Karmen shook me awake sometime around two. I had managed to fall asleep in my own bed, though my pajamas were only half on.

"I meant to talk to you before you went to bed," Karmen whispered, "but I didn't get the chance. I figured you were on autopilot. What happened to you today?"

"I don't know," I murmured. "An invalid thought I was a murderer or something."

"When was this?"

"Sometime during archery class. Please just stop asking questions, we need rest."

"But this is big, Jess," Karmen insisted. "This is extraordinary. What'd they say?"

I grunted.

"Is that an 'I don't want to talk to you' noise?" She waited a bit for an answer, but I was silent. "We'll talk tomorrow when you have less of an excuse to be silent, Jessica."

I flinched at the use of my birth name, but she ignored me and went back to her own bed. I spent several hours void of thought before I realized it was time to get up.

Karmen and I dressed in silence, and we remained silent as our mother gave us granola bars for breakfast and sent us out to wait for the bus at the edge of the buildings' square. The usual crowd of students were there, as well as several early-bird businessmen, everyone ready for a day that never saw the sunrise.

"Jess!" Gabriel called. "Good morning!" He made his way through the crowd to stand next to me, getting odd stares because up until then the day had been silent and stationary.

"Do you always take this bus at this time?" I asked him.

"No," Gabriel smiled. "I ran here from the Sandsong Complex. The subway line there was down for maintenance."

"Huh."

"You must do great in gym class if you can run all the way here without getting hit by a car," said Karmen.

"Yeah."

We watched the cars come in pulses of light until the bus arrived, blocking traffic for a moment as we clambered on board. Outside the window, the streets glowed dark. The hospital lamps were lit and their buildings buzzed silver around the intersection as we approached the business district. No one could be seen and yet more people boarded at every stop.

"The Academy," the bus speakers announced, and we stepped off onto a floodlit sidewalk in front of the main school entrance. Once inside, Karmen branched off down a middle school hallway. Gabriel followed me to class, asking me what AP classes I was in and whether I was taking Dentistry as my vocational course. I didn't manage to lose him until I slipped into the lecture hall for my first class.

When the lunch bell rang Karmen accosted me in the hallway. "Can we talk now?"

"I have to go to lunch."

She smiled and shook her head. "No you don't, I have extra rations that you can have. Now you said you saw the invalid during archery class, right? Outside city limits?"

"Yes, why?"

"We'll do homework outside city limits today. Get your homework done now so we'll have more time later."

"We can't do homework in school."

"Of course not." Her smile widened. "Lunch period doesn't count as school, Jess. Don't take the jeep back to the city today, 'kay? Bye." She followed the dwindling crowd as it continued to move towards the cafeteria. I ducked into a nearby bathroom and worked on calculus.

At the end of the day I went to wait for my ride to archery, like usual. Gabriel and the others were already there. "Your sister said to give you this," he said as he handed me a tin lunch box. It was full of spaghetti.

"Thank you," I said, curling spaghetti strands around my pencil. "Where'd she get this?"

"Well, she said you weren't hungry at lunch, so you asked her to save it for later." Gabriel was smiling. "That is what happened, right?"

I nodded and began to eat. I wasn't finished by the time the jeep appeared, and as I got on board the driver gave me weird glances. When the lunch box was empty I tossed it out the side of the car. Gabriel laughed.

In archery Ms. Barley taught us how to aim to kill, and after class I asked her if I could stay to practice on my own. Soon everyone else had driven back to town. I stood alone in the desert with a bow and arrow and a target.

"Jess!" Karmen waved to me from the city limits. "Good to see you did what I said for once! Where's the invalid?"

"I haven't looked for her," I said.

"Really?" Karmen came closer, looking me up and down. "Is that your bow? I'm sure it will come in handy. Now, where'd you see her last?"

I surveyed the miles of empty scrubland around us before pointing to a spot near the city wall. "I think it was over there somewhere."

"Oh, good! Close to home." Karmen dropped her bag and headed off to where I had pointed. I followed her, but all we found were trampled weeds and sharpened rocks.

"Well, someone was here," I said.

Karmen laughed. "Looks like the situation's been taken care of, Jess."

I was neither disappointed nor relieved. Something hit me hard in the back of my neck, and when the dizziness passed I looked behind me and saw Emmy the invalid, looking weak on her feet and more malnourished than I remembered.

"I threw a rock at you," she said. "Fight me."

"Why?" I asked, taking off my coat and rolling up my sleeves.

"Because I've challenged you."

"Maybe we should talk this out," said Karmen. Emmy and I stared. "I mean," Karmen added, "it's an unfair fight. Just look at her, Jess, she's half dead."

"But she wants to fight."

"She wants to die."

After several moments of silence, Emmy spoke. "Well?"

"We probably shouldn't kill you," I said. "Why do you want to die, anyway?"

Emmy sniffed. She was shaking like a leaf, and liquid was pouring from her face again. She spat on the ground.

"Don't you have somewhere to be, Jess?" Karmen asked me, checking her watch. "It's 17:50. You go on ahead, I'll finish up here."

I grabbed my bag and put my jacket back on. I had a routine to get back to.