A city. A real city, all broken glass and cement and wood and metal, each element dully reflecting the sunshine with a tired and lifeless lethargy. Although Isaac had never seen such a place alive and bustling, he could tell that it was dead all the same. Where once humans had roamed and ruled, nature was conquering its way back in. The closer they got to shore, the more trees and plants and vines he saw in places where they didn’t seem to belong.

“Home sweet home!” someone shouted from behind, a voice lost in the roar of waves and splash. Isaac didn’t bother to look, determined to be the first one of their haggard crew to sight a . . .

Crank.

The word came up like a demon from the depths of his mind, from the darkest parts. He’d not meant it when the thought formed, he’d just been eager to see another living human being, a sign of movement, any sign of life.

But Crank had formed in his mind, a word he associated with all the ills of the world, as clearly as if someone had carved it in the stone of his thoughts. It was an awful word, letters of the boogeyman, a sound that conjured images of bloodshot eyes and broken teeth and severed limbs—things that had been described to him but never seen. Still, he saw them. Somehow. In those dark parts of his mind from where the hideous word sprung.

Against all logic, he’d hoped to never come across such a creature in this new world. This new world to which he’d been taken by Kletter and her depressing boat. He was in less than a chipper mood, despite the obvious excitement of finally completing the vomit-fest of a voyage. He’d puked up enough half-digested food to feed a village of fish along the way, unhappily spewing it over the side railings once or twice a day. Of course, some of it had been fish.

He was cracking up. He needed to get off the damn boat, even if a welcome committee of hungry Cranks greeted them on the beach.

“Can you believe this?” Sadina said right in his ear, and for a half second he thought he’d leaped out of his own skin. “What if I’d told you a month ago that we’d be here? Back in the world.”

Isaac tried to relax, uncomfortable with the fact that he was so jumpy. Like a premonition that nothing good would happen once they landed. Sadina plopped down next to him and squeezed her legs under the lowest railing, letting them dangle over the spray.

“You’ll get wet,” he deadpanned, as he was soaked from head to toe. “Might catch cold.”

“Or the Flare,” she said. “I hear that’s a problem in these parts.”