Letting out a sigh, Laura shook her head. "I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt, Ray, but.... It's too much right now. You're lucky to still be in the division doing light duties. Especially since they've gotten approval to open up the Outer Limits to A-CAN."

Ray made a face. "And to think, I donated food rations to that loser Richter, only for him to do this stuff, anyway."

"He is a rancid human being," Maddie commented.

Mouth agape, Ray turned to her in awe. "That's what you're worried about? You don't think I know that? I voted for him because of what he'd do, not because this is a personality contest. He wasn't bringing A-CAN to the Outer Limits. His reasons might have been twisted but the results were supposed to be the same. No poison for the Vagrants. The end."

The confines of the vehicle were quiet. The remnants of the driving robot lay at Maddie's feet. She felt better knowing Laura sat behind the wheel.

"Still think I'm crazy?"

Hands bound behind her back, Maddie sat slumped. "I never thought you were crazy."

"Course, you did. At least for a little bit. I've often thought it of myself, so you must have, too."

The silence after that was unbearable.

"You gonna tell 'em what it was that saved you?" Ray muttered.

Maddie sat back. "Why do you assume that I know?"

"It wasn't a plant, was it?" Ray met her gaze. "A small one with greenish-red leaves?"

One gasp of air and Maddie's body sank.

"Found some on Augustus when I tagged his body and sent it back." Ray shrugged. "Now three months later they're itching for a reason to get us into the Outer Limits. You don't think that's weird?"

Maddie didn't. Until five months ago when they came back from the Old City, Maddie wanted nothing more than better air for the Outer Limits. She believed the reports that said Vagrants died of the tumors much faster and that's why harvested bodies were so readily available. But she couldn't ignore the fact that Gus wasn't harvested. Why were their tumors different? Was there such a thing?

"I kept the leaves for myself," Ray said. "Crushed it up and hid it safe. But...there are more."

Maddie looked up at her and begged, "Stop talking."

"And I'm wondering if they're going in to find it."

"Stop talking," Maddie repeated. "Stop talking. Stop working your brain like a rodent on a wheel. Stop talking."

Ray's boldness faded. "Don't call me a rodent. You don't get to call me that again."

Maddie sat there. She felt helpless.

"I can't fight this way for long. What happens when I get bigger and can't run? What happens...what happens when it's born?"

She felt stuck, with no safety. And in a few hours she'd have to give Andy an answer.

Like Ray, Laura listened to Richter's radio station. Today's news was troubling. Sure enough, it ended followed by a message from base and a request for Volunteers in the Outer Limits to secure key areas where A-CAN centers could be built. Additional sweet air stops as well. This was a commercial endeavor. Nobody had time to go in and build schools or fix those fifty-year-old air filters, but the sweet air would be fine.

And Maddie forced herself to believe it.

"No one'll listen to talk like yours. It's foolish."

"Any more foolish than catching people in the Old City and chopping them up?" Ray asked, "Would they believe that?"

Slumping lower, Maddie admitted something difficult: they'd all had a hand in it, whether directly or otherwise. Few Volunteers lived long enough to go into detail. Maddie herself had no reason to risk her neck so far into the old area if not for knowing she was the walking dead thanks to those tumors. Besides, with how little people cared for the Vagrants who could talk back, she doubted a tear would be shed for the ones who moved like animals and couldn't utter a word.

"Gus was planning something."

"Gus was a nobody," Maddie countered. "He walked into the Outer Limits to disappear. He was in the feeding area of the female block where nobody'd know him. I was just one of the few."

"Few? How about the only?" Ray scoffed.

One class, two sentinels: one male, one female.

"He was no hero. He was no plotter. He's like the rest of us, stupid and lost without someone to tell us what to do," Maddie said, eyes drifted to the floor. Her only focus now should be Andy.

"Run," Ray said. "Let's run."

"To where?" Maddie met her gaze. "Where to? And who's gonna deliver this baby?"

"And who the hell delivers babies down in the Old City?" Ray's eyes widen. "There is more than the Inner City, the Outer Limits and The Passage, Maddison."

"Like a tree? Like the jungle? The farthest Gus got was right back where he came from." Maddie met Ray face to face. "There's nothing and nowhere. We're here; we're in it."

Ray's expression turned cold. "You and me don't have the tumors, so we can live long in helping with the harvesting. Just so long as we keep our mouths shut. Right?"

Maddie wanted to punch her. "I didn't ask you to follow me down there. That was on you."

"Attention," LOLA announced, "attention. Unrest. Attention...."

They both looked up, waiting for more but Laura muted the warning. A riot was taking place in the Outer Limits.

Ray, bound hands and all, reached up and typed in her sister's code; suspended Volunteers weren't granted information. "What district is it?"

Someone answered on the other end. "Take your pick. Six of them have fires and counting."

After Ray cut the transmission. She looked Maddie in the eye and asked, "Andy or the Outer Limits?"

Maddie was slower to respond.

"House arrest," she reminded Ray.

"Six districts burning? We're the least of their worries." Ray leaned over to Laura. "Unlock us. Gonna need a couple-a justice rods and rifles.

Laura didn't answer.

Ray kicked her seat. "Did-ya hear?"

But the vehicle didn't pick up speed, it kept bobbing along. A few minutes later, it exited the tube.

"You're not going to the Outer Limits," Laura said.

Ray scanned the greenery with a sigh. "Cypress." The news wasn't appealing. She cut Maddie a glance. "I have to tell you something before we go there."

The vehicle stopped.

Laura stepped out and walked around to slide open the door. She dragged Maddie out. Her attempt to close Ray in failed—the woman rolled to the ground.

Unlike Ray and Maddie, Laura still wore her helmet.

The air burned Maddie at first—it burned and then...nothing. It tasted sweet.

"Take it in, because you've caused far more trouble than you realize," Laura said. "And Priest did his duty with Gus, the most merciful thing he could do...and I'm doing my duty here." She trembled. "Wanted to do it after you'd given birth, but...." She shook her head. "You wouldn't cooperate, anyway. How's it gonna look? Volunteer 555 gone, and her offspring not immediately volunteered to replace her or put into a male division?"

Maddie hadn't cared until now but while Ray's hands were bound before her, Maddie's were at the back.

Ray. Talks of the Outer Limits forced Laura to abandon secrecy.

"It should have been my suicide tonight. Is that it?" Maddie asked.

Laura shook her head, genuinely hurt. "Why'd you have to listen to her, Mad? Why not just carry on as you do? As you always do. If you'd convince her to stop, she would have. Now what? Run off into the Outer Limits? Start spewing nonsense, putting lives at risk."

"It's not nonsense," Maddie insisted. "We're breathing air right now. Maybe at first the air was bad, but it's fine now."

"Air is currency, you fool. That dome over the Outer Limits won't just vanish. Vagrants are alive to benefit the Inner City. Take that away, you take their lives away." Laura shook her head. "I didn't want to do this; I still don't. But cooperate with Andy, give him what he wants and let things go back to normal."

"Don't give him speck," Ray said. "Your mutt gave 'em nothing. And don't think we didn't try. They sliced him up and he said not a word. That's why Andy wants you so bad. Give 'em nothing. Let whatever cure die down in the Old City."

Maddie looked at Ray for guidance. "He was harvested...."

"He was played with," Ray admitted. "And I respect his guts. He gave Andy absolutely nothing. What was left...." Shaking her head, Ray muttered, "I'm sorry."

There weren't many people who'd follow Maddie to the gates of hell and back. Till now, she saw Ray as the only candidate. Today was the first time Maddie looked from Ray to Laura and saw herself reflected in these two monsters.

Ray would argue she was following orders. She could argue anything that made her feel better. Laura would do the same. The very same way Maddie argued it with Daniel and countless other ferals. It made the evil easier to carry out.

"Ray's going to Cypress. Maddie, and you.... You can decide right now where you go. Give Andy what he needs, volunteer your offspring, and disappear, too."

Maddie stared at Laura, defeated.

"You're not giving her to Andy," Ray said. "Over my dead body."

"She'll be alive."

"In what capacity?" Ray eyed her sister but said to Maddie. "Run. Run now." She stepped before Laura. "You wouldn't dare."

"I wouldn't kill my own sister."

Ray said, "I would."

Maddie turned. The gun fired.