PYRA'S BODY ACHED from the fight, but she rose from her cot when the lights came on and the door to her cell slid open. She walked along with the steady stream of kids coming out of their own respective cells, later reemerging into the cafeteria she had first entered the day before.

Nift tapped her on the shoulder. He had already found Silas, who was picking bits of cloth from his brown jumpsuit.

"How'd you sleep?" Nift asked. "The first night's usually the ...