I was up and moving down the hall almost before I’d realized it, double-timing it for Amelia’s room, using one of the flashlights I’d found to see the way, knocking on her door (which seemed thick as a vault now that I thought about it and just sort of absorbed the sound, like solid rock).
Jesus, I remember thinking. I’d searched for a mere signal and found a whole community! It was like we’d gotten rescued from Gilligan’s Island; escaped from the Land of the Lost. Like we’d come home from Oz itself. And I simply couldn’t wait to tell her— although how the music hadn’t awakened her was completely beyond me. I mean, surely—
But she didn’t answer the door, which seemed impossible, not even when I pounded on it with my fists, which literally shook off paint peelings. “Amelia!” I shouted. “A
