They stood on a trash-strewn road, as cracked and worn as the pier. Abandoned chunks of metal and glass with four wheels—sometimes more, sometimes less—lay scattered like thrown toys wherever you looked. Cars. Trucks. Motorcycles. Bicycles. Isaac’s parents and grandparents had described the old world to him ad nauseam, but that didn’t lessen the impact of seeing it for real. Spectacular.

Buildings spiked the area, growing bigger and broader and taller the farther away from the beach they stood. All of them bore marks of abandonment, destruction, erosion, decay—countless broken windows, charred remains of fire, vegetation growing in places it had no business growing. In the distance, towered a majestic cluster of the main part of the city, impossible structures loomed over the land, their tips almost touching the . . .

“Skyscrapers,” Isaac said. “Those are skyscrapers.” It must’ve sounded dumb, but awe filled him top to bottom.

Ms. Cowan, Old Man Frypan, even Wilhelm and Alvarez—the two members of Congress who’d been convinced to come—were just as taken aback as the youngsters, mouths open but speechless.

Isaac glanced at his friends, enjoyed seeing their wonder.

Sadina and Trish, arm in arm, rotated in a slow circle, taking in the sights. Miyoko stared at one building in particular—a massive thing that looked like the arm of a god—as if she were determined to analyze each and every structure, one by one. Dominic stood inches from her, his eyes darting to all kinds of places, perhaps worried he might miss something grand. The west-siders who’d joined them, and become honorary east-siders in Isaac’s opinion—Carson, Jackie, and Lacey—were no different in their awe. Carson in particular, giant of a man that he was, seemed to shrink into a wide-eyed child, given a room-full of toys. Jackie, absently running a hand down the length of her long braid of hair, also turned in a circle, trying to take in everything at once. Lacey, the shortest one of the bunch, had her arms folded in defiance, as if she refused to believe the city around them was actually real.

“This is insane,” Trish whispered. “I can’t believe my own eyeballs.”

Dominic replied, “I can’t believe your own eyeballs, either. Wow.”

“How did a place like this even function?” Jackie asked. “All the people . . . I mean, I can’t even imagine the logistics of . . .” Her voice trailed off.

Miyoko held her arms up to the sky then let them flop back down. “Our grandparents held back on us. This is way cooler than I ever imagined.”

Old Man Frypan perked up at that. “It’s not like we were livin’ the good life. The world had already gone to Hell in a bucket when we were kids. It wasn’t like we wanted to sit around the fire and talk about the good ole days. The good ole days shat the bed long before I shat my first diaper.”