“Subject Alpha attempts to interact with Subject Omega, but the latter appears indifferent, and to have fallen into a passive state. The delay in his motor skills is now evident. He is almost always lying supine and makes no attempt to . . . wait, this part is unclear . . . makes no attempt to reach for his food ration.” Knauss stopped speaking and looked at Teresa. “Is this about animals?”

“They’re children,” Teresa declared. She saw Knauss hesitate. “Keep going,” she ordered.

“What is most surprising is that Alpha does not claim Omega’s ration as his own, but instead tries to push it toward him. I believe he is beginning to consider him a companion.”

Silence had fallen over the shelter, all activity put on hold. Everybody was listening to Knauss, who kept on reading. Teresa raised her eyes for a brief moment and saw denial and disgust on the faces around her. She was sure they had a different perspective, now, on the skeleton sitting just a few feet from them all, eternally waiting.

You can stop waiting now, Teresa thought. Someone’s finally come to save you—but it’s too late.

“I doubt the child has any conscious perception of its imprisonment. He knows no other life but this one,” Knauss resumed, “but his subconscious does, and it abandons itself to death.”

Teresa exhaled tensely. She could imagine the epilogue, picture it in her mind, but something—perhaps the tremors that rippled through her arms every time she leaned over to touch those pages—told her that the horrors contained in those entries were not yet over.

“Go to the last day,” she told Knauss.

He obeyed. Teresa saw his eyes running over the words, widening, then seeking out her own before turning quickly away. When he read out the details of Wallner’s final plan, Teresa couldn’t take it anymore. She had to leave the shed, get some fresh air in her lungs, and wait for her heart to slow down, letting the wind dry her tears before they could fall.

-66-

-66-

As soon as she’d stepped outside the shelter, Teresa breathed more easily. Marini followed her; he could never seem to tell when it was best to just leave her alone.

She didn’t give him time to ask any questions.

“Parri confirms that the remains belong to a boy,” she said. “About eleven years old. It could have been a death by natural causes; there’s no guarantee Wallner actually put his plan into practice,” she said, though she was conscious she’d only added that last remark as a way of consoling herself.

“How could anyone do that? They were just children.”