“Okay. But while I do that . . .” Alan glanced over his shoulder at the crowd of people who had wandered into the ark. “They don’t know anything. They just heard gunshots and came down here to see what’s going on.”

“I’ll talk to them,” Ethan said.

He started toward the crowd.

Alan called after him, “Be gentle!”

“Why should I?”

“Because this is the only life they know, and you’re getting ready to blow it all to pieces.”

THERESA

THERESA

She jerked awake, her eyes opening to total darkness.

Ben was stirring, mumbling, “No, no, no,” in his sleep.

She shook him awake and whispered, “You’re okay, buddy. Mama’s got you.”

It had been years since she’d uttered words like those to her son. Not since she’d been a young mother, rocking her baby boy to sleep, the window cracked in his nursery and the two of them lulled by the whisper of soft Seattle rain.

“What’s happening?” Ben asked.

“We’re still in the jail cell, but we’re okay.”

“Where are the monsters?”

It was unnervingly quiet, no sound of movement beyond the bars.

“I think they’re gone for now.”

“I’m really thirsty.”

“I know, buddy. Me too.”

“Isn’t there a water cooler behind the front desk?”

“I think so.”

“Maybe we could sneak out there, try to get—”

“Oh, I don’t think that’d be such a hot idea, Benjamin,” said a woman in the darkness on the other side of the bars.

Theresa recoiled. “Who’s there?”

“Don’t you recognize my voice, honey? How could you not? You’ve been spilling your guts to me every fourth Thursday of the month for the last—”

“Pam? Oh my God, what are you—”

“I heard you two screaming a few hours ago, saw those abbies chase you into the sheriff’s station. I waited until they left. I’m so relieved to find you both intact. You have no idea. That was quick thinking, Theresa, locking yourself in here.”

Theresa had expected some level of sight to return, but she still couldn’t see her hand in front of her face.

Pam said, “I’m not quite clear on what happened here last night. Did your husband show an abby to the town?”

“He told them everything. About the abbies. The surveillance. That it’s two thousand years in the future. That we’re all that’s left.”

“So he really did it. That motherfucker. Hey, don’t look at me like that.”

Theresa felt a cold knot ratcheting down in the small of her back.

“It’s pitch black in here,” Theresa said.

“Yes. It is. But I can see you holding Benjamin in your arms and glaring into the dark in the general vicinity of where I’m sitting, and I don’t appreciate—”

“How?”