As Declan and I return to the infirmary, I'm greeted by Mom sitting up in her bed and smiling from cheek to cheek. She stretches her arms out to me. "Isla," she calls, and her voice sputters as she begins to cry.

I stumble from Declan's side and hobble quickly to Mom before falling into her arms and hugging her as tightly as I can. She wheezes, pushing her hand between me and her bandaged chest, so I pull away. "Sorry," I say, and she shakes her head as if the pain is nothing. "How are you feeling?" I ask.

"I've been better," she says, scanning my face. "I'm so happy you're okay," she says in relief. "I was so scared I'd never see you again."

"Me too. You can't leave me like that again."

She smiles. "I promise I won't. Have they been treating you well here?"

"Yes." I turn back to Declan and wave him toward us. "Mom, this is Declan Kunkle. He's a Botanist here. I'll be training with him as a rebel scientist."

She's stunned in confusion, but she still extends her hand to him. "Nice to meet you Declan."

"Same to you."

"He just gave me the tour," I say. "We're on a massive tank full of scientists. It's kind of amazing."

"Wait," Mom says, looking back to Declan. "You're a Botanist? How old were you when the world ended? Five?"

He smiles. "I was preserved." She narrows her eyes in confusion. "You'll hear the whole spiel when you meet with the leaders tomorrow," he says.

I turn back to Mom and hold her hand as she raises her brows. "I can't wait to hear about what's been going on over the past twenty-five years of grueling survival."

I smile. Her old wit is back. "Have they been treating you well?" I ask.

"Yes, very well. It's nice to see other people for a change," she jokes, but the forced laughter makes her wince in pain. Her wounds concern me.

"Have they told you anything?" I ask, gesturing to the new bandages on her chest.

She shakes her head. "Dr. Patel just restitched the top of my cut, and said I'm fine for now." She's trying to make it seem less serious, like a Prowler claw didn't almost rip her open. "But Dr. Patel will see me tomorrow for more testing. Have they told you anything about the soldiers and how they knew your name?"

I smile as the words bubble up and leap off of my tongue, "Daniel's alive. He was trying to find me, that's how the soldiers knew my name."

It takes her a moment to digest what I've just told her, and she shakes her head as if to clear out space for more information. "He's alive?" she asks, tears in her eye. "Any word about your dad? About Eleanor or Ben?"

My muscles tighten knowing that my response will chip away at her hope, but I can't lie to Mom. "No," I say, "but I'm going to go to the bunker to get Daniel. If Dad and the Crowleys are there with him, I will save them too."

She furrows her brows. "Hold on, wait. First of all, what bunker?" she asks.

"The government bunker, where those soldiers who left the Prowlers at our house were from. That's where Daniel is now. The Deathless—that's what these people call themselves—are the rebels that soldier was talking about. They are going to attack the bunker, and I am going to go with them."

"No. No way, you haven't shot a gun in years."

"But I'm great with the slingshot. It's not that different." She laughs. "I'm serious, Mom. I have to help, I can't... I can't feel worthless anymore. You all had your jobs to help us survive and mine was to take care of the plants—"

"—which is an incredibly important job—"

"—and read. I want to take action like you all did. I want to be strong." The back of my throat tingles as I hold back tears.

"Honey, you are."

"Then let me fight." She gives me a look. "Please."

She stares me down in thought. "You don't understand war. You have no idea what it's like to aim at a human being and pull the trigger."

"I know," I say, "but I have to go."

She takes a deep breath. "If you go, then I'm coming with you," she says.

"I know," I say, smiling. "That's what I told the leaders. They are going to meet with you tomorrow to see if you're fit to come, so... show them what you got."

She scoffs. "You don't need to worry about me."

Just then Declan clears his throat. "It's getting late," he says. "Isla, you're cleared to sleep in the dormitories tonight, but Dr. Patel wants your mom to stay overnight for observation."

"Go ahead, honey," Mom says. "I'll be fine. Dr. Patel said I will be able to meet you for breakfast in the morning."

"Can't I just stay here with her?" I ask, but Declan shakes his head.

"I'm sorry. I am supposed to take you to your room now. I'd say I don't care, but they already don't think I can handle stuff, so...."

"No, it's fine, I get it," I say. I like Declan. I don't want to get him in trouble. I turn back to Mom. "I'll swing by and get you on my way to breakfast, okay?"

"Of course. Sleep well, Isla."

I kiss Mom's forehead and squeeze her hand before following Declan toward the exit. "Oh, and Isla," Mom says. I turn around. "We have people now. There's hope."

I smile. "Goodnight Mom."

I wrap my arm around Declan's and he leads us out of the infirmary, back down the hall of dormitories, and past the Captain's Dining Room with its light filtering out from beneath the door. He points to the last two doors across the hall from one another. "These two rooms are for you and your mom, so you can choose whichever one you'd like," he says, opening both doors for us to inspect.

Both rooms have cement walls like the hospital room and both are only furnished with a metal framed bed, a metal nightstand, an alarm clock, and a gray metal locker for clothes; but the sheets on the bed to the left are light blue—like the shirt my dad wore for their wedding, his most favorite article of clothing—while the sheets on the other bed are red, like blood and the room meant for President McCleary.

"I'll take the blue room," I say.

"Cool," Declan says, "so here is your key. I'll see you both at breakfast tomorrow. Remember, 7:30. And save a seat for me, okay? Have a good night," he finishes, before walking away. It's late and he's been taking care of me all day, I don't blame him for heading off so quickly.

I change into the white pajamas that have been left for me on the shelves, switch off the light, and collapse into bed, wrapping myself in the blue blanket. I imagine the cotton is Daniel, holding his arm around me, and it's the first time I've felt hope since he was taken.

I close my eyes to see his face, and I think about the night we wished on the New Star. The same night Daniel first told me outright that he loved me, and the first night we ever kissed, only a few days before he was taken. The full moon shone brilliantly over us, and as we lay on the roof, I tried my best to sketch him in my notebook. Once the Prowlers started coming, it became dangerous to stargaze from the meadow where we had set up his telescope, so we set up the ladder in the greenhouse. It ran through the hole in the room's ceiling, and stretched up to the part of the roof that was level, where the chimney stack poked up. From there, the Prowlers couldn't see us. They weren't designed to scan above their bodies, and if we ever needed, we could hide behind the chimney. It was our private getaway from our family and danger.

"What are you drawing?" he asked once the Prowlers had passed for the night. Whenever they were around, we were careful not to make any sound.

"It's supposed to be you looking at the stars."

He grabbed the notebook from me and squinted at it in the moonlight. "Oh, now I see it. This big sketchy blob is me. The similarities are uncanny."

I laughed and snatched my book back. "Shut up," I joked. "I need a new hobby. I've already read literally every single book we own."

"A new hobby? What about our constellations? Are you done with those already?"

"No, I guess I still have that," I said, smiling. I closed my notebook and rolled onto my back, careful not to move too close to the edge. We didn't need a second hole in the greenhouse, let alone any broken bones. "We already have Laughiticus, and the spiders, and the dancing bear. Let's make up a constellation with the New Star."

I stared up at the sky. The New Star shone the brightest, but around it seemed to be an oblong circle of faint stars. Daniel rolled closer, pressing his cheek to mine so we could see the exact same stars.

"Look," he said, pointing upward. "It looks almost like an eye, you know? With the New Star as the pupil."

"Ew, creepy, that means it's looking right at us."

"The all seeing eye." He gasped. "The eye of Sauron."

"Alright, Bilbo, let's keep it original, shall we?" He laughed. "It kind of looks like there's a ring around it, you know?"

"So... not like the one ring to rule them all?"

I smiled. "No."

"What about, like, a wedding ring or something?" he suggested, and I felt tingles roll through my spine.

"Yes, more like that."

"Okay, so here's the story: The world ends, leaving only a few survivors."

I nodded. "Seems plausible," I joked.

"And there's this family. Well, pseudo-family, because they aren't related, but in the apocalypse that stops defining who your family is. And this family has two kids, a boy and a girl."

I knew where this was going, where all our conversations had begun to go lately. "Daniel...."

"And they also aren't related, so it's not weird or anything. The boy loves the girl, and the girl loves looking up at the stars. So the boy uses all his strength to wish the stars together, to make them into a ring for the girl, because what better gift could he give her than the stars?"

By then my whole body was tingling. I couldn't move. I lay paralyzed beside him, but it somehow felt so incredible that if we needed to stay like that forever, I wouldn't have argued. He slid his fingers to the center of my palm, and like a blooming flower, opened them, until each of his fingers found a place between mine.

"And one night, the boy presented the girl with her star ring, and he told her once and for all that he was in love with her." I willed my head to the side and looked at him. In the moonlight, his sunshine eyes matched the dark color of his skin.

"The boy told her," Daniel said, pausing for only a moment, "that he had always loved her." I stared at him, still consumed with tingles, unable to speak as a few moments passed in silence. "And then the boy, who suddenly felt really stupid, wished on that bright star, the one at the center of his ring for her, that she would love him back."

He looked away from me, biting his lip like he would when he was embarrassed. "I love you, Isla. You have to know that. I stopped trying to hide it as soon as I realized that knot in my chest was you. You are tied up in my heart."

"Daniel...." He bit his lip again, his eyes fixed on the stars. "Daniel, look at me." I sat up to get his attention. "Daniel, you don't have to be embarrassed—"

Then, before I could say another word, Daniel sprung up and kissed me. It was sloppy at first, aggressive and panicked, but when I didn't stop him as I had so many other times, his lips began to soften over mine and his kiss transformed into something beautiful. I felt engrossed in the stars and the darkness, until all that mattered was that we had found each other.

The next night, in the dark calm of the safe room, he officially asked me to marry him, and I said yes. Thinking about it now, I almost feel his palms against my cheeks and his lips on mine again, but instead of the tingling in my bones, all I can truly feel is the ache of determination.

He has to still be alive, and I have to get him back.