Chapter 4: Once for Yes

The storm came over the Floor at dusk, and it came sideways.

The Cellar was a shallow cave at the foot of the north cliff, and it held twelve people if nobody stretched.

Dot had picked them herself.

There was the woman with the baby, an old man with a bad chest, a girl with a sprained ankle, and others too sick to sleep under a tarp.

Dot had also picked Katja, Harvey and Teddy, and Katja had not been consulted.

The last of the daylight went out. The wind started up, and rain came into the mouth of the cave in long cold sheets.

Katja sat against the back wall with her knees up and the clicker in her hand.

She was out of conversations.

She had spent one on Lyle's coffee, one on a man with a rash, and one on the solar panel.

It was not yet nine at night, and it was too dark to read her cards.

"Is everyone dry enough?" Harvey asked into the dark. "Katja, are you dry? Just nod. No, you can't. Nobody can see you nod."

She pressed the clicker once, and it clicked.

Nobody said anything.

"Was that a yes?" Harvey said.

Click.

"Okay. Okay! Is that your system? Once for yes?"

Click.

"What's no?"

Click-click.

"That's a lot of information," Harvey said happily. "I've known you two days and I've never gotten so much."

Dot spoke up from the other side of the cave.

"Honey, is the roof going to hold?"

Katja thought about it.

She did not know.

She was not an engineer, and the roof was rock that had been flying through the sky for two days.

She clicked once, because it was the answer the cave needed.

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