I was suddenly exhausted, and I could feel that she was, too. Now that my stomach had settled a bit and felt almost halfway full, the rest of my pains were not sharp enough to keep me awake. I hesitated before moving, afraid to make any noise, but my body wanted to uncurl and stretch out. I did so as silently as I could, trying to find a piece of the bubble long enough for me. Finally, I had to stick my feet almost out the round opening. I didn’t like doing it, worried that Jared would hear the movement close to him and think I was trying to escape, but he didn’t react in any way. I pillowed the good side of my face against my arm, tried to ignore the way the curve of the floor cramped my spine, and closed my eyes.

I think I slept, but if I did, it wasn’t deeply. The sound of footsteps was still very far away when I came fully awake.

This time I opened my eyes at once. Nothing had changed—I still could see the dull blue light through the round hole; I still could not see if Jared was outside it. Someone was coming this way—it was easy to hear that the footsteps were coming closer. I pulled my legs away from the opening, moving as quietly as I could, and curled up against the back wall again. I would have liked to be able to stand; it would have made me feel less vulnerable, more prepared to face whatever was coming. The low ceiling of the cave bubble would barely have allowed me to kneel.

There was a flash of movement outside my prison. I saw part of Jared’s foot as he rose silently to his feet.

“Ah. Here you are,” a man said. The words were so loud after all the empty silence that I jumped. I recognized the voice. One of the brothers I’d seen in the desert—the one with the machete, Kyle.

Jared didn’t speak.

“We’re not going to allow this, Jared.” It was a different speaker, a more reasonable voice. Probably the younger brother, Ian. The brothers’ voices were very similar—or they would have been, if Kyle weren’t always half shouting, his tone always twisted with anger. “We’ve all lost somebody—hell, we’ve all lost everybody. But this is ridiculous.”

“If you won’t let Doc have it, then it’s got to die,” Kyle added, his voice a growl.

“You can’t keep it prisoner here,” Ian continued. “Eventually, it will escape and we’ll all be exposed.”

Jared didn’t speak, but he took one side step that put him directly in front of the opening to my cell.