Chapter 20: The Same Gate

Annabel's POV

At three in the morning the radio gave me static, and at four it gave me nothing.

Jude had never once been late.

I stood in the kitchen with my coat already on, and Hank put the keys to his flatbed on the counter without being asked.

"Don't tell me not to," I said.

"I wasn't going to." He looked at the four coolers by the door. "You're taking all of it."

"Maisy keeps six weeks. The rest goes."

"To her?"

"No," I said. "Not to her."

We reached the Dome at first light, in rain that had thinned to a grey drizzle.

The line of people along the outer fence had grown overnight.

There were a hundred of them, maybe more, under tarps and blankets, with children on their laps and nobody speaking.

They watched the flatbed pull up.

The gate stood at the end of the road, with the gap beyond it and the inner gate behind that.

I had pounded on that inner gate with both fists, in the dark, with the gone coming up the road behind me.

I climbed down from the cab and did not pound anything.

I walked to the outer gate and stood in front of it with my hands at my sides.

On the other side, a man in a yellow slicker looked at me, and then he went to get someone.

Lindsey came out of the dark of the gap in her soft cardigan.

She had a ring of keys in one hand, and Dane was a step behind her.

"Annabel," she said warmly. "You came."

"Where is he?"

"Safe. Comfortable. We're old friends, you and I, so we'll sort this out like adults."

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