“Drop it,” she instructed, and the scissors clattered to the cement. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Isaac still working on the baby, Wab still rocking in the cage, Slopper and Chi Boy being unlocked, and a flurry of movement in every corner. No one noticed this small standoff. Everyone was busy. And now I was going to die.

I closed my eyes and waited for the heat and tear, and then came the shot, loud and sudden and more like a scream than a bang.

And then, nothing. Just…nothing.

I opened my yes. Veronica was on her knees now, too, so that we were the same height, finally seeing eye to eye. The anger was gone; now there was only shock. Suddenly, with the anger ripped off like a wrapper, there was so much to be read in her face, and most of it was childlike confusion.

I could practically see her thinking, This is not how it was supposed to end. Where were her loved ones? Where were the lilies and platitudes? Where were the silk sheets and foreign doctors? She was dying in a dirty garden shed surrounded by strangers, barely even real people—a herd of animals.

Behind her stood a figure lowering their rifle—the shooter. Their face was covered in shadows, and their clothes were dark with dirt. Was this another vigilante, one who had gone rogue? Another nurse from the network who had been alerted to our predicament, maybe? I looked at Rania, dead in the corner because she believed in something beyond herself. Who else had we lost? I scanned the room, but it was impossible to guess. Bodies lay everywhere, so much carnage in this small space. Then the shooter reached up and pulled back their hood.

I didn’t trust my eyes at first, with only the moon and the weak blue light wavering from the pool outside. Then she smiled, and I would have recognized that face anywhere, under any light, even if it was just the stars, so far away they were beads in a velvet sky.

“Rose?”

CHAPTER 38

HOW ROSE ARRIVED–A DIFFERENT COMING-TO STORY

Rose

SHE HAD LEFT DERRICK IN TEARS IN THE WOODS. SHE had grabbed up her supplies, “borrowed” Derrick’s bundled tent and a flask of water from beside the firepit, and slunk back into the trees. She was half a mile away before she heard footsteps behind her.

“Derrick.” She spun around. “I told you I have to go!”

Only it wasn’t Derrick. It was Nam.

“Nam, what are you doing? Go back.” Rose turned and kept walking, a little slower now. But they didn’t turn back. They kept following until they were walking one step behind.

“I’m serious. You should go back. You’re safe with that group. I have to find my old group.”

“I’ll stay with you.” Nam’s voice was soft.

“Why?” Rose threw up her hands. “I don’t even know where the hell I’m going.” She laughed a bit. This was the truth. She had Miig’s directions and a good sense of where south was but had no idea beyond that. She had almost nothing.