When one tech company stepped forward with a plan, the government tried to debate it, restructure it, get bipartisan agreement for it. They approved parts of it and not others. They suggested ways to cut corners. They tried not to broadcast any of that, but reports got leaked. And the next thing everyone was hearing was that, with the help of the civilians in the capital, there had been a sort of coup.

The tech company moved forward with their plan. The roads that would be maintained were chosen. And then the robots appeared, moving through the deserted streets. Izabel watched as they demolished buildings and cleared debris past a perimeter they’d marked. The work was loud and methodical and went on for months.

During those months the new government set up a network for survivors to find the most successful strongholds and get themselves there. The hospital was one of them.

Izabel and Kaito set to work with Malik to create a safe entryway to the morgue, where people could be hosed down. And then they created a safe passageway from the morgue to the cafeteria. They wore hazmat suits as they worked.

Another team worked to expand the safe area past the cafeteria, to include a large waiting room that they filled with more beds. Another team washed linens, vacuumed mattresses, and wiped down every metal and plastic leg, handle, frame, and wheel.

The robots delivered food supplies, and better respirators, too.

Izabel watched the robots build frames of rebar in the earth. She watched them put in pipes for plumbing that kept spiking up for future hookups. They laid wiring in bright colored tubing. They put in coils for heating. The earth was the most complex she’d ever seen it.

Next they poured the cement. All around the hospital was a clear, flat foundation with hundreds of perfectly placed plumbing and electrical hookups. It looked like something simple was beneath it. It looked simple itself. It looked like nothing had been there before that. Certainly not a whole town.

Poof. History wiped clean.

And then the new town went up. They used kits. It was easy, fast, practically noiseless. It looked like colonies that Izabel had seen pictures of, set up in the desert, to simulate life on Mars. Perfect and barren. Their plastic domes.

Kaito woke Izabel up by shaking her shoulder.

“Is she up?” Izabel said.

“No,” he said. “Look.”

On the television was a breaking news story. In the middle of the night, someone had taken a weapon to the side of a home, slashing the sheeting, and a family of four was dead inside.

“Police are reporting that the family was having financial trouble and they believe this was a targeted, singular event. We will continue to update you as this story develops.”

“Holy shit,” Izabel said.

“What is going on?” Kaito said, straining his voice to keep it quiet. “We haven’t had a murder since before the Turning.”