He was still awake much later when a pair of Chinese officers arrived, escorting Pipo and Niro. Bingwen thanked the officers for their trouble, then welcomed Pipo and Niro inside. Each of them was carrying a jumpsuit like his, still wrapped in plastic. They had no luggage or other belongings.
"We get to sleep on a bed?" said Niro. "Our own bed?" He climbed up onto one of the bottom bunks and lay on his back. "Come feel this Pipo. It shapes to my body."
Pipo looked around the room suspiciously. "Where are they taking us, Bingwen?"
"Captain Shenzu says there's a camp near Wuhan. And not a camp like we have here, where everyone is hungry and fighting for a place to sleep. This camp is for government employees and their families. It's special. There are international aid organizations there with food and supplies and clothes. Shenzu says you and Niro will have a place there."
"Are you coming with us?" asked Niro.
"No. I'm going somewhere else. To a school. I'm not sure where exactly. But I'll be with you until we reach Wuhan."
"Where's Wuhan?" said Pipo. "We don't know anyone in Wuhan."
"It's several hundred kilometers north of here," said Bingwen. "Far from any fighting. In Hubei province."
She sounded angry. "Why would we go there? Our village is here."
"You can't go back to your village," Bingwen said gently. "It's gone."
She screamed in his face. "Don't say that! Don't you ever say that!"
She ran to the other bottom bunk and threw herself onto it, burying her face in the pillow and crying. Bingwen didn't know what to say. Niro went to her and lay down beside her, draping an arm around her back. Bingwen wanted to leave and give them some privacy, but Shenzu had ordered him to stay in his quarters for the evening. And anyway where would he go?
After a moment he went into the bathroom and lay down on the mat beside the shower.
He must have fallen asleep because when he opened his eyes again the lights were out and a blanket was draped across him. A soft melody drifted in from the dorm room--Pipo singing a lullaby. Bingwen sat up and listened in the dark. Pipo couldn't remember all of the words, so she hummed the parts she didn't know. Her voice gradually softened until finally all was quiet. A moment later the bathroom door creaked open and Pipo poked her head in.
"You're awake," she said.
"Thanks for the blanket," said Bingwen.
"That was Niro's doing. I just put him to sleep." She gestured to the toilet. "I need to pee. Do you mind?"
Bingwen got up, left the bathroom, and climbed up into one of the top bunks.
When Pipo was finished, she came out and stood in the bathroom doorway for a moment, as if she couldn't decide where to go. Then she climbed up onto Bingwen's bunk and sat at the other end of the bed. Neither of them spoke for a moment until Pipo said, "Do you know what happened to your parents? I mean ... are you sure that they're gone?"
"I'm sure," said Bingwen.
She nodded.
Another long pause.
"Did you have any brothers or sisters?" she asked.
"I'm an only child," said Bingwen.
"I had three older brothers. Longwei, Qingshan, and Yusheng. They worked in the factory with our parents. Everyone worked there. Niro and I were in the schoolhouse. I don't remember who saw the smoke first, but we all went out to see. The Formics were everywhere, spraying their smoke. In the fields, at the houses, the factory was full of it. Whoever it touched fell to the ground and didn't get up. Niro ran toward the factory, screaming for Mother. I almost didn't catch him. He fought and kicked and hit me. I had to drag him away. We hid in a drainage pipe under a bridge. I kept waiting for someone to call out our names, to come looking for us, my brothers or my father. But no one ever did. After two days we left the pipe and smelled real smoke. The factory was on fire. One of the survivors had burned it to stop the death smell. But the fire only made it worse. We watched it burn. Everyone we knew was inside it. The smoke was burning our eyes. Niro threw up, and I thought maybe we would die, so we ran away. We didn't know where we were going. We were both so thirsty. Soon we found other people walking, and we joined them." She shrugged. "Then we came here."
Bingwen didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry."
She shrugged again. "Sometimes I think maybe Mother wasn't in the factory. I tell myself maybe she had gone home for something. Maybe she felt ill that day. And then I think Father would have gone home, too, because if Mother was sick, he would not want her to be alone. That's Father's way. And then I think about Longwei and Qingshan and Yusheng, and about how they were always running off and getting into trouble, and maybe they skipped work that day, too. And then I think, if I had just gone home, if I had taken Niro home instead of running away, we would have found everyone there waiting for us."
She shook her head and was quiet a moment. "I'm sorry that you're sure about your parents, Bingwen. But at least you're sure. At least you know."
She was too young to have to think this way, Bingwen thought. They were all too young.
"You don't have to go north, Pipo. No one's going to force you. I only wanted to get you and Niro to a safer place. If you want stay in Claw, just say the word."