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If you have anything down in that storage room, it’s time to move it.

That’s what she said, and it has been ringing in his ears since.

The thing is, this is all his fault.

On an unusually sunny afternoon, took a couple of his dad’s tools into the communications building and smashed everything to pieces. He broke things and he opened them up and he even cut wires for good measure. He wanted to be sure.

Because , alone of anyone else on the island, could see that Hank Jones, his mentor, the leader of this place, was going mad. was there as Hank talked through every element of every decision he was having to make. He explained how he went about choosing the seeds, he was doing it by nation and by cultural necessity, he was saving food staples and then widening out to more unusual tastes, but he would argue with himself, he would say that if he didn’t save this seed then he might as well not save that one, because those two plants fed each other and one death would lead to two, and how could he waste a single spot on the ship? Things like that. He was tormenting himself, could see that much. He tried to help, but Hank didn’t want his help, even though he’d said was very clever and that he was Hank’s only true friend in the world.

knew that if anyone else started to notice how unwell Hank was becoming, they would definitely want to call a doctor. And if they did that, then Hank would never finish his task and the seeds would be left to drown, all of them.

So he simply removed the problem. He made it so that Hank—along with and the others— had to stay and finish. That nobody could be called. That he couldn’t be taken away.

But that was before Hank started throwing the packets into the ocean. It was before Tom and Naija and then Alex all died, before they needed to be buried.

It was before Hank needed to be contained so he didn’t do any more damage than he’d already done, before the vault started flooding for real, before a woman showed up, stranded, wanting to get home. All things you might want to contact someone about, really.

The whole thing, he can reflect now, every bad thing that led to another bad thing, would have been avoided if they’d had a radio to call for help.

So now the very least can do is save the poor man, once his friend, from drowning.

He has to swim down the tunnel and through the vault. The power is out so it is dark and cold, and it is very, very scary. He thinks he will drown down here. But he knows that at least he will not be alone. His friends are always here to keep him company.

You’re doing so well , they say, their voices in harmony with the rushing water, their voices are the water, as they are the island, every blade of grass and shard of rock and the wind, always the wind. Just a little farther now, not long to go. Mind the container there, move to your left, that’s it, straight ahead now, keep going.

“It’s so cold,” he tells them.

There is a colder place than this. Don’t let it find you. Keep swimming.

So he does. They make him brave.

He reaches the door to the shaft. There is so much water that he isn’t sure he’ll be able to pull it open against the pressure, but the second he tries, the second he unlocks it, the door explodes into him and a body launches free.

is thrown backward. The water catches him, slows him, but his head still hits the ground and things go dark for a moment. He is pulled out of the water by rough hands. There is a face crouching before him.

“Thanks, kid,” his old friend Hank says. “I need you to climb down that ladder now. Wait there. Someone’ll come for you but I need a head start before you tell anyone I’m out.”

is confused. He doesn’t understand what’s happening, knows only that he is being shepherded onto the ladder.

“Good boy,” Hank says. “You’ll be okay. Climb down there and wait. Your dad’ll come.”

And then the door is closed and locked, and he is alone in the long thin shaft, clutching onto the ladder. He thinks, too late, what he should have said, what he might have explained if his head wasn’t spinning. The vault is flooding. It’s very difficult to get through the tunnel. Soon it will be impossible to reach this room. They don’t know I’m here, they won’t get to me in time. I was trying to save you.