As dawn neared, they found an abandoned house, not far from a settlement. Daniel could smell the life in the distance; human and animal, but what was left there was emptiness and dust. The remnants of an English garden a tiny piece of home on foreign soil reminded him that someone had once cared for the place, but where they'd gone was a mystery.
"Probably dead of sickness," Kateesha said as she stopped in the garden, eyes on a homemade trellis.
He moved past her to peer inside the empty house. "Then they've been dead for some time, and their neighbors stripped their belongings."
"Why shouldn't they?" Kateesha plucked a heavy flower and brought it to her nose. "Why leave it to be wasted?" She inhaled deeply, eyes closed. Daniel thought he saw her mask slip again, saw into the real he
