Grace slept like a stone that night. After she got back, Grace explained the plan to Hunter and Anna. Anna was agreeable right away. Much like many of those in the meeting, Grace guessed Anna was eager to get out of the underground base.

Hunter was a little more wary, and honestly, Grace couldn't blame him. The thought of traveling through anymore territory controlled by the militants didn't thrill her either, especially after all they went through. And this time, they would be traveling out in the open. But he didn't protest.

Then, after days of travel with little sleep, no sleep from the night before, and the excitement of the day, Grace went out like a candle flame. Anna's living space was really too small of the three of them, but Grace and Hunter were used to sleeping in tight spaces. And Anna's living area was roomier than the truck.

Anna shook Grace awake the next morning. As her groggy eyes slowly blinked open, Grace wondered how anyone could even keep a regular sleep schedule down here. It's not like there was any sunshine to help keep track of time.

"You have a meeting, right?" Anna asked softly.

As Grace pushed herself upright, she saw Hunter still asleep. She nodded.

"Well, breakfast is about to end," Anna said. "So here." She pushed half a loaf of bread into Grace's hands. "Eat up."

"Thanks, Anna."

"I wanted to let you sleep for as long as possible," Anna said. "But I figured it wouldn't be a good idea for you to miss this meeting."

"No, definitely not." Grace took a bite and then went through her pack, pulling out her maps. They would probably be useful.

The bell rang to end breakfast, and Grace, knowing she probably looked like death, made herself stand up.

"Good luck," Anna said.

"Thanks." Grace made her way back to the stairs, tearing at her piece of bread and maps under her arm.

She almost literally ran into Charlie when entering the dinner room. He gave her a glance and then did a double take. Between the bread in her teeth, likely dark circles under her eyes, and whatever the hell her hair looked like, Grace guessed she was quite a sight.

"Sleep well?"

Grace rolled her eyes. "It's been a rough few days. Or weeks. Months? Years?"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Charlie said, but Grace could tell he was trying to hold back a laugh. "Apparently something's up on the surface, so it might be a few minutes."

"I'm guess for a meeting to get delayed something crazy really must be happening?" Grace said. "Given how prompt yesterday was?"

Charlie nodded. "I'm not sure if they'll tell us what happened, though," he said. "Everything is kinda need to know. But if something's late, that means something's happening. This place usually runs like clockwork."

Grace sat down at a table with Charlie, finishing her bread and then spreading out her maps. "This is what I have," she told him. "I knew I was heading north, so I took the ones with fewer details in the south, but it should be a good start."

He inspected the papers, focusing on the one with the most information about the south. "This is amazing," he said. "We don't have anything near this amount of detail. I think the best map we have still has Los Angeles on it."

"Yeah, that's here." Grace pointed to a red zone. "We won't go there."

"No, I expect not." Charlie pointed to a small star by the coast. "Is this where you're from?"

Grace nodded. "It's a small town, though. We're happy to get new people—"

"But not 30 all at once," Charlie finished for her. "Yeah, I get that."

"But, if you ask me," Grace said, "this is where we would want to head." She pointed to a dot on the map. "Sunrise. It's relatively close to the border, so it won't add on that much time to the journey. And it's pretty big, so they'll be able to support this many people, at the very least for a short amount of time. Not to mention, there are a lot of travelers that go through it, on their way to various towns, so our group might be able to spread out to different areas through that."

Charlie nodded. "Well, I'm sure Yesenia will be very interested in hearing about that," he said. "You're basically our knowledge bank for down there. Sorry if that's a lot to take in," he added as he saw Grace grimace.

"No pressure or anything," she said.

The room quieted down at that point as Yesenia came in. Paul and Cameron followed her. All three looked grim.

"I apologize for the delay, but let's get started." Yesenia sat down at the front of the room.

"So, I'm guessing they're not going to tell us what happened?" Grace said under her breath.

"Seems unlikely." Charlie stood up. "Well, the good news is that geographically, our information is solid. And Grace here even has an idea as to where we can bring a large group of people."

That was Grace's cue. She repeated the ideas she had expressed the Charlie, and most people seemed to nod along, agreeing with her.

"Well, given that no one else has any ideas or knowledge about the territory, we can go ahead with that goal. But we have to get there first." Yesenia seemed brusquer than usual. Grace was really starting to wonder what had happened.

"Of our members, Paul, Charlie, Danielle, Zoe, and Taylor will accompany the group. Zoe and Taylor are in charge of travel outside of the militant's territory; Danielle and Paul, inside. Charlie will have oversight over the entire operation."

Grace had no idea who any of them were, except for Paul, of course, but she had no reason to object. As she scanned the group, they all wore hard expressions. Clearly, they had been at this for a while.

"Zoe and I are good on supplies," Taylor said. "We went over everything last night. We shouldn't have to take too much with us, so we won't deplete 109's supplies." Taylor looked around the room until her eyes fell on Grace. "Of course, once we cross the southern border, we'll need your help in planning," they said.

Grace nodded.

"While we're out of militia territory, we should be able to find food along the way," Zoe jumped in. "And then just use our supply for when we really don't want to draw attention to ourselves."

"Which brings us to when things won't be so easy."

It was remarkable how everything Paul said was just so unpleasant.

"Yes," Yesenia said. "But you have a plan?"

"As far as we're aware," Paul started, "this stretch of border that we'll be crossing doesn't have full-time guards. There are patrols that oversee that stretch, but if we can avoid them, it should be easy enough to get across."

"And once we're across," Danielle jumped in, "we're hoping that if we travel in small groups, we'll attract less attention to ourselves."

"You want to split up?" Charlie asked.

"I mean, not really," Danielle said. "But one group of over 30 people is going to turn some heads. But if we split into five groups of around six people, we'll be able to blend in more. We stagger our start times, give each group a cover story, and then meet back up just on the other side of the border."

"No one should be waiting on that side of the border for too long, though," Grace reminded them.

"But we can't wait on this side of the border, either," Paul said.

"It's a risk, yes," Danielle acknowledged. "But if we find we can't wait there, just head directly south until you find somewhere you can stop. Then we'll regroup there."

"And if you're met with militant hostiles?" Yesenia asked. "I don't particularly want to send you off if you're just going to end up captured at the first sign of trouble."

"Well, Paul and I did some inventory, too," Danielle said. "And we have some tricks up our sleeves."

"Which are?"

"First up are tire spikes," Paul said. "A group brought them in about six months ago. If we're getting chased down by cars, we might be able to blow out their tires."

"And then there's the homemade tear gas," Danielle said. "Pop the lid of the can and throw it as far as you can. It should slow people down."

All of this sounded pretty awesome, but Grace couldn't see how any of this would do much good against a spray of bullets.

"We have a few other things, too," Danielle said. "And each group will be armed with a pistol for if things get really bad. But ultimately, it's only 20 miles. Since we don't have any children with us, we should be able to stay ahead of anyone coming after us for 20 miles. And that's only if we run into trouble right at the beginning, so really we're looking at less than that."

Silence fell. It wasn't much of a plan, but short of somehow supplying a tank, Grace didn't know how else they could go about this.

"It's a risk," Yesenia said. "And everyone going should know about that risk and make their decision accordingly." All eyes remained on her as another stretch of silence fell.

"I want the five of you to talk to everyone who is eligible to go." She looked at everyone but Grace. "Get exact numbers by tonight. Tomorrow morning, get ready to leave. You'll go at midnight."

Two days. In two days, they would be back out there. Back into danger.

The group dispersed off to their normal duties, and Grace was about to head back downstairs when she caught sight of Cameron out of the corner of her eye. He had sat in the back of the room for the duration of the meeting, but even now, as everyone left, he remained still.

"Hey, Cameron."

Cameron looked up and gave her a nod. "I see you 're wasting no time in getting out of here."

Grace shrugged. "Can you blame me?"

He shook his head.

"I never said it, but thank you," Grace said. "For getting me and Hunter here."

He nodded again. "I'm just glad you made it."

Oddly cryptic. "Do you mind if I ask," Grace began cautiously, "what happened this morning? You, Yesenia, and Paul all didn't look so great when you came in."

Cameron glanced around the room and then leaned forward. "Yesenia didn't want anyone to panic," he whispered. "But you're not the type. Or the type to spread around stuff."

Grace sat down next to him. Her insides twisted with dread at what he was about to say, but she wanted to know, nonetheless. "The last thing I want is panic," she agreed.

"We have a few more trucks like the one you and Hunter traveled in," he said. "One of them was headed our way, hiding some people who were wanted by the militia." He stopped.

"And what happened?"

"They were found," he said grimly. "I'm not sure how, exactly, but they were."

Grace felt bile rising up in the back of her throat. "What happened to them?"

"Dead." His bluntness made Grace sit back in the chair with a thump. "All of them. Passengers, drivers, everyone."

Grace swallowed hard. "Where? How did you even find out?"

"Apparently they were supposed to arrive around the same time as us, they were just coming from the east instead of north."

Cameron's words echoed in Grace's head as she finally headed back down to the living spaces. "Where's Anna?" she asked Hunter. He sat by himself in his sister's living space.

"Visiting someone," he said. "Someone she knew from the Ocean Train." He watched Grace carefully as she sat down. "What's wrong?" he asked. "The meeting didn't go well?"

Grace shook her head. "No, the meeting went fine. We leave in two days. It's a risky plan, but it's the only one we have."

"So, if it's not the plan, what's up?"

Grace let out a shaky breath and was very glad that Anna wasn't around to hear this. "I was talking to Cameron," she said. Grace quickly recounted what Cameron told her about the other transport, and when she looked at Hunter's face, she could see he felt the same sense of horror that she felt.

"And it just, it just feels like that it could have been us." Grace didn't dare say those words to Cameron, but it was different with Hunter. "And I know there's no point in dwelling on it, but hard not to."

"I know what you mean." Hunter was pale, and not just because of the recent lack of sunlight they had experienced. "I...yeah."

They sat together, grieving in silence for the ones who had died and trying not to think about how that truck could have become their coffin.

"Don't tell Anna about this," Hunter finally said. "I don't want her to think about it."

"Technically, Cameron wasn't supposed to tell me, and I wasn't supposed to tell you," Grace said. "Trust me, I don't want this spreading any farther than it already has."