DUSK FELL QUICKLY SOON after they’d deposited the rations to the storage shelter. The few outdoor lights flicked on, mostly around the latrine. All other available electricity powered the fence that kept out the sluglimpets. The encroaching darkness meant that no one could work on reconstruction projects until the morning. As neither Ethan nor Garwin had anywhere to sleep, Cherry took them to her shelter.
She had rigged a line between two poles and hung a rug across it, weighting down the edges of the material with stones. The floor of the shelter consisted of what looked like the remains of a ceiling and roof joists, lifting the structure above the surrounding mud. Across the former ceiling lay another rug. Cherry’s few possessions were piled in a corner.
“Is that waterproof?” Garwin as
