Still, we were happy. And we never talked about what happened in the mountains—there was no need to. Though reports of the Donner’s cannibalism eventually came out, future pioneers and gold-seekers never reported any casualties or monsters in the woods. I suppose we had killed them all.
At least, I liked to think that.
“I’ll tell you what,” Jake said, reading my face. “Tonight I’ll go out and shoot us a duck. I’ll roast you your favorite.”
I stood on my toes and kissed his rough cheek. “You always were a better cook than me.”
“Everyone knows this,” Jake said. “Even Ruth.”
“That’s right,” she said, though from her voice you could tell she was just trying to be funny. She often was. She took after her father.
I brushed the dirt off of her calico dress and hung onto Jake’s arm like the girl I was, a girl still madly in love, and grinned up at him. “Let’s get you both cleaned up if we’re going to feast on something so fine.”
We walked back to the house, arm in arm, my tribe of three.
THE END
Keep reading for an excerpt of Madeline Sheehan’s The Beginning of the End and Karina Halle’s Dust to Dust (Experiment in Terror #9, the final installment in the series).