Universe 1: Kat, April 25, 2100, 7:00 am
         
         Sitting alone in the greenhouse Kat Garcia asked, "Where are you, Pa?" The scavenger team was way overdue. She strained her eyes, looking southeast towards Denver in the moments before dawn. Everything looked gray: gray buildings, gray dead trees, gray dead grass. The gray clouds overhead didn't help.
         Did something move over there next to that ruined building? She stood and stared. No, it was just a dead bush shifting in the wind. She sat back down again. The top of the old physics building had the best sightlines in town, but even up here she couldn't catch a glimpse of the missing team. Nervous, she plucked a sprig of baby spinach from the garden bed next to her and popped it in her mouth.
         She needed Pa. He was the only family she had left. Ma was missing. Her sister Emma was dead. "Come home to me, Pa. Come on."
         "Kat?" her best friend Pablo said from the stairwell.
         She jumped. "Hi, buddy. What's up?"
         "Who're you talking to?" He made his way through the plants and came and sat next to her.
         "Nobody." She sighed. "Myself." That wasn't too crazy, was it? She touched Ma's locket. Ma had given it to her for safekeeping until she came back. That was months ago. Where was she?
         "Any sign of the scavenger team?" he asked.
         "Nope."
         "They'll be okay," he said, patting her shoulder. "Your pa and the rest of the team are experienced scavengers." He was sweet.
         Kat pointed at the first hint of light on the horizon. "But the sun's coming up."
         "They know to take cover during the day. They know we're counting on them."
         She glanced at Pablo's face. He seemed so sure. Maybe he was right. She hoped he was right. "What do you think'll happen if they never come back?"
         "I don't know." He exhaled. "We'll cherish our memories of them."
         Suddenly she had to blink back tears.
         "And I guess we'll figure something out, like we always do. We'll survive." He rested his hand on her back. "The group might elect you to be the new leader."
         That was another thing to worry about if Pa didn't come back. "I'm only twenty. I can't lead the group."
         "I think you can." His faith was touching.
         "So, what's happening downstairs?" she asked. "Is Fei any better?" A sick baby was the worst.
         "No." His gaze dipped to the floor. "Her fever's up."
         "And we don't have any medicine." She scanned the edge of campus again. No sign of the missing team. "Did they try wet cloths to bring down her fever?"
         "Yeah. But we're getting low on water."
         "Not good."
         "No," he said. "Not good."
         Light blossomed over the horizon, illuminating everything in its path. The old university buildings were shades of pink and tan and red. All the vegetation was a dead crunchy brown except a narrow strip of green along the creek in the distance.
         Kat knew some of that green stuff was willow. She also knew willow was a natural fever reducer. "What if we went over to the creek and got some medicine for Fei?"
         "What? Now?" His voice squeaked a bit. "It's after sunrise. We can't go outside."
         She pointed up at the sky. "It's pretty cloudy." She lowered her voice. "Do you think Fei will last another day?"
         "No." His whole body slumped.
         "Come on, Pablo. We can do it. It'll be an adventure. Please come with me and help."
         He glanced at her. "You're going whether I agree or not, aren't you?"
         "Yes." She smiled in what she hoped was a charming way. "Come on, you know you want to help baby Fei. Wouldn't it feel great to save someone? Wouldn't it feel great to have a win for once?" She was ready for something good to happen. She was sick of losing all the time: losing faith, losing hope, losing people. "Come on."
         He blew out a big gust of air. "You know I have trouble resisting you, Kat."
         Oh, she knew. She was his best friend, after all. She grinned.
         
         Down in the basement, the group didn't even bat an eye at Kat and Pablo going out after sunrise to get willow bark for Fei. Of course, Fei's parents, Bao and Chang, were beside themselves with worry, so they weren't going to object. But Kat thought someone would say, Oh, it's too dangerous. You can't do it. or Wow, how heroic, Kat. But no one did.
         They geared up as quickly as they could. The danger was the sun. They wore lightweight loose cotton clothing, and big hats. Pablo carried a thermometer with an alarm. They'd seen people die of heat stroke and it wasn't pretty.
         On the bright side, there were some old underground maintenance tunnels to the creek--which was one of the reasons they were living in the physics building. The tunnels were about seven feet wide and seven feet tall with a concrete floor and cinderblock walls, so they tramped to the creek in comfort.
         Once they hiked about a quarter mile, Pablo asked, "How'd your ma know about willow bark?"
         "Ma's ma knew about herbal medicine and taught her some stuff. And, then, after Emma..." Kat swallowed. "After we lost Emma, Ma studied even more. She consulted every herbalist and doctor we met and she had a bunch of books. She swore she'd never let anyone else die on her watch."
         Ma was her hero. Was she still alive? Kat didn't see how she could be. She'd been gone too long. She wouldn't leave them alone so long if she'd had anything to say about it. Her eyes started to fill.
         "Kat?"
         She exhaled. She was on a mission, a mission to save a baby. Ma would approve.
         "You miss them, huh?"
         "Yes." She glanced over at him. "I know you miss your family, too." Pablo'd lost track of his parents during the Water Wars. He had no idea if they were alive or dead. And there was no way to find out.
         "Si," he said.
         They walked in silence for a few minutes.
         "So, tell me about Emma," he said. "What was she like?"
         Ma's locket held a picture of Emma. She resisted the urge to open it and look at the image yet again. "She wasn't much like me."
         "She sounds great." Pablo grinned at her, trying to lighten the mood.
         "She was very wise and nice and nurturing."
         "You're right. Nothing like you." Kat knew he was joking.
         "She was a lot like Ma. But in some ways she wasn't, for example, she taught me about boys."
         
         "Ooh. What did she teach you?"
         "Let's see, she said boys like food and compliments." When she looked at Pablo, he was still grinning. "Who taught you about boys?"
         "I'm self-taught. What can I say, I'm a genius?"
         "What about your friend, Jake?"
         "Jake? He was straight, but a real hermano." He sighed. "I miss him." Jake was another person he'd lost.
         "What was he like?" she asked.
         "He loved weather, of all things," Pablo said. "He could even predict it sometimes. Like when we'd get a windy spell, he'd say A front's moving in. And he'd be right. And he had a great sense of humor. We played so many tricks on his older brother Jason."
         The tunnel brightened as they neared the end. The temperature was already rising.
         They turned off their flashlights and set them down in the tunnel.
         "I want to hear about those tricks at some point," she said as they emerged. Even near sunrise, the heat pummeled them.
         The scents of dried plants and dust made Kat sneeze.
         "Gaia bless you," he said, squinting and looking up. "Still cloudy."
         "Let's hurry," she said, pointing in the direction of the creek. "Can you check if there's any water running?" They usually went to the old reservoir to get water but there might be some here since the plants were still alive.
         "Yes, ma'am." He saluted.
         Kat grinned as she jogged to the willows. They looked great--still green and alive. She got a small pocketknife out of her bag and started stripping bark off the closest tree. Sweat gathered on her back and face.
         Pablo ran up, putting an empty bottle back in his bag. "Bad news. No water that I could see." He got out his own knife.
         "It must be underground? I hope so, anyway. I hope these trees don't die." Even though it was cloudy, it was still plenty light outside. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd been outside during the day. A drop of sweat rolled into her eye.
         He started stripping bark.
         "Don't take too much from any one tree." She wiped her forehead.
         "Yes, ma'am." They stripped bark. "It's kind of weird being outside during the day, huh?"
         She shot him a look. Wow, his thoughts were similar to hers. "Yeah."
         "Do you think things will ever go back to the way they used to be?"
         "What way is that?" Before Emma died? Before Ma disappeared? Before Pablo's family disappeared?
         Before Pa didn't come back?
         "You know, when we lived during the day and slept at night," he said. "When we didn't have to worry so much about surviving. When we lived regular lives."
         Even with all this cloudiness, Kat was getting h-o-t. She felt another bead of sweat slide down her back. "Do you even remember that? I mean, Ma and Pa told me we lived up in an actual town in the mountains when I was a little girl, but I hardly remember it." Thinking about everything that had been lost was too depressing. They didn't really even have a civilization any more.
         "I remember some stuff," he said. "We also lived up in the mountains. I went to school with Jake and his brother. My ma was a wonderful cook."
         Kat held up a finger. "So, Emma was right. Boys do like food."
         The clouds shifted and the rays of sunlight pierced them like daggers. She knew the sun was deadly, but it seemed so cheerful.
         The temperature alarm went off.
         Pablo shoved a handful of bark in his bag and grabbed the thermometer. "We need to go back now."
         She shoved some more bark into her own bag. She didn't want to have to come back here for a good long time. She stepped towards another tree.
         "Now, Kat," he said, face grim. "I'm not kidding. It's getting dangerously hot out here."
         She brought him along for a reason. She knew he'd keep them safe. "Okay."
         Back in the tunnels, they picked up their flashlights and started walking back to the physics building.
         Trying to lighten the mood again, she said, "Tell me about those tricks you and Jake used to play."
         But he just sighed and said, "I'm not up for it, Kat."
         
         At their encampment in the basement, most folks had gone to bed by the time they got back. Kat showed Bao and Chang how to make the fever-reducing tea out of the willow bark.
         After a long night's work in the greenhouse, not to mention the stress of the creek mission, she was practically asleep before her head hit the pillow.
         
         Kat was awakened by a scream. A strange bluish light filled the lab. She'd never seen anything like it. It came from a freaky window floating in mid-air! She carefully picked her way through the bedrolls to the strange window.
         Pablo appeared at her side. "Gaia." He joined her in staring at the thing.
         She whispered, "Gaia." As she peered inside, two people, a man and a woman, moved closer. She could almost make them out.
         They moved closer yet.
         Then, Pablo whispered, "Jake."
         Kat's heart caught in her throat and her fingers reached for her locket. "Emma?"