The nightmares were worse. Far worse. The monsters were stronger, faceless, and far more menacing than any I'd dreamed of before. The beasts surrounded us, breathing out a steam that made us choke. I covered Bailey’s mouth and nose, my heart breaking as I watched the fear in her eyes and knew with resounding certainty we were living our last moments. Everything went black as I woke up with a start.

It didn't make sense. We were out of Central. Bailey was back by my side. My mind should have been more at ease, but instead it was the opposite. Alarm bells rang through me, and I knew there was no chance I was going back to sleep. I sat up and looked over at where Bailey slept peacefully beside me. At least the monsters weren't haunting her.

I wiped the sweat off my brow.

"Quinn." Kayla whispered from the bed next to mine.

"Sorry if I woke you up." It was a comfort being in the same room with Kayla again. It brought back memories of a simpler life when we still had hope.

"Did you have the nightmare too?" She rolled onto her side, and I could see her outline in the moonlight spilling in through the window between our beds.

"The monsters...” I shuddered just thinking about it.

"Yes. The monsters." Her bed creaked as she moved her legs.

"We aren't safe here." I spoke my fear out loud. I didn’t want to hide my feelings anymore. If there was anyone I could be completely honest with, it was Kayla.

"We aren't safe anywhere." She sat up, pulling her blanket with her.

"True, but something about this place…" I shivered. The night was colder than it had been when we’d turned in, but the shiver came from fear.

"I feel it too, but I'm also wondering if it's not what we think. I mean if the bad feeling isn't what we think." Kayla put her head in her hands the way she generally did when she was thinking hard.

"You lost me." I sat up and pulled my knees up to my chest. There had been a time when I’d pretend to understand my sister’s thinking even if I didn’t. That time had come and passed. I no longer cared what anyone thought of me. The only thing that mattered was Bailey’s survival.

"Want to get some fresh air?" She swung her legs to the side of the bed.

Now?" I glanced out the window at the dark night.

"Yes. I can’t breathe in here. Those dreams…."

"But Bailey." I rested a hand beside my sleeping daughter.

“We’ll take her with us. We’re just going to the porch.”

“They will freak out if they find us missing.” I didn’t need to point at anyone for her to realize the men sleeping in the rows of beds on the other side of the cabin.

“We won’t be missing.”

It was strange seeing Kayla as the daring one—sure she would go to great lengths to protect the family, but she never risked too much. She was careful. Tonight she was the one suggesting we run out. Maybe she’d always been that way, but I never saw it. I’d spent my teen years longing for an escape I had always known would never come. Somewhere during that time my little sister had grown up, and in some ways I barely knew her anymore.

“Okay.” I lifted Bailey up into my arms, wrapping her up in the blanket. She stirred slightly but quickly went back to sleep.

With bare feet we walked toward the door as quietly as possible.

We’d barely made it three steps when a bed creaked. “Kayla.”

I turned to see Mason sitting up in his bed.

Kayla waved her hand. “We are just going to the porch.”

“Want me to come?” He started to climb out of bed.

“We will be right outside.”

“You promise?” Maverick leaned up on his elbow.

I startled at the sound of his voice. “How long have you been up?”

“Long enough to hear the word monsters…” Even in the darkness I could see the worry on his face. Where did that worry come from? Why did he care what I dreamed of? The change in him still made no sense to me.

“We will be right outside.” Kayla shared an unreadable expression with Mason, and we made it out onto the porch.

Kayla sat down on one side of the built-in bench, and I sat down beside her, laying Bailey down so her head was on my lap and her feet on Kayla’s.

“How can we be having the same dreams?” I needed to understand.

“Because it’s important.” She rested her hands on the blanket covering Bailey. “That’s all I can figure out.”

“That’s what scares me.”

“We won’t let it happen.” She dug her nails into the wood of the bench.

“That smoke…” I closed my eyes, and the dream played before me again. I didn’t want to think about it, but I had to make sure I didn’t miss a single detail. There had to be a clue in there—or a reason the dreams were worse now.

“I know. It’s awful.” Kayla stretched out her legs in front of her.

“Why don’t I see you there?” If we were having the same dream, and it somehow was warning us about the future, shouldn’t we be able to see one another?

“I don’t know.” She gazed up at the sky. “There are so many things I don’t know.”

“Thank you.” I turned, trying to make eye contact.

“For what?” She tore her eyes from the sky.

“For coming after us.”

“Did you ever doubt I would?” She covered my hand with hers.

“No.” I shook my head. “Not for a second. You are like that. You put everyone else ahead of yourself. You’re selfless.”

“So are you.”

I shook my head. “No. At least I wasn’t before Bailey.”

“You were a child before Bailey.” She squeezed my hand once before removing hers.

“So were you.” My hand felt cold without Kayla’s warmer one on top of it. She’d always run warmer than I did.

“And I was stupid back then too. I mean Ethan…” She scrunched up her face.

“Ethan… did you ever find him?” I had so many questions to ask her, and I wasn’t sure if there would ever be a right time.

“Yes.” She slumped down on the bench, careful not to disturb Bailey’s legs. “It’s what led me to Mason.”

“You love him.” I’d know it all along, but I wanted to hear it directly from her. I had to make sure I wasn’t inventing things in my head.

“I do.” A small smile crossed her face. “I do.”

“How did you know?” This was a normal conversation between sisters. It was the kind of conversation we were supposed to have—not ones about survival and poisonous smoke.

“I felt it deep inside.” She smiled and blushed. I’d never seen Kayla blush.

“He loves you too. I can tell.” I knew I wasn’t inventing that. Nothing else explained the way his eyes followed her everywhere, and the looks he gave her when she wasn’t looking. It was the kind of look I’d always wanted Benjamin to give me. He’d cared for me in his own way, but our relationship wasn’t based on love.

“I know. That’s the best part. I know he really does.” She wrapped her arms tightly around her.

“You will make it through this.” I knew she would. She was so strong. She’d found someone who truly loved her.

“We will all make it through.” She tucked her feet under her blanket.

“I hope so.”

“I know so.” She scooted closer to me. “Maverick…”

“Yes?” I shivered, but not out of fear or the cold this time. It was something about the way she said his name.

“He cares for you.”

I couldn’t deny he was acting that way, but that didn’t mean I trusted him. “I don’t get it.”

“What don’t you get?”

“Why? What made him help us?” People always did things for a reason, be it a good one or a bad one.

Kayla raised an eyebrow. “Come on, you have to see it.”

“See what?”

She nudged me with her shoulder. “He cares for you.”

“It has to be more than that.”

“Does it? Haven’t people done crazier things for less?”

“It is like a switch flipped.” I thought back on the changes in his the days before we left Central.

“And maybe it did. I’d believe anything right about now.”

I ran my hand over Bailey’s hair. “I wanted so much better for her.”

“I know. We both did. And maybe there’s still a future out there for her.”

“There is.” A female voice called from somewhere in the darkness.

My chest clenched, and I held Bailey close to me.

“Don’t fear. It’s just me.” Ramona stepped out of the shadows.

“Is everything okay?” Maverick appeared at the doorway. Mason was beside him.

“Everything is fine.” Ramona smiled. “You can go back to bed.”

Neither man moved, so Kayla nodded. “Really, it’s okay.”

“We will be right inside.” Maverick gave me a long look before slipping back inside.

Once the men went inside I went back to Ramona’s cryptic comment in the dark. “What did you mean there is?”

Ramona made her way up the porch steps. She took a seat in the rocking chair. “I meant what I said. There is a chance for her to have a real future.”

“How can you know that?”

“I can’t know anything, but you were talking about a chance. She has a chance.” She rocked back and forth. The chair made a light scraping sound each time it rocked forward.

“In theory everyone has a chance.” Kayla stretched her arms above her head.

“Yes. But she is young.” Ramona pointed at where Bailey slept, oblivious to everything going on. I had to be grateful for that. Sometimes all you had were the small things. “She has more of a chance than any of the rest of us.”

“Do you remember a time before it got so bad?” Kayla asked.

“Kayla, she isn’t that old.” I whispered, hoping we hadn’t insulted Ramona.

Ramona laughed. “I understand what she is saying, and I take no offense.”

“Do you remember?” Kayla pressed.

“Things have never been perfect.” Ramona continued to rock back and forth in the chair. The scraping sound had now faded into the background, drowned out by the hum of the insects.

“We know.”

“I mean from the beginning of time there have been troubles. If you go back to the dinosaurs there were troubles, and those only got worse when people came on the scene.”

I nodded, willing her to go on.

“Do you know the story of the first man?” She stopped rocking.

“No.” Kayla shook her head.

“It’s a shame how quickly the stories fade…”

“What stories?” I couldn’t hide my eagerness. I was hungry for knowledge, for a greater understanding of what was happening to our world.

“Once upon a time people used stories to understand their world.”

“Can you tell us the story? The one about the first man?” Kayla wasn’t going to drop it either.

“Yes. The story goes that the creator started with a man. His name was Adam.”

“What happened?” I didn’t know who the creator was, but that seemed the least of my questions.

“For our purposes I’ll keep this story short. Adam was lonely, and the creator took one of his ribs and made Eve.”

“The first woman?” I didn’t wait for Kayla to ask the question this time.

“Yes.” Ramona returned to her rhythmic rocking.

“And you believe this story?”

“The power of these stories isn’t whether you believe them.” Ramona closed her eyes.

“Then what is it?”

“It’s whether you retell them.”

“I don’t think I quite understand.” And that frustrated me immensely.

Ramona opened her eyes. “Let me finish explaining why I chose to share this story with you.”

“Okay… the old stories were predicated on the idea that the creator started with man, and women came from man. Everything that’s happened to women can be traced back to that idea. So now that the stories have faded, I vote that we make our own version. We can teach Bailey that women came first. And then the creator made a man.”

“But then it’s a different story.” I spoke without really questioning my response.

“Is it?” She held out her hand palm up. “Or is it a retelling?”

“You said the importance is whether the stories are retold. What did you mean?” Kayla sat forward.

“Nothing new ever happens, only re-tellings of the same stories.” Ramona let her words hang in the air.

I waited for Kayla to ask the obvious question. When she didn’t, I asked it myself. “The population has almost gone extinct before?”

“Not in the same way, but there are stories of great floods, of women who were unable to bear children. Of brothers who turned on each other. Of plagues and punishments.” Ramona’s hands moved wildly as she listed off the stories.

“What can we learn from these stories? How can they help?” I adjusted the blanket around Bailey. Somehow she was still sleeping.

“I told you when you arrived that your past no longer mattered, and I didn’t really mean that.”

“So you lied?” Kayla raised an eyebrow.

“What I mean is you will not be judged by your past actions, but to turn your back on the past, or in the case of stories, our collective past, you risk condemning the future to the same fate. If you want a better life for Bailey, you need to look behind you for answers.”

“We would do anything for Bailey. How can anything from our past help?” Kayla lifted Bailey’s legs and stood up.

“Your collective past…”

“Meaning what?” She put a hand on her hip.

“Society. Our society.” Ramona appeared unmoved by Kayla’s growing frustration. “How much do you understand about how we got here?”

“Got here as in the reproductive issues?” I asked.

“Yes.” Ramona nodded.

“We know it started slowly, and then it spread.”

“That’s right. And as soon as it spread, our leaders put up the walls.” She pantomimed walls with her hands.

“To protect us…” I trailed off.

“Or so they told us.”

Something inside me cracked with her words. Like a shell breaking and exposing the creature that lay inside. “What are you suggesting?”

“Wait.” Maverick’s voice came from beside me. I hadn’t noticed him come back out. “Earlier you hinted that not all countries are having the same situation…”

“Wait, what?” I gripped the edge of the bench “What are we talking about?”

“There is so much you all need to learn, but I don’t know if tonight is the time.”

“Then when is the time?” Impatience swirled through me. “Is there ever a correct time?”

“I agree with Quinn.” Maverick put a hand on the back of the bench right behind me. “We need to know what’s really going on.”

“Show them.” Denver walked outside dressed in only loose fitting pants.

“Is everyone up?” Ramona asked.

“Yes.” Addison stepped outside just behind Mason. “We are all up.”

“Are you sure, Denver? Are they ready for it? They haven’t even had a full night’s sleep.” Ramona frowned, showing signs of worry for the first time.

“Look at them.” Denver leaned against the outer wall of the cabin. “Do you really think they are going back to bed?”

“No.” Ramona shook her head. “They will not.”

“What do you need to show us?” I asked with a mix of anticipation and fear.

“Put on some shoes. Gather some warm blankets.” Ramona rose from the chair.

“Where are we going?” I’d expected her to tell us another story. This was different.

“It won’t be too long of a walk, but I am sure you’d prefer something on your feet.” She pointed to Kayla’s bare toes.

“Is it safe?” I ran my hand over Bailey’s hair.

“Yes. It’s safe.”

Kayla and I exchanged looks, and I knew we were both remembering our dream.