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Her teeth chattered violently Juliette eyed the stairs, this new fear coursing through her that boots could rumble down at any moment, that she was trapped between these other survivors and the freezing water She retrieved her knife, held it in front of her with both hands, tried to will herself to not shiver so violently

Glimpses of her face in the blade caused her to worry ed dark and seeht of her lips vibrating, the clacking blur of her teeth She scooted closer to the fire The orange light danced on the blade The unburnt fuel dripped and foras burned and the fla, but it was cold in the depths of the shaft so far fros she’d stripped off One of them had been left balled up and was still soaked The other she’d been lucky to have dropped flat, hadn’t been thinking clearly or she would’ve hung it up It was damp, but better to wear it and heat it up than allow the cold air to wick her body teet her arh the sleeves, zipped up the front

On bare, numb, and unsteady feet, she returned to Solo She could feel his neck this ti a body stayed that way And then she felt a weak and slow thru in his neck A beat

"Solo!" She shook his shoulders "Hey--" What name had he whispered? She remembered: "Jimmy!"

His head lolled from side to side while she shook his shoulder She checked his scalp beneath all that crazy hair, saw lots of blood Most of it was dry She looked around again for her bag--they had brought food, water, and dry clothes for when she got back up--but the satchel was gone She grabbed her other undersuit instead She wasn’t sure about the quality of the water in the fabric, but it had to be better than nothing Wrenching the ainst his lips She squeezed more on his head, brushed his hair back to inspect the wound, probed the nasty cut with her fingers As soon as the water hit the open gash, it was like pushing a button Solo lurched to the side, away from her hand and the drip from the undersuit His teeth flashed yellow in his beard as he hissed in pain, his hands rising fro there, arms tensed, still senseless

"Solo Hey, it’s okay"

She held hi

"It’s okay," she said "You’re gonna be okay"

She used the balled-up undersuit to dab at his wound Solo grunted and held her wrist but didn’t pull away

"Stings," he said He blinked and looked around "Where am I?"

"The down deep," she re with relief "I think you were attacked--"

He tried to sit up, hissing between his teeth, a powerful grip pinching her wrist

"Easy," she said, trying to hold hiot a nasty cut on your head A lot of swelling"

His body relaxed

"Where are they?" he asked

"I don’t know," Juliette said "What do you remember? How many were there?"

He closed his eyes She continued to dab at his wound

"Just one I think" He opened his eyes wide as if shocked by the et up top," she told hiet me dry Do you think you can move?"

"I’s that hts, it wasn’t reed She re of herself, always in the down deep of this place, usually while ru around Supply "You aren’t crazy," she said, co him "You aren’t crazy at all"

21

• Silo 18 •

Lukas couldn’t force hi The Order sat flopped open on the wooden desk, the little la it in a pool of light

But Lukas stood before the wall scheement of silos, spaced out like the servers in the room above him, and listened to the radio crackle with the sounds of distant warring

The final push was being made Si about a stairwell--but not the great stairwell--and now they were in a fight they hoped would be the last The little speakers by the radio hissed with static as the men coordinated themselves, as Bernard shouted orders frounfire erupting behind the voices