Silo's through standing at the perimeter at every hour that mattered, saying almost nothing, and being there regardless.
I made my tea.
I sat at the kitchen table in the small quiet hours with the cup in my hands and my wolf settled and the morning somewhere ahead and I thought: *there's going to be a day, not long from now, that is the other side of all of this. A day that is just an ordinary day. Tea and coffee and Ziko loud before anyone is ready, and Ryke at the window, and Duke drawing something, and Silo pretending he didn't stay awake all night.*
I had been working toward that day for a very long time.
Tomorrow was the last thing between me and it.
---
The crew assembled before light.
Not because anyone told them to — because they each, separately, got up at some point in the
