Page 35 of The Compound

And beautiful,I thought to myself, but didn’t feel the need to share the thought aloud.

“Still, it’s a good sign,” Candice said.

“The thing is, I see him looking at other girls sometimes.”

“I’ve never seen him look at me!” Susie cried.

“Me neither,” Mia said.

“Well…not girls, then. Just—one girl.”

I pulled at a loose thread on my shorts, trying not to look at Becca.

“Things are so uncertain here,” Candice said when the silence had grown uncomfortable. “It’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s fake. It gets harder every day, actually.”

“What about you, Lily? How are things with Ryan?” Susie asked.

“Good,” I said, looking up. “Really good.”

—

That night Iwas woken by a violent crash. When I opened my eyes Andrew was already out of bed and running toward the door. It was too dark to see properly, but I knew him by his height.

“What’s happening?” I said. “Is it a fire?” I groped beside me for Ryan, but his side of the bed was empty. Panic seized me, and then I was on my feet, bumping into a neighboring bed and moving with my arms thrown out. I reached the door from memory and went to leave, when I felt an arm come around my waist, stopping me. “Let me go, Ryan,” I said.

“It’s me,” Sam said, and dropped his hand. “Stay here until we know what’s happening. It’s not a fire. There are alarms for that.”

“But—” I said, but he only squeezed my arm and moved pastme.

“Stay here,” he said. And he went.

I groped back toward my bed. “Ryan?” I said. “Ryan?” I could hear other voices, and see shapes moving around me. People were panicked. My mind kept thinkingintruder,but of course there was no possibility of that, miles away from civilization.

“Ryan?” I called again.

“Here,” he said, and I felt his hand wrap around my wrist.

“Where were you?”

“The bathroom,” he said. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. There was some kind of noise from the front of the house.” Before Ryan could respond, Andrew and Sam were back. They left the door open, and a crack of light poured in from the hall. “It’s all right,” Sam said. “No one’s hurt.”

“But what happened?” I said.

“Some kind of animal got in,” Andrew said. “It’s gone now.”

“What?” Ryan said. “Are you fucking kidding?”

“Well, we don’t have a door,” Carlos said drily from the other corner of the room. “It’s not the most surprising thing in the world.”

“Tom was right,” Vanessa said, her voice loud and righteous. “He said that this would happen!”

“Listen,” Andrew said, placating, “it’s late. We’re not going to get anything sorted tonight. We should get some sleep, and tomorrow we’ll try for something resembling a door.”

“I’ll get something to block the entrance for now,” Sam said. Andrew nodded and Sam left.

The rest of us got back into bed, but I couldn’t sleep: I was looking at the beds, trying to make out the shapes of people. Sam was gone, yes—but so was Tom. I slipped out and went downstairs toward the kitchen. I could hear Sam’s and Tom’s voices inside and hesitated, listening. The big light in the kitchen was on, the one that we rarely used because of its ugly fluorescent glare, and the hum of it filled the room.

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