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I whisper to her. Blaine’s been looking at the boy the same way he looked at his daughter, Kale, back in Claysoot. Like he wants to show him the world and teach him everything he knows and protect him with his own life if it comes to it. I don’t understand how Blaine can care so much for a person he’s only recently met. More proof that he’s a better person than me.
    “I just worry about him,” Emma says, as if I didn’t already know this. She hasn’t taken her eyes off Aiden since he joined our group, and he hasn’t wandered far from her side either. The fact that he’s sitting with Jackson—farther than an arm’s length from Emma—is a small miracle in itself.
    “Well, you’re wasting your energy. He’s with Blaine. He’s as safe as he’ll ever be.”
    Emma gives me a look that seems to say, You know I can’t help worrying.
    “. . . I was barely six when he died,” Sammy says, and we’re both pulled back to the conversation happening beside us.
    “Who died?” Emma asks.
    “My great-grandfather. He lived through the Second Civil War and watched Frank come into power nearly fifty years ago. Man, the stories he would tell.”
    “Like?” I prompt.
    “They’re not really fireside material.”
    “And this isn’t a typical campfire in the woods,” Bree points out.
    “Fair enough, Nox,” Sammy says. “Fair enough.” He tosses snow at the fire for a moment, listening to it sizzle.
    “He used to talk about how chaotic things were in the years between the Continental Quake and the Second Civil War. That was his favorite word for it all— chaotic. ”
    “Well, it fits,” September chimes in. “We learned about it all in middle school. Decades before the Quake, scientists were predicting massive shifts in the Earth’s plates. Plus, the climate was changing. Getting hotter, drier. There was less rain and more droughts, and the ocean levels were rising like crazy. A lot of major cities were in jeopardy of flooding. That’s where Robert Taem came in.”
    “Taem like the city?” Bree asks.
    “People forget it was named after him,” Bo says. He starts tapping on his knee, his fingers unable to stay still, and September nods in agreement.
    “Taem was the engineer behind the domed design—nearly indestructible, safe from harsh suns, better air quality. The government contracted him to make it, and then the capital ended up beneath it, farther inland and safe from the rising ocean. Voilà! The city of Taem.”
    “My great-grandfather used to joke that Robert Taem knew what was coming, but he couldn’t have,” Sammy says. “Not really. Taem died young, long before the War.”
    “I don’t even think he saw all the other domed cities spring up,” September adds. “But they did, all based on his original design.”
    “I thought we were talking about the years between the Quake and the War,” Bree interjects.
    “I’m getting there, Nox.” Sammy takes a swig from his waterskin before continuing. “My great-grandfather had enough money to move to Taem with his fiancée. It was expensive to buy your way under a dome, but he got lucky, especially with the timing. Two months after his move, the Continental Quake hit: a half dozen widespread earthquakes in the course of three days. The coasts pretty much all fell into the ocean. The gulf ate its way up the center of the country. Rivers and streams flooded with salt water. Roads were upturned and cities toppled—including some domed ones. If the ground falls out from beneath a place, it’s not going to stay standing no matter how indestructible its outer shell is.
    “People obviously panicked. My great-grandfather said the world outside still-standing domes became like a war zone. Everyone was looting abandoned stores, stealing from neighbors. Law enforcement was stretched too thin. Hospitals were over capacity. And then when the flooding didn’t slow, the government started barricading and controlling freshwater resources. Clean water