It took her a second to realize he meant the bathroom. She nodded, thanked him, and opened the door, stepped inside. She really did have to pee, anyway.

He didn’t know how he felt about this Skinny and Orange, the two guards with the funny names, but they moved several notches up the rankings when they put a plate of steaming hot food in front of him. There was meat. There were beans. There was something that looked like a blue potato. It could’ve been worms for all he cared. As famished as he’d ever been, he tore into the meal and greedily drank from the metal cup of water he’d been given.

It was a reunion meal, of sorts. Some of the others had joined him, Sadina, and Trish in the room with the table and chairs—Timon the Gentle Giant, whose face was covered in bruises, and Letti, who had a bandage wrapped around her head. Neither of them so much as met Isaac’s eyes, not even once. Also there was Carson and Lacey, their friends from the west side of the island. And, oddly enough, the lady who’d stood frozen on the bridge for so long. Roxy was her name.

But no Jackie. No Dominic. No Miyoko. No Ms. Cowan or Old Man Frypan. No Wilhelm or Alvarez.

“Where are the others?” Sadina asked, even as Isaac tried to swallow an enormous mouthful of charred beef without choking. They’d been expecting everyone to join them but that hope had been quashed when Skinny closed the door. “Where’s my mom?”

Orange replied in a voice without the slightest hint of emotion. “They’re on the other Berg, flying next to us. The other ships have gone on, well ahead of us. Mommy’s okay, so chill your bones.”

Isaac reached under the table and squeezed Sadina’s leg before she could explode. “I’m sure they’re okay, just like us. Eat. It’s really good.”

That earned him a death-stare but even Sadina couldn’t ignore her hunger for long. She and everyone else at the table dug into their food, manners forgotten. Carson and Timon looked big enough and hungry enough to eat everyone’s dinner between them. Maybe they could’ve been friends in another life. As for Lacey, Isaac didn’t know her very well, and she’d always been quiet, but she looked so sad as she ate that it broke his heart.

“Why’re you guys here?” Sadina asked, pointing her fork at Letti. “Wasn’t this all a setup by you? Shouldn’t you be in a suite, having your feet rubbed while you eat grapes?”