Maisie looked at Lennon expectantly.

“No,” he said. “I don’t have different advice. If anything, being here has confirmed that I was right. And you need to let me tell them that.”

“What, now?” Elise asked.

“You can broadcast outside the zone, right?” Lennon asked. “You just did that joint broadcast, didn’t you? I missed it while I was kidnapped.”

“Yeah, we did it. But the US has to approve it,” Hadley said. “We can’t just do it on our own.”

“What about video? Can you get video out? The US government doesn’t have to approve anything I send to a news station.”

“I mean, we could, but…” Hadley chewed on her lip. “That’s never been done. Not since the walls went up, anyway.”

“Exactly,” Lennon said. “People are scared of what they don’t understand, and they don’t understand any of you, since you cut off all contact years ago. But we can make them understand. We can make them root for us.”

“Root for us?” Maisie asked skeptically.

“Yes. We make a video letting everyone know that I’m fine, and tell them about the progress on the temporary vaccine. We tell them that you’re helping me get out.” He pointed to the computer screen. “You saw them out there. They’re acting like I’m dead. Let me tell them that I’m not.”

Maisie ran a hand down her neck, considering. Lennon had a point about people hating them. It was obvious from the way the newscasters talked. And she’d heard some of the older residents of the quarantine zone speculating about the US government possibly taking drastic action. It hadn’t been out of the realm of possibility, in their opinions.

Hadley was staring at her, eyebrows raised. She could obviously tell that Maisie was considering it.

Pop-pop-pop.

Maisie whirled around at the sound. Gunfire.

She rushed over to the window.

Outside, a man with a gun stepped over a dead body in the street. He said something into his phone, looking both ways with the gun still in his hand. He was clearly searching for someone.

Maisie cursed. “We need to get out of here.”

“Where are we going to go?” Hadley asked.

“Let’s find Beto. He was at his house last we heard, right?”

Hadley pulled out her phone. “Yeah. I’ll text him to see if he’s still there.”

“We’re sitting ducks here by ourselves. We need to find them and regroup.”

Gunfire sounded from outside again, cutting her off. It was distant this time.

“He’s not responding,” Hadley said, eyes on her screen.

“Let’s just go. It sounds like they moved to the next street anyway.” Maisie strode to the door.

“What about—” Lennon began.

“Just give me a few minutes, okay? I’m thinking about it, I just need…” She trailed off, gesturing to the window, where she could hear more guns being fired. “I need to take one thing at a time.”

He nodded, but she could see the nervousness on his face. He wanted out of here, and he was going to risk going north by himself, if he had to.