I unzip the bag and Maci springs upright, coughing for air. I pat her back until she’s breathing normal. “What’s going on?” She asks with bulging eyes as she takes in our surroundings.

“I don’t know.” I crouch down so I’m eyelevel with her. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

She considers this with a pensive expression. “An Angel.”

Furrowing my eyebrows, I feel her forehead, checking for fever. But her skin’s cold. “Maci, what’s an Angel?”

She stumbles to her feet and dusts the sand off her black pants. “The person that saved me from the fire.”

I worry she might be sick, even if she doesn’t look like it. In fact, she looks better than she has since she collapsed during Lessons. Her color has returned, sweat no longer soaking her red hair, and her green eyes seem lively.

Bernard rolls down the hill and hits the bottom with an oomph. “Maci?” He says, getting to his feet. “What are you doing here?”

I turn to him with my knife pointed out. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

He shrugs and kicks his boot at the ground. “Nothing really.” Little drops of perspiration bead his skin. He’s lying.

“You sure about that?” I ask, inching my knife at him.

He glares and swats my knife away from him. “What, you think I’m lying?”

“Did you see the Angel too?” Maci’s brown eyes light up excitedly. “The one dressed in white.”

“You mean a Higher?” Bernard asks, rubbing his neck tensely.

“No, I mean the Angel.” Maci smoothes her hair down and starts twirling in the sand, like she’s dancing.

“What the hell’s an Angel?” Bernard asks, brushing sand out of his hair.

“You know,” Maci says, still spinning as she gazes up at the sky. “The man who helps Taggart save us from the fire.”

Bernard burns her with a death stare. “I don’t remember any freakin’ Angel. But I do want to know where the heck we are.” He motions around us. “I mean, look at this place. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“We’ve never seen much of anything besides the city,” I say. “In fact, I don’t think either of you have even been out of The Colony, have you?”

Maci shakes her head, but Bernard targets his death stare at me. “I’ve been out, so don’t go thinking you’re something special when you’re not.”

I resist the urge to knock him out and opt to ignore him. “I wonder how far the city is from here.”

“Who the hell knows,” Bernard snaps. “You can’t see a thing with all the stupid rocks around.”

“It’s not the rock’s fault.”  Maci says. “And we need to find the city, so we can go back.”