“We need to find a place to wait and rest.” Daniel sighs and squats in front of Lynell, letting his head hang forward. He looks up, and Lynell sees fear lacing the lines on his face. “If Zach’s gone, we’ll figure something else out. Preferably not out in the open where anyone can see us.”

Lynell looks down at him before sitting against the fence. She leans her head back and closes her eyes. “I don’t know where else to go.” A few seconds of silence follow before Lynell opens her eyes and sits forward, turning to Daniel. “All these houses have doors to the back yards.”

Daniel frowns. “We break into someone’s house?”

Lynell shakes her head and stands, glancing down the alleyway. “We find one that’s for sale. An empty one.”

After arguing about the best way to do it, Daniel wanting Lynell to stay behind and Lynell refusing to split up, they end up heading to the sidewalk together. Daniel glances up and down the road before leading them forward. Their walk is brisk, and soon Lynell is breathing hard, sweat gathering on the back of her neck and the cut on her midsection throbbing. Each time a car drives past them, they turn and pretend to walk up the sidewalk to the closest house, Lynell sure to keep her bandaged hand out of view.

A few houses have signs in the front yards, either bragging about the many successes of their children or making political statements. The most popular sign seems to be in support of someone running to be a school district trustee. A few houses support the newest oligarch family and there are even a couple that say the Elysians should be official members of the oligarch.

That makes Lynell want to vomit.

A year ago, she might have agreed with the statement. After all, the Elysians have nearly as much power as the oligarchs without being tethered to the government. Having them be official members of the government would make the Elysians accountable to the checks and balances that are in place. Although Lynell never wanted the Registration to end, she didn’t want it to be a product owned by a private company. Instead, she’d hoped it could be a public service for the people. She’d always hoped that rebel supporters and Registration supporters could find some sort of compromise based on that premise.

Now, she’s not so sure. She’s not so sure about anything. None of the solutions feel like solutions. Every option seems like a different form of the same bad ending: people will be Registered and killed, and not all of them, she now knows, deserve it.

They enter two more neighborhoods before finally finding a house with a sale sign out front. Daniel heads up alone and knocks once, waiting for a reply. Nothing comes, and he rings the doorbell. Nothing. He returns to Lynell, eyebrows raised. “Ready to squat?”