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  The unobstructed view over the roof’s ledge was breathtaking. The desert stretched out below them seemed to glow in the angle of the evening sun. Blue led his friends around the rooftop, pointing out the water collection system, the housing of the long-defunct heating and cooling system, and showed them where one of the building’s generators stood. A large, square framework sprang up from the center of the roof, and Blue explained it was the top of the elevator lift. Very cautiously, 62 inched toward the mechanism, amazed at the simplicity and danger of the device.

  Then, as they rounded the far side of the elevator, they found the very same antennae that Blue had pointed to in 00’s book. The radio antennae wasn’t nearly as large as the tower higher on the mountain, but it still rose high in the air above where the Boys stood.

  “Do you think it works?” Blue asked 00 as he poked around the antennae’s base.

  00 shrugged. “Don’t know. The tech is pretty simple though. I think if I dig around a bit, I can probably figure out how to get it going.”

  62 wandered to the edge of the roof as his brothers discussed the metal rod pointing to the heavens. He wanted another look at the desert beyond the roofline before the sun set. As he looked over the landscape, he noticed something moving far below him on the desert floor. A dark shadow of a thing, it crept closer and seemed to grow in size as it came nearer. After a few minutes, he realized the figure was heading toward the trail at the base of the mountain.

  “Hey guys!” he shouted over his shoulder. “Come look at this.”

  Blue and 00 picked their way across the roof to where 62 stood. He pointed down the mountain, at the shadowy figure nearing the boulders at the bottom of the trail. The movements were deliberate and measured. There was no question by now that the being was human, and that it was headed to their front door.

  “Someone’s coming,” Blue said quietly.

  “I’ve got to put away all my books down in the cafeteria,” 00 said.

  “I’ll lock up N302,” 62 said with a nod.

  “And I’ll tell Sunny,” Blue added. He pulled back from the roof’s ledge, and the others followed. As Blue walked toward the door that would lead them back down the ladder to the stairwell, he said, “Okay, Boys. Let’s get ready for company.”

  CHAPTER 31

  Everyone waited for the visitor in the brightly lit lobby. They sat in anxious silence, unsure of who to expect. Darkness crept across the mountain, dropping the temperature outside and forcing everyone to wait indoors. Blue had the only view of the trail since he had perched on a ledge in one of the front windows. The rest of the motley crew lounged in disarray near the door. The night must have slowed their visitor’s pace, as it seemed to be taking a long time for them to arrive at the trailhead.

  “They’re here,” Blue finally announced.

  62 rushed to the window, leaning over Blue to see. Two figures walked toward the building. Their dark masks and ponchos made them look terrifying in the dim light of their torch. It was impossible to know who the travelers were, so Blue extracted himself from the windowsill and moved over to the door. He’d retrieved the machete from the greenhouse earlier on in the evening and held it loosely in one hand, tapping its blade nervously against his outer thigh. Blue took a deep breath and turned the door handle.

  “Hello,” Blue said, loud and steady. He suddenly sounded older, and bolder than he ever had before.

  “Hi!” a familiar male voice replied. “Looks like you were waiting for us. Thank Hanford you were. We’re ready to get inside and rest.”

  “Parker?” Sunny called out. She moved to stand behind Blue.

  “Yes, it’s me.” It was impossible to see Parker’s expression under the thick mask that covered his face, but his voice was full of warmth when he spoke to her. “And Rain, also.”

  “Go get the radiation counter ready, will you?” Rain shouted. She stopped on the bottom step of the front stoop. She carried a small crate, and something looked a bit strange about it in the dim light. Rain gently set the crate on the top step of the stoop where the building’s light revealed that the box had been wrapped in thick layers of the fabric that their mask filters were made of. She grunted, dropping her bag to the ground less carefully. “I’m ready to get out of this horrid mask.”

  00 jumped to his feet and crowded the door. “What’d you bring us?”

  “Breakfast,” Parker answered in a merry tone.

  “Bacon?” Blue asked.

  “Nope. Even better. We brought a hen and a rooster,” Rain said.

  “Eggs and fried chicken!” 00 exclaimed. He spun on his heel, racing to turn on the detox equipment. They’d prepared the detox area earlier in the day, but since they hadn’t been sure when the hikers would arrive, they hadn’t turned anything on. Now that they’d built three computers, and were discussing activating a radio antenna, everyone had become very cautious about using electricity. The sun could only provide them with so much power, and they had to make sure that it would still last the night, even with the increased usage. 00 could be heard flicking on lights and slamming cupboard doors as he retrieved the radiation counter and set the heater to warm up a tank of water for washing.

  “Hazel couldn’t make it?” Sunny asked as Parker picked up Rain’s bag and hauled it up the steps and in through the door.

  “She tried,” Rain said. “But there was an accident in one of the animal barns the day we left. Someone had a fight with a pig on butcher day, and ended up with a knife in their leg.”

  “Ouch,” 62 said with a grimace. “Will they be okay?”

  Rain shrugged her shoulders noncommittally. “Oh, the pig’s fine. With Hazel’s help, the butcher might make it, too.”

  Rain and Parker carefully picked up either end of the chicken crate and made their way into the detox room. 00 passed the wand over both adults, the box, and the rest of their belongings. Despite their trek, they’d managed to cross the desert without picking up anything abnormal. Parker washed up and changed his clothes in record time. The second he was clean enough, he grabbed hold of Sunny in a tight embrace, and didn’t let her go, leaving Rain to finish getting their gear separated.

  Blue picked up the chicken crate, which suddenly erupted in a stream of squawks and screeches. He looked at Rain and asked, “You think they’re excited?”

  “I think they heard 00 holler about making fried chicken,” Rain answered with a smirk.

  Blue frowned. “I’ll take ‘em to the greenhouse.”

  “Good idea,” Rain said with a wink.

  Once everything was sorted and set aside to wash or take to their rooms, everyone headed to the cafeteria to find dinner. Sunny and Parker disappeared into the kitchen to boil a pot of vegetables, and Rain sat down with the Boys. She leaned over the table suspiciously, and whispered in a conspiring tone, “How’s she been since we’ve been gone?”

  “Okay, I guess,” Blue said.

  “She doesn’t talk to us much,” 00 said.

  62 looked at his brothers knowingly. It was true that she wasn’t overly chatty with them, but Sunny hadn’t shut them out as completely as Blue and 00 were leading Rain to believe. In fact, aside from the scare of N302 going haywire with the other computers, she seemed to have formed a connection with the bot. But that wasn’t anything that Dr. Rain needed to know. Not yet, anyway. 62 shrugged a halfhearted agreement with the others, and that seemed to satisfy the doctor.

  Rain leaned back in her chair and stretched her arms. Her tone was more relaxed when she asked, “No other strange behavior, then? Has she said anything else about wanting to hurt herself?”

  “No,” 62 said honestly.

  “Good.” The doctor grinned when Sunny and Parker came into the cafeteria holding loaves of bread. Rain thanked Sunny for her share. Then, as if she hadn’t just tried to get information out of the Boys, she asked, “So, Sunny, how have things been?”

  “Interesting,” Sunny answered.

  “Oh?” Dr. Rain’s eyes looked at the Boys in su
rprise. “How so?”

  “The kids found a building nearby.”

  Parker bent over, resting his hands flat on the table and splaying his fingers wide. An excited grin spread across his face, and his eyes sparkled from the hint of adventure. “What kind of building?”

  62 wasn’t sure what to say. They hadn’t talked about sharing their discovery with anyone. Both Blue and 00 looked equally caught off guard. “We’re not really sure,” 62 said, trying to keep his nerves hidden under an even tone.

  “Oh, that’s not true,” Sunny said dismissively. She looked Parker straight in the eye. “They think they’ve found a radio tower.”

  Parker dropped into the seat beside him as if a great weight had landed on him. His jaw went slack, and he dropped hard against the backrest of the chair. He dragged his hands from the table, and they fell limp into his lap. “A radio tower?”

  “What’s a radio tower?” Rain asked, looking around the table, confused.

  “It’s a device that allows people in different locations to talk to one another,” Parker answered in a thick, dreamy voice.

  00’s head popped up, and he looked at Parker in wide-eyed shock. “You know what it is?”

  Sunny stood behind Parker and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Of course he does. Parker has one.”

  62 was suddenly hit with the same invisible weight of surprise that Parker had been struck with a moment before. “You do?”

  Parker nodded. His smile returned to his face slowly, like a valley of happiness forming between his rising cheeks. “Two summers ago, I found a radio in Hanford. I learned what I could about it, but when I finally figured out how to use the thing, I turned it on and there was nothing to listen to.” He shrugged his shoulders. “No signal.”

  “Do you think you could help us get ours to work?” 00 asked excitedly.

  “Well, we’re here on official business. Rain’s supposed to be delivering books, and I’m here to do more work on your greenhouse.” Parker’s smile vanished. He furrowed his brows and the excitement drained from his face. There was a long pause. 62 could feel his face melting into a pleading pout. Suddenly, Parker clapped his hands. “But, I suppose we can find time to look at your radio, since you asked so nice!” Parker beamed.

  “Parker,” Rain tilted her head and cast a warning look at her companion. “You said we’d only be here a few days.”

  Parker waved a hand in the air dismissively. “We’ll be here and gone before you know it. Don’t worry.”

  “Only a few days?” Sunny’s voice cracked. Her face dropped from calm and confident, back into the anxious lines of worry the Boys were so used to.

  Parker looked up at Sunny. There was something in his expression that only she must have understood, because she nodded, and a bit of the anxiety left her face. She patted his shoulder twice and pulled her hand away. “I need to check the stew. Parker, will you help me in the kitchen?”

  Parker dragged himself away from the talk of radios and followed Sunny dutifully into the kitchen. Rain leaned on the edge of the table in conspiracy once more. “A whole new building, hmm? How’d you come across something like that?”

  In a deadpan tone, 00 answered, “We were looking for snakes.”

  A full-body shudder ran through Rain. She threw herself backward, tipping her chair onto two legs in a dramatic display of disgust. As she regained her composure, the chair landed back on all fours with a slam. “Snakes? Now Hazel really will be sad she missed this trip. She’ll be glad to hear she’s turned you lot of Boys into snake hunters. Did you catch any?”

  “No,” Blue answered. “I’m glad we found a building instead of a snake, though. The building’s only about half as creepy as those slithering things.”

  “Plus, the radio room hasn’t tried to kill us, yet,” 62 added.

  Everyone laughed.

  CHAPTER 32

  The next morning, everyone prepared to leave the jailhouse to explore the radio room. This was Sunny’s first time out of the building in weeks. She pretended to be interested in seeing the tower firsthand, but 62 suspected she didn’t want to miss a chance to spend more time with Parker. Even Rain had decided to go, saying it would be better to tromp around on the mountainside than be left alone in an old, dilapidated building for an entire day. The group bustled throughout the building, packing food for a picnic, and gathering whatever tools Parker thought would be helpful in testing the radio equipment.

  The group set out at mid-morning, carefully following the route the Boys had taken. They’d made the trip enough times that their footfalls had packed the dirt of the trail, but Parker had everyone picking up stones and setting them on the right side of the path to make it easier to see.

  Sunny and Rain struggled on the steep bits of the trail that were coated in loose gravel, but eventually they made it to the summit. The radio tower pierced the sky ahead of them, and Parker’s excitement couldn’t be outmatched by anyone else in the group. Parker adjusted the straps of his backpack, standing tall like he’d just found the most incredible treasure of his life.

  “How much farther to the shack?” Parker asked.

  62 looked at the others. “What’s a shack?”

  “You know, the building where the radios are kept.”

  “Oh, that. It’s this way,” Blue craned his head to the left. He marched in the direction he’d indicated, with Parker hot on his heels.

  Once Parker and Blue were out of earshot, 62 looked over at Sunny. She was being supported by Dr. Rain, her frail body worn from the struggle up the mountain. “Why didn’t you tell us you knew what the radio stuff was when we first brought it to the jailhouse?”

  Sunny’s raised eyebrow was hardly visible under the lens of her mask. “There’s not much out here to be excited about. You were all enjoying yourselves trying to figure it out, and I didn’t want to ruin your fun by telling you it’s dead tech.”

  “Then why bother telling Parker that we’d found something?” 00 asked.

  “Because, he’s as excited about illegal technology as you are. It’s good to see him happy,” Sunny admitted with a sideways shrug. She and Dr. Rain took a few steps forward, heading up the trail.

  “I wish you all paid more attention to that word: illegal,” Rain complained. “If any of you cared about laws, then we could be napping right now instead of dragging ourselves up this dust-covered mountain.”

  “You didn’t have to come,” Sunny said to the irritated friend supporting her. “But I’m glad you did. It’s good to get out every once in a while.”

  “And how often do you get out?” Dr. Rain asked in an accusing tone. “Not often enough, gauging from how tired you are. I think you ought to follow your own advice.”

  “I am out. Right now!” Sunny said in a cheerful tone. It was rare to hear happiness in her voice, but she seemed to be having fun pestering Rain. The mask over her face pinched tight around her chin, and 62 imagined she might even be smiling under there.

  00, 62, and the Women arrived at the building to find the front door pried open. Blue and Parker were already inside. 00 pulled the radiation counter out of his pack and set to work clearing the people and equipment. 62 pulled the door shut once they were safely indoors, as 00 waved his wand around the room. Rain lit bundles of candles set on desks and shelves around the building. Sunny settled into a rolling desk chair, and when 00 gave the all-clear the whole group removed their masks and explored the building.

  When 62 entered the room where they’d found the first two microphones, he nearly stumbled over Parker. The teacher was squatting on the floor, examining one of the mechanical devices peppered with hundreds of sliding switches and twisting knobs. 62 knelt beside him, trying to make sense of the metallic box.

  “So, what do you think?” 62 asked.

  “It’s incredible,” Parker answered with a sideways glance. “It’s in way better condition than the stuff I have. My radio was gutted at some point, and everything is dented or rusted out. But this,” Parker
knocked on the side of the box, “is the real deal. The knobs even still have their little covers. You can just turn the knobs with your fingers. Hardly any resistance at all. The mixer I’ve got is so busted up that I have to use a bunch of clamps and pliers on the little metal posts to adjust them.”

  “D’you think you can get this stuff working?” Blue asked from the doorway that led to the back office.

  Parker grinned and nodded. He got up from the floor and dusted the grime from where his knees had touched the ground. “As long as we have enough good cable, and we can figure out a power source, I’ll be able to make it work. It’s basically the same as what I have down in Hanford, except this stuff is actually complete.”

  Rain crossed her arms and eyed the males suspiciously. “What exactly is the purpose of starting this equipment up? Technology does more harm than good, as we all know from seeing how traumatized the Adaline refugees are.”

  “We could talk to each other,” Parker said. The confidence in his voice didn’t falter, even when Rain’s eyes narrowed at him.

  “We’re talking to each other right now,” Rain stated. “And we’re not using some dangerous technological curiosity to do it.”

  “True,” Parker said with a nod. “But we’re all standing in the same room. If we use this equipment, the Boys could talk here, and we could hear them in my radio room in Hanford.”

  The leery glint in Dr. Rain’s eyes dimmed. “You really think it’ll send a message that far?”

  “Not only that far,” 00 chimed in, “but from what I’ve read in the manuals, you’d get the message almost as soon as we sent it.”

  “If you needed something, we’d know about it that day?” Dr. Rain asked, the challenge in her voice unmistakable.