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steam—manifested after I was exposed to the radiation. Too bad I hadn’t gotten something amazing like super strength or x-ray vision. Instead, I hit the jackpot and could heat things up. Go me.
    Steam rose and filled the cistern, then billowed out and over the top. The woman quickly screwed the top back on and took the cistern from my hands as I swayed on the spot. The man laughed as though he was amused. “So she’s the little superstar the Governor was telling us about, eh?” He pulled a larger cistern of his own out of his cape and handed it to me. “Since you don’t have anywhere to be, how about you fill mine as well?”
    My vision was already swimming before me from my previous donation. Using my ability wore me out for short periods of time, but the more steam I created, the worse the dizziness was afterward. “Please, no…”
    “I heard she has a friend living illegally,” the woman said to the man.
    His eyebrows rose. “Oh really?”
    I took the canister from his hands, and he smiled. “I guess she doesn’t.”
    “Guess not.”
    Once again I focused on the miniscule amount of water in the bottom of the aluminum canister, and felt the surge of energy leave my body. Steam appeared almost instantly.
    I felt my knees begin to buckle, and the hallway felt like it was closing in on me.
    The woman’s voice echoed in my ears as though I was under water. “Watch out, she’s going down!”
    “Well damn, grab my cistern before she drops it!”
    I felt the cylinder tugged out of my hands before I collapsed to the ground. The hallway swam before me in hues of grey and black. The Polatzis’ voices grew dim.
    “Mark her as being here.”
    The man argued as I saw their boots leaving. “But she was missing last night.”
    “I know. But we have her friend. It’s only a matter of time before he buckles and gives us the information we need.”
    “And if he doesn’t?”
    The woman laughed. “Then we send him on a duty he won’t come back from.”
    The cold cement floor stung my cheek, but I didn’t have the energy to get back up. My eyes rolled back in my head.
    Darkness enveloped me, and I welcomed it.
    ***
    I awoke with a wet spot around my mouth from drool, my face aching from being against the concrete for so long. What time was it? I looked at my old watch.
    It was two o’clock. I’d missed Elemental Concepts and Histories of America was in fifteen minutes. I pushed myself off the floor, my limbs shaking from the earlier overexertion.
    Down two flights of stairs to the education wing of Wutherford. At least I didn’t have to try to get across the Dome. This floor was wild and busy and loud as students pushed against one another in attempts to get to their classes. I didn’t have it in me to fight against the tide, so I just let the tide of people push me to the end of the hallway where my class was located.
    “Hey, Avery! Wait up!”
    Alice’s voice carried over the busy hum of everyone else, and I forced myself to hold my ground as I waited for her to catch up to me. Little turd; she’d promised to lay low today.
    I smiled as she bounded to my side. “So much for you keeping your promises, brat. What are you doing here?”
    Her eyes were bright with excitement and she practically levitated off the ground. “I got permission to attend a class with you!”
    “Really? How’d you manage that?”
    “I appealed to my boss at the seamstress shop, and they agreed to allow me ‘ some education ,’” she said, quoting the words as she mimicked the woman’s voice from her work. “I got to choose one, and I wanted to do Histories of America, so here I am!”
    “Of all the courses I take, you wanted to take Histories of America? It’s the dullest class I have.”
    Alice’s eyes darkened, but she kept her smile from faltering. “I wanted to know about the war. Haven’t you ever wondered if something might pop up about your parents? Maybe they were part of the Alliance. You never know. It’s