The TransportDrone dropped us off in a stretch of gently curving hills. We walked under the shivering shadows of tall oaks. Emma stopped next to a pile of broken branches.

She pulled them away, one by one.

Underneath was a hatch.

It was a familiar/unfamiliar sight. It looked identical to the other hatch. But the bunker underneath was a completely different world. Until two days ago, it was the only world Emma had known. It contained her FamilyUnit, her friends. But were they still alive? Inside Emma’s backpack was the antiviral medication they needed. But what if we were too late? What if they were already dead?

I could see these same questions in Emma’s face.

She turned a key, twisted a handle, and opened the metal doorway.

She took a long breath, as though preparing to dive deep underwater. And then she climbed into the bunker.

01100111

Zeroes and ones.

Ones and zeroes.

My head was full of them.

Time stretched forward.

Seconds/Minutes/Hours.

And I waited. And I counted. And I forced my artificial brain to think of nothing else.

Except zeroes and ones.

Ones and zeroes.

01101000

Over the next five hours, twelve minutes, and forty-one seconds, Emma came up from the bunker three times.

Trip[1]:

When she emerged from the hatch, she carried with her good news and bad news.

First the good news: The people inside the bunker were still alive.

And then the bad: The sickness had taken a devastating toll. Many inhabitants were unconscious. Some barely clung to life.

Emma had given the medication to all of them, but was it enough?

She wiped the sweat from her forehead and went back down.

Trip[2]:

This time, a faint note of optimism clung to her worried features.

“It’s still too early to tell for sure,” she said. “But I think some of them are getting better.”

She took another deep breath and descended into the bunker again.

Trip[3]:

The third time Emma climbed up through the hatch, she was not alone.

01101001

Emma was followed out of the bunker by a man and a woman. These were only the second/third humans I had ever encountered in my life.

I stared.

They wore the remnants of their illness. Dark circles beneath their eyes. Ashen skin.

The man had a black/gray beard and green/brown eyes. The woman’s curly/brown hair hung down to her narrow shoulders.

I ran a comparative analysis of their facial features. “Are you Emma’s FamilyUnit?”

The woman nodded. “I’m her mom.” She tilted her head toward the man at her side. “And this is her dad.”

The man brought a hand down on Emma’s shoulder. His gaze moved from Ceeron to SkD before finally landing on me. “Our daughter tells us the three of you saved her life. You saved all our lives. Thank you. Thank you so . . .”

His words trembled into silence. Tears formed in his green/brown eyes.