CHAPTER 1: THE LONG ROAD
The sun didn’t just shine—it punished.
It cracked the earth into dry veins and pressed heat into every breath Ethan Carter took. At thirteen, his shoulders were too small for the weight he carried, but he never slowed down.
Not with Lily beside him.
Her tiny hand trembled in his, her steps uneven as the dirt road stretched endlessly ahead of them. Dust clung to her face, turning her tears into faint streaks of mud.
“Ethan… I’m thirsty,” she whispered.
Her voice barely survived the wind.
Ethan tightened his grip and forced a smile she couldn’t see through the glare.
“I know,” he said gently. “We’ll find water soon. I promise.”
Promises were all he had left to give.
Two days earlier, they had been thrown out like trash.
Victor Hale—the man who had married their mother and poisoned everything good in their lives—had stood in the doorway, cold and unmoved, as he told them to leave. No bags. No money. No place to go.
Their mother had died just weeks before.
A “car accident,” they said.
Ethan hadn’t believed it. Not fully.
But he hadn’t had the strength to question it—until now.
The road stretched on.
Then—
Something shifted.
Through the heat haze, Ethan saw it.
A broken fence.
A red-tiled roof.
His heart skipped.
“Lily… look.”
She squinted, then blinked slowly.
“It’s… a house?”
Ethan nodded, hope rising for the first time in days.
“My grandma’s ranch.”
The gate groaned when he pushed it open. The sound echoed like something waking up after a long sleep.
Inside, the air was stale, thick with dust and silence.
But it was shelter.
Ethan guided Lily to a worn couch and knelt in front of her.
“Stay here,” he said softly. “I’m going to find us something to eat.”
She nodded, already too tired to ask questions.
Outside, the land looked just as broken as the house—but behind it, something moved.
A chicken coop.
Inside—
Four thin, scrappy chickens.
Alive.
Ethan exhaled slowly.
“Okay…” he muttered. “We can work with this.”
May you like
If they survived—
So could he.
