“Then?”

“We lost two along the way.” Riri’s face disappeared over a cliff. Minerva closing her eyes forever on a road that went nowhere. I watched them fade.

“Continue.”

“We were together for a long time. Hunted together. Slept in a circle. Walked.” I held Rose back, refused to share the night Chi Boy caught her lurking around the camp and dragged her into the light, into our family. No one could shake her out onto the table for the taking. I held her in a small pouch at the back of my mind. I wouldn’t even allow myself to imagine her face right now.

“Isn’t it true that you were with this one group for the entirety of your time out of captivity?”

Mellin already knew the answer.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Are there many families out there, eking out some kind of existence?”

“No.” It was the truth, and it hurt. “Not many.”

My eyes were fixed on my feet, turned on their sides, big toes together through the rubber soles of my slip-ons. I remembered the way food tasted when we harvested it ourselves, like a feast each and every time. I remembered the way laughter felt when you stifled it in a sleeve, like extra padding between your skin and the cold.

She snapped her laptop closed. I jumped.

“That will do for today.”

“Where am I going?” I was frantic. I could hear the siren being wound up with a crank somewhere, which of course was only in my head.

She stood and answered, “Why, you’re going back to your quarters, of course.” She smiled. There was so much in that small baring of teeth, everything but joy. “Get some rest.”

I didn’t hear the Watchmen come in until their hands were on my shoulders. I let them guide me back to my room without a fight. I didn’t even really look up as we walked. I was lost in the memory of my people, my family, out there somewhere. I was sure, in the same way I knew my mother was long dead and gone, that they weren’t in here. And that meant they must be looking for me.

The thought of them creeping closer to this place brought me nothing but anxiety. Maybe it would be best if they forgot all about me.

That’s when the image of Rose burst to the front of my mind so that all I could see while we walked back to my room was her dark eyes, her flashing smile. It’s hard to put one foot in front of the other when your sight is blurry with tears.

That night, I fell asleep to the sound of sirens pushing the trees to the ground, exposing every person I loved to watchful eyes above bared teeth.

CHAPTER 14

NEWS

Miig

FATHER CAROLE ARRIVED, ESCORTED INTO THE CAMP by the scout who had spotted him from the trees, where she’d been perched with a rifle. Miig knew as soon as he appeared that the news would not be good. Like most people, Carole carried bad news in his posture. Today, his shoulders were curved toward his chest, as if shielding his own heart. Even subconsciously, people sought to protect themselves, their most vulnerable places. In almost everyone, that place was the heart. It was why people carried them in bony baskets of ribs.