22. The Humanity Test
Mina
It was after six on the morning after prom, and it had been nearly fifteen minutes since Ben had parked the SUV in his mom’s driveway. Neither of us had moved to get out.
“They’ll understand,” Ben assured me, not for the first time.
“I know,” I said.
“They’ll listen to us.”
“I know.”
We were stalling, probably both thinking about happier prom couples in happier towns who might also at this very moment be afraid to come home after staying out all night for happier reasons.
Nine people had been sent to the med center with burns and smoke inhalation and six more to Sacramento with worse. The gym was beyond repair, and there was damage to two adjacent buildings.
No one had died, but we estimated at least twenty or thirty new bodies in pods that might as wel
