Ian whispered, "Before we see Morgan, you should know that Chris has been trying to help her. He's been giving her a full cocktail of antibiotics."

"It's still early," Chris broke in. "So we really don't know how well it works. But, for now, it seems to have some effect on slowing the progression of the disease."

This was good news. I needed good news. I had a little hope for Morgan. Maybe if there was a way to slow the disease, there was a way to cure it completely.

"But the cocktail's a combination of some pretty powerful antibiotics," Ian said. "It has some side effects. Morgan's gotten pretty weak. Chris says it'll probably get worse before it gets better. She's also not sleeping because of the hallucinatory nightmares the antibiotics have been causing. She's exhausted. And the kicker is we're already running low on the antibiotics Chris needs to make the cocktail. Problem is, even as a medical officer I don't have clearance at the pharmacy. They keep it pretty closely guarded. Jason is one of the only rangers in the Home Guard with an access card because the pharmacy falls in his squad's residential patrol zone. And he's not exactly going to do me any favors, not after today. I can't even order him to give it over because I don't outrank him in that way. And if I ever tried to just take it from him, his squad would back him up."

Now Ian gave me a stern look.

"Ash, I'm telling you all this so you know why Morgan's in the state she's in. But I don't want you to get your hopes up. We're doing all we can, there's just not much more we can do for her. Our hands are pretty tied."

I nodded.

"I understand," I said. "Just let me see her."

Ian took a key from his pocket and stepped toward the silo door. I hadn't realized it was locked.

"You locked her in?"

"It wasn't our idea," Ian said. "She made us promise to lock her in. She was terrified of what she'd do as the disease progressed. She was worried she would . . . leave."

Ian pushed the door open slowly.

There she was. Morgan was sitting on the concrete floor beside a little kerosene lantern, unlit.

She smiled at me sadly. She raised her hand to motion for me to sit beside her, but she was obviously weak. She struggled to hold her arms out.

But she didn't look quite as bad as I'd feared. She didn't look dead.

I sat beside her and hugged her for a long time.

"What the hell, kid?" I said, holding back my tears. "We're going to get you better."

Morgan shrugged. Then she nodded without much hope.

But she wasn't saying anything. She hadn't said a single word.

I realized that she'd lost the ability to speak.