His voice rose from the darkness sometime later, deep and cautious. "Why are you helping me?"

I pulled my hands from his chest, and took a half-step back, regretting the broken connection instantly. Still, our hands hung cuffed between us, and I could feel the weight of his arm behind it.

"We're partners," I said. That was the easiest explanation. "And you could have killed me in the Tuv pit. But you didn't."

"You didn't have to enter." This surprised me. So my partner had been watching. Interesting. Then he went on. "You jumped in to save your friend. You were innocent, but you fought anyway."

Shame twisted my chest at the thought of Yaneli, followed by hot grief. "No... I'm not innocent." In the accompanying silence I wished I could see his face, because it would have stopped me from speaking the truth I wouldn't have in the light. "It didn't do any good. She died anyway. I couldn't save her." I can't save anyone. I am a doctor of the dead.

"You saved me." A pause, and then, softer. "Thank you."

They were the last words I expected to hear from him— or from anyone. I didn't know what to say, so I said nothing, thinking about Yaneli and Xyla and home and how far away it all suddenly seemed. In the perfect darkness, the homesickness felt like a physical illness, like the time I'd caught the Belly flu, and my body had expelled all food and water and I burned with fever for days. Just thinking of it, I reached out to steady myself, setting my hand against the wall—a bizarre moment when the magnetic fingertips settled there with no pull. The wall isn't made of metal. Strange. Then I lifted my metal hand and backhanded the tears from my eyes— when the overpowering scent of salt assaulted me again.

Not salt from my eyes—salt from the box.

It hit me so suddenly, that if they'd been there, Xyla would have rolled her eyes and Yaneli would have shook her head, embarrassed it took so long for an engineer of the Belly to put it all together.

Salt.

Mildew.

This box had been underwater before. 

(Reactions? What do you think happens next? Keep reading because there are 2 chapters posted today! 

Also, if you haven't preordered if yet, THE LAST CITY, perfect for fans of The Last of Us and the 100, comes out Feb 14th 2023. Huzzah! Now read on!)