“The color,” said Heron. “I assume you’re familiar with it?”

“You saw the color green?” asked Kira. “You mean, like, grass?” Heron nodded, and Kira’s jaw fell open. “How far did you go?”

“Twenty stories,” said Heron, finishing with Bobo’s saddle. “You gonna help?”

“Sure,” said Kira, jogging to her bedroll and packing her sparse gear as quickly as she could. “Just keep explaining things so I don’t have to stop every five seconds to ask another question.”

“This is one of the tallest buildings in the area,” said Heron, “so instead of scouting out into the city I climbed to the top to see what I could see. And I saw green—grass, trees, everything—in the direction of Rocky Flats. A little patch of it pressed up into the foothills of the mountains.”

“Right where the ParaGen building is supposed to be?” asked Samm.

“I couldn’t tell,” said Heron, throwing her gear onto her back. “But I’m pretty sure I saw smoke over there as well.”

“There’s smoke everywhere,” said Kira. “Half this city’s on fire.”

“Those are chemical fires,” said Heron. “This one looked suspiciously like a cooking fire. That’s why I want to make sure I get there before dark—if there’s someone there, they might find us before we find them, and that could be a problem. You can try to catch up, but I’m not waiting for you.” She slipped out the door, rifle in hand, and ran through the lobby to the city beyond.

Kira looked at Samm. “People?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then let’s go find out.”

They finished packing in a frenzy, wincing with stiff, ragged muscles as they secured their final pieces on the horses’ backs and raced out into the city. It had rained in the night, and the city was even more treacherous because of it: Showers of acid dripped off the roofs, and twisted, alien plants had bloomed like tumors from the cracks in the street, soaking in the poison like sponges and streaking it in painful burns against the legs of anyone who stepped too close.

They followed the best landmark they could find—a tall, dark building that seemed to rise up more or less in the right direction. As the day wore on, they began to suspect that the black skyscraper might actually be the ParaGen building—nestled at the base of the mountains, a lonely spire beckoning them onward. Samm and Kira made the best time they could, pushing the horses beyond their limit, but when night fell again, they had only reached the outskirts of Arvada. The city here was as acid-washed and desolate as the rest.