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right beside the door. She could walk out of here right now.
    “I’ll just tag along on the food raid. It’s a great idea.”
    Stu’s gaze shifted nervously. “I’m not sure about this.”
    Which was fine, because the more she thought about it, the more sure she was. The girls at Base Camp needed supplies—things they couldn’t count on the Elites to get. And they needed them now. More to the point, that desperate and squeamish group of girls needed a role model. They needed her to stand up to the Elites and go on a food raid. They needed to see that someone—a Green like them—could do it.
    “It’s just a simple food raid down the mountain, right?”
    “Um . . . yeah, I guess.”
    “Come on, Stu. I’m sure you could use the extra help.” Elites pulled patrol duty, guard duty, and food raid duty. And they all did physical training to stay in shape. They barely had time to sleep.
    “And Carter’s okay with this?” Stu asked.
    Here was the tricky part. “We talked about it just this morning.” Which was technically true. “I’ve been out there,” she reminded him. “I’ve fought and killed Ticks. Besides, I’ve been doing PT with the Elites every morning since I got here. I’m in great shape.”
    All of that was totally true.
    “Why do I feel like I’m going to regret this?” he grumbled, but in the end, he held open the door and gestured for her to head out with him.
    She smiled and for the first time in months felt excited about something—about something she was doing. Not just about being Carter’s girlfriend. “Just let me get my bow and arrow.”
    And she ran to get it, just to make sure they didn’t leave without her.

CHAPTER FIVE
    Lily
    Recon, sit rep, retrieval, extraction.
    Lily chanted the words in her head over and over again as she approached the house.
    That’s what Stu had drilled into her ever since he’d agreed to let her come along. You get into the building and do a quick reconnaissance to secure the location. You report in to the raid commander so the rest of the raid team knows what’s going down where. You locate any valuable supplies. You retreat to the extraction point.
    It all seemed simple enough when they were driving down the mountain. Now, as Jacks, Stu, and Lily approached the empty house, it seemed much less cut-and-dry. Maybe it was the adrenaline pumping through her veins or the sweat pouring off her palms. Or maybe, she’d just gotten used to the relative comfort and safety of Base Camp. Maybe the six weeks in Utah had made her soft.
    As she walked up to the house, Lily scanned the area. They were on the outskirts of a tiny town tucked right up against the mountain range in a neighborhood too rural to be suburban. The lots were big and hilly and a creek flowed behind the houses because there was a dense tree line that ran parallel to the street. There were only three houses on this block and no signs that anything living had been here recently. The other team had been dropped on a different street.
    There was absolutely no sign that this town had seen any Tick activity. You could always tell when a town had been hit hard by Ticks. They destroyed everything they touched. The houses on this block looked abandoned but not ravaged. Hopefully Lily and the rest of the team could load up the truck on this one block alone and head back up the mountain.
    So Lily gritted her teeth and swallowed her anxiety. She wasn’t really a newbie. She knew the threats, but she also knew how to fight them. She patted the bow slung over her shoulder. She’d been practicing with it every chance she got. She had this.
    They paused about twenty feet from the house. Lily swung her bow off her shoulder and wiped her palm on her jeans before pulling an arrow from her quiver. She notched it, but kept it low to the ground. Better safe than sorry on all counts. When Carter found out she’d gone on the food raid, he was going to be pissed, even if things went well. If she