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Juliette checked the offices and found nothing for war hall, was turning to enter, when she thought she heard so beyond the next plot of plants A click A crackle More relays for the lights? Stuck, perhaps?

She peered down the hall and into the grow station beyond The lights were brighter there, war up Maybe they had come on sooner She crept down the hallway toward the with goosebu truly war else A squeal,to kick over She and Solo hadn’t checked the other pumps on this level There was more than two people could eat or drink in the first patches

Juliette froze and turned around to look behind herself

Where would she set up ca to survive in this place? In IT, for the power? Or here, for the food and water She ih the cracks in the violence, laying low and surviving the long years Maybe he’d heard the air coot scared, hit Solo over the head and ran Maybe he grabbed their gear bag just because it was there, orby accident and had sunk to the pits of Mechanical

She held the knife out in front of herself and slid down the hallway between the burgeoning plants The wall of green before her parted with a rustle as she pushed through Things wereNot picked over This filled her with athings again just as she had for weeks, but part of her wanted to be right She wanted to find this man as like Solo She wanted toin fear of someone in every shadow, behind every corner

But what if there was roup of people have survived this long? How o undetected? The silo was a massive place, but she and Solo had spent weeks in the down deep, had been in and out of these farms several times Two people, an old couple, no e They would have to be

These calculations andto be afraid of She was shivering, but her adrenaline was pu She was arainst her face; Juliette pushed through this dense outer barrier and knew she’d found so on the other side

The faruided by the hand of man Juliette felt a wash of fear and relief, those two opposites twisting together like staircase and rail She didn’t want to be alone, didn’t want this silo to be so desolate and empty, but she didn’t want to be attacked The first part of her felt an urge to call out, to tell whoever was in there that she rip on the knife, clenched chattering teeth together, and begged her to turn and run

At the end of the groorow station, the hallway took a dark turn She peered around the corner intopatch of darkness wrapped toward the other side of the silo, a distant glow of light e fro juice from IT

Someone was here She knew it She could feel the same eyes she’d felt for weeks, could sense the whispers on her skin, but this tiht the awareness or think she was going crazy With her knife at the ready and the welcoht that she was between this someone and defenseless Solo, sheopen offices and tasting roouide and steady herself--

Juliette stopped So? She backed up to the previous door, could barely see it in front of herself, and realized it was closed The only one she could see along the hall that was closed

She stepped away from the door and knelt down There had been a noise inside She was sure of it Alht that some of the overhead wires diverted perpendicular to the rest and snaked through the wall above the door

Juliette moved closer She crouched down and put her ear to the door Nothing She reached up and tried the knob, felt that it was locked How could it be locked, unless--?

The door flew open--her hand still on the knob--it yanked her into the darkened rooing so at her head

Juliette fell onto her ass A silver blurinto her shoulder, knocking her flat

There was a high pitched scream from the back of the roo the knife out in front of her, felt it hit the round,Juliette kicked away fro her shoulder She was ready for theon one foot, a boy no more than fourteen, maybe fifteen

"Stay where you are!" Juliette airoup of kids huddled against the back wall on a scattering ofto one another, their wide eyes ai She was seized by the sensation of wrongness Where were the others? The adults? She could feel people with bad intentions sliding down the dark hallway behind her, ready to pounce Here were their kids, locked away for safety Soon, thetheir nest

"Where are the others?" she asked, her hand tre from the cold, the confusion, the fear She scanned the roo, the one who had attacked her, was the oldest A girl in her teens sat frozen on the tangle of blankets, two young boys and a young girl clinging to her

The eldest boy glanced down at his leg A stain of blood was spreading across his green coveralls

"How many are there?" She took a step closer These kids were obviously more afraid of her than she was of theirl screairl beside her pressed her face into the older girl’s lap, trying to disappear, to not be seen by not seeing The two young boys glared like cornered dogs, but didn’t et here?" she asked them She aimed the knife at the tall boy, but started to feel silly for wielding it He looked at her in confusion, not co the question, and Juliette knew Of course Hoould there be decades of fighting in this silo without that second human passion?

"You were born down here, weren’t you?"

Nobody answered The boy’s face screwed up in confusion, as if the question were mad She peeked back over her shoulder

"Where are your parents? When will they be back? How long?"

"Never!" the girl screeched, her head straining forward from the effort "They’re dead!"