Brita really awoke for the first time in a week.
She broke through the haze as the first light caught the dust motes one morning. It was quiet, except for rustling in some distant room. Her ears weren’t ringing; sweet silence had descended after days of deafening sound.
Brita spread her fingers, pressing her palms against her goose-bumped arms. She could control her body again.
Brita bolted up, then reeled from the vertigo. But after a minute, it left her, and she was able to stand.
There was no one in the open kitchen and living room area. Where was everyone? She headed toward a sound from the other side of the house.
It came from the back porch. She saw the back of Hayden’s head. He was beating a rug against the railing, then coughing into the crook of his elbow from the dust.
“Hey
