Chapter 77
A clatter of metal woke Ruby. It sounded like someone had thrown a handful of gravel at the roof of the shelter.
Ruby huddled under the thin blanket. She opened one eye, fearing the worst. Some kind of new torture he’d devised for her.
There was a pinprick of light in the curved ceiling. A star. Ruby moved her head and the star disappeared. She moved back and saw it again.
She smelt burning wool, like when she was ironing and she left the iron on a piece of cloth a moment too long. It was coming from her blanket. She kicked out with her legs and heard a small thump as something landed on the floor.
Ruby got out of bed and felt on the carpet. She found it almost immediately – a lump of metal, hot but cooling. It felt like a button mushroom. It must have fallen out of the sky, made the hole in the metal roof.
Ruby got back into bed and pulled the blanket back over her. It was the first night she’d felt cold. Winter was on its way.
What would happen to her? The row of graves answered that question. Girls who’d been taken. Presumably they’d all slept in this bed. Lain awake in fear. Fought back when they could, and suffered when they could not.
Next time he came, she’d fight back. Keep fighting until the end. Him or her.