Alicia turned from the window. “You know, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll take you up on your offer. Put my head down for a few minutes. If it’s okay with you, Sara.”

She shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

Alicia left them alone. Peter rose and stepped to the window, using the nightscope on his rifle to scan the street: abandoned cars, heaps of rubble and trash, the empty buildings. A world frozen in time, caught at the moment of its abandonment in the last, violent hours of the Time Before.

“You don’t have to pretend, you know.”

He turned. Sara was looking at him coolly, her face bathed in moonlight. “Pretend what?”

“Peter, please. Not now.” Peter could feel her resolve; she had decided something. “You did your best. I know that.” She gave a quiet laugh, looking away. “I’d say I was grateful but I’d sound like an idiot, so I won’t. If we’re all going to die out here, I just wanted you to know it’s all right.”

“No one’s going to die.” It was all he could think to say.

“Well. I hope that’s true.” She paused. “Still, that one night—”

“Look, I’m sorry, Sara.” He took a deep breath. “I should have told you that before. It was my fault.”

“You don’t have to apologize, Peter. Like I said, you tried. It was a good try, too. But the two of you are meant for each other. I think I’ve always known that. It was stupid of me not to accept it.”

He was completely confounded. “Sara, who are you talking about?”

Sara didn’t answer. Her eyes grew suddenly wide. She was looking past him, out the window.

He turned sharply. Sara rose and came to stand beside him.

“What did you see?”

She pointed. “Across the street, up on the tower.”

He pressed the nightscope to his eye. “I don’t see anything.”

“It was there, I know it.”

Then Amy was in the room. She was clutching the globe to her chest. With her other hand she gripped Peter by the arm and began to pull him away from the window.

“Amy, what’s wrong?”

The glass behind them didn’t so much shatter as explode, detonating in a hail of glinting shards. The air blew from his body as he was knocked across the room. It was only later that Peter would realize that the viral had come in right on top of them. He heard Sara scream—not even words, just a cry of terror. He hit the floor, rolling, his limbs tangled with Amy’s, in time to see the creature vaulting back out the window.

Sara was gone.