Grace and Hunter sat at a corner table in the Seaside Bar, far away from the other patrons. Both had drinks in front of them, but only Grace touched hers. Hunter swirled his around in the glass, but remained quiet. Grace observed him, but didn't press. He would speak when he was ready.

"Sorry, I am grateful for your help," Hunter finally said.

Grace slightly raised an eyebrow. An apology wasn't quite what she was expecting. "Just tell me everything you know."

"Right. I just—it's hard."

Once again, Grace kept quiet, waiting for him to continue.

"We had been up north for years," Hunter finally began his explanation. "We were in a small village, a bit like this, but more inland. It was hard, at first, but eventually things settled down."

Grace nodded. Many people had a similar story, including her. But at the same time, a hard pit was forming in her stomach. The fact that Hunter was here meant things hadn't stayed good.

"It was about a year ago, now," Hunter continued. "We grew almost all of our food, not much to hunt, and we weren't close enough to a coast to fish." He let out a heavy breath. "And something went wrong. I don't really know what, I'm not a farmer, but the crops just stopped growing."

Grace kept her gaze intently on him, her drink now forgotten in her hand as Hunter took a large sip from his own glass.

"It became clear that we couldn't stay," he said. "But no one had anywhere to go. There are villages scattered around, but nothing up there can support many people. So much of the coastline up north is either in ruins or naturally uninhabitable, and it's not like we could go to the central valley."

Grace nodded. The central valley was a big no; jobs that would require her to pass through that section of the state were the only ones Grace turned down.

"But traveling is also dangerous," Hunter said. "Especially when you don't know where you're going. And I didn't want to risk it with just me and Anna."

"Your sister?"

Hunter nodded. "We left our village, traveled down state for a bit when we stumbled across this small house, tucked away and hidden in the mountains. A family lived there, and they had a small farm, just enough for them to survive on, but that was about it. And that's who told us about the Ocean Train."

Grace shifted forward in her seat. "I've heard of that," she said. "But I've never heard of anyone who took it down here."

"This family had," Hunter told her. "Their oldest son, apparently. He had gotten a letter to them only a few weeks earlier telling them he had made it, somewhere down here. But the problem was, the next train wouldn't be leaving for several months."

"And you had nowhere to go."

"Yeah. Well, only one of us had nowhere to go."

"What do you mean?"

"The family who told us all of this, they could support one other person, since their oldest had left. So they offered to take my sister in until the Ocean Train left."

Grace nodded, beginning to understand. "And so you made your way down here."

"I could travel faster on my own, and I was alright with it if I didn't have to worry about Anna. She's only 18. The family told me that their son had mentioned in his letter about the last town the train stopped in, so that's where I headed. It's a bit of a crossroads place, no one really stays for long, but that means that it was easy to find. Everyone seemed to know it."

"Which one was it?" Grace questioned.

"Arden."

Grace nodded. "Yeah, I know it."

"Like I said, apparently everyone does," Hunter said. "But whereas most people usually only stay a week, maybe two at most, I started working in their bar, a place kind of like this, and stayed for almost four months."

Hunter's jaw clenched, and he swallowed another mouthful of atkey. "They should have been there after those two months. I waited a week, and then another, and then they were a month late. And then two months late. And I knew something was wrong."

"How did you end up down here?"

"No one in Arden would help me. I don't even think anyone in Arden knew how to help me. But we had a visitor in the bar one day who was talking about how he had paid some girl to find instant ramen for him."

The corner of Grace's mouth twitched upward. She remembered the ramen guy, although she didn't remember his name. It was a relatively easy job, despite the fact ramen had been one of the first things to disappear.

"I hadn't seen instant ramen in years," Hunter said. "So I started talking to him, asking about who could find something like this. He was very willing to share, and he told me that someone named Grace in a village called Seaside could find anything.

"He wasn't sure if you looked for people or not, but his best guess was that you did. After all, the principle is the same. I waited a couple more weeks for the train to get there, but eventually I just couldn't stand not doing anything. So I headed south, started asking around for Seaside, and eventually found my way here. I honestly thought that you were fine with looking for people," he finished, sounding apologetic. "Sorry if I misunderstood."

"I have looked for people," Grace said shortly. "It's just been a long time."

Hunter was smart enough not to ask any further questions.

"I've heard about the train," Grace said. "It travels mostly along the coast, right? Safety in numbers, that sort of thing."

Hunter nodded. "From what the family we stayed with told us, it sounds like the people who run it get all the supplies, food, water, and everything, that the group will need, so the people traveling don't have to worry about it. And then they have a team for security that travels with them and scouts ahead. So it's about as safe as you can get when it comes to traveling long distances."

Grace nodded, but a thousand different thoughts were running through her head about what could go wrong. In her opinion, there wasn't a safe way to travel long distances. "And they travel on the coast?" she asked again.

Hunter nodded.

She shifted in her chair, uneasy. "That's difficult terrain," she said slowly. "Are you sure," she paused, trying to find delicate words that would still get her point across, "are you sure there wasn't an accident? Those cliffs can be brutal."

"You think I haven't thought of that?" For the first time since Grace had met Hunter, he grew sharp. "That's all I can think of. But a cliff accident wouldn't take out everyone. Or if they were attacked, there would be signs of a wreckage. But no one has heard anything. It's like they dropped off the face of the earth."

He had a good point. Grace sat back in her chair and put a finger to her lips, thinking hard about a possible, hopefully not very sinister, explanation. "Alright, it definitely is bad that no one has heard from anyone on the trip," she conceded. "Unless, are you sure they even left? The people who organize this whole thing could've gotten back north and decided not to do it anymore."

But Hunter just shook his head, looking dejected. "I received this about two weeks after Anna left." From his pocket he drew out a battered envelop and handed it across the table. "The family Anna stayed with sent it to Arden."

Grace took the envelope and pulled out the crinkled piece of paper. She scanned it quickly. There was nothing particularly important in it, except for the fact that it confirmed that Anna DiAngelo did in fact connect with the Ocean Train and started her journey south."

Grace sighed and handed back the letter. "Alright, then. Tell me everything you know about the people who run this train."

Hunter shoved the letter back in his pocket. "I only know what the oldest son wrote his family in the letter," he said. "Which wasn't much. But apparently it was started by a bunch of survivalists. About six months after the bombs, I guess a group of them decided to help people get to places they needed to go. It started out small, just a couple of people who would take one family. But they've grown throughout the years and now make arrangements for larger groups."

"So they've been around for a while, so they're legit," Grace said, nodding. "Although, in all honestly, that makes our predicament all the more serious."

"What do you mean?"

"They're experienced, which means that accidents are less likely, and I highly doubt they ran out of resources and died from starvation or dehydration. And, like you said, there would be signs. And they have security teams, so they wouldn't have been robbed." Grace stopped. She didn't like where her thoughts were going.

"Keep going." Hunter gave her a hard gaze. "I can take it."

"Which means, they may very well have been attacked by a group of people, but an organized group of people," Grace said grimly. "People who have trained and planned to raid a caravan like this. And unfortunately, that means in order to find your sister, we'll have to deal with that group."

"You think if they were attacked by a group like that, she could still be alive?"

"Honestly, I don't know," Grace told him. "I haven't heard of many groups who are large, strong, or trained enough to pull something like this off. But I do know that a lot of mercenary groups are only interested in resources, not murdering people. As long as no one fights them, they'll leave the people alone and just take the food."

"But that still wouldn't explain why no one has heard anything from anyone who was traveling."

"No, it doesn't," Grace agreed. "But, while straight up murder is a possibility, I don't think it's likely. It's very impractical."

"So someone might have taken them?"

"Slave labor, maybe," Grace said. "It's not unheard of."

Hunter looked queasy, but kept his mouth in a firm line.

"But, we're not going to learn anything by sitting here," Grace said. "We should get ready to move."

"You have any idea for a starting point?" Hunter asked, a slight shadow of hope appearing on his face.

"Back at Arden," Grace said. She hurried on as Hunter opened his mouth, probably to protest. "I know who to talk to, there," she said. "Better than you do. Someone might have known something, but either you didn't know to ask them, or they just didn't trust you enough to tell you."

"And you think people will trust you?"

"People know me," Grace said. "I've frequented Arden enough to build contacts."

Hunter just nodded.

"On your end," Grace said, bringing up the subject that none of her clients like to talk about. "Payment."

Hunter shifted slightly, but he looked neither surprised nor uncomfortable. "I don't have much," he started.

"No one has much," Grace told him.

Hunter reached into his pocket and pulled out a long, rectangular object. He put down the Swiss Army knife on the table in front of them. "Like I said, it's not much. But I know these are incredibly useful, and super rare."

It was a good start. Grace had looked for one of these for years, but had never found one. And it was a good one, too, with a lot of tools. She nodded. "That's it?" After all, she was running a business.

"As you say, no one has much."

Grace nodded. She was satisfied. "But before we go, your sister, what does she look like?" she asked. "It'll be helpful to have a description."

"Uh, dark hair," Hunter began. "She always keeps it short, just above her shoulders. And really curly, tight curls. She's a little shorter than you, her skin is a little lighter than mine, but still pretty dark."

Based on Hunter's description alone, Grace could guess the family resemblance was strong. "Any idea what she might be wearing?"

"Jeans, like most people. She usually wore black shirts. I know that's not particularly helpful."

Grace shrugged. No one really wore anything very distinct anymore, but she figured she might as well ask.

"She always wore a necklace that belonged to my mom, though," Hunter said. "A pendant shaped like a dahlia."

"That might be helpful," Grace said. "At least it's something distinct." She pushed herself up from the table and eyed Hunter as he did the same. "Give me a day," she told him. "I need to gather some resources and make a plan, but we'll leave at first light the day after that."

Hunter nodded.

"I would get some rest," Grace advised him. "This won't be easy."

"I know," he said. "And Grace, thank you. Really."

"Thank me when we find her."