Afa shuffled his feet, then turned abruptly and waddled back into the storage room, rounding a stack of cans and coming back along the next aisle. Kira sighed and stepped over, blocking that one as well. “Where are the microphones?”

Afa stopped again, looking nervously at the floor, then turned and retreated again. Kira stayed by the door, knowing he’d have to come past her eventually. “You can’t hide forever,” she said, “and I’m not just talking about this room, I mean the whole world. You have to move on, or go back, or do something. You’ve collected all this information so you could show it to somebody: Let’s go show it to somebody.”

“There’s nobody to show it to,” he said, turning uncertainly in the maze of stacked cans and boxes. “I’m the only human being left alive.”

“You know what I think,” said Kira, softening her voice even further. “I think the reason you insist you’re the last one left is because you’re afraid to go meet anyone. If all the humans are dead, then there’s no one to talk to, and no one to help, and no one to risk disappointing.”

He was in the back of the room now, shrouded in shadow. “I’m the last one left.”

“You’re the last IT director,” said Kira. “At least the last that I know of. With everything you know about computers and networks and radios and solar panels—I mean, seriously, Afa, you’re like a genius. You are a genius. You’ve been alone for so long, but you don’t have to be. You’re helping me, right? You’re talking to me, and I’m not scary.”

“Yes, you are.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m not trying to be. But you have to face this. What are you hiding from, Afa? What are you afraid of?”

Afa stared in silence before whispering his answer, and his voice was scarred by years of pain and fear. “The end of the world.”

“The world already ended,” said Kira. “That monster’s come and gone.” She stepped forward slowly, inching toward him. “In East Meadow we celebrate it—not the end, but the beginning. The rebuilding. The old world is dead and gone, and I know that’s so much harder for you than for me. I barely even knew that world.” She stepped closer. “But this world is right here. It has so much to give us, and it needs so much of our help. Let the old world go, and help us build a new one.”

His face was lost in shadow. “That’s what they said in their emails.”

“Who?”