"We're here."

At the sound of Kaden's voice, I lifted my head from where I'd buried it against his shoulder. Snow swept through the ruins, the sun nearly set. Even so, the massive wall before us was unmistakable, running in both directions like a scar across the land. The top rose above the buildings around it and blazed with lights, pinpricks burning through the night.

"Welcome to The Last City, Ara," Harrison said, his blue hair filled with snow. "Prepare to trade the plague for some good old-fashioned oppression."

I didn't even spare him a glance, too caught up in staring at the massive wall. Twenty minutes earlier, our small group of riders had parted ways with the wagon of women when the road split. They followed the main highway while we took a quicker path that cut through the ruins and Talia insisted would get us there before the gates closed. I'd barely had time to raise a hand to the women in the cart before they rolled down the road and into the darkness. If Izzie had been with them, I would have insisted we all stay together. But the despair of losing her still coursed through me—along with the cold realization that maybe they were better off without me.

Now our small group of four horses and five riders all stood on the crest of a hill, staring down at the massive wall cutting through the ruins. I wrapped my hands tighter around Kaden's waist. "Have you been inside?"

He shook his head. "No. After I met up with Talia's group, they left a few men to follow the wagon, and then we went to get more men and weapons for the ambush. I only saw the wall."

"We were lucky to come across him," Talia said. "He was about to try to break you out with no weapons, no escape route, no clue really." She paused, as if she expected some kind of thank-you. Keep waiting for that.

The wall cut directly through the ruins, clearly an addition to the city. Before the plague it would have been an interesting structure, but now it felt like finding the Great Wall of China on the moon. "How did they build it?" I said, equally impressed and unnerved.

"Same way history always builds walls," said Ronnie, the last member of Talia's team, in a deep, slow baritone. Unlike Harrison's colorful appearance, the only notable thing about Ronnie was his sheer size and horse to match. "On the backs of innocents."

"No one who makes it to The Last City is innocent." Talia's gaze cut to Kaden and me—I was surprised at the guilty shift in my stomach. "Come on, lovebirds. Join the monster or get eaten by it."

Her horse leapt forward, and the other horses needed no urging, racing down the hill after her. Even with Kaden's warm body pressed tightly against mine, my stomach dropped out beneath me. I'd forgotten what it felt like to ride a horse: the terrifying power, as if you were flying over the ground yet completely out of control.

As we drew closer, I could make out forms walking across the top of the wall, all heavily armed. Blinding lights lined the structure, growing even more brilliant with the darkening sky and falling snow.

It felt like staring into an impossible future—or maybe it was a past I'd thought was lost to us forever. If they had electricity, who knew what else they'd brought back, or maybe never even lost. It felt wrong to hope for a better future when I'd just said goodbye to Izzie, but I couldn't help it.

Our group rode until we came to a path carved through the snow, ruins on one side and the black wall rising on the other. Far ahead of us streetlights burned along a cleared highway.

"Hold up!" Talia yelled as our path ended at a massive gate set into the wall—one that was currently closing. Then, in what felt like an unnecessary addition, "We've got a survivor with us—a woman!"

At those words a few of the men by the gate—all heavily armed—turned to our group. Behind them the main gate slammed shut with a resolute thud, audible over the wind and snow. As we rode closer, I saw there was a much smaller door to the side of the gate. It seemed more like a tunnel, wide enough for only a single person to pass through, with bars on the front and a metal grate that I guessed could slide across and seal the wall completely. Unlike the massive main gate, the smaller tunnel was still open.

Our horses slowed as we approached. Now that the sun was fully gone, the cold of the night bit even deeper, and the lights of the wall seemed otherworldly. Kaden's breath clouded as he whispered, "Talia said new arrivals have to walk inside the tunnel. They'll scan us there, and then, once we clear, we can pass through into The Last City."

I could hear the false confidence in his voice. A whole summer spent in freedom, just the two of us, and now I was asking him to willingly walk through bars and back into a world governed by men. It'll be worth it though, if Emma and Father are there. If the truth is there.

We dismounted, and with a nod from Talia, Harrison and Ronnie took the four horses and started down the road that must have led back to the stables—in the swirling snow it was hard to see far. Kaden, Talia, and I made our way to the door at the side of the looming gate.

As we drew closer, I saw what Kaden meant about being scanned inside the wall. There was a turnstile with bars from top to bottom across the door, so that only one person could walk in at a time. Once you went through, you couldn't go back. Beyond it lay some sort of tunnel that I guessed had bars on the other end. So they can keep you contained if you test positive.

"Long live the Chancellor," one of the guards said to Talia, setting his fist over his heart.

Talia's grin soured, but she copied the gesture, something mocking in her voice when she repeated back, "Long live the Chancellor."

I exchanged a glance with Kaden, but there wasn't time to discuss it—one of the guards already gestured Talia forward through the door. She pushed her way past the metal bars, disappearing into the metal tunnel as one of the guards muttered, "Cutting it a bit close tonight, Talia?"

"You know me," she called back. "Besides, I've got a bounty to collect."

She'd better not mean me. Kaden watched Talia disappear into the wall with tense, worried eyes. At least inside it looked dry and warm. Now that we'd stopped moving, the sun gone, the wind cut straight through my jacket and my ears and nose burned with the cold.

The guard pointed the scanner at Talia's eyes and a small beep sounded. "Clear. Next." He sounded as bored as I felt anxious. A screech then a clunk came as Talia pushed her way through the metal bars and into the tunnel.

That's it. Just one scan and I'm in The Last City.

"Do you want me to go first?" Kaden said.

I shook my head. "No, I'll go."

Kaden squeezed my hand, and I walked forward, pushing the bars. Inside, without the cold of the wind and storm, I instantly felt warmer. A large, concrete hallway expanded all around me, the metal chute a small part of what almost reminded me of the inner corridors of a football stadium. The guard lifted the scanner to my eyes and said, in a bored voice, "Long live the Chancellor."

He stared at me, and not sure what else to do, I repeated the words. "Long live the Chancellor?"

This seemed to appease him. I shot a glance back at Kaden as the guard lifted the scanner.

Traveling through the mountains all summer and into the fall.

Everyone we'd lost. Issac. Sam. Izzie. It was all about to be worth it.

And then the scanner made a different sound than Talia's—a sort of angry triple beep. The guard stared at the machine for the longest ten seconds of my life.

No. Please, no.

The guard, a young man with freckles and a crooked nose, shook the machine, and then held it up to my eyes again. I felt paralyzed, terrified, as the same angry sound echoed in the concrete cage.

For the first time the guard looked at me—really looked at me. Another guard, and then another came to his side, the tension building as I stood in the barred tunnel, utterly alone.

"Ara?" Kaden called out, and I glanced back at him as a slow metal grating began to close over the bars that held us apart.

"Kaden?" The grating slowly crept forward, cutting off the night into a smaller and smaller sliver. There was nothing he could do to move forward or me back.

"Ara! Ara, I'll get in tomorrow, I promise—"

His voice was cut off as the metal slammed resolutely closed. The noise of the storm was suddenly replaced by the low murmurs of the guards and the soft buzzing of the lights above—electricity. It would have been incredible, a miracle to me, if I hadn't been trapped here with Kaden outside.

More and more guards gathered, a few of them talking into a sort of radio, muttering words I couldn't make out. Another guard showed up with two other scanners and repeated the same process, with the same result. Slow, cold panic began to grow in my chest.

"It's going to be okay."

I turned to see Talia, safely outside of the second set of bars, hanging back from me. She's scared of me. Scared I might be infected. I took a step closer to her, oddly satisfied when she startled back.

"Could you piss off?"

I wasn't even sure why I was angry at her, but I was. She'd shown up, out of nowhere, and now Izzie was dead and I was trapped inside a cage, separated from Kaden. The last person I wanted help from was her.

Talia acted as if she hadn't heard me. "Trust me, I've seen what they do to people who test positive—this isn't it." Her brow furrowed, and she took another step back. "This must be something new."

Something new? Great, that makes me feel so much better. More and more guards gathered, their whispers growing as they looked at me and the scanners. I felt like an animal at a circus, unable to escape. The tension in my chest felt ready to burst, when the mood of the room suddenly shifted.

There, at the end of the long hallway, two guards opened a set of double doors, holding them wide. A man dressed differently than all of the guards, in a gray suit of all things, strode through. He was older, straight-backed, and moved with a clear, commanding purpose.

At once the murmurs silenced, several new phrases echoing again and again as he passed: "Hail Chancellor" and "Long live the Chancellor." Layered together it sounded like some sort of bizarre chant. The men parted before him, creating a corridor through the crowd straight to me.

"Should I be worried?" I whispered back to Talia. But when I turned, she was gone, the only hint of her presence a door at the end of the hallway closing.

"Coward," I muttered, though had I been able, I probably would have followed. I'd survived the apocalypse by hiding, only fighting when I was backed into a corner. Like I am now. I stood tall, took a slow deep breath, and slid my hand to the pocketknife I'd buried in my coat jacket. I'd survived Gabriel and his ruling of the Castellano clan. I'd survived Colborn. Whoever this man was, I would survive him too.

He drew closer, walking beneath the lights, and I got the first good look at his face—and my breath caught in my chest.

No . . . it can't be . . .

I recognized him.

We'd never met in person. I'd only seen him once in a picture my father had shown me, but I remembered it instantly: a middle-aged man with his teenage son, an arm slung over his shoulders, their faces so alike they could have been twins if not for the age difference.

But Father had told me he was dead.

It can't be him. I'm dreaming. Or seeing things. The shock and the cold have finally gotten to me.

And yet . . .

The guards parted as he strode the final few feet forward. His gray suit was tailored to his tall, thin form, everything about him sharp and neat—nothing like my father, who always smelled of the woods, with clothes faded and lined with weapons. He came to a stop a few feet from me, closer than the guards had. Again, I saw the clear resemblance to my father—the high forehead, the sharp cheekbones, the bright, curious eyes—but that was where the similarity ended. My father was always smiling, laughing, whistling. This man's face was cold, foreboding, a careful circle of space around him.

"Walter?" I said. His eyes flickered in surprise, and I said the word I never believed I would: "Grandfather?"

A slow, disbelieving expression worked over his face. A few seconds ago I'd seen only a resemblance to the man in the picture. But now, standing before me—my father's smile broke across the face of a man I never thought I would meet.

"Arabella." Awe and shock alike rang through his voice. "Welcome to The Last City."