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asked. It had become a running gag and was usually good for a chuckle, harkening back to a time of normalcy, when driving across the country with siblings was considered mind-numbingly boring. But now, with the possibility of every turn revealing a new horror, crossing the country was far from dull. They rode mostly in silence, each of them keeping watch in a different direction.
    Jakob had told Anne about how, when he was younger, he used to imagine a man running in time with the truck, leaping from building to building, or trees, or whatever else they passed. She thought it was strange at first, but sometimes caught herself imagining a giant sword extending from the side of the truck, cutting down all the trees and endless fields they passed.
    Instead of laughing, Ella replied, “Almost,” which killed the joke and put her fellow backseat riders on edge. So far, the two biodomes Anne and her mother had visited had been left in ruins. Lives had been lost or uprooted. Jakob and Peter had nearly died on multiple occasions, and Alia had lost her father. The man had already been out of his mind, but he was still her father. Anne was still getting to know her father, but already she couldn’t picture a future without him in it. He was brave, and strong and disciplined. While the world had fallen into chaos, he brought order and balance, even to her mother, who had become somewhat savage to survive. Anne didn’t hold that against her mother. They’d both survived only because they were willing to do horrible things, and Peter was equally willing, but his strategic mind was better at avoiding trouble, or getting out of it without losing a piece of his soul in the process.
    Or maybe he just lost less of it. He’d seen combat before, and not the kind where people were killing ravenous monsters. He had fought and killed other people. Normal people. And it had left scars on his body and psyche. He had told her about it one day while foraging. At first, it seemed like he was just shooting the breeze, telling stories to his daughter. But then she understood that it was a morality lesson about the horrors of war. A warning to not get lost in the killing and death and non-stop adrenaline. “It can change the way you see the world,” he had said. “When you become numb to death, you become numb to life, and it’s a lot easier to lose something you can’t feel.”
    “Like I might cut off a finger if I can’t feel it,” she had said.
    “Mmm,” he had agreed, “except that losing your finger only affects you. If you were to die...”
    She had thought his concern was about how Anne dying might affect Ella. But when he turned away from her, hiding his face and whatever emotion was going on there, she understood that he was becoming as fond of her as she was of him.
    Since then, she had fully embraced the idea that she now had a complete family unit. Maybe the only one left on Earth. And for that, despite all the death and violence and horrible monsters trying to eat them, not to mention a good deal of the numbing he had warned her about, she felt blessed.
    And now, as they approached another biodome, she couldn’t help but feel a growing sense of impending doom. Would they be welcomed? Would they face yet more monsters? Would a member of her family—even Alia, who sometimes irked Anne—be in mortal danger? And how could Anne’s parents not see these risks? Why not just drive around and keep on going? Could the people holed up there be that helpful? They probably weren’t even alive.
    “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jakob said, looking out the side window opposite Anne. She blinked out of her thoughts and understood her brother’s disheartened tone. The roadside for miles had been flanked by unending fields of what looked like miniature trees with green, orb covered stalks topped with lettuce heads. Her mother said they were Brussels sprouts. Actually, she had said, “Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera,” but Anne knew