Well, it’s harder to get into trouble anyhow.

Emerson is the first to offer taking up garden duty, as expected. Riley Jackson joins them. So do Mei Fujita and Faith Lang. After another moment or two, Khalil raises a hand too.

Unexpectedly, Walker Green is the first to sign up for the cleaning squad. When he first arrived, everyone pegged him for a rich white boy who would only be kept here a month, to be scared straight. It’s been almost a year. He shrugs when I raise my eyebrows. “Might as well make myself useful, and I’m better with my hands than with my brain anyway.”

Sofia Rodriguez follows. She doesn’t say anything, and she has her arms wrapped around her chest. The scar across her eye has grown pale against her brown skin.

From there, everyone claims something to do. Mackenzi offers to be our handyman, though we don’t really have anything she can fix yet. Others sign up for laundry duty and still others for guard duty, though I don’t know what they want to guard us against. A tentative trade begins too. Swapping out positions so no one has to do the same thing every day.

I have no idea yet if any of this will work, but when I look at the group of them—of us—I think we might stand a chance. Case still keeps to himself, and Nia and Logan are behind me, on the other side of the kitchen counter, but there is more vibrancy and life to the group than I’ve seen in ages.

The world is crumbling all around us, but we have the chance to build something that is ours. A small outpost against the coming storm, where we’re safe and protected, because we’re the ones who secure and protect ourselves.

And then someone coughs.

Immediately, our tentative house of cards collapses. The voices disappear and silence settles. Energy makes way for deep, abiding fear once more. Everyone turns around to try to figure out where the sound came from.

Another cough.

Quiet.

Maybe that’s it. Maybe it’s someone eating too quickly or choking on a sip of water.

Then, at the farthest edge of the room, comes the sound of something hitting the floor. Everyone sitting around the table pushes themselves from their seats and backs away.

I stand up on the serving station to see what’s happening, but I hear it first.

The intense, racking cough that sends shivers down my spine. Mei described it like drowning on dry land, and that’s what it sounds like.

I jump down and carefully move closer. Someone is lying on the floor.

“Help me.” The voice sounds cracked and ragged.

Aleesha Mantis is trying to push herself to her feet, but her arms don’t have the strength. She coughs again and again and again, and it sounds like it’s coming from deep inside her, like she’s trying to eject something lodged inside her lungs.

She trembles and shakes.

I take another step closer.