut in. “We’ve systematically gone through every room. Even the cabins in the back. She’s not here. Christian and Adam are driving around, looking for any signs of which way the car must have gone.”

Oh shit. Her throat tightened. “You mean…”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Justin ground out. “In the middle of the chaos one of those fuckers got smart and stole Kati for himself.”

“No!”

Rebel used her one good arm to pull Tiana in so they could cry together.