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“What’s that?”

“Seehts”

“And it belonged to someone who lived here?”

She nodded “Let me read you some of it ’Moht a bunker in the city sublevel, where it’s supposed to be clean and disease-free They’ve been saving since the first outbreaks, and now, here we are’”

She understood h some words, like “bunker” and “outbreak,” she hadn’t seen before This had beenplace, where these others were supposed to be safe But so

or the bodies would still be here if they’d died naturally of old age Soe “This is later, I think The nuot sick There was a proble to hide her illness when they do status checks, but since we’ve all been exposed, they’re going to dump us down below I’d hoped to live to see sixteen’”

“The writer was young,” he said softly “Like us”

“He—or she—hid here, until her daot sick The disease spread Then they ended up in the bone rooh about diseases—where they ca they lasted Could this roos?

“No Whatever one They died, and the sickness with them We’re safe” He sounded as if he believed it “We’ll stay here as long as you like, until you feel up to going on, and then we can explore See what the world holds for us

and find out what’s true”

“Together?”

He nodded “Always”

With a fingertip, she drew an invisible line inside the cover of the journal “This says ’Property of Robin Schiller’”

Stone canted his head, looking thoughtful “That’s e should call Boy23”

“Robin Schiller?” She wasn’t sure naood idea Some enclave beliefs stayed with her, which hy the thimble she’d been na as that object was safe, she should be too Maybe it was just more lies, but it offered some comfort when the world was all uncertainty

“Just Robin Remember the alphabet book?”