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"So what did the Pilot do?" I ask

"He saved people," Caleb says "He and some of the other pilots would run people froe He et out, and he helped Aberrations and Anomalies, too"

"That’s who carved in the ships, isn’t it?" I say, understanding "People ere hiding there when the Pilot flew them out"

"It was stupid of theer in his voice "They could have gotten the pilots in trouble"

"I think theythe picture carved on one of our earlier ships of the Pilot giving the people water "That’s what it looked like to me"

"It was still stupid," Caleb says

"Do people live in the villages anymore?" I ask

"I don’t know," Caleb says "They ht have all left for the Otherlands by now The Pilot tried to get the, but they wouldn’t"

That sounds like the Ano either It makes me wonder what happened to Anna’s people when they reached the villageers there? Did the groups have enough in coes help the people fro, or did they drive them away--or worse? What’s happened to Hunter and Eli?

"Other kids grew up telling stories about the Pilot," Caleb says "But I greatching him fly I know he’s the one who can lead us out of this"

Caleb sounds terrible The pain’s winning out I can hear it thick in his voice And I knohat’s happening

He’s going still

He was supposed to be iue Is this a new version of it? One our iainst?

"I want you to write down everything I said about the Pilot," Caleb says, "including that I believed in him until the end"

"Is this the end?" I ask

Silence

"Caleb?"

Nothing

"Did he go still?" Indie asks "Or decide he didn’t want to talk anymore?"

"I don’t know," I say

She stands up as if she’s about to go down into the hold "No," I say "Indie, you can’t risk exposure to whatever it is"

"He didn’t tell youback down "I bet there were plenty of people who knew that about the tubes and the Pilot"

"We didn’t," I remind her

"You believe Caleb because he has those notches on his boots," she says, "but it doesn’t mean he was in the camps Anyone could have cut their boots like that"

"I think he was there," I say

"But you don’t know that he was"

"No"

"He is right about the Pilot, though," Indie says

"So you do believe Caleb," I say "About the Pilot, at least"

"I believe myself about the Pilot," Indie says "I know that he’s real" She leans closer to ain, like she did all those weeks ago "The villages are real, too," she says, "and the Otherlands All of it"

Her voice is every bit as impassioned as Caleb’s was And I understand her Indie loves me, but she’s a survivor When I told her I wouldn’t run with her, she turned to so I believe in Cassia Indie believes in the Rising and the Pilot We’ve both found soh

"It could have been different," I say, alain after she kissed me If I hadn’t known Cassia before I met Indie

"But it’s not," Indie says, and she’s right

CHAPTER 20

CASSIA

The world is not well

I look out theof ather at the barricade, the way they do often now at night, and soon the Rising officers will come in black and disperse them all, petals to the wind, leaves on the water

The Rising hasn’t told us exactly what’s happened, but, for the past feeeks, we’ve all been confined to our apartments Those of us who can, send in our work over the ports All co says that is te will be fine soon

It has begun to rain