Free Fragments by Dan Wells

looked like three from her vantage point back in the skyscraper. It was the
     same place. There was a wide lawn around and between them, now filled with saplings,
     and she pushed through it carefully as she passed the buildings. This was the one we passed first, and this was the one we went into. . . . She came around the side and looked up, seeing the massive hole they’d blown in the
     wall three stories up. A vine wound around a dangling floor joist, and a bird perched
     on a crooked shard of rebar. The violence was gone, and nature was reclaiming it.
    They had come here looking for the source of the smoke, and they’d chosen that apartment
     building because it looked out on what they assumed was the back of the occupied house.
     Kira kept her rifle up as she walked, rounding the first corner, then the next. This
     would be the street, and if she’d guessed correctly on her map, the house she was
     looking for would be six doors down. One, two three, four . . . no. Kira’s jaw dropped,
     and she stared in shock at the sixth townhouse in the row.
    It was an empty crater, blown to pieces.

CHAPTER SIX
    “T his Senate meeting will now come to order,” said Senator Tovar. “We extend an official
     welcome to all our guests today, and we look forward to hearing your reports. Before
     we begin, I’ve been asked to announce that there’s a green Ford Sovereign in the parking
     lot with its lights on, so if that’s yours, please . . .” He looked up, straight-faced,
     and the adults in the room all laughed. Marcus frowned, confused, and Tovar chuckled.
     “My apologies to all the plague babies in the room. That was an old-world joke, and
     not even a very good one.” He sat down. “Let’s start with the synthesis team. Dr.
     Skousen?”
    Skousen stood, and Marcus placed his binder on his lap, ready in case the doctor asked
     him for anything. Skousen stepped forward, stopped to clear his throat, then paused,
     thought, and stepped forward again.
    “I take it from your hesitance that you don’t have any good news,” said Tovar. “I
     guess let’s move on to whoever’s ready to not give us the next bad report.”
    “Just let him speak,” said Senator Kessler. “We don’t need a joke in every single
     pause in conversation.”
    Tovar raised his eyebrow. “I could make a joke when someone’s talking, but that seems
     rude.”
    Kessler ignored him and turned to Skousen. “Doctor?”
    “I’m afraid he’s correct,” said Skousen. “We have no good news. We have no bad news
     either, aside from the continued lack of progress—” He paused, stammering uncertainly.
     “We . . . have had no major setbacks, is what I’m saying.”
    “So you’re no closer to synthesizing the cure than you were last time,” said Senator
     Woolf.
    “We have eliminated certain possibilities as dead ends,” said Skousen. His face was
     worn and full of lines, and Marcus heard his voice drop. “It’s not much, as victories
     go, but it’s all we have.”
    “We can’t continue like this,” said Woolf, turning to the other senators. “We saved
     one child, and almost two months later we’re no closer to saving any more. We’ve lost
     four more children in the last week alone. Their deaths are tragedies on their own,
     and I don’t want to gloss over them, but that’s not even our most pressing concern.
     The people know we have a cure—they know we can save infants, and they know that we’re not . They know the reasons for it, too, but that’s not exactly mollifying anyone. Having
     the cure so close, but still unattainable, is only making the tensions on this island
     worse.”
    “Then what do you propose we do?” asked Tovar. “Attack the Partials and steal more
     pheromone? We can’t risk it.”
    You might not have a choice soon, Marcus thought. If what Heron said is true . . . He squirmed in his seat, trying not to imagine the devastation of a Partial invasion.
     He didn’t know where Nandita