Everyone's talking; or all the human people are. The Crakers stay on the sidelines, clustered together, eyes big, watching. Ren is crying and hugging Zeb, which is in order: he is, after all, her stepfather. When they were at the Gardeners, Zeb had lived for a time with Ren's luscious mother, Lucerne, who hadn't appreciated him, thinks Toby.
"It's okay," Zeb tells Ren. "Look! You got Amanda back!" He extends an arm; Amanda lets herself be touched.
"It was Toby," says Ren. "She had her gun."
Toby waits, then moves forward. "Good work, sharpshooter," Zeb says to her, even though she didn't shoot anyone.
"You didn't find them?" Toby asks. "Adam One and ..."
Zeb gives her a sombre look. "Not Adam One," he says. "But we found Philo."
The others lean in to listen. "Philo?" says Swift Fox.
"Old Gardener," says Rebecca. "He smoked a lot of ... he liked the Vision Quests. He stayed with Adam One, back when the Gardeners split up. Where was he?" They all understand from Zeb's face that Philo was not alive.
"There were a bunch of vultures on top of a parking garage, so we went up to take a look," says Shackleton. "Near the old Wellness Clinic."
"Where we used to go to school?" says Ren.
"Quite fresh," says Black Rhino. Which means, thinks Toby, that at least some of the missing Gardeners survived the first wave of the plague.
"None of the others?" she says. "Nobody else? Was it the ... was he sick?"
"No sign of them," says Zeb. "But I'm guessing they're still out there. Adam could be. Food handy? I could eat a bear." Which means he doesn't want to answer Toby right now.
"He eats a bear!" the Crakers say to one another. "Yes! It is as Crozier told us!" "Zeb eats a bear!"
Zeb nods towards the Crakers, who are gazing at him uncertainly. "I see we've got company."
"This is Zeb," Toby tells the Crakers. "He is our friend."
"We are pleased, Oh Zeb. Greetings."
"He is t
he one, he is the one! Crozier told us." "He eats a bear!" "Yes. We are pleased." Tentative smiles. "What is a bear, Oh Zeb - this bear you eat?" "Is it a fish?" "Does it have a smelly bone?"
"They came with us," says Toby. "From the shore. We couldn't stop them, they wanted to be with Jimmy. With Snowman. That's what they call Jimmy."
"Crake's buddy?" says Zeb. "From the Paradice Project?"
"Long story," says Toby. "You should eat."
There's some leftover stew; Manatee goes to get it. The Crakers withdraw to a safe distance; they don't like to be too close to the odours of carnivore cookery. Shackleton wolfs down his stew and moves off to sit with Ren and Amanda and Crozier and Lotis Blue. Black Rhino has two helpings, then goes to take a shower. Katuro says he'll help Rebecca sort out the contents of the packs: they've gleaned more soydines and some duct tape, and a few packs of freeze-dried ChickieNobs, and some Joltbars, and another package of Oreo cookies. A miracle, says Rebecca. It's hard to find any packaged cookies unchewed by rodents.
"Let's check out the garden," Zeb says to Toby. Toby's heart sinks: there must be bad news he wants to break privately.
The fireflies are coming out. The lavender and thyme are in bloom, releasing their airborne flavours. A few self-seeded lumiroses glimmer along the edges of the fence; several of the shimmering green rabbits are nibbling at their bottom leaves. Giant grey moths drift like blown ash.
"It wasn't the plague that killed Philo," says Zeb. "Someone cut his throat."
"Oh," says Toby. "I see."
"Then we saw the Painballers," says Zeb. "The same ones that grabbed Amanda. They were gutting one of those giant pigs. We took a few shots, but they ran off. So we stopped looking for Adam and got back here as fast as we could, because they might be anywhere around here."
"I'm sorry," says Toby.
"About what?" says Zeb.