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to stab one of them with her tiny knife.
    She was too damned young to be in The Games, even if technically eligible. She was tiny and shivering, and he wondered how she’d made it this far. And why had she decided to help them? Was she looking for safety in numbers? Considering how The Games had to end, Liam didn’t want to team with another player, especially a child.
    Liam smiled, letting the child know he wasn’t a threat, and held his hands up, palms facing her.
    “Thank you,” he said. “You saved our lives. My name is Liam, and this is Ana.”
    The girl said nothing, just standing there with the knife shaking in her hands.
    “She doesn’t have a tongue,” Ana said.
    “What?”
    “She’s a Quarters kid, I think. Someone cut out her tongue.”
    Liam swallowed, shaking his head.
    “I’m sorry,” he said. “We’re not going to hurt you.”
    After a long pause, and an exchanged glance with Ana, he added, “You’re welcome to come with us, if you want.”
    She pointed at Ana, mouthing something Liam couldn’t make out.
    Ana seemed to have understood the girl, though.
    Ana said, “Yes, it’s OK — I won’t hurt you, either. Promise.”

    They’d been walking for a half hour, mostly in silence as the girl followed several steps behind, when Liam spotted a cave.
    “I dunno,” Ana said, shaking her head before explaining how her last entry into a rocky black mouth had thrown her into a mini-game.
    Liam told the girl to wait, then crept inside the cave’s open mouth to investigate. He held a pack of matches he’d taken from Keb’s fallen body.. He struck one of the dozen wooden matches, then held the flame in front of his face as he peered into the black.
    Liam could never know for certain, but it seemed — and more important felt — safe enough. The cave was slightly off their present path and twisted into an ever-narrowing hollow. While uncomfortable, the recess seemed like an unlikely spot for a zombie, giving them a decent hiding place with only one entrance to guard. It was the best Liam had seen, and if they didn’t stop for rest soon, they would all be dead within a day. Dulled instincts were a bigger threat to players than the opponents themselves.
    “We’ll take shifts,” Liam suggested, starting a small fire in the back of the cave. “I’ll stay up while you two get some shut-eye. Tomorrow morning, I’ll grab an hour.”
    “An hour?” Ana said.
    “That’s all I need.”
    “You sure?”
    “Positive.”
    The girl furiously shook her head, stepping back toward the entrance. Liam turned to Ana. Allowing her to leave the cave would leave them vulnerable.
    “It’s OK,” Ana assured her. “We’re safe in here. We won’t hurt you, and all of us need sleep. Do you understand?”
    The little girl nodded, then shook her head as if to erase it.
    Ana kneeled, then slowly crawled across the cave floor until she was a few feet from the unmoving child. She pulled the girl’s hands into her palms. “I promise,” Ana said. “We won’t hurt you. Would you like to sleep with my sword?”
    The little girl nodded, then shook her head no again.
    “We’re going to be OK. It’s better in here with no zombies and maybe a little sleep, than out there with all of one and none of the other.” She smiled and pointed to the mouth of the cave.
    The girl made a face that looked surprisingly like a smile, and nodded.
    Liam said, “Why don’t you two girls huddle together. It’s freezing in here, even with the fire. Cuddle so you can keep each other warm.”
    “I’m going to put my sword in the corner,” Ana held the girl’s eyes, “but you hold onto your knife, OK?”
    She nodded.
    Ana thanked her again for saving them and apologized for what had happened in the forest before, then turned to Liam and told him their earlier story, letting her hear as she explained that she hadn’t been trying to hurt her when she swung the sword. She was scared and didn’t know what else to do.
    The girl yawned, looking a second from collapse, then finally nodded and crawled to a spot near the fire where Ana came up and huddled beside her. She was asleep in seconds, with Ana following her lead a minute after that.
    Liam stared at the girls as they slept, sorting his thoughts around the unexpected doubling of his burden. He didn’t mind looking after Ana. He owed it to her, and to Jonah even more. Betraying The Underground left Liam with a debt he intended to pay — even if it meant settling