“The Partials are still alive,” said Kira. “Not all of them, maybe half a million, give or take. Some are . . . nicer than others.”

“Half a million,” said Calix, obviously shocked by the sheer size of the number. “That’s . . .” She sat back as if she didn’t know what to say.

“How many humans?” asked Laura.

“I used to know exactly,” said Kira, “but these days I’d guess about thirty-five thousand.”

“Thank God,” said Laura, and Kira saw tears streaming down the woman’s face. Even Calix seemed pleased, as if the second number was a match for the first. Kira grew suspicious—it was almost as if the girl didn’t really understand the size of either number.

Kira leaned forward. “How many of you are here?”

“Almost two thousand,” said Laura, and smiled with bittersweet pride. “We expect to pass it in the next few months, but . . . thirty-five thousand. I’ve never dreamed there would be so many.”

“What’s it like?” asked Calix. She addressed the question to Kira, but kept stealing glances at Samm. “The world outside the Preserve? We’ve explored some of the mountains, and we’ve tried to explore the Badlands, but it’s too big. We thought it covered the whole world.”

“Just the Midwest,” said Samm, “and not even all of it. From here to the Mississippi River, more or less.”

“Tell me about the cure,” said Kira, trying to steer the conversation back to this most important element. “If you didn’t get it from Partials, what is it? How do you make it? How did any of you survive the Break in the first place?”

“That’s Dr. Vale’s work,” said Laura. “Calix, run and see if he’s still up, he’ll want to meet our visitors.” Calix stood, taking a last look at Samm, and ran into the darkness. Laura turned back to Kira. “He’s the one who saved us when RM first hit—well, not right away. It was a few weeks later, about the time everyone started to realize that this was really the end. He grabbed as many of us as he could, friends of friends and whoever we could find that was still alive. And he gave us the cure, which I guess he must have synthesized himself, somehow. Then we holed up here in the Preserve.”

“You’ve had the cure that long?” asked Kira. She stammered for a minute, uncertain how to ask the next question politely, then gave up and asked directly. “Why didn’t you tell anyone? Why didn’t you save as many people as you could?”