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I drag him, coughing and spluttering, up onto the wet grass. I order him to breathe, and the second I can see that he’s obeying, I dive.

She is sinking.

I catch her limp body and I pull it against mine, kicking for the surface. I use the ladder to carry her up and out of the hatch I took too long to open, unforgivably long, and I place her beside Orly.

But Orly is awake and breathing and Rowan is not.

I pump her chest and breathe into her mouth. I work on her body for a long time, I think I could keep going always, but Orly is crying and I can feel that she’s gone. I can feel that she’s gone.

I take my son in my arms and hold him. After a little while he moves us, or maybe I move us, so that we are lying with her, and we stay like this in the rain, while the earth crumbles away beneath us.