Evan Kan: If she’s hidden it anywhere on Earth, I think it might be in one of her off-book warehouses. The one nearest the outbreak is the one I’ll check first. Yes, I know, it means going into the most heavily infected area. There are guards on the perimeter, but they’re stopping people leaving, not entering. I’ll try to sneak through. Hopefully, I’ll find something. Anything. I have to try. By the time you read this, I’ll already be heading there. Messages will reroute to my phone, but I don’t know if there will be service. Plenty of cell towers are already down. If I don’t make it back, I’m sorry. And, not to get too mushy, but I love you. I’m sorry we didn’t figure it out fifteen years ago, but we got there in the end. Hopefully I’ll see you on the other side.

Naomi bowed her head over the tablet, squeezing her eyes shut. She wanted to scream at him. To tell him to come back. But if he said he was leaving right after he sent the message, he would have. She simply wrote back the three words he’d told her and hoped that he’d survive to be able to see them.

She tried not to think of guards, in top-grade filter masks that still weren’t enough to slow the spread, machine guns heavy in their arms, eyes scanning the horizon for any movement. Even if he got the cure, dropped it into the hand of one of the guards, and spread the information to those far and wide, they wouldn’t let him back out in case he was infected. He’d take precautions—gloves and a filter mask of his own—but that was no guarantee. He was being all heroic and she hated it.

Naomi harvested a small crop of potatoes, scrubbing them too hard, their brown skin peeling back to reveal the white flesh. In frustration, she threw one against the wall. It bounced, skittering across the ground, dented but still intact. With a sigh, she picked it up and added it to the others. Calories were calories.

As the hours dripped past, Naomi ground her teeth until her jaw ached. She had to hope that either Hixon had made good on her promise already, or that Lebedeva would come to collect the next dose of nutriblocks. Hixon hadn’t promised to do anything to deliberately take Lebedeva or Valerie down, and Naomi wasn’t convinced Hixon’s bravery extended that far. For all her military accolades, Hixon had never seen combat.

If the pilot did find the cure, that would spur her to action, but if she didn’t, would that convince her to renew her loyalty to Valerie? If humanity couldn’t be saved anyway, make the best of it for the children left behind or the new children they’d grow on Cavendish?