Lilly noticed Sloan slumped on the couch, her face pinched in frustration. On any other day, she would gladly ignore her. It wasn't unusual for them to go weeks without speaking. But Sloan's visions might help her decode what was happening at the dig site. In particular, the vision that led them to reconsider where to construct the dig. Everyone knew Sloan twisted her hair when she was nervous. Right now, strands of dark hair with pink tips were braided through her fingers.

  If she came right out and asked Sloan to share her vision of the digsite, the automatic response would be no. Not because she cared whether people thought her visions were real or not, but because she hated Lilly. Actually, the feeling was mutual. Honestly, she and Sloan were probably more alike than either of them cared to admit. Basic manipulation wouldn't work. Sloan would see right through it. And telling Sloan about the Orb would mean Stone would find out she'd broken curfew. The only solution was to make something up.

  "Trevor and Mia got into it last night. It got ugly."

  Sloan turned to look at Lilly, who was now sitting on the adjacent couch, a lavender hoodie puddled over her leggings. Her face remained blank, and within seconds, she was watching television again.

  "I think they broke up," Lilly said, upping the ante.

  "Why are you so creepy that you listen to other people's private conversations?"

  "I wasn't listening. Mia's room is right beside mine. They got loud."

  Sloan's face flushed. The diversion was working.

  "I don't want to hear about it," she said, making her way to the refrigerator in the rec room.

  The refrigerator had been built with a 3D printer, like so much of everything inside the pod. Its boxy frame blocked Lilly's view of anything but Sloan's legs. But the noise of contents being violently manhandled told Lilly she'd gotten Sloan off her A-game.

  "Why do they think we like tea? Mango tea would be the last beverage I'd pick of any bottled drink available for consumption."

  "Did you already see them breaking up? Like in a vision?"

  "Omg, Lilly. I told you, I'm out. Why would I have visions about people breaking up?"

  "I don't know what your visions are about. I know they upset you."

  Lilly watched the color rise on Sloan's face. The next few seconds were vital. She had to keep Sloan talking.

  "Well, if you'd witnessed my last vision, you'd probably never sleep again."

  "I'm sure it's scary seeing the future," Lilly said. "That seems like a heavy superpower."

  "This wasn't the future," Sloan said.

  Lilly sat, surprised. Sloan's visions were time hops? There was so much she wanted to know, and sadly, Sloan was the gatekeeper. If she pushed her, the flow of information might stop. It took Lilly 10 minutes to ask her next question.

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  "So you can't see the future?"

  "I see things, Lilly. It's not always clear what the timeline is."

  "Well, if you haven't experienced what you're seeing, it must be the future."

  "Maybe, or maybe humans used to look like birds."

  Lilly felt her face go hot. She wanted to screw Stone and, in turn, wreck Nigel's fake-ass attempts to colonize Mars ethically, but bird people? The no-nonsense side of her could barely stomach the idea of a tower-sized fireball. Sloan stared ahead, watching TV. Lilly rolled and unrolled the bottom of her sweatshirt, trying to keep her emotions in check.

  "Bird people, Sloan?" Lilly asked.

  "Well, people with wings," Sloan replied, easily. "Wings and weird noses. Flat noses, like pigs."

  Lilly paused. Everything inside her wanted to belly laugh and roast Sloan for being so mentally unstable that she'd made up bird people and given them snouts. Sloan would be suspicious if Lilly didn't give her some shit for it.

  "So, I have to ask, what is SO scary about what you're describing? It sounds like a dumb cartoon, respectfully."

  "Oh, I don't know. Is it scary to see people squeezed to death, pink stomachs coming out of their mouths? Do you enjoy watching blood-soaked babies scream in the sand? This one kid was hiding. I watched his skull crack open. His foamy brain slid down the front of his shirt. And then the sand reached up and ate it. It ate everything. The babies, the bird people. It ate everything. That's why they can't find any fossils."

  Lilly breathed out, relieved she'd gotten Sloan to talk, but unable to fully process what she was saying.

  "God, that's awful," Lilly said, genuinely sorry.

  "It's not even what I saw. It's what it sounded like. I've never heard noise like that before. It makes me want to puke just talking about it."

  "But, you said the people had wings. Why would you think they're human? How do you know any of it really happened?"

  "I don't know. They looked human. I could understand what they were saying. I don't know why I think it's real, but I do. We're not the first species to live here, and it ended badly for them."

  "What was squeezing them to death?"

  "The ground. Something coming up from the ground like a force or something."

  "Who knows about this?"

  "Stone, Mia, Mary Jane, and Ms. Lawrence."

  "Well, you might as well have told everyone if you told Ms. Lawrence."

  "She read my mind while it was happening."

  "How proactive of her," Lilly said. "Do you think they're looking for these people's fossils at the dig site?

  "Possibly. But, I don't think there's anything left to find."

  Lilly considered this and began constructing images of humans being crushed to death so thoroughly that nothing remained.

  "And why did they act like they changed the digsite's original location based on your vision?"

  "You don't think they did?"

  "No, I think they brought us here because we're the answer to some question they have. What do we have that they need? On paper, we're a huge liability."

  Sloan looked at Lilly and shook her head.

  "You think the dig site is a cover-up?"

  "Yeah, and I want to know what it is they're covering up."

  "You already know something, don't you?"

  Lilly flinched reflexively, struggling to maintain eye contact. Suddenly, Sloan made the distance between them very small.

  "You know my baby brother is down there without me. Getting home is the only goal. I'll kill you or anyone who tries to fuck with that."

  "We're on the same team, freak," Lilly said, standing to reestablish her power. "I have no idea what they're doing, but we can't let them bring more people here. It's not right."

  "In less than 30 days, I'm out of here. This place can burn to the ground for all I care. Do you understand me?"

  Lilly knew the conversation was over. But that was fine. She'd succeeded in getting what she wanted.

  "I hear ya, sister," she said, turning to walk away. She wouldn't need Sloan to stop what was happening. She needed majority rules.

  How were Sloan's visions, the dig site, and the Orb connected? She hadn't even seen the Orb. Returning to the dig site was her next step. But returning alone wouldn't be enough to convince anyone to abort the trip back home. She needed to partner with someone. Midstep, Lilly turned from the hall that led to her room and headed out to find Edward.